Before you can schedule anyone, Bar Cop needs your roles, your people, and how you onboard them. Positions come first because they set the pay and tip rules, then staff inherit those defaults, then training tracks that each hire is signed off. Set these up once and the whole section reads from them.

Positions

Positions are the job roles you schedule and pay: bartender, server, line cook, and so on. Every shift you build and every hour you log ties to a position, so this list drives your whole labor cost.

1. Add a position

Open Labor → Add Positions. Name the role and set its department (Bar, Front of House, Kitchen, Management). Give it a default pay setup: Hourly with a default wage, or Salary with a default annual figure, the way you would set a manager. When you hire into the role, the pay type and figure pre-fill from here, and you can still override per person.

2. Set the tip rules

Mark a position Tipped if the role earns tip income. Then set whether it Pays Tip Out: Yes for a role that rings sales and tips out, like servers and bartenders, which opens a Tip Out % field; No for a support role that only receives tip-out, like bussers, barbacks, and runners. Different roles can tip out different percents. Bar Cop uses this all through Tip Tracking and the Pay Periods tip-credit check.

Add a position once and it is available everywhere: the roster, the schedule builder, the hours log, and every labor report. Edit it any time and the change carries forward without touching past records.

Staff Roster

The roster is your team: every staff member, their position, wage, and status. It is the source for scheduling, hours, tips, and the Revenue Recovery server list, so getting it right here means it is right everywhere.

1. Add someone

Open Labor → Staff Roster, pick Enter Manually, fill the row, and click Add Staff. The position sets the default pay type and figure, which you can override per person. Check Shift Lead on anyone who can run shifts and authorize like a manager even when they are hourly. If someone works a second role at a different rate, like a server who picks up bar shifts, set a Secondary Role and its wage, and a Role picker shows up for them on Log Hours.

Wage changes are tracked with history. Past hours always cost out at the wage in effect on that day, not today's rate. Open a person to see the Wage History table and fix an effective date if a raise landed on the wrong day.

2. Set regular days off and status

Tap the weekday chips to mark a standing day someone never works, like a server always off Sundays. Build Schedule blocks those days automatically. For a one-time request, use Time Off instead. When someone leaves, set them Inactive rather than deleting them, so their past hours, tips, and records stay intact; they drop off the schedule and tip pickers but keep their history.

3. Import a staff list (optional)

Switch to Import File and drop a CSV or Excel file. Map the columns once and Bar Cop remembers it. Only Name is required; Position, Pay Type, Wage, Salary, Status, Phone, and Email are matched if your file has them. Set your positions up first for the cleanest match.

4. Add certifications and coaching notes

Click any staff member to open their page. That is where you add certifications like TABC, food handler, and ServSafe with expiration dates Bar Cop flags before they lapse, and the coaching log of praise, coaching, concern, and warning notes that protect you if a tough HR moment ever lands.

Hourly or salaried: set Pay Type to Salary for an exempt manager or fixed-salary role and enter the annual salary. Bar Cop spreads it evenly across the year as a fixed cost, and salaried staff never show overtime. Their hours still count toward coverage but add no hourly cost. How you classify staff under wage and hour law is your call. Bar Cop is a tool, not legal or payroll advice.

Training

Training tracks that each person actually completed their onboarding, with a record you can show. It is for tracking, not teaching: a checklist you sign off and date, not videos or quizzes.

1. Build a template

Open Labor → Training. Name the template (Bartender Onboarding, Server Onboarding), set a Position if it is role specific, and add the steps in order. Drag the handle to reorder. Templates are reusable, so you build each one once.

2. Assign it and sign off

Go to a person on the Staff Roster and use Assign Training in their Training section. Pick a template and a start date, and the steps load onto their record. Check each step off as they finish; when every step is done the record stamps its completion date. Pick who signed off so there is a name on it.

3. Watch team status

The Team Training Status list shows every active staff member and where they stand: Not Started, In Progress with a count, or Complete. Tap a row to jump to that person. Each template also has an Export PDF that prints a clean blank onboarding sheet for a trainer to mark up by hand.