Griddle vs TimetableMaster

Griddle is cloud software for school timetabling and daily organisation. Its timetable tools check data, report issues, and support automated building alongside manual changes; the engine can produce timetable solutions within two hours. AI line generation creates class combinations while accounting for school constraints and teacher and room requirements. Online course-selection forms apply curriculum rules and allow individual student exceptions. Flexible student groups, automatic enrolments, and class-list changes update student timetables. One setup can coordinate shared staff, spaces, students, and cross-campus classes. Griddle supports multiple period structures, including overlapping periods and teacher break rules across structures. Daily Organisation handles teacher absences and events. Events created in Compass appear automatically, and exam schedules can be published there; Griddle Exams can create extra sittings for special considerations. Multiple users can work on the same data simultaneously, with roles and permissions controlling access. Pricing is on request.

TimetableMaster generates school timetables and handles substitutions, staff leave, calendars and student course choices. Its generator places lessons around teacher availability, room capacity, building transitions and workload limits, with a drag-and-drop editor for changes. When staff are absent, it ranks possible cover teachers using subject familiarity, availability and existing cover workload; it can assign and notify a substitute in one click. Staff can request full or half days off, and approved leave feeds into cover planning. Calendars include holidays, exams, events and activities. The student-choice module gathers course preferences, creates sections, assigns faculty and rooms, and produces conflict-free schedules for individual students. Integrations include Veracross, PowerSchool, ManageBac and SchoolBase; other systems can exchange CSV or Excel files. TimetableMaster generates an import file for a school's SIS importer rather than writing directly into the SIS. A Pro trial runs for 10 days without a credit card, but PDF and Excel timetable downloads require a paid plan. The desktop app requires an internet connection; offline mode is described as coming soon.