For staff and managers

Staff rota app: the rota, swaps and requests on every phone

The InShift app for iPhone and Android. Their own shifts as soon as they are published, a swap with a colleague in two taps, holiday and sick leave as requests, their hours and pay, the team chat, and a push the moment the rota changes. The manager decides on requests and places a shift from the same app.

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What the staff rota app is

InShift is a staff rota app from the App Store and Google Play. A person joins with a six-digit code from their manager and sees what concerns them: their shifts, the swaps they have offered, their requests and their pay. The rota itself is built in the admin panel in a browser, so nobody rewrites it from a phone by accident.

The manager’s app is the same download with more screens: the team’s week, the planner with people on shifts, requests waiting for a decision, the team list and what is owed. Everything below is the live demo organisation, screen by screen.

Rota

Their own shifts as soon as they are published

The “Rota” tab is a month calendar with a dot on every working day. Tap a day and it shows the shift with its time, type and location; with “View rota” set to the person’s locations, “Who else is working” lists the colleagues on that day with their times.

  • Today’s shift on the home screen: time, type, location and “In progress, until 16:00” while it runs
  • “Day off” and “Open shifts” buttons right under it
  • The rota in the phone’s own calendar: “My schedule in the phone calendar” in settings works with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and Outlook
  • Nothing to refresh: a changed shift shows the moment the manager publishes it
My rota in the app

Swaps

A swap with a colleague in two taps

Cannot make a shift: the person picks it on the “Substitute” screen and offers it to an available colleague, who accepts on their own phone. Depending on the organisation’s rule the shift moves at once or after the manager approves.

  • “Find a replacement”: their own shifts and the colleagues with the same job position who are free
  • “Available swaps”: shifts colleagues are giving away, each with a “Take shift” button
  • Both see the status; the manager gets a push if the decision is theirs
  • After approval the shift sits in the new person’s rota by itself
How to ask a colleague to cover
“Find a replacement”: the shift, a colleague, “Request”
“Available swaps”: take a colleague’s shift

Requests

Holiday, sick leave and a personal day without paper

A request is made from the phone: type, dates, a note, “Submit request”. The manager sees it in their app or in the panel, and the decision comes back as a push. The holiday allowance for the year is always on the screen.

  • Types “Holiday”, “Sick leave”, “Personal” and “Unpaid”
  • “Vacation 2026”: used and left, out of the allowance set on the employee card
  • Statuses “Pending”, “Approved” and “Rejected”, with the manager’s note
  • A request can be cancelled until it is decided
How to request time off
“Requests”: the allowance and the statuses
“New time-off request”: type, dates, note

Open shifts

An open shift goes to whoever asks for it

Someone is ill and the manager offers the shift to the team. Everyone whose job position fits gets a “New open shift” push, opens the “Open” tab and taps “I want it”. The manager picks from the volunteers, and the shift lands on the rota.

  • The list of open shifts with the date, the hours, the location and the number of volunteers
  • One button, “I want it”, and the request shows as “Request sent”
  • “The shift is yours” or “The shift went to someone else” as a push after the manager decides
  • A reminder on the home screen, “3 open shifts”, that leads to the list
How to take an open shift

Notifications

A push the moment the rota changes

Publishing, a changed shift time, a swap request from a colleague, a new open shift, a decision on a request: each arrives as a push and stays in the list. Quiet hours keep the phone silent at night, and nothing is lost.

  • “Unread” and “All”, with “Read all” in one tap
  • A reminder before a shift, and quiet hours the person sets
  • A push to the manager when a request needs their decision
Notifications and quiet hours

Hours and pay

Their own hours and pay without asking the office

The “Stats” screen adds up the period from the published rota: shifts, hours, what is accrued at the person’s rate, day by day. They are the same numbers the manager sees in “Payroll”, so the question about pay is answered before it is asked.

  • Shifts and hours for any period
  • “Accrued” at the rate set in the panel, with the rate shown under it
  • “By day”: every shift with its time, location, hours and money
My pay in the app

Also in the app

Chat, profile and settings

The team chat with groups and announcements, a personal card with the property issued, notification and calendar settings. Each frame opens larger on a click.

  • “Chats”: the team, a location, a group, a colleague
  • “General chat”: 21 members and the October draft
  • Profile: position, tenure, holiday left, property
  • “Settings”: notifications, quiet hours, the phone calendar
  • “More”: every section of the app

For managers

The manager’s screens in the same app

The owner and a location manager sign in to the same app and see more: the team’s week on the home screen, the planner with people on shifts, requests waiting for a decision, the team and what is owed. A rota for thirty people is easier to build in the panel; one shift or one holiday is decided on the way.

  • “Planner”: the month by shift type with the people on each, “Add” in an empty cell
  • “Pending” requests with “Reject” and “Approve” in one tap
  • A push to the manager: what needs attention today and tomorrow, new requests, swaps waiting
  • The same rights as in the panel: a location manager sees only their locations
The planner on your phone
“Planner” from the phone
The team’s requests: “Approve” in one tap

Through a manager’s eyes

What else the manager sees in the app

The home screen with the team’s week, the day by location, the team by role and what is owed per person.

  • Home: the week and what needs attention
  • The team’s day by location
  • “Team”: people by role and location
  • “Payroll”: what is owed, per person

How the team gets into the app

Three steps, none of them a spreadsheet.

  1. 1

    The manager adds the person

    In the admin panel or in the app: name, job position, location. The card gets a six-digit invite code at once, sent by WhatsApp, Telegram or email.

  2. 2

    The person installs the app

    InShift from the App Store or Google Play, “I’m an employee”, the code, an email and a password. From then on they sign in with the email and the password.

  3. 3

    The rota is on the screen

    The app opens on the home screen with today’s shift, asks to allow notifications, and every change to the rota arrives as a push.

The app and the admin panel

What lives where, so nobody looks for the rota builder on a phone.

The rota

The app on the phone
Their own shifts, who else is on, the rota in the phone calendar
The admin panel in a browser
The whole rota is built and published here: shift types, drafts, “Copy last week”

Swaps and open shifts

The app on the phone
Offer a shift, take one, claim an open shift
The admin panel in a browser
Approve or reject, set the rule for who decides

Time off

The app on the phone
Submit a request, see the allowance and the status
The admin panel in a browser
Approve, set the allowance on the employee card

Pay

The app on the phone
Their own hours and what is accrued
The admin panel in a browser
Rates, premiums, the payroll table, payouts, “Export to Excel”

The team

The app on the phone
The chat, birthdays, the team list
The admin panel in a browser
Employees, job positions, roles and rights, locations

The manager’s share

The app on the phone
The planner, pending requests, the team’s day, what is owed
The admin panel in a browser
Everything, including integrations, API keys and settings

Frequently asked questions

Is the app free for staff?▾

Nobody pays for a phone. The subscription is per active person on the “Employees” list, and the app comes with it; a team of up to 10 people on one location runs on the Free plan. The numbers are on the pricing page.

Which phones does it run on?▾

iPhone and Android. The app is in the App Store and Google Play under the name InShift. A person signs in with a six-digit code from their manager the first time, and with their email and password after that.

Can staff see each other’s rota?▾

That is a right of the role. “View rota” in the panel is “Own”, “My locations” or “Entire network”: with “Own” a person sees only their own shifts, with “My locations” also who else is working on any day they open, with the times. Other people’s pay and requests are separate rights, off for a team member.

Can a person change their own rota?▾

Only through a request: a swap with a colleague, a claim on an open shift, time off. What the team may do on their own is a setting in the panel, “Request rules”, and everything else waits for the manager. The rota itself is edited in the panel and in the manager’s app.

Does the app work offline?▾

It needs a connection: the rota and the requests live on the server, and the app keeps no offline copy. Shifts subscribed into the phone’s calendar stay visible there like any other calendar entry.

Which languages does the app speak?▾

English, Ukrainian and Russian. Each person picks their own language in the app, and the manager can work in another; the rota is the same for everyone.

Can the rota go into the phone’s calendar?▾

Yes. “My schedule in the phone calendar” in the app’s settings creates a link; added once to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook, it keeps the shifts up to date on its own.

What can a manager do from the phone?▾

See the team’s week and the day by location, put a shift into the planner, approve or reject swaps, open shift claims and time off, invite a person, read what is owed. Building a whole rota for a large team is done in the panel, in a browser.

Put the rota on every phone this week

Add the team in the panel, send the codes, publish the first week. The app is in the App Store and Google Play.

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