# Sling **Source:** https://geo.sig.ai/brands/sling-schedule **Vertical:** HCM Tech **Subcategory:** Restaurant & Retail Scheduling **Tier:** Challenger **Website:** getsling.com **Last Updated:** 2026-04-14 ## Summary Restaurant and retail scheduling, time tracking, and communication platform. Acquired by Toast, now integrated with Toast POS to give restaurant operators an end-to-end labor management solution. ## Company Overview Sling is a scheduling, time tracking, and team communication platform built for restaurant and retail businesses managing hourly workforces. Originally a standalone product, Sling was acquired by Toast — the restaurant point-of-sale and management platform — to create a more complete labor management solution within the Toast ecosystem. The acquisition allowed Sling's scheduling and communication capabilities to integrate directly with Toast POS data, enabling demand-based scheduling informed by real-time sales and cover forecasts.\n\nSling's core scheduling module allows managers to build weekly schedules, manage shift trades, and track labor costs against budget thresholds. The time clock integration links punch data to POS-based shift data, providing accurate labor cost reporting as a percentage of sales — a critical operational metric for restaurant profitability management. Team communication features include group messaging, task lists, and announcement broadcasts accessible through the Sling mobile app.\n\nAs part of the Toast platform, Sling benefits from distribution through Toast's large restaurant customer base and sales channels. Toast restaurant operators can activate Sling's workforce management capabilities directly from their Toast dashboard, reducing the friction of adopting a separate HR tool. This embedded distribution model has driven Sling's penetration into the restaurant segment, particularly among independent restaurants and small chains that want an integrated stack rather than piecing together separate POS, scheduling, and payroll tools. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is Sling still an independent product? Sling was acquired by Toast and is now part of the Toast restaurant management platform. It remains available as a standalone product but is most tightly integrated for restaurants using Toast POS. ### How does Sling integrate with Toast POS? Sling integrates with Toast POS to pull real-time sales and cover data, enabling demand-based scheduling and accurate labor cost as a percentage of sales reporting directly within the scheduling tool. ### What types of businesses use Sling? Sling is primarily used by restaurants, cafes, bars, and retail stores managing hourly shift workers — from single-location independent operators to multi-location restaurant chains. ### What is Sling and who uses it? Sling is a scheduling, time tracking, and team communication platform widely used by restaurants, bars, cafes, retail stores, and other shift-based businesses to manage employee schedules, track hours, and communicate with teams — known for its accessible pricing and ease of use for smaller businesses. ### How does Sling's free plan compare to paid tiers? Sling offers a free scheduling plan with unlimited employees and basic scheduling features, making it one of the few workforce scheduling tools accessible to very small businesses at no cost, with paid tiers adding time tracking, labor cost management, and advanced communication tools. ### How does Sling manage labor costs? Sling's labor cost tools display real-time labor cost projections as managers build schedules, showing the cost impact of scheduling decisions against defined budget targets, helping restaurant and retail managers control labor spend without overstaffing shifts. ### What communication features does Sling include? Sling includes group messaging, direct messaging, and announcement channels within its platform, allowing managers to communicate schedule changes, important announcements, and shift-specific information to employees through the same tool they use to view their schedules. ### How does Sling handle time-off requests and availability? Employees submit availability and time-off requests through the Sling app, which managers can approve or decline, with the system automatically preventing scheduling employees during unavailable times when the schedule is built, reducing scheduling conflicts and no-show risk. ## Tags b2b, communication, enterprise, hr, hr-tech, mobile-first, platform, saas, smb --- *Data from geo.sig.ai Brand Intelligence Database. Updated 2026-04-14.*