Custom Shiftbase integration development
Appfront builds custom Shiftbase integrations that automatically synchronise rosters, time registration and leave with your payroll, HR, POS and BI systems. Via the Shiftbase REST API and webhooks, employees, shifts and hours worked flow flawlessly between your systems: no duplicate entry, no retyped hours, and always up-to-date insight into staffing and labour costs.
What is a Shiftbase integration?
Shiftbase is a Dutch platform for workforce planning and management. It is built for organisations with shift work: you create rosters, employees clock in and out, hours are recorded, leave and availability are tracked, and you can see labour costs per shift straight away. Many businesses in retail, hospitality, healthcare and logistics run their daily planning in Shiftbase.
A custom integration means, in practice: hours worked passed automatically to your payroll software, employees synchronised with your HR system so that starters and changes are tracked in one place, revenue from the till set against planned staffing, and rosters, hours and labour costs made available in a BI dashboard. Via webhooks, everything stays in real time when a roster or registration changes.
Appfront builds according to the official Shiftbase developer documentation and the OWASP ASVS security standard. We align the fields to be synchronised, the scheduling logic and the error handling with your actual processes, so the integration grows with your organisation and continues to run reliably during peak volumes and seasonal pressure.
Rosters and staffing
Create rosters by location, team and role, with insight into availability and labour costs per shift. Planned shifts form the basis that the integration keeps in sync with your other systems.
Time registration and clocking
Employees clock in and out; hours worked, breaks and allowances are recorded. An integration passes those hours on to payroll processing without errors, with no retyping and no discrepancies between systems.
Leave and labour costs
Leave and availability management, plus insight into labour costs per shift and period. An integration shares this data with your HR and payroll package and your BI environment, so planning and administration always match.
Our development process for Shiftbase integrations
We work to a proven methodology that removes uncertainty early and delivers a stable integration. From an initial analysis of your planning, hours flows and adjacent systems through to go-live and ongoing management, every step is aimed at an integration your team can understand and trust.
We map which data must flow between Shiftbase and your other systems (employees, rosters, worked hours or leave), in which direction, at what frequency, and which collective labour agreement and allowance rules apply.
We design the integration architecture, choose the right authentication and draw up an error-handling strategy.
Implementation with automated tests, structured logging and monitoring. You see working builds along the way.
Controlled go-live with data validation and a safety net, followed by ongoing management and further development.
What a Shiftbase integration delivers in practice
Every Shiftbase integration is set up specifically for your planning, hours flows and adjacent systems. Below are the features we most often deliver for organisations that use Shiftbase as the heart of their workforce planning.
Employee synchronisation
Integration with your HR system so that employees, contracts and changes are managed in one place and automatically appear in Shiftbase. Starters, leavers and changes stay in sync, with no duplicate entry in either system.
Connecting rosters and shifts
Expose planned shifts from Shiftbase to your other systems, or generate rosters based on data from your own application. Changes to the planning flow through webhooks immediately, so staffing and commitments match everywhere.
Worked hours to payroll/HR
Registered hours, breaks and allowances are automatically passed to your payroll software or HR package. Shiftbase supplies the worked hours; payroll processing takes place in a payroll package such as Loket.nl or Nmbrs.
Leave and availability
Keep leave requests, leave balances and availability in sync between Shiftbase and your HR system. Approved leave appears straight away in the rota, and balance changes flow through too, so planning and HR administration always show the same picture.
POS: revenue vs. staffing
Link revenue data from your till or POS to planned and worked staffing in Shiftbase. You see, by location and by hour, the ratio between revenue and staff deployed, which is essential for sharp rostering in hospitality and retail.
BI dashboards & reporting
Export rotas, hours worked, leave and payroll costs to a data warehouse or BI tool such as Power BI. Management gets up-to-date dashboards on staffing, productivity and costs by location, team and period.
Typical use cases in practice
A Shiftbase integration looks very different from one organisation to the next. We see a number of recurring patterns, and for each we have a working setup with attention to the right fields, synchronisation direction and collective agreement and allowance rules.
Multi-branch retail
Retail chains that roster each branch based on expected footfall. Employees and rotas are synchronised centrally, hours worked flow into payroll processing, and till revenue is compared against staffing levels. See also our API integrations.
Hospitality with variable shifts
Restaurants, cafés and hotel chains with varying shifts and weekend peaks. Planning against expected staffing, clocking for exact hours, and passing hours worked plus allowances on to payroll administration, connected to the till and, where relevant, a POS such as Untill.
Care with rotating shifts
Care providers rostering 24/7 with day, evening and night shifts and strict collective agreement rules. Manage availability and leave, record hours including unsocial hours allowances, and pass that data cleanly to HR and payroll administration.
Logistics & warehousing
Warehouses, fulfilment and transport companies that plan shifts around order volumes and peak days. Connect rosters and hours worked to WMS and HR systems, and surface labour costs per shift in a dashboard to steer staffing and productivity.
Technology we use
We build Shiftbase integrations with the official REST API and webhooks, combined with the backend stack that suits you. The exact approach depends on your adjacent systems (payroll, HR, POS or BI), so your own team can manage or further develop the integration.
Why choose Appfront for your Shiftbase integration?
Appfront has extensive experience building API integrations for a wide range of organisations in the Netherlands. We always start with a thorough analysis of your existing systems and processes. An integration should not only work technically, but also add practical value to your planning and administration.
For every integration, we write clear documentation and make sure your own team, or any future supplier, can understand and manage it. No black box, just transparent code and clear agreements on monitoring, alerting and maintenance.
You work with a dedicated point of contact who understands both the technical and the functional side. This keeps communication short, prevents misunderstandings and speeds up decisions when choices need to be made during development.
See also our wider services around API integrations, middleware, custom software development and web app development.
- Experience with the Shiftbase REST API, webhooks and the synchronisation of employees, rotas and hours
- Specialists in integrations with payroll and HR software, POS and BI
- Familiar with collective agreement rules, allowances and cost centres in time and attendance processing
- Secure by default: API key rotation, webhook signature validation, scoped permissions
- Structured error handling and retry mechanisms
- Comprehensive logging and monitoring from day one
- Clear documentation your team can read and manage
- A fixed point of contact, no account managers passed around
- Ongoing maintenance and proactive further development
- A way of working aligned with your existing IT landscape
Security and privacy in Shiftbase integrations
Rosters, time registration and leave data always contain personal data about employees. An integration that moves this data between systems must handle it with care. Appfront builds to the OWASP ASVS: API keys in secure vaults, webhook signature validation, scoped permissions and regular audits of the data flows. We only synchronise the fields that are needed, in line with the principle of data minimisation.
Because this involves employee data, we document the processing activities carefully. We record which fields flow between Shiftbase and your other systems, in which direction and for what purpose, so that your record of processing activities is complete and you can demonstrably comply with the GDPR. Audit logs make every synchronisation traceable.
More on our security approach: information security policy and CVD policy.
- GDPR-compliant data processing and data minimisation
- Encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest
- Role-based access and least-privilege principles
- Audit logs with traceable data flows
- Automatic retries and dead-letter queues
- Monitoring and alerting for anomalies
- Secrets management in line with best practice
- Documentation for your record of processing activities
Frequently asked questions about Shiftbase integrations
Answers to the questions we are asked most often about Shiftbase integrations.
A Shiftbase integration is a technical integration between Shiftbase and another system, such as your payroll or HR software, POS system, time-tracking hardware or a BI dashboard. Through the Shiftbase REST API, employees, schedules, shifts, hours worked and leave are exchanged and synchronised programmatically. Webhooks report in real time when a schedule or registration changes. An integration can range from simple (exporting hours worked to payroll processing) to extensive (two-way synchronisation of employees, shifts and availability between multiple systems).
Shiftbase suits organisations with shift work and changing rosters, such as retail, hospitality, healthcare, logistics and events. It is strong in staff planning, time registration, clocking in and out, leave and availability management, and insight into labour costs per shift. For the actual payroll processing, you connect Shiftbase to a payroll package such as Loket.nl or Nmbrs: Shiftbase supplies the hours worked, and the payroll package turns them into payslips.
A simple integration, such as periodically exporting hours worked from Shiftbase to your payroll software, is usually quicker to go live than a two-way synchronisation of employees, rosters and leave across several systems. The lead time depends on the number of interfaces, the desired synchronisation frequency and the complexity of your collective labour agreement and allowance rules. After an intake meeting, we will give you a realistic estimate.
We work with the official Shiftbase REST API and webhooks, combined with the backend stack that suits you: Node.js, Python, PHP or .NET. Authentication runs via an API key or OAuth. We use the endpoints for employees, rosters and shifts, hours worked and leave, and connect them to your payroll, HR, POS or BI environment. For reporting, we connect to tools such as Power BI.
Costs depend on the complexity of the data flows, the number of systems to integrate, the desired sync frequency and the amount of custom business logic, such as allowances, collective labour agreement rules and cost centres. Ongoing maintenance, monitoring and support also affect the total investment. We always provide a clear quote after a no-obligation review of your situation.
Yes. Rosters and time registration contain employee data, so we treat it as special category personal data. Appfront builds to OWASP ASVS: API keys are stored in secure vaults, webhook signatures are validated, permissions are scoped and each integration follows least-privilege access. We only synchronise the fields you need (data minimisation) and document the data flows so your record of processing activities stays complete and you can demonstrate GDPR compliance.
Yes. Appfront regularly takes over existing Shiftbase integrations, even when another party originally set them up. We review the API integrations, the synchronised fields, the webhook configuration and error handling, document the current setup and propose improvements. From that point on, we can handle changes, extensions and monitoring, including timely API key rotation.
Shiftbase suits organisations that work with shifts and variable rosters: retail chains, hospitality, healthcare providers, logistics and event organisations. Typical integrations include passing worked hours to payroll, synchronising employees with an HR system, comparing POS revenue against staffing levels, and making rosters and labour costs available in a BI dashboard. For full payroll processing or personnel files, you connect Shiftbase to a payroll or HR package.
Ready to build your Shiftbase integration?
Tell us which rosters, hours or leave flows you want to synchronise and which payroll, HR, POS or BI systems Shiftbase needs to connect with. We are happy to help you choose the right fields, sync direction and error handling. A no-obligation first conversation gives you a clear picture of what is possible within half an hour.