HotSchedules API
Fourth/HotSchedules gates a patchwork of APIs behind partner enablement, with no self-serve signup; customers email a Fourth representative for each integration. The primary Schedules API uses HTTP Basic Auth and returns only published shifts. Docs sprawl across four portals.
Frequently asked questions
HotSchedules scores D on the API Report Card. Fourth/HotSchedules gates a patchwork of APIs behind partner enablement, with no self-serve signup; customers email a Fourth representative for each integration. The primary Schedules API uses HTTP Basic Auth and returns only published shifts. Docs sprawl across four portals.
Without a usable official API, teams fall back on manual exports, file drops, or one-off vendor integrations. The other option is an unofficial API layer like Supergood that automates the authenticated web app directly.
HotSchedules is a cloud-based restaurant workforce management platform - scheduling, time and attendance, labor forecasting, team communication, and labor compliance - originally founded in 1999 in Austin, TX and now operated as the workforce-management product line of Fourth.
Vertical: POS / Hospitality (restaurant and hospitality workforce management). Target market spans QSR, fast casual, full-service, fine dining, bars/pubs, hotel F&B, contract catering, and convenience/grocery retail. Weekly shift scheduling with sales/labor forecasting and labor-cost-percent targets. Mobile shift swaps, pickup, release, and time-off requests via the HotSchedules mobile app.
8/10 within restaurant workforce management.
Yes - HotSchedules/Fourth is the system of record for labor and (in many accounts) inventory at 100,000+ restaurant and hospitality locations.
~27 years old - HotSchedules was founded in 1999 and was one of the first SaaS scheduling tools targeting restaurants.
No self-serve API access - customers must email a Fourth representative for each new third-party integration, and credentials are scoped per integration, slowing rollouts by weeks. Schedules API only returns assigned/published shifts; open shifts and historical edits are not surfaced, forcing partners to work around the data model or fall back to file exports. Full sourced list under Sources below.
Common alternatives include 7shifts, Homebase, Deputy, Toast Payroll & Team Management (incl. Sling), When I Work, Crunchtime (incl. Schedulefly / Zenput). Graded alternatives appear under "More from the report card" below.
Grades measure one thing: can a customer's engineering team get their own data out programmatically? We check six things (whether a real API exists, how access is gated, data coverage, auth quality, docs and developer experience, and stability) and roll them into a letter grade. Grades get re-verified, and they only move on evidence.
Yes. Supergood maintains an unofficial HotSchedules API and MCP server so AI agents and internal tools can read and write HotSchedules data. See the HotSchedules integration docs at supergood.ai/docs/hotschedules-api.