About
Sling is a comprehensive employee scheduling and workforce management solution trusted by tens of thousands of businesses across industries including restaurants, retail, healthcare, hospitality, and more. Now part of the Toast platform, Sling offers an intuitive way to build and manage employee schedules in minutes, handle time-off requests, shift trades, and avoid costly overtime or double-booking. Beyond scheduling, Sling includes a full suite of workforce tools: a built-in time clock with GPS geofencing for accurate attendance tracking, team messaging for group and private conversations, task management for assigning shift-specific duties, and labor cost optimization to help managers stay within budget. Reporting tools allow managers to analyze labor data over customizable periods, while PTO management tracks leave balances and approvals. Sling integrates with popular platforms to centralize workforce operations, and its mobile apps ensure employees and managers stay connected from anywhere. It serves a wide range of industries—from restaurants and call centers to schools and nonprofits—making it a versatile solution for any business with hourly or shift-based workers.
Key Features
- Employee Scheduling: Build and publish employee schedules in minutes, manage time-off requests, shift trades, and avoid overtime or double-booking with automated conflict alerts.
- Time & Attendance Tracking: Track employee hours via mobile apps or a designated time clock terminal, with GPS geofencing to verify location and support for automatic clock-outs.
- Team Communication: Send messages in group or private conversations, post announcements via a company newsfeed, and keep all employees aligned regardless of location.
- Labor Cost Optimization: Forecast and monitor labor costs in real time while scheduling to stay on budget, protect margins, and reduce unnecessary overtime expenses.
- Task Management & Reporting: Assign and delegate tasks per shift or employee, and generate detailed labor reports for any customizable time period to support data-driven workforce decisions.
Use Cases
- A restaurant manager builds weekly shift schedules in minutes and automatically notifies staff of their hours via the Sling mobile app.
- A retail chain with multiple locations manages employee availability, time-off requests, and shift swaps from a single centralized dashboard.
- A healthcare facility tracks nurse and caregiver hours with GPS-verified clock-ins to ensure accurate and compliant payroll processing.
- A call center uses Sling's labor cost forecasting tools to stay within staffing budgets while maintaining adequate shift coverage.
- A school administrator coordinates part-time staff schedules and broadcasts announcements to all employees through the Sling newsfeed and messaging features.
Pros
- Generous Free Plan: Sling offers a robust free tier that includes core scheduling and communication features, making it accessible to small businesses with tight budgets.
- All-in-One Workforce Platform: Combines scheduling, time tracking, team messaging, task management, and labor analytics in a single platform, reducing the need for multiple tools.
- Multi-Location Support: Easily manage schedules and communications across multiple work locations from one centralized dashboard.
- Mobile-Friendly: iOS and Android apps let managers and employees access schedules, clock in/out, and communicate from anywhere.
Cons
- Advanced Features Require Paid Plans: Premium capabilities like advanced labor cost forecasting, detailed reporting, and deeper integrations are locked behind paid subscription tiers.
- Not AI-Native: Sling is a traditional scheduling platform without deep AI-powered automation or predictive scheduling capabilities.
- Toast-Centric Roadmap: As Sling is now part of the Toast ecosystem, non-restaurant users may find the product roadmap and integrations increasingly focused on food service businesses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Sling really free?
Yes, Sling offers a free plan that includes core scheduling and team communication features. Paid plans unlock advanced capabilities like labor cost reporting, PTO management, and third-party integrations.
What industries does Sling support?
Sling serves a wide range of industries including restaurants, retail, healthcare, hospitality, education, call centers, caregiving, nonprofits, banking, security, and more.
Does Sling support multiple work locations?
Yes, Sling is built to handle scheduling and communication across multiple work locations from a single centralized platform.
How does time tracking work in Sling?
Employees can clock in and out using mobile apps or a designated time clock terminal. GPS geofencing can be enabled to verify location, and managers can prevent early clock-ins or set automatic clock-outs for greater accuracy.
What is 'Sling by Toast'?
Sling was acquired by Toast, a restaurant management platform. It now operates as 'Sling by Toast' while continuing to serve businesses across all industries beyond food service.
