How Zalat Pizza achieved over 90% reduction in overtime by switching to HotSchedules

The Challenge

ZaLat Pizza was using the scheduling module within its back-of-house restaurant management system. As the business scaled and more team members began working across multiple locations, the complexity of managing shared labor required more specialized cross-location visibility than the native module was designed to provide.

As Zalat scaled, several operational challenges emerged:

• Limited visibility into total employee hours across multiple locations, leading to preventable overtime
• Manager time spent coordinating shifts between stores to confirm coverage
• Labor forecasts that did not consistently align with actual hours worked
• High overtime expenses
• Additional oversight from operations, HR, and payroll teams to monitor and reconcile overtime

As Song put it:

“We had strong labor discipline, but without cross-location visibility, we were reacting to overtime instead of preventing it.”

Why HotSchedules

Zalat needed a scheduling system built for multi-location restaurants, one that could support shared labor across stores and give managers clear visibility without extra busywork.

HotSchedules stood out because it gave Zalat Pizza a clear way to manage shared employees across locations and stop accidental overtime before it happened. With HotSchedules, the team could:

• Share employees across locations while keeping total hours visible
• Catch overtime risk early, before schedules were published
• Trust labor projections because hours and pay stayed accurate

Song said the math was easy:

“We would cover the cost of HotSchedules just by reducing overtime.”

More than scheduling

Zalat Pizza also uses HotSchedules to support day-to-day execution beyond the schedule:

• Mobile request-offs and shift swaps
• Team messaging in one place
• Manager LogBook for shift updates and handoffs
• Employee notes to track attendance and performance

Song described the time savings in a way that reflects how the team uses it every day:

“Once you make a perfect schedule, you don’t ever make a schedule again.”

Why it matters

Zalat Pizza did not switch because they lacked a scheduling tool. They switched because they needed one that matched how multi-location restaurant teams actually operate. HotSchedules helped Zalat cut overtime costs almost overnight, gave managers visibility across locations, and made staffing decisions easier with AI forecasting and better communication tools.