In short
What this page covers
- Staff the four o'clock queue, not the average day
- Templates for the shifts you run every week
- Availability the part-timers keep up to date themselves
- Swaps and cover without the group chat
For shops
Rota software for shops, without the spreadsheet
Get the delivery in before the doors open, put a second person on the till when the queue builds, and let the hours count themselves. Free, for as many staff and branches as you have.
Where the time goes
What actually goes wrong on a shop rota
These are the everyday situations that turn a rota into a source of mistakes, phone calls and needless cost.
01
Saturday is a different shop to Tuesday
Saturday takes more than Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday put together, and the rota gives it the same two people. Then Sunday is a short day and you have somebody in at nine for a shop that opens at eleven.
02
The delivery lands at eight and the doors open at nine
Three cages in the stockroom, a driver who wants a signature, and one person trying to get the floor tidy before the first customer walks in. Whether that hour is staffed properly is decided the Sunday before, not on the morning.
03
A queue at the till while someone is out the back
Four o'clock, the after work rush, and the second till has nobody on it because your rota is written in days rather than hours. The customer at the back of the queue puts the basket down and leaves.
04
Stocktake night, then open at nine the next morning
The count runs from six until eleven with the same people who did a full Saturday, and the early is on the same rota. Nobody notices until somebody is on twelve hours in a row and you are working out what to do at half eight.
05
December is a different business
Eight temps you took on for six weeks, late night trading, then the sale. Every one of them needs to know when they are in, and the spreadsheet that just about held four people does not hold fourteen.
06
The branch down the road is short and you find out too late
Each shop keeps its own version, so the plain question of who is on tomorrow at the other branch costs a phone call. The part-timer who works both and would happily take the shift never gets asked.
How InShift fixes it
A rota that follows the footfall and the trading week, not a blank calendar. Everything below is in the free account, with no cap on staff or branches.
Solution 1
Staff the four o'clock queue, not the average day
Build shifts by the hour. Two on the floor from eleven to three on a Saturday, one through the quiet mid morning, and the shape of the day is visible before you publish it rather than after the queue forms.
Solution 2
Templates for the shifts you run every week
An early for the delivery, a mid, a close and cash up, a stocktake night. Set the hours once, say which days each one runs and how many people it needs, then drop them onto the week. A month of rota takes minutes.
Solution 3
Availability the part-timers keep up to date themselves
Students set the days their timetable allows and put in time off from their phone. You build the week against what they have told you, so you stop finding out on Thursday that Chloe has lectures.
Solution 4
Swaps and cover without the group chat
A sales assistant offers a shift in the app and a colleague picks it up, or you post an uncovered shift and everyone free gets it at once. You tap approve. There is one version of the rota because there is only one rota.
Solution 5
Every branch on one screen
One account holds all your shops. See who is on where, move a person between branches for a day, and give each store manager only their own. It grows when you open the next one.
Solution 6
Hours ready for payroll
Hours add up as the rota is worked, at each person's own hourly rate, temps included. Export the lot to Excel for whoever does your payroll. No retyping, no month-end surprise.
A Saturday on the rota in a shop
A high street shop trading 09:00 to 17:30, with the delivery at eight and the floor at its busiest between eleven and three. Notice the middle of the day carries two tills and the ends carry one.
| Time | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 08:00-16:30 | Store manager | Takes the delivery in, opens up, banks Friday |
| 08:30-17:00 | Stockroom assistant | Cages onto the floor before the doors, replen after |
| 09:00-17:30 | Sales assistant | On the till from open, straight through |
| 11:00-17:30 | Sales assistant | Second till for the busy middle: the hours that pay for themselves |
| 13:00-18:00 | Supervisor | Afternoon rush, then close, cash up and set the shop for Sunday |
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
How many sales assistants do I need for a shop open 09:00 to 17:30?▾
Start from the hours, not the people. Eight and a half trading hours plus an hour before for the delivery and half an hour after to cash up is ten, and you want a second person on the floor for the four busy hours in the middle, so call it fourteen staffed hours a day. Six days plus a short Sunday is around ninety hours a week. At thirty hours each that is three people, and Saturday still wants a fourth pair of hands. Put your own trading hours into the rota and you will see your own number rather than this one.
Can I run several branches on one account?▾
Yes, and there is no limit on how many. Each shop is a location with its own staff, templates and trading hours. You see everything, a store manager sees only their branch, and an assistant who covers two shops has one rota with both on it. When one branch is short you can offer the shift to people at the other instead of ringing round.
How does the team see the rota?▾
They install the InShift app on their phone 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 works from a photo of last week.
What about part-timers and students who can only work certain days?▾
They set their availability in the app and it is in front of you while you build the week, so you are not writing someone in against a Thursday they have never been able to work. If somebody calls in sick before opening, post the shift as an open shift: everyone who could work it gets a notification at once and the first to take it has it.
Does it work out hours and pay?▾
It adds up the hours as the rota is worked, multiplies them by each person's hourly rate, and exports the timesheet to Excel for any period you choose. Christmas temps count exactly the same way. Rates are per person, so an assistant 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. Take on twelve temps for December and take them off in January and the price is the same, because there is no price.