For cafés and bakeries, 5 to 25 staff
Next week's schedule, done in twelve minutes and texted to your team.
Counterhand starts from last week, warns you about shifts that break your own rules, and sends each person their hours by text. Nobody on your staff installs anything.
The button opens an email to Dara. There's no form on this page: send the email and you're on the list.
- 40 placesone per café
- $0for 8 weeks
- Jan 11the pilot starts
Jo, Saturday open. Jo closes Friday at 9:00 pm and opens at 6:30 am. That's 9.5 hours apart; your rule is 10.
Text to Mateo · Thursday 4:02 pmHi Mateo. Your shifts for Jan 18–24: Mon, Wed, Fri and Sat, 6:30 am–12:30 pm. Reply SWAP to trade one.
What you get
Four things a spreadsheet and a group chat don't do.
It starts from last week.
Most weeks are nine-tenths the same. Copy the last one, move the few shifts that changed, and send. In our trial that took 12 minutes on average.
It knows your rules.
Set them once: at least 10 hours between a close and an open, nobody over 40 hours, Lena never on Tuesdays. Break one and the shift turns orange before anyone sees it.
It texts, so there's no app.
Each person gets one text with their week. They reply SWAP to offer a shift, a coworker replies YES, and you approve the trade with one tap. Any phone that gets texts will do.
It adds up the wage bill as you go.
Hours and cost sit above the grid, next to the target you set, so you see a $2,000 week turning into a $2,300 one while you can still change it.
Proof so far
Six weeks in three cafés, before and after.
Lamplight Coffee, Halfmoon Bakehouse and Corner Thirty ran their real schedules on Counterhand from November 2 to December 13, 2026. Between them they schedule 41 people.
8512- minutes to build the week's schedule, on average
314- "when am I working?" messages to the manager each week
51- shifts found uncovered on the day, across all six weeks
"I used to build the schedule on Sunday night and argue about it on Monday. Now it goes out Thursday afternoon and I hear nothing, which is the point."
What it costs
$0 for 8 weeks
The pilot runs from Monday, January 11 to Sunday, March 7. After that it's $29 a month per location, however many people you schedule, texts included.
If you stop, you leave with a spreadsheet of every schedule you made.
A good fit
- One or two locations
- 5 to 25 people, mostly part-time
- You build the schedule every week, in a spreadsheet or on paper
Not yet
- You need payroll or a time clock. We do neither.
- Three or more locations
- Your team works fixed hours that never change
What we ask in return: run your real schedule on it for the 8 weeks, and give us 20 minutes on a call in week 2 and week 6.
Questions
- Do my staff need a smartphone?
- No. The schedule and the swaps are plain texts, so any phone that receives them works.
- Who's behind it?
- Two people. Dara Whitlock ran the floor of a 20-seat café for six years and built its schedule every Sunday night. Kofi Asante writes the software.
- What happens after March 7?
- You choose: carry on at $29 a month, or stop. We'll ask once, by email, and we won't charge a card you haven't given us.
- Why an email instead of a sign-up form?
- Because we'd rather read 40 notes than sort 400 entries. Tell us your café's name and how many people you schedule, and Dara replies within a day.