Getting started: set up your venue and publish your first schedule
Setting up Perch takes about ten minutes: create your venue and set its operating hours, define the positions that need covering, add your staff, place shifts for the day, then run Auto-Assign to build the rotation. This guide walks through every step — and nothing you set here is permanent, so you can adjust as you go.
What you'll set up
Perch schedules by position: you tell it which spots your venue has to keep staffed, who's working, and it rotates your team through those spots so nothing goes uncovered. Getting there is five short steps — venue, positions, staff, shifts, Auto-Assign — and this page walks each one.
One thing to know before you start: nothing here is a one-shot decision. Operating hours, positions, staff, and shifts can all be edited later, so if something looks wrong you never need to delete anything and start over.
Step 1 — Create your venue and set operating hours
A venue is one physical operation with its own schedule — a museum, a pool, a café, an attraction. After you sign up and name your organization, the dashboard prompts you to create your first venue.
- Click "Create your first venue" on the dashboard.
Give it the name your team actually uses — it appears on every schedule, slip, and email.
- Set the operating hours for each day of the week.
These matter more than they look: the schedule page shows exactly this window each day, so hours of 7 AM – 8 PM mean your Tuesday schedule runs 7 AM to 8 PM. Set the hours your venue actually runs, day by day.
- Wrong hours later? Fix them in Settings.
Open the venue's Settings page to change any day's hours at any time — existing schedules adapt to the new window. There's also a "before open / after close" buffer there for scheduling setup and close-down crews outside public hours.
Step 2 — Define your positions
A position is a spot that needs a person in it — Front Desk, Galleries, Slide Tower, Café Register. Positions are the heart of Perch: the schedule is built around keeping them covered, so define one for each place that can't go dark.
- Open Positions and click "Add your first position".
Name it after the spot, not the person. Two or three positions are plenty to start; you can add more whenever.
- Choose how the position works.
Rotating is the usual choice: staff take turns holding the spot, and you set how long each turn lasts (say, 45 minutes). Full shift means one person holds it for their whole shift. Anchored is for fixed-time duties like an opening checklist that happens at an exact time.
- Optionally, restrict who can work it.
A position can require a role (like Lead), a qualification your workers hold, or specific worker tags. Auto-Assign will only ever rotate eligible people into it. Skip this at first if everyone can work everything.
Step 3 — Add your staff
Your team doesn't need accounts for you to schedule them. Staff added by name only — no email — are fully schedulable from the moment you add them.
- Open Staff and click "Add first staff member".
A name is all that's required. Add an email if you want that person to be able to sign in and see their own schedule — they'll get an invitation.
- Repeat for the rest of today's crew, or import a list.
For a handful of people, adding them one by one is fastest. For a full roster, use the CSV import on the Staff page.
- Add an employee ID to anyone who'll use the time clock.
The ID is what staff punch in with at the shared kiosk — no login needed. You can add or change IDs later from each person's profile.
Step 4 — Place shifts for the day
Now the schedule itself. Open Schedule and you'll see the day laid out across your operating hours. A shift is one person's working block — when they arrive and when they leave. Place one for everyone working today.
- Click "Add your first shift" (or "+ Add Shift").
Set the start and end time, then pick who's working it — or leave it as an Open Shift to fill in later.
- Add a shift for everyone on today.
Don't worry about who covers which position yet — that's the next step's job. You're just telling Perch who's in the building and when.
- Tip: click the date itself to jump around.
The date label at the top of the schedule opens a calendar picker — much faster than clicking the arrows when you're scheduling a week that starts on the 20th.
Step 5 — Run Auto-Assign
This is the payoff. Auto-Assign takes the people you placed and builds the day: it rotates them across your positions so every spot stays covered for every open minute, schedules their breaks and lunches according to your break rules, and keeps every assignment inside the eligibility rules you set. It's included on every plan, including Free.
Click the Auto-Assign button at the top right of the schedule and watch the day fill in. Anything it produces is yours to adjust — drag, swap, and edit blocks by hand afterward, and re-run it whenever the day changes.
Breaks come from your venue's break rules (Perch ships with sensible defaults; tune them in Settings). If a rotation looks off, check that your position's rotation length and your shift times line up with the hours you actually meant.
Step 6 — Review and publish
Before the schedule goes out, Perch flags coverage gaps — stretches where a position has nobody in it — so scan for warnings and adjust. When it looks right, publish it: publishing makes it the official schedule your team sees, and it's what the time clock and live rotation map read from.
From there you can print individual slips for a paper-based crew, or — on Pro — email everyone their schedule directly.
Where to go next
That's a running venue. When you're ready for more: the time clock gives your staff kiosk punch-in with timesheets, the live rotation map puts your coverage on your actual floor plan in real time, and staff can request time off and set availability that the schedule respects.
Frequently asked questions
How long does setup take?
About ten minutes for a typical venue: a minute for the venue and hours, a few minutes for positions and staff, and the rest on your first day's shifts. Auto-Assign itself runs in seconds.
Do my staff need accounts?
No. Staff added by name only are fully schedulable. Add an email later if you want someone to sign in and see their own schedule, and an employee ID if they'll punch in at the time clock kiosk.
I set the wrong operating hours — do I have to start over?
No. Open the venue's Settings page and change any day's hours whenever you like; the schedule adapts to the new window. Nothing in setup requires deleting your venue.
Is Auto-Assign included on the Free plan?
Yes — Auto-Assign is included on every plan, including Free. Free covers one venue and up to 25 staff.
What does Auto-Assign do, exactly?
It takes the staff you placed on the schedule and rotates them across your positions so every position stays covered through the day, placing breaks according to your rules. It only assigns people to positions they're eligible for, and everything it produces can be edited by hand.