Desk sharing software is what a workplace manager searches for on the day the desks stop being one per person and the question of who sits where has to be answered every morning. Desk sharing at work is a simple arrangement with a hard number under it: some desks are shared among more people than there are desks, on a ratio the attendance has to support, and somebody keeps the record of who is booked into which desk on which day. This guide is about that record and that ratio. A desk sharing office that buys the software before it knows the ratio has bought a calendar for a floor nobody has sized, and the free space utilization worksheet on this site sizes it from your own counts with no account.
The shared desk record: three tables, exportable
The desks, with which are shared and which are kept assigned and what each is near; the bookings, one person on one desk on one day; and the counts that fall out of the bookings, how many were in on each day and on the busiest one. Desk sharing software that keeps the first two and cannot produce the third as a table has kept the paperwork and lost the point, because the counts are the only evidence for the ratio. Ask for the export before the demo.
The ratio a desk sharing office can actually run
180 people assigned, 84 in on an average day and 126 on the busiest, against 140 desks: 60% average utilization, 90% at peak, and a ratio of 7 desks per 10 people that the attendance supports. Keep 20 desks assigned and the 120 remaining shared desks carry 160 people at 7.5 per 10. Every one of those figures is the manager's own counts worked through, and the worksheet publishes no target ratio because there is none; the floor's own attendance is the standard.
The rule that goes with the software
Desk sharing at work needs a short written rule or the software becomes the argument: which desks are shared, how far ahead a desk can be booked, when an unclaimed booking releases, whether a team has a home zone, and what happens on the day the floor is over. The return to office policy template on this site works the arithmetic behind that rule from your headcount, days required, desks and clustering, and the paid plan builds the document from the figures under your own name.
What desk sharing software is not
It is not a room booking system, which has a different buyer and a different record, and it is not a visitor sign-in, and HardFM does neither. It is also not a floor plan designer: which desks go where and what the layout looks like is the office design question, and this hub works the numbers under a layout without drawing it. HardFM Pro keeps the desks, the bookings and the counts, and exports them; that is the whole of it.
Questions people ask about desk sharing software
What ratio should a desk sharing office use?
The one its attendance supports: peak attendance over headcount, times ten. On the worked example that is 126 over 180, or 7 desks per 10 people. Work it from your own average and peak counts with the free space utilization worksheet before configuring any software.
What does desk sharing software need to keep?
Which desks are shared and which are assigned, each booking as one person on one desk on one day, and the attendance counts by day that fall out of the bookings, all exportable as tables. HardFM Pro keeps them against the building for $24 a month for the whole team.
Is there free desk sharing software?
The arithmetic is free here: the space utilization worksheet and the return to office policy template work the ratio, the surplus and the desks a rule needs with no account. Keeping the desks and the bookings as a record is the paid plan.