Case study — the 1-minute version

How I built and run a scheduling app on my own

By Gurjinder Johal, full-stack developer. Shiftova is a staff scheduling and time-clock app for restaurants. I designed, built and run all of it, and it's live and in daily use.

How it's built

• The app. One React Native codebase in TypeScript for iOS and Android, with separate modes for managers, employees and a shared time-clock tablet.
• The database. PostgreSQL on Supabase, with security rules on every table, so each person only ever sees what they're allowed to, whichever screen asks.
• The server side. Small server functions for payments (Stripe), push notifications and email, started by the app, by database changes, or on a schedule.

1. Phone app (iOS & Android)

   React Native + Expo, one TypeScript codebase. Manager, employee and kiosk modes. Overtime, payroll and forecast logic run here as tested functions.

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2. Supabase (hosted PostgreSQL)

   Sign-in and invites; 32 tables with row-level security on every one; 48 database functions and 41 triggers; 70 versioned migrations.

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3. 13 server functions + 5 scheduled jobs

   Payments (checkout, billing portal, Stripe webhook, nightly reconcile), people (invites, account changes, kiosk), messaging (push, chat, incident emails), and scheduled reminders, alerts and data retention.

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4. Third-party services

   Stripe, Apple and Google push notifications (through Expo), Resend email.

Decisions I'd point to

• Security in the database, not the app. Even a bug in a screen can't show someone another person's pay rate.
• Business rules as tested functions. Overtime law for 13 provinces and territories and 50 states and DC, holiday pay and payroll, all covered by automated tests.
• Payments enforced by the database. A lapsed subscription blocks changes, but the customer never loses their records.

The honest part

It's a one-developer product, so there's no second reviewer, no automated build pipeline yet, and fixes wait for an app-store review. Those are the next things I'd add.

Skills used