Summary
Location: Florida
Number of stores: 9
Problem: Handwritten schedules, manual tip-out calculations, and outdated onboarding workflows became too time-consuming and error-prone as the business scaled.
Solution: Using 7shifts and its robust Square POS integration, the team streamlined scheduling, tips, payroll, and onboarding—unlocking smarter decisions, faster workflows, and fewer errors.
Improvements after 7shifts:
- Scheduling time went down 4 to 5 hours per store—saving 40+ hours total each week
- Payroll processing time went down 3 to 4 hours per week
- Onboarding time for new hires went from 3 to 4 hours to just 10 minutes
- 7shifts replaced 6 to 7 tools with one platform
When owners Megan Vidal and Spencer Hooker opened the first Kookaburra Coffee nearly 13 years ago, it wasn’t part of some master plan to build a nine-location brand. In fact, it started much simpler than that: two college graduates who quickly realized corporate life wasn’t for them, moved to a quiet beach town in Florida, spotted a 400-square-foot space, and thought, “This would make a great coffee shop.”
Both had worked in restaurants through school—mostly bars—so they knew hospitality. But they also knew they weren’t ‘late-night bar people’ anymore. Early mornings, beach sunrises, and a warm cup of coffee felt a lot more like home. So they leaned into it. The name, The Kookaburra Coffee, is a nod to Spencer’s Australian roots (he’s a dual Aussie-American citizen), which inspired the cheeky, laid-back vibe that now defines the brand.
And what started as a tiny shop grew into a fast-scaling operation with nine locations across Florida. As they expanded, the realities of scheduling and paying more and more staff quickly became complex. And like many growing hospitality brands, the early systems of handwritten schedules taped to walls simply couldn’t keep up.
That’s when they found 7shifts.
We spoke with Megan about how she uses 7shifts alongside Square POS in her day-to-day operations to schedule smarter, simplify payroll, and create a smoother experience for her team.
Before 7shifts: Juggling systems that couldn’t scale
With fast growth comes the need for systems that can keep up. By location number two, their manual processes quickly became unsustainable. Megan shared some of the challenges they faced before adopting 7shifts, including:
Time-consuming schedules: “I very distinctly remember my first manager, who took over the schedules for both locations, sitting down and handwriting these two schedules. It was taking hours.”
She adds that with coffee shops, oftentimes, they’re hiring students whose availability is all over the place. And while paper schedules may feel sufficient with one location, “as soon as you get into multiple locations… You just cannot do it. In today’s climate, people’s lives are very dynamic.”
Manual tip management: Plus, their previous payroll provider couldn’t handle the complex tip-sharing structure across different roles. She explains, “We have baristas who tip pool during the day, and then we have delivery drivers who we tip out.”
“We were manually breaking down and entering everybody’s tips every single day, which is a lot of work.”
Outdated onboarding processes: She adds that the previous payroll provider was “limited in a lot of things, and their onboarding process of being able to send documents was just very antiquated. We were doing so much by paper. And there’s just no reason to be filling out an I-9 and W-4 via paper at this point.”
“We were having so many issues with the onboarding, and just how messy and frustrating that process can be for us on the back end… It was just becoming this really friction-forward process that sets the tone for this new job that they’re coming into… It was frustrating for us on our end, but also frustrating for the new hire.”
The solution: 7shifts for scheduling, payroll, tips, and onboarding
Megan knew there had to be a better solution. A quick Google search led her to find 7shifts for scheduling, which she decided to test out. That was over a decade ago.
“It just had a lot of really simple features and seemed pretty easy to learn. And so we just jumped into that with both feet, and we have not looked back.”
As the product grew, she eventually adopted the full-suite solution (with payroll, tips, onboarding, and more) across all nine locations of The Kookaburra Coffee.
How The Kookaburra Coffee uses 7shifts + Square POS
One of the main reasons why 7shifts works so well for all the stores’ operations is its robust integrations with their Square POS. When asked about the experience of connecting the platforms, Megan says, “It was so easy. I think it took a minute—and then all of our sales populated. No problem. It was very simple.”
“Using the robust reporting features with 7shifts’ integration with Square has allowed us to not only schedule more efficiently but spend more time doing training and customer-focused activities… It’s really made us just a more efficient, informed business as far as making decisions.”
Megan Vidal, Owner, of The Kookaburra Coffee
And here’s how it all comes together to create better operations for Megan and her staff:
Scheduling with improved labor management
With 7shifts, creating schedules has never been easier—or more efficient—for managers at The Kookaburra Coffee. Megan explains, “We are running probably nine front of house schedules, three back of house schedules, and two delivery schedules every single week.”
She compares it to the old paper process: “I would easily say you’re going to be saving 4 to 5 hours a week because scheduling is one of the biggest, most time-consuming things that we do.” And that’s per location—across all locations, it’s up to 40 hours saved every week.
With the Square POS integration, scheduling information is automatically uploaded for sales forecasting. This allows managers to build smarter schedules, making labor decisions based on data rather than gut instinct.
For Megan, this use case is especially valuable due to the unpredictability of foot traffic at some stores: “The sales forecasting—it’s been pretty cool because we live in a tourist town… Sometimes, there will be a random three-day weekend that all of us forget… When you’re going in to put the scheduling, it’s forecasting that this is going to be a busy weekend.” It acts as a reminder to make sure they’re staffed appropriately.
She adds, “For coffee, you have to be quick and be really staffed for those peak hours. Otherwise, you’re going to lose to some place that can do that… That integration is really helpful to see when those times are going to be.”
Automated tip and payroll data transfers
Plus, one big standout for Megan is the tips integration. She explains, “7shifts allows us to set up that tip pooling, and then because all the tips are pooled through Square every single day, the algorithm just allocates them out to everybody working that day.” The process no longer includes manual upload after manual upload.
“The payroll-tips integration has been a real game-changer. The managers were manually calculating it, and then my payroll manager was manually entering that every single week. And I have 110 employees—so that’s just crazy. That part of it has been fantastic.”
Megan Vidal, Owner, of The Kookaburra Coffee
“As long as they’re all scheduled correctly in 7shifts, it’s a seamless process. We don’t really have to do anything except just some quick double-checking. But it does all the mathematics, all the work—it’s kind of phenomenal.”
Not only has it been a whole lot easier. It’s saved a whole lot of time: “Now it’s taking at most an hour, where it used to take 4 to 5 hours every single week… It just seems to work out really well—it is such an easy process.”
Plus, the integration has led to “a lot fewer errors” for payroll. Megan says, “It’s much easier to do when all the numbers pull into 7shifts from Square.” Within 7shifts, employees can be assigned different roles—like a barista in training, who receives a different pay rate than a regular barista.
“We’re able to very quickly move people and assign people to specific job duties that also pay differently, and there’s no back-end calculation on our part… Not only do they properly see it in their schedule, but we are not overpaying or underpaying based on roles, which has been really nice.”
Onboarding & HR management with 7shifts
Aside from scheduling and payroll—and how it works with their Square POS—Megan calls out onboarding and HR management as one of her favourite 7shifts features. Here are some key callouts:
New hire information: Previously, collecting new hire details and entering everything manually took 3 to 4 hours and required a lot of back-and-forth communication. But with 7shifts, Megan can send a single link, and the new hire can onboard much more efficiently. “10 minutes later, they’re set up and good to go.”
“Getting people set up in systems quickly and easily before they start is such an important part of presenting a professional environment… [7shifts] just really makes the whole process seamless. It makes them feel good. It makes us feel good. There are no delays in paying them. I think that there’s an element of just making the process as simple as possible for everyone involved that is worth like a million dollars.”
Employee documentation storage: She adds, “One thing that we really started to use recently that could be really useful for restaurants in particular is the documents folder—and building out the employee files in 7shifts.” She explains that the process of health inspections has become so much easier since everything is in one place.
“Whenever you have a health inspection, at least in Florida, they ask each employee who’s working, ‘I need to see your food safety handler card’… Now we’re able to upload all of those into their 7shifts, and everybody has their phone, so they can really easily pull that up.”
Megan sums it up best: “It’s just a centralized hub for all of our HR things.”
The final sip
It’s clear Megan would recommend 7shifts to other operators on Square POS. And she does: “I have a lot of friends who I’ve gotten to use 7shifts—and they love it. It’s such an easy process. For every restaurant I’ve recommended [it to], they’re still with it, and they still use Square together.”
Jessica Ho, Content Marketing Specialist
Jessica Ho
Content Marketing Specialist
Hi, I'm Jessica, Content Marketing Specialist at 7shifts! I'm writing about all things related to the restaurant industry.
