Article last updated June 27, 2023
The Toast+Sling integration allows your scheduling account and Toastweb account to communicate with each other. Upon creating and syncing your Sling account with Toast, your employee data will be imported. But it's important to take the time to adjust your account's settings so that your staff have the right level of access to Sling, and so the account is functioning the way you prefer. This article will walk you through the different Settings that you'll need to review to ensure that Sling is running the way you want it to!
Use these shortcuts if you know which topic you need to jump to:
Settings tabs
To access the full range of settings for your Sling account, you'll need to login from the web browser version of Sling on a desktop, laptop, or tablet (note that the web version of Sling will not load correctly on a mobile device).
From your Dashboard screen, you can select the Settings button highlighted below, or you can click your name in the upper right to select Settings from that menu instead.
Preferences & Notifications
The first two tabs of the settings options are only for your access to Sling. Each user has access to their own Preferences and Notifications settings, so that they can control aspects of their own interaction with the account. In other words, adjusting the Notifications settings as an admin has no bearing on other users who are joined to the account. It's a good idea to review the settings options for these two tabs according to your own needs.
The remaining settings tabs will affect all users on the account. As an admin, you have access to control the settings that are global. Managers are able to see these settings (except the Integrations tab), but do not have access to change any of them. Employees will not see the settings options that affect the entire account, and only have access to their own Preferences and Notifications settings as well.
Company settings
This page's settings allow you to adjust the way that certain features operate. For example, if you don't want employees to be able to communicate with coworkers who are assigned to a different location, then you would adjust the setting for that on this page. The Company settings page has 2 options for general account Restrictions, and then the settings for Messages, Newsfeed, and Tasks. You can jump to any of those sections using the menu along the left side, shown below:
Schedule settings
Next, you'll be able to adjust how your users see the schedule, what day is the first day of the week in the schedule for your company, your operating hours, and rules for breaks.
So if you need to restrict employees assigned to one location from seeing shifts for another location, then this is the page where you would adjust that.
The Schedule settings page is also where you determine how shift exchanges and unavailability operate for your company within Sling.
Please note that the only setting that you may wish to enable under the Time clock tab is the option for the kiosk. All timesheet data should only be based upon your Toastweb account, which sends the time punches to Sling in real time. Any edits to the timesheets should be made in your Toastweb account, because changes made in Sling will not export at this time to Toast. Most data in the integration only syncs one direction: from Toast to Sling. But we do have plans to expand this functionality in the future, so that more changes can sync bi-directionally!
Labor cost settings
Under the Labor cost tab, you'll find the settings for the currency you'd like to apply to your account as well as the rules for overtime and labor %. This is also the page where you can set up your pay period, which will allow you to look at Reports according to that date range.
Time off settings
This page is where you can set up rules for how employees can submit time off requests in Sling. This is also where you'll establish the various PTO categories (applicable if using Scheduling Pro) for employees to choose from when they request time off.
Integrations
Lastly, the Integrations tab is where you'll be able to see if Sling and Toast are syncing, if the integration is enabled, or if it is queued. A label will appear next to the Toast heading that indicates the status of the integration. Only admin have access to see this Integrations tab.
You can use the option dots on this page to disconnect your integration if you need to, or to force a manual sync outside of the 15-minute auto-sync window. Note that you can only force a manual sync once each fifteen minutes.
System roles
In Toast, you assign each of your employees to a location and job code, and this is what determines what job they do for the day as well as their compensation. However, the system roles that Sling provides are separate from these, and must be adjusted in Sling independently of the integration.
System roles determine the level of access that someone has to your Sling account. If you created the Sling account that your company is using, then you are automatically set as an admin for the account, and have authorization to appoint other admins as well. You can also assign managers, whose access is a bit more limited. Read on for more details about each of these system roles!
Admin
Admins have the highest level of access. This is usually the creator of the account, but additional admins can be designated for the company. This role can create shifts and manage employees for all locations. They are also the only role that can make changes to company settings such as hours of operation, restrictions for employees, and the ability to allow shift exchanges. In addition, admins are the only role given access to Labor Cost functions and settings by default, which control settings such as overtime rules and wages.
Manager
Managers can create shifts and approve shift exchanges and time off (as well as enter time off for employees or themselves directly to the shift calendar) only for the locations assigned in their own profiles. However, they are able to edit all employee profiles (so that they are able to add employees to their location) and view schedules for all locations. Premium and Business subscribers can restrict Managers from viewing schedules for other locations. Managers can also be given access to Labor Cost functions by an admin.
Employee
Employees have the most basic access. They are able to view and print their own schedule and available shifts, and communicate with other employees via messages (if enabled). Company settings (controlled by the admin) dictate how much or little of the schedule is visible, whether they can initiate shift exchanges, whether they can request time off, whether they can access messaging, and whether they can edit their unavailability. They can not create or edit shifts or edit positions or locations for their profile.
To adjust a user's system role in Sling, simply click on their name anywhere in the web account, select the Work tab of their profile, and on that page you can adjust the system role assigned to them.
Note that managers will not be able to make changes to admin profiles. Essentially, users may not alter the details of a system role that is higher than their own role. Only admins can delete or deactivate other admins on an account, for example. We also recommend assigning at least two admin to an account, in case Sling account ownership should need to be transferred to someone else in the future.
Employee data
When you connect your Sling and Toastweb account, Sling will automatically import any active employee. To protect the functionality of the integration, it is not possible to delete any profile that resulted from an import. However, you do have the option to deactivate employees so that they no longer have access to login. For more details about deactivating or reactivating employees, please refer to this article. It's important to understand that when you remove or archive an employee in your Toast account, this does not occur in Sling as well. Employees must be manually deactivated in Sling once they are inactive in your Toastweb account.
It's also important to note that the time zone assigned to each employee profile will need to be adjusted for your location; this data does not import from your Toastweb account.
Any changes to employee wages must be made in your Toastweb account, and have to be added to your wage override column in order for Sling to pull the data. For example, if an employee receives a wage, this would first need to populate to your Toastweb account, and appear in the wage override column in order for Sling to import that update. Changes made to employee wages directly in Sling will not export to or be recognized by Toast.
After an employee has joined your Sling account, then they will be responsible for updating their email address in Sling if they need to change their username for any reason. Once employee mapping has been completed, the email address saved to Toastweb will no longer overwrite what is saved to Sling.
Again, employees will be assigned to any job code and location that they are assigned to in Toast. If an employee's job changes, or if their location changes, then this must be updated in Toast so that it will import correctly to Sling.
It's imperative to note that employees can still be assigned to shifts that do not include the job codes saved to their Toast profiles. For this reason, we recommend paying close attention when scheduling employees. If you get a pop-up message stating that the employee is not assigned to a particular location or position, then it is wise to check the details saved to their Toastweb profile before continuing.
Sales & labor data
Sling will import your actual sales data and wage details for employees automatically so that you're able to review that information in Sling.
Sales data will update each time the accounts automatically sync, every 15 minutes, based upon closed tickets from your Toast POS. At this time, no sales data is displayed directly in the schedule. Managers and admins will be able to review the Reports to look at actual Sales information that has imported to Sling.
Within the Schedule page, managers and admins will have the ability to see an overview of the labor cost (and labor % based upon how you've configured those settings). Using the Add-ons filter, you can choose to hide or make visible the labor cost details:
For more details about how to input projected sales, which is not an automatic function at this time, please refer to this article.
For details about reviewing reports, please refer instead to this article. As with the Schedule and Timesheet pages in Sling, you can customize the look of your Reports so that the columns you need to refer to are visible. This way, the reports are tailored for your needs and can be exported as an .xls or .csv file to import to another program, or for record-keeping purposes.
It's also important to note that Sling pulls the wage details for different job codes from Toastweb's Wage Override column. Wages must be input to the right column under their job details in order for Sling to pull them.
Please note as well that Sling cannot support employees who have both a salary and hourly wage assigned. If a salary has been applied to a single position in Toastweb, then it will apply to all jobs in Sling.
Scheduling shifts
When you begin building your schedule, it is important to note that the integration will not work correctly if you are assigning shifts to employees which do not contain the jobs or locations saved to their Toastweb profile.
When you connect Sling+Toast, the job codes assigned to employees will import so that they are also assigned to them in Sling. You can view this information by clicking on an employee's name, and then selecting the Work tab of their profile details.
The positions and locations that import to the profile are the only ones that Toast will recognize. For example, if you have an employee Jane Dough, and she is assigned to the Server position in Toastweb, then you cannot schedule her for a different job in Sling. If you assign a shift to Jane with a position other than Server, it means that schedule enforcement will not work properly and the timesheet data for the shift will not be communicated between the applications. The same is true for locations; you can only assign locations that are assigned under Restaurant access in an employee's Toastweb profile.
What our team recommends if you wish to indicate specific jobs for an employee that are not assigned to them in Toastweb is to instead apply Tags or Shift notes to the shift containing the correct position, so that the employee can easily decipher what specific duties they'll be expected to perform for that shift.
Timesheet editing
When shifts are created in Sling, those details will export to your Toastweb account. You can verify that the accounts are communicating correctly by selecting the Employees option from your Toastweb navigation panel, and then selecting Scheduling. On that page, beneath the time clock rules for clocking in and out, you'll see the shift details that have imported.
If an employee forgets to clock into a shift, then you will need to update the timesheet only on the Toastweb side of the integration. Timesheets edited or created directly in Sling will not export to Toast at this time. All timesheet data must originate from Toast in order for it to display correctly in Sling.
Note that the source for all shifts will initially show Sling in the timesheets view. Once the time clock data for a shift has been imported, and the entry contains both the clock in and out times, then the source will change to reflect the source being Toast.
Helpful links
For details about creating or syncing your Sling account, go here!
To review more details about how your time clock settings can be configured for a Toast integration, check out this article.
For information about setting up PTO for your employees so that they can request sick time off or vacation time off, please read this article.
Review how unavailability can be entered here.
Learn how to set up schedule enforcement in your Toastweb account here.
Have duplicate employee profiles? Learn about merging them here.
Need help with syncing additional locations with your Sling account? Check here.
Need help with how to view one location in the schedule? Check here.
Have a question for the Sling Support team? Send us a message!