Case Study: Boathouse Group achieves business continuity and efficient rostering during COVID with Deputy

Deputy helped hospitality business Boathouse Group keep going strong before, during, and after the COVID lockdown

Boathouse Group is a Sydney-born hospitality business that grew from a single Palm Beach café into eight venues—including cafés, a bakery, deli, accommodation and a pub—supporting more than 500 events a year and a seasonal workforce of 300–600 staff. COVID lockdowns forced most venues to close, stood down casuals, and left the group running on a skeleton team; management needed faster rostering, tighter wage control, trained staff for new COVID safety roles, and reliable all-staff communication to stay operational.

Deputy provided the backbone for Boathouse’s pivot: Xero integration turned timesheets into payroll easily, Kounta integration let managers project daily revenue and set wage targets, and Deputy Sections ensured COVID Safety Officer and Hosting roles were rostered only to trained staff. In-app messaging kept teams connected, saved managers time, improved rostering accuracy across businesses, and helped the group stay afloat through lockdown and scale back up afterward.

Boathouse Group

Thom Williamson

According to General Manager