Rostering software

Rostering software: build the roster, publish it, work out pay

Managers build the staff roster in the InShift admin panel, right in the browser: set up your shift types once, then it’s one click per cell, with hours and cost beside every name. “Publish” sends it to the team’s phones, leave and swaps come back as requests, and the hours of every published shift add up to pay for the fortnight or the month.

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What rostering software does

Rostering is deciding who works which shift on which day, and telling them. A spreadsheet handles the first half well enough. The second half is where your hours go: sending the roster out, changing it, sorting out swaps and leave, then adding up who worked what for pay. Rostering software keeps all of it in one place, so each change only has to be made once.

In InShift you build the roster in the “Planner” of the admin panel at admin.inshift.app, and the team sees it in the InShift app on iPhone and Android. The panel uses the British word for a roster, “Rota”. The screenshots below come from our live demo organisation, in the order a manager works through them.

Step 1 · Shift types

Set up each location’s shifts once

Shift types are the shifts a location always runs, each with a name, start and finish times, days of the week and a colour: an open from 06:00, a close until 22:30, a night shift over midnight. After that, putting a shift on the roster takes one click, and the hours are always right.

  • “Add shift type” with a name, times, days and a colour
  • Different times on one day of the week, say a later start on Sundays
  • A shift that runs past midnight stays one shift, with all its hours counted
  • A price per shift for people paid by the shift
Set up a location and its shifts

Step 2 · Planner

Build the week and watch the cost as you go

The “Planner” shows a location’s week with people in rows by department. Click an empty cell, pick the shift type, and the shift goes in as a draft. Each name shows the week’s hours and pay, and if someone is double-booked, the clash is flagged straight away.

  • “Week”, “Month”, “Year” and “List” views of the same roster
  • Copy a past week as drafts, then change only what’s different
  • An “Open shift” row for a shift with nobody on it yet
  • Drafts stay with the manager until “Publish”
Build your first roster

The same roster, other views

By month, as a list, copied and offered to the team

Click any screenshot to see it full size.

  • Month: a letter per shift, hours and pay under every name
  • List: who is on each shift, day by day, and where the gaps are
  • Copying a week: the shifts come in as drafts, and the team sees nothing until “Publish”
  • “Open shift for the team”: the shift goes out to everyone in the right position

Step 3 · Publish

One button puts the roster on every phone

“Publish” shows how many shifts are going out, then sends them to the team. Everyone sees their own shifts in the app’s “Rota” tab and gets a push, plus a reminder before each shift. Change a published shift later and the person on it is notified.

  • The roster in the phone’s calendar via a single link
  • “Who else is working” on any day, if their role allows it
  • A printout or Excel file from “Print” for the staffroom noticeboard
Every screen of the roster app

Step 4 · Requests

Leave and swaps land in one list

Annual leave, sick leave, a swap between two people, someone putting their hand up for an open shift: each one lands in “Requests” with the person, the dates and the shift involved. Approve or reject in one click, and the answer goes to the person as a push. “Request rules” set what the team can sort out among themselves.

  • Swap approval set to “Coworker only”, “Manager only” or “Coworker + manager”
  • An annual leave allowance on each person’s card, with the days left shown in the app
  • An approved swap updates the roster automatically
  • “Can’t work” days marked per person, with a warning at “Publish” if a shift falls on one
What the team can do on their own

Step 5 · Pay

From roster to timesheet to pay

Every published shift has a person, times and a type, so the hours for any period are already counted. In “Payroll” you pick any two dates: a fortnight, half a month or a full month. Each person is paid an hourly rate, a price per shift or a salary, and rules under “Premiums” pay extra for night hours, work on the dates you list and hours over the daily norm.

  • Shifts, scheduled hours, rate, premiums, accrued, paid and owed per person
  • With “Time tracking” on, “Checked in” hours sit next to “Scheduled”
  • Payments recorded against each person, so anything still owed carries over
  • “Export to Excel” for whoever does your payroll
Hours from the roster, ready for pay

Sites

Several sites, one account

Each location has its own shift types and its own manager, who only sees that location’s roster. The owner opens “All locations” to see every site on one screen, with the day’s cover. Staff can be marked “Available for substitution” at a site they don’t usually work at.

  • “Locations”: a card per site with its people and shift types
  • Positions and departments set up once for the whole organisation
  • Access by role: the whole organisation, or only their own locations
Roles and access

Spreadsheet roster vs rostering software

Where the manager’s week goes, line by line.

Building the week

Excel or Google Sheets
Copy last week’s tab and retype the changes
InShift
Copy a week as drafts and change what’s different

Sending it out

Excel or Google Sheets
A screenshot to the group chat
InShift
“Publish”, and a push to everyone on it

Annual leave

Excel or Google Sheets
Buried in someone’s inbox
InShift
A request with dates, a status and the days left

A sick call

Excel or Google Sheets
Ring around until someone says yes
InShift
An open shift the whole team sees at once

Fortnightly hours

Excel or Google Sheets
A formula per person, checked by hand
InShift
Counted from the published shifts for any period

Public holidays

Excel or Google Sheets
A column you have to remember to fill in
InShift
The dates listed once under “Holiday work”

Two sites

Excel or Google Sheets
Two files, two versions of the roster
InShift
“All locations” for the owner, one site for each manager

Your first roster this week

Nothing to install on your computer.

  1. 1

    Sign up

    At admin.inshift.app, with an email and password or “Continue with Google”. Your organisation is set up with every section ready to go.

  2. 2

    Locations and shift types

    Add each site and the shifts it runs, with days and a colour. In “Settings”, switch to 24-hour time and a week that starts on Monday.

  3. 3

    The team

    “Add Employee” one at a time, or “Add multiple” and paste the names from your spreadsheet. Each person gets a six-digit code for the app.

  4. 4

    The first fortnight

    Click shifts in from the cell menu, check the hours beside each name and hit “Publish”. It’s on the team’s phones straight away.

Frequently asked questions

What is rostering software?▾

Software that keeps your staff roster and handles the work around it: building the week from your usual shifts, sending it to the team, sorting out swaps and leave, and counting the hours for pay. InShift does it with an admin panel in the browser for managers, and an app on iPhone and Android for staff.

What does it cost?▾

Free for one location and up to 10 people. Beyond that, the Basic plan is a monthly price for each active person on the “Employees” list, with unlimited locations, payroll and API keys included, and 20% off if you pay yearly. The staff app is included. Prices are on the pricing page.

Can it work out fortnightly pay?▾

It works out the hours and the amounts, yes. In “Payroll” you choose any two dates, so a fortnight is just its first and last day, and “Export to Excel” passes it on to whoever does your payroll. InShift doesn’t pay anyone itself: you record payments in it once you’ve made them.

How are public holidays handled?▾

“Holiday work” on the “Premiums” tab pays the dates you list at the multiplier you set. There’s no built-in public holiday calendar, so a business in Victoria and one in Queensland each enter their own dates, and so does a team in New Zealand.

Does it handle weekend rates?▾

Not yet. “Premiums” has rules for night hours, the holiday dates you list, hours over the daily norm, a per-shift bonus and a second shift in one day, among others, but none of them is tied to Saturday or Sunday. For now, weekend rates have to be added outside InShift.

How do I bring our roster across from Excel or another app?▾

There’s no file import. Paste the names from your spreadsheet into “Add multiple”, one per line, set up each location’s shift types once, and click in the first week. After that, copy a past week as drafts and change only what’s different.

Do staff need the app?▾

To see the roster on their phone, yes: they download InShift from the App Store or Google Play and join with a six-digit code. For the noticeboard, “Print” in the planner gives you a printout or “Download Excel”.

Can staff swap shifts without a manager?▾

If you let them. “Request rules” has “Coworker only” (the shift moves as soon as a colleague accepts), “Manager only”, “Coworker + manager” (a colleague accepts, then a manager approves) or off. Open shifts and leave have their own rules.

Build your first roster tonight

The panel runs in your browser, the app comes from the App Store and Google Play, and your first fortnight can be out before it starts.

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