For pubs and bars

Pub rota software: bar, floor and door staff on one rota

A pub week is a mountain: quiet until Thursday, full on Friday and Saturday, and a Sunday that is its own thing. InShift builds the rota to that shape, with shifts that run past midnight and count as one, weekend-only door staff and glass collectors, bank holidays paid as a rule rather than a memory, and every bartender seeing their own week on the phone.

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The weekend mountain, last orders, and a shift that ends at one

A pub trading from noon to half twelve does not need the same people all week. Monday to Wednesday one behind the bar and a duty manager cover the afternoon and the evening. Thursday builds. Friday and Saturday need three on the bar from teatime, someone on the floor collecting glasses, and a door supervisor from eight until the room is empty. Sunday is lunch and a long afternoon, then quiet. A rota that gives every day the same headcount either pays for a wall of people on a dead Tuesday or leaves Saturday short.

The second thing is the clock. The work does not stop at last orders: bottling up, the till, the cellar, the doors locked at one. A shift from 17:00 to 01:00 is one shift, on the day it started, and the hours after eleven are night hours if that is how you pay them. A spreadsheet that ends its day at midnight splits the shift in two and gets the total wrong every weekend.

The third is who is on the rota. Door staff who only work Friday and Saturday, a glass collector who is at college all week, two part-timers who split the lunches, one manager who does every close. Each of them needs to see their own week without reading anyone else’s, and a late call-off on a Saturday needs an answer inside an hour. Below is the same pub in InShift.

The month at a glance

Friday and Saturday heavy, Tuesday thin, in one grid

The “Month” view of the planner shows every person as a row and every day as a cell with the shift type in it, and a count of shifts per person on the right. The weekend mountain is visible as a pattern: two or three columns filled, the middle of the week sparse. It is the view for spotting the person who has done four Saturdays in a row and the one who has had none, before the rota goes out.

  • A week, a month, a year or a list view of the same rota, per location or all locations at once
  • Shift types with their own colour, so the closes and the day shifts read at a glance
  • “Copy last week” carries the shape of the week forward as drafts; the manager edits and presses “Publish”
  • “Print” for the sheet behind the bar, “Export to Excel” for head office
The admin panel screen by screen

A Saturday on the rota of a pub trading 12:00 to 00:30

Quiet until five, full from eight. People stack up towards the night, and the shifts run past last orders because the work does.

10:30–18:30 · Duty manager

Cellar and lines before the doors, takes the dray in, runs the afternoon

12:00–20:00 · Bar staff

Opens the bar, carries the afternoon on their own

17:00–01:00 · Bar staff × 2

On the taps from teatime, stay for bottling up

18:00–01:00 · Duty manager

Takes the night, calls last orders, cashes up, locks up

19:00–00:30 · Glass collector

Keeps the bar and the garden clear through the peak

20:00–01:00 · Door supervisor

Weekends only, on the door until the room is empty

Tuesday is the same pub with three people: a duty manager on the open, one on the bar from four, a manager on the close. Shift types that end at 01:00 are entered as 17:00–01:00 and count as one shift on the day they started.

Nights, bank holidays, the long Saturday

The premiums are rules, set once, applied to everyone

Late hours and bank holidays are where pub payroll goes wrong by hand. On the “Premiums” tab of “Payroll” they are rules: “Night hours” pays the hours inside a window, for example 20:00 to 06:00, with a premium; “Holiday work” pays the days from a calendar at a multiplier; “Over the daily norm” pays the hours past eight, or whatever your norm is, at a multiplier. A rule applies to the whole company from a date you pick, and every shift after that date is counted the same way.

  • “Per-shift bonus”: a fixed amount for every shift worked, whatever its length
  • “Flat overtime pay” instead of a multiplier for the hours over the norm
  • Rates on the person: an hourly rate for bar staff, a price per shift for door staff, a salary for the manager
  • Every premium is its own column in “Payroll”, so the Saturday bartender can see why the number is what it is

The Saturday call-off

A push when the rota changes, silence after the close

When a bartender calls off at four on a Saturday, the manager offers the shift to the team as an open shift or moves someone from Sunday, and the people affected get a push: the shift that changed, the open shift that appeared, the swap a colleague is asking for. The person who locked up at one sets “Quiet hours” and hears nothing until the afternoon; the notifications wait in the list.

  • “Shift time changed”, “New open shift” and a swap request each arrive as their own push
  • A reminder before the shift, unless it falls inside the person’s quiet hours
  • Door staff and the glass collector see only their own Fridays and Saturdays, plus who else is on
  • The rota in the phone’s own calendar through “My schedule in the phone calendar”
The app screen by screen

Moving a pub onto InShift

One quiet afternoon for a pub of fifteen, the team joining included.

  1. 1

    Sign up and the location

    Email or Google. The pub is a location; a second site, or the kitchen as its own team, is a second location or a department.

  2. 2

    Positions and shift types

    Bar staff, duty manager, glass collector, door supervisor, kitchen if you have one. Shift types “Open 10:30–18:30”, “Bar 12:00–20:00”, “Late 17:00–01:00”, “Door 20:00–01:00” on Friday and Saturday only.

  3. 3

    The team and the rules

    “Add multiple” pastes the names, each with a position and a rate. “Premiums” for nights and bank holidays from the first day. “Invite team” gives the QR code and the invite code for the app.

  4. 4

    The first week and publish

    The weekend first, then the quiet days, then “Publish”. From the second week on it is “Copy last week”, the changes and “Publish” again.

Frequently asked questions

How does a shift that ends at one in the morning get counted?▾

As one shift on the day it started. A shift type can cross midnight, for example 17:00–01:00, and the hours add up as eight, on the Saturday. The hours inside the “Night hours” window on the “Premiums” tab are paid with the premium you set, and they show as their own column in “Payroll”.

Can door staff be on the rota for Friday and Saturday only?▾

Yes. A shift type has its own days of the week, so a “Door 20:00–01:00” type exists only on Friday and Saturday, and a person with that position has two shifts a week and sees only those in the app. A price per shift rather than an hourly rate fits door staff who are paid a flat amount per night.

How are bank holidays paid?▾

Through the “Holiday work” rule on the “Premiums” tab: the days you list in its calendar are paid at a multiplier, for everyone, from the date the rule starts. The shift on the day is entered as usual, and the multiplier appears as a premium in the accruals.

What happens when someone calls off on a Saturday afternoon?▾

The manager creates an open shift with the position and the shift type, and everyone with a matching position sees it on the “Open shifts” tile in the app and taps “I want it”; the manager picks one. Or the person who cannot come in offers the shift themselves through “Substitute”, a colleague taps “Take shift” and the manager approves, if the rules ask for it.

Does it work for a small group of pubs?▾

Yes. Each pub is a location with its own team, shift types and opening hours. The planner shows one pub or all of them at once, and a manager who covers two sites is one person with two locations. Roles decide who sees what: a site manager sees their pub, the owner sees the group.

What does it cost for a pub of fifteen?▾

Free for one location and up to 10 people. Beyond that it is a subscription per active person on the “Employees” list, with locations, payroll and the team app included. The numbers are on the pricing page.

Get the whole pub on one rota

Shift types, the premiums and the first weekend take an afternoon, and the bar staff see the rota in the app the same day.

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