Add Your Team to 7shifts
Before you can build your first schedule, every employee needs a profile in 7shifts. If your team isn't in 7shifts yet, this article walks you through every method for adding them. If employees were already imported during POS setup, use the verification steps below to confirm everyone is in and correctly assigned.
If you don't use a POS, this article is where you add your full team from scratch, including their hourly wages or salaries to ensure your labor reporting is accurate from day one.
Where you are: Phase 1 - The Foundation
Your First 30 Days in 7shifts: What to ExpectBuild Your Account Structure to Unlock SchedulingConnect your POS to 7shifts- Add your team to 7shifts (you are here!)
Things to know
- Complete your account structure before adding employees. Locations, departments, and roles must exist so employees can be assigned correctly.
- Every employee needs a unique first and last name and a valid email address to log in to 7shifts. Two employees cannot share the same details.
- A mobile number is required for employees to receive SMS and push notifications.
Important: Managers and Assistant Managers need the "Can add employees" permission to add employees. Admins have this access by default.
Check who's already in 7shifts
Before adding employees, confirm who was already imported during POS setup or the initial signup flow.
- Go to the Team page from the left navigation bar:
- Review the employee list.
- If employees are missing, use one of the methods in the next section to add them.
- If your full team is present, click into their profiles to verify their Wages and Payments tab is accurate. Add any missing wages, or use the Bulk actions tool > Bulk edit wages.
Important: If you're adding employees while waiting for a pending POS integration, names must match your POS records exactly or 7shifts won't auto-match them when the integration goes live.
- Employees: First and last name must be spelled identically in both 7shifts and your POS.
- Roles: Role names must match exactly, including capitalization and spacing. "Shift Leader" won't match "shift leader".
- Wage Sync: If your POS integration has Wage Sync enabled, the "Effective Wage Date" option will be disabled in 7shifts. You must update wages in your POS to sync them here.
Any records that don't auto-match will appear as unmatched on the mapping page after your integration connects, where you can resolve them manually.
Choose the right method for adding employees
Option 1: AI Employee Importer (trial accounts only)
If you have an existing employee list, the AI Employee Importer extracts names, emails, and phone numbers from a file automatically. It's the fastest way to get a full team into 7shifts in one step.
- Available to trial accounts only and can only be used once per location.
- Supported file types: JPG, PNG, PDF, CSV, and XLSX. Maximum file size: 5MB.
- The importer extracts names, emails, and phone numbers. Department and role assignments aren't extracted but can be added during the review step.
Tip: Access the AI Employee Importer from the Quick Start Guide, the Schedule page, or the Team page bulk action menu. If you don't see the option, your trial may have already used it or you may have active employees in the account already.
Option 2: Bulk CSV import (recommended for most accounts)
If you have more than a handful of employees or you're past the trial period, the bulk CSV import is the fastest path. Download the 7shifts template, fill in your employee data, and upload it to create all profiles at once. You can include department, role, and wage assignments directly in the file.
- Supports up to 250 employees per upload.
- Requires downloading and completing the 7shifts import template before uploading.
- Employees added via bulk import are set to the Employee user type by default. Managers need to be updated separately.
Tip: You can't update existing employee profiles by re-uploading an import file. Changes to existing profiles must be made manually in each employee's profile (or consider using Employee Bulk Actions).
Option 3: Add employees individually
For small teams or when adding a single new hire, you can add employees one at a time from the Team page or directly from the Schedule page. This gives you full control over each profile during setup. In the Wages and Payments tab, you can use Change Pay to schedule a wage for a future date or apply a rate retroactively (up to 30 days).
Option 4: Join Links (self-onboarding)
Add your team by letting them do the data entry. Admins and authorized Managers can share a unique Join Link so new employees can submit their own details. Once you review and approve the request, they are instantly added to your team and invited to create their account.
- Security: Links expire after 30 days. Each link is limited to 200 uses.
- Assignments: Join Links are generated at the account level; you assign the specific Location, Department, and Role during the approval step.
- Permissions: Admins can generate links. Managers/Assistant Managers need "Can add employees" and "Can manage schedules" permissions to generate links, but only "Can add employees" to approve them.
Tip: You don't need to save the link! Copy it anytime from Schedule Add Employees. A new link is generated daily, though previously shared links remain active for their 30-day window.
Set up your Managers and Assistant Managers
Prepare your leadership team for launch. Employees imported via CSV or POS sync are all assigned the Employee user type by default. To give a team member scheduling and management access, promote their existing profile to Manager or Assistant Manager. A Manager must be assigned to a department before that Manager can build or publish schedules for the department.
- Navigate to the Team page from the left-hand menu.
- Search for the team member's name or use the filter options to find the profile.
- Click on the team member's name to open their employee profile.
- Select the Permissions tab.
- Change the Employee Type to Manager or Assistant Manager. See What's the Difference between Managers and Assistant Managers?.
- Review the Manager Permissions list below the user type selector.
- Enable the permissions the Manager need. Common settings include the ability to publish schedules, view labor cost reports, and manage time-off requests.
- Ensure "Can view wages" is enabled if you want this Manager to see labor costs on the schedule or run labor reports.
- Click Save at the bottom of the page.
Get your full team onto 7shifts
The free 7shifts mobile app (iOS, Android) is how your Employees view their schedule, submit availability, ask for time off, and communicate with Managers. Full team adoption moves scheduling communication off texts, calls, and paper and onto one channel you control.
- F
or the first two weeks, post the schedule in 7shifts and give your team a heads-up via your existing communication channel. This bridges the gap until checking 7shifts becomes a habit.
- After two weeks, make 7shifts the only channel for schedule distribution. Employees who still haven't activated by this point should be contacted individually.
Troubleshooting
The "Assistant Manager" option doesn't appear in the user type dropdown
The Assistant Manager user type is only available on certain plan types. Check your current plan under Account & Billing.
A Manager needs Admin-level access
Only the Account Owner can promote a user to Admin. Contact the Account Owner to request the change from the user's profile under User Type.
Wage changes aren't showing on the schedule
Check the Effective Date of the wage. If you set a future date, the new rate won't appear until that day. If the wage was added for the wrong date, you can delete the upcoming change in the profile's Activity section.
What's next
Your team is in 7shifts and Phase 1 is complete.
Your next step is Assign employees to departments and roles, the first article in Phase 2. Assigning each employee to the correct department and role is required before anyone can be placed on a shift.