In short
What this page covers
- Build the pharmacist shift first, then see the gaps
- Staff the peak, not the day
- Shifts you set up once
- Open shifts before you ring the agency
For pharmacies
Rota software for pharmacies, every branch and every hour
Plan the pharmacist into every hour you open, sort locum cover before the week starts rather than at ten past eight, and run every branch from one account. Free, for as many staff and branches as you have.
Where the time goes
What actually goes wrong on a pharmacy rota
These are the everyday situations that turn a rota into a source of mistakes, phone calls and needless cost.
01
Quarter past eight and your pharmacist is ill
The branch does not open without a responsible pharmacist signed in. That is the constraint the whole week hangs off, and right now it is a shutter that stays down, a queue forming outside and you on the phone to an agency at whatever rate they feel like quoting.
02
The locum bill nobody planned
A day rate that is several times what your own pharmacist costs, booked in a panic, and it never shows up in a total anywhere until the invoice lands. The gap it filled was usually visible a fortnight earlier, if anyone had been looking at the month rather than the day.
03
Half nine and the queue is out the door
Supervised consumption, the overnight scripts and the morning collections all land in the same ninety minutes, with one dispenser on the bench and the counter assistant answering the phone. By eleven it is quiet and you are staffed exactly the same.
04
Six branches, six spreadsheets
A dispenser two miles away would happily pick up Saturday, but the branch that needs Saturday has no way of knowing she is free. Every branch plans in its own file, so the simple question of who is on tomorrow at the other shop takes two phone calls.
05
Late nights and Sundays get built last
The hours past six and the weekend rota are the ones nobody wants to touch, so they end up on whoever is easiest to ask. The same two people carry them, the extra hours are never quite counted, and then one of them hands in their notice.
06
The lunch hour nobody decided about
Your pharmacist has to eat. Whether the branch stays open, and who is there if it does, is your call to make, but it is a call that gets made at ten to one by whoever happens to be standing in the dispensary rather than on the rota a month earlier.
How InShift fixes it
A rota built around the shift the branch depends on, and around the fact that your staff are shared between shops. Everything below is in the free account, with no cap on people or branches.
Solution 1
Build the pharmacist shift first, then see the gaps
Every shift carries the role of the person on it, so the published week shows you exactly which of your opening hours have a pharmacist on them and which do not. You plan against your own arrangements and you see the hole in three weeks' time while there is still time to book somebody.
Solution 2
Staff the peak, not the day
Overlap two on the bench from nine to eleven for the collections and the supervised consumption run, and drop back after the surgery scripts are done. Coverage is something you can look at before you publish, not something you learn from the queue.
Solution 3
Shifts you set up once
An early, a late, a Saturday morning, an hour of lunch cover. Set the hours once, say which days each one runs and which roles can cover it, then drop them onto the week. A month of rota takes minutes.
Solution 4
Open shifts before you ring the agency
Post the uncovered shift and everyone who could work it gets it on their phone at once, across all your branches. The pharmacist at the quiet shop who would take an extra day now knows the shift exists. The first one to take it has it, and you approve with one tap.
Solution 5
Every branch on one screen
One account holds all your shops. See who is on where, move a dispenser between branches for a day, and give each branch manager only their own. Staff who cover two branches have one rota with both on it.
Solution 6
Hours and locum cost ready for payroll
Hours add up as the rota is worked, at each person's own hourly rate. Put locums on the rota at their own rate and the spend sits alongside everything else instead of arriving as an invoice. Export the lot to Excel for whoever runs your payroll.
A day on the rota in a pharmacy
A branch open 09:00 to 18:00, with the collection and supervised consumption peak from nine to eleven. Note that the pharmacist shift is drawn first and everything else is built around it, and that the lunchtime cover is on the rota because it was a decision, not an accident.
| Time | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 08:45-18:15 | Responsible pharmacist | In before the shutter goes up and there until it comes down |
| 08:45-17:00 | Dispenser | Takes the overnight scripts, then the supervised consumption run from nine |
| 09:00-13:00 | Counter assistant | Morning peak only: collections, deliveries and the phone |
| 13:00-14:00 | Cover pharmacist | One hour, booked because you decided the branch does not close at lunch |
| 11:00-18:00 | Dispenser | Picks up the surgery scripts at lunch, carries the afternoon |
| 13:00-18:00 | Counter assistant | Afternoon and the after-work collection run to close |
Try it without an account
Three free tools that need no sign-up and no email. Build a rota or add up hours right now, and move to an account when the team has to see it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make sure a pharmacist is on for every hour the branch is open?▾
You can see it, which is what most rotas never show you. Every shift carries a role, so the published week puts your pharmacist hours against your opening hours and an uncovered hour is obvious weeks out. Now the important part, said plainly: InShift is a rota tool. It shows you the rota you have built so you can plan against your own arrangements. It does not know your regulator's rules, does not enforce them, and does not evidence anything to anyone. Responsible pharmacist arrangements are yours to make and yours to record. The rota is simply where you plan them.
How many staff do I need for a branch open 09:00 to 18:00?▾
Work from the hours and the peak. Nine opening hours plus fifteen minutes either side is nine and a half of pharmacist time every day, or roughly 48 a week before you count Saturdays. On the bench you want two through the nine to eleven run and one after it, which is about eleven dispensing hours a day. Add a counter assistant across the two ends of the day and you are at three or four people plus your pharmacist, plus whoever covers holiday. Put your own opening hours and your own peak into the rota and you will see your number rather than this one.
Can I run several branches on one account?▾
Yes, and there is no limit on how many. Each branch is a location with its own staff, templates and opening hours. You see all of them, a branch manager sees only theirs, and a dispenser who covers two shops has one rota with both on it. When you post an open shift you can reach staff at every branch at once, which is usually where your cheapest cover was sitting all along.
How does the team see the rota?▾
They install the InShift app on their phone from the App Store or Google Play and enter a six digit code you give them. That is the whole setup, no email address and no password to forget. When you change the rota they get a push notification, so nobody drives to the wrong branch.
Does it show me what locums are costing me?▾
Put the locum on the rota with their own rate and their hours add up next to everyone else's, so the month's cover cost is a number you can look at rather than a stack of invoices. Hours are totalled as the rota is worked, multiplied by each person's hourly rate, and export to Excel for any period. Rates sit on the person, so a dispenser who covers two branches is counted once, at their own.
Is it actually free, or free until it is not?▾
Free. All the features, as many staff and branches as you like, no card and no trial clock ticking. There is no billing in the product at all. We are not going to pretend otherwise on a page whose whole point is that you can trust the rota.