Running one restaurant is complicated enough. Running two means every operational detail has to work twice without doubling the admin.

For Babal Restaurant in Amsterdam, that meant keeping two teams, two schedules, different staffing needs, and the daily realities of two locations aligned. A change at one branch shouldn't require a dozen messages. A manager shouldn't have to chase information from the other location. And the owner shouldn't need to piece together what happened across both restaurants at the end of the week.

With Session Pilot, Babal brought both locations into one operational view. Managers can handle their own teams while keeping the bigger picture in sight, making it easier to understand what's happening across the business without constantly switching between spreadsheets, chats, and separate systems.

Here's what changed.

The challenge wasn't running two restaurants it was keeping them connected

Each Babal location has its own rhythm.

Different teams. Different staffing requirements. Different busy periods. Different day-to-day issues.

Before bringing everything into one system, that naturally created a communication problem. Information about schedules, availability, swaps, attendance, and worked hours could live in different places depending on which branch it related to.

That works when you're dealing with one small team.

Across two locations, the gaps become much harder to manage.

A manager needs to know who is working today. Someone needs to cover a shift. A team member is unavailable next week. Hours need to be checked before payroll. None of these are particularly complicated tasks on their own, but when they're happening simultaneously across two restaurants, the administrative load adds up quickly.

The real challenge was creating one operational picture without taking away the independence each location needs to run its own day.

Two locations, one operational view

Session Pilot gives Babal a central place to manage both branches.

Managers can work with their own teams and schedules, while the business can maintain visibility across the locations. Instead of asking for updates or opening separate files to understand what's happening, the information is available in one system.

That makes the difference between managing two restaurants and simply managing the distance between them.

The schedule for one location doesn't get mixed up with the other. Teams know which shifts belong to them. Managers can focus on their branch while the people responsible for the wider operation can see the bigger picture.

For Babal, the goal isn't to make both restaurants operate identically.

It's to make sure both restaurants operate from the same operational foundation.

Every location has its own staffing reality

A two-location restaurant doesn't mean two identical staffing plans.

One branch might need more people on a particular evening. Another might have a different mix of full-time employees, part-timers, or team members with changing availability.

Session Pilot keeps those realities visible instead of forcing everything into a one-size-fits-all schedule.

Managers can build schedules around the actual needs of their location, while availability and roles remain connected to the people being scheduled.

That means the question isn't simply, "Who works for Babal?"

It's, "Who needs to be where, and when?"

That distinction becomes increasingly important as a restaurant group grows.

Changes stay connected to the schedule

In a busy restaurant, the schedule you publish on Monday rarely survives untouched until Sunday.

People get sick. Plans change. Shifts need to be swapped. Someone needs to stay longer. Someone else can't make it.

Across two locations, those changes can become even harder to track.

With Session Pilot, schedule changes happen inside the same system as the original rota. When a team member swaps a shift or a manager makes an adjustment, the schedule reflects what is actually happening.

There is no need to rely on a screenshot sent to a WhatsApp group and hope everyone is looking at the latest version.

For Babal, that means the schedule becomes a live operational tool rather than a document that quickly becomes outdated.

Managers get autonomy without losing visibility

One of the biggest advantages of operating multiple locations is also one of the biggest challenges: managers need enough autonomy to run their restaurants without creating completely separate operational systems.

Session Pilot gives Babal a way to keep those two things balanced.

The manager at each location can focus on their own team and day-to-day staffing. At the same time, the wider operation doesn't disappear into two separate worlds.

That makes it easier to answer simple but important questions:

Who's working today?

Where are we understaffed?

Which shifts have changed?

How many hours have people actually worked?

What's happening at the other location?

Instead of collecting those answers manually, they're part of the same operational picture.

Planned hours and actual hours tell different stories

The schedule tells Babal what should happen.

Clock in and clock out data tells them what actually happened.

A team member might arrive early for prep. A busy service might run late. A shift might finish earlier than planned. Across two branches, those differences can become difficult to keep track of manually.

With Session Pilot, actual worked hours are recorded against scheduled shifts.

That gives Babal a clearer view of the relationship between planned staffing and real labour.

If one location regularly runs longer on certain evenings, that's visible.

If another consistently finishes early, that's visible too.

Instead of relying on memory or asking managers to reconstruct the week, the operational data is already there.

One system instead of two separate admin routines

The biggest benefit of managing multiple locations isn't necessarily another feature.

It's removing duplicated work.

Without a connected system, every operational task risks being repeated for every branch: building schedules, checking changes, tracking hours, resolving discrepancies, and preparing information for payroll.

With Session Pilot, those processes happen within the same platform.

Babal doesn't need one operational workflow for location A and another for location B.

They have one system that accommodates both.

That becomes particularly valuable as the business grows. Adding another location shouldn't mean adding another collection of spreadsheets, chat groups, and manual processes.

The operational foundation is already there.

What Babal gets from running both locations through one system

The real benefit isn't that Babal has fewer screens open.

It's that the business has a clearer connection between its locations.

• Both Amsterdam locations can be managed from one operational system.

• Managers can focus on their own teams while maintaining wider visibility.

• Schedules stay connected to real-time changes.

• Shift swaps and availability don't disappear into separate chat threads.

• Clock in/clock out records actual worked hours.

• Planned and worked hours can be compared across locations.

• Payroll preparation doesn't require reconstructing hours from multiple sources.

• Adding another location doesn't require rebuilding the entire administrative process.

None of this changes what happens on the restaurant floor.

It changes how much work happens behind it.

For Babal, running two locations doesn't have to mean running two separate administrative operations.

It's two restaurants, one operational view.

Babal Restaurant Amsterdam uses Session Pilot to manage its multi-location operations, including scheduling, shift management, and worked hours. If you're running more than one horeca location and finding that the admin grows faster than the business, Session Pilot was built to keep the operation connected.