A small salon schedules chairs, not just people: the morning needs one stylist, the afternoon and Saturday need two or three, and each stylist works only some days. The useful question is which chair-blocks cannot be covered with the team you have, before the week is posted.
An invented salon has four people (wages $22, $20, $24 and $18 an hour) and 16 chair-shifts: one stylist 9 to 2 and two stylists 2 to 7 Tuesday to Friday, three on Saturday 9 to 6, one on Sunday 10 to 4. Availability: Mia Tue-Sat 9-7, Jo Mon-Fri 9-6, Priya Wed-Sun 10-8, Leo Thu-Sat 12-8 and Sunday 10-4. This is the CLI's real output:
| Person | Shifts |
|---|---|
| Mia | Tue and Wed afternoons, Saturday |
| Jo | Tue to Fri mornings |
| Priya | Wed, Thu, Fri afternoons |
| Leo | Thu and Fri afternoons, Sunday |
13 of 16 chair-shifts are covered for $1,466 with no overtime. Three stay open: a second chair on Tuesday afternoon and two Saturday chairs. For Saturday it says one person is free but already on another shift, which is the answer to give a candidate: the salon needs a third stylist on Saturdays, or a client cap. The roster also notes that Jo gets 20 hours, 4 under their 24-hour minimum, and that without Mia 19 more hours go uncovered.
Hand-building this usually hides the Saturday gap until Friday. Listing the open shifts with reasons first turns it into a hiring or booking decision.
Staff to booked appointments where you can, not to a fixed number. Enter the number of stylists you need per block as the people needed, and the builder says which blocks it could not fill.
No. It schedules people into shifts from their availability and hour limits. Your booking system holds appointments; use the booked chair count as the people needed per shift.
The builder prices hours at a wage you enter. For commission or booth rent, enter a nominal wage or zero and use it only for coverage and fairness.