One client sends an API feed straight from their own planning system. Another emails an Excel sheet at 6am. A third keeps everything in a spreadsheet that only makes sense to the person who built it. Whichever way it arrives, every client expects the same thing: the shift filled fast. Most platforms solve the format problem by asking everyone to change how they work, and lose that speed in the process. Our staffing platform doesn’t. It meets every client where they already are, turns whatever comes in into a clean, structured shift on your central planning overview, ready for matching before your planners have opened their inbox.
Whatever a client sends — an API call from their own planning system, an email, a spreadsheet, or a shift posted through Demand Hub — bookU’s intake engine reads it and converts it into the same structured shift, with the same fields, ready for matching. Planners stop chasing shifts across scattered channels and start working from a single, centralized planning overview.
Every channel feeds the same planning overview, so a client who emails a spreadsheet today and moves to Demand Hub or API integration next year doesn’t change how your planners work. And because manual entry is always available, planners can step in on any shift, at any time, without waiting on a system.
A structured shift doesn’t sit around waiting to be typed up. As soon as it’s ingested, it’s visible on the planning overview and eligible for matching. Which means the clock on time-to-fill starts running the instant a client sends the request, not whenever a planner gets around to entering it.
Not every client is ready to log into a portal, and that’s fine. Send a shift by email, upload the spreadsheet they already keep, or connect their own planning system through direct API integration. bookU reads whatever arrives and turns it into the same structured shift record every time.
Automation is the default, not the requirement. Planners can create, correct, or override any shift by hand, at any moment. The platform assists, never getting in the way. That matters most for a demanding client or an urgent request, where judgment beats a system, letting service be tuned to what each customer actually needs, not handled the same way for everyone.
Demand Hub is the client portal we provide so customers can post shifts directly, no email or spreadsheet in between. It’s one of the ways shifts reach bookU already structured. See the Demand Hub product page for the full picture.
Before bookU, TMI’s childcare shifts arrived however each client felt like sending them: by email, over the phone, dropped into a shared spreadsheet. Every one of them had to be read, understood, and retyped into the planning system before a single candidate could be contacted, often losing hours before matching could even start. Since going live with the bookU Staffing platform in April 2025, those same shifts land already structured, whatever format they arrive in, and matching begins immediately. The same planning team now fills 60 to 83% more hours each month, not because they work faster on the phone, but because they no longer have to.
“Shift intake used to mean re-typing the client's Excel into our system. Now it's automatic. Whether planning comes from Excel, email, or a connected system, it flows straight into bookU Staffing. ”
Ben De Block
Operational Director
Every staffing capability, connected across the full value chain.
FAQ
No, that’s exactly what flexible ingestion is for. Clients who aren’t ready for API integration or Demand Hub can still send shifts by email or spreadsheet, and they land on the same planning overview as everyone else. You’re not stuck waiting for every client to modernize before you benefit.
Demand Hub is the customer portal bookU provides so clients can post shifts directly, without an email or a spreadsheet in between. It’s optional, not a requirement — clients can still use email, spreadsheet, or their own API integration instead. More on what Demand Hub does is covered on its own page.
No. Manual entry is always available. Automation handles the volume; planners keep full control to create, edit, or override any shift directly, whenever they need to.
No. That’s the point. Clients keep working the way they already work — by email, spreadsheet, their own planning system, or Demand Hub if they want a more direct route. bookU does the translation on our side, so the change is invisible to them.
Email, direct API integration into your clients’ own planning systems, spreadsheet upload for Excel and CSV, and Demand Hub — the portal we provide clients to post shifts themselves. Whichever way a client currently gets a shift to you, bookU can take it in.
