Library Desk Scheduling Software

Questions directors actually ask.

We're not a technical team. Is it hard to set up?

Setup is simple. A guided setup walks you through adding people and service points. Paste in your roster to start. You can have a real week scheduled the same afternoon.

Will my staff and volunteers be able to figure it out?

Yes. They open a link, see their own schedule, and can even sync it to their phone calendar. They can also login to view the schedule, request time off or change email preferences. No training, no manual. Volunteers who'll never log in don't need an account at all.

Can I really edit the schedule from my phone?

Yes. This is a true web app, not a desktop program with a read-only website bolted on. Most of the heavy lifting still tends to happen on a desktop, with the phone there for in-the-moment tweaks. Either way, staff see the change instantly.

Can people see the schedule without logging in?

Two ways. Each person can subscribe their own shifts to Google or Apple Calendar — they sign in once to copy their personal calendar link, and from then on their shifts show up on their phone and stay up to date without logging in again. And you can share one read-only link to the whole schedule, branded and printable (and even shareable via QR code), for the staff-room board or a partner org — anyone with that link can view it with no account at all. You can rotate either link anytime.

Can volunteers use it, and do they cost extra?

Volunteers are scheduled exactly like staff. They never count toward a paid seat. They can have their own login for self-service, or be scheduled without ever logging in. Your call, per person.

What happens to our recurring schedule?

You build it once and it repeats automatically. It skips the days you mark as closed, and any single shift can be edited as a one-off.

Does it build the schedule for me automatically?

There's no black-box auto-scheduler, and that's deliberate — most libraries want a person deciding who's where. Instead, Kickstool makes that person fast: recurring patterns build the week on their own, every uncovered desk hour becomes a button that opens a shift form with the desk and times already filled in, and the people list sorts itself to who's actually free — and trained — for that window. You make the calls; Kickstool does the cross-referencing. Prefer to just grab a shift and move it? Day view turns a single day into a drag-and-drop board — drag a shift onto someone else's row to hand it off, no form required.

Does it track hours worked or run payroll?

Kickstool builds the schedule and exports scheduled hours per person; pair it with your existing payroll or time-clock system. We don't try to be a punch clock. Keeping scheduling focused is what keeps it simple.

Can we get volunteer hours for grant and board reports?

Yes. Export volunteer hours, staff hours, hours by assignment type, and PTO used to CSV whenever you need them. The totals grant applications and boards keep asking for.

We have more than one branch. Does that work?

Yes. Each branch has its own desks, service points, and coverage rules. You manage them all in one place.

How do we keep desk time fair across staff?

The libraries that don't argue about this do two things: write the expectations down, and make the totals visible. Kickstool now does both. Write your desk rules in settings, like no more than 2 hours in a row at one desk, and the schedule warns whoever is drafting when a shift breaks one. It warns, it never blocks a save. And the desk-time balance report shows each person's desk and off-desk hours against what's expected, so fairness is something you can point at, not something one person remembers.

What if we decide to leave?

Export all of your data anytime. No lock-in. It's backed up automatically, and it belongs to your library, not us.

Not ready for software? Start with the free schedule template.

Wrestling with desk-time fairness? See how libraries decide off-desk time.