DuPont schedule calculator

Four crews, 12-hour shifts and a four-week cycle of nights, days and a full week off. Pick your crew and the date your cycle starts to see your days and nights for any month, plus your hours, overtime and pay. No sign-up.

Your schedule

October 2026, Crew A

Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
27 
28 
29 
30 
1 
2 
3 
4N
5N
6N
7N
8 
9 
10 
11D
12D
13D
14 
15N
16N
17N
18 
19 
20 
21D
22D
23D
24D
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
  • D Day shift, 7 AM to 7 PM
  • N Night shift, 7 PM to 7 AM

Shifts

14

in October

Hours

168

in October

Weekly average

42 hrs

over the 28-day cycle

Night shifts

7

in October

Weekend shifts

4

Saturdays and Sundays

Longest break

7 days

off in a row

Estimated gross pay for October

$4,800

Regular pay, 168 hrs
$4,200
Night differential
$0
Weekend differential
$0
Overtime premium, 48 hrs
$600
Run this schedule for your team in InShift →
Weekly hours, Sunday through Saturday
WeekShiftsHoursOver 40
Sep 27 to Oct 3000
Oct 4 to Oct 104488
Oct 11 to Oct 1766525
Oct 18 to Oct 2445515
Oct 25 to Oct 31000

For supervisors and schedulers

Every crew on one schedule, with the hours added up

This calculator shows one crew for one month. In InShift, you build the whole rotation in the “Planner” from two shift types: a 12-hour day and a 12-hour night. The “Month” view gives every person a row, with a letter for each shift and their hours and pay underneath. Published shifts go straight to everyone’s phone.

  • Day and night shift types for each location under “Shift types”; a night shift that ends after midnight counts as one shift on the day it starts
  • Each crew as a “Department”, so the planner can group and filter people by crew
  • “Night hours” and “Over the daily norm” rules on the “Premiums” tab of “Payroll” pay the night differential and daily overtime
  • “Export to Excel” for your payroll team, and “Close period” once everyone is paid
Shift scheduling for 24/7 crews

How the DuPont schedule works

The DuPont schedule is a 12-hour rotating shift schedule for four crews that keeps an operation running 24/7. Every crew works the same 28-day cycle: four nights, three days off, three day shifts, one day off, three nights, three days off, four day shifts, and then seven days off in a row.

Crew B runs the same cycle one week behind Crew A, Crew C two weeks behind, and Crew D three. On any given day, one crew is on days, one is on nights and two are off, so every shift of the year is covered and nobody works more than four shifts in a row.

Crew A, one full cycle starting on a Sunday. D = day shift, N = night shift, · = day off.
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
Week 1NNNN···
Week 2DDD·NNN
Week 3···DDDD
Week 4·······

How many hours is a DuPont schedule

That’s 14 shifts every 28 days. At 12 hours each, that comes to 168 hours per cycle, or 42 hours a week on average: about 2,190 hours and 182 shifts a year. Half of those shifts are nights.

That average hides how uneven the weeks are. Counting Sunday through Saturday, with the cycle starting on a Sunday and nights at 7 PM, Crew A works 48 hours, then 65, then 55, then zero. The last night of the long week runs past midnight into Sunday, so its final 7 hours count toward the next week. If your employer pays overtime after 40 hours a week, that’s 48 hours of overtime per person every four weeks, the same for every crew. That’s why the calculator has fields for the overtime threshold and rate: plug in whatever your employer uses.

Pros and cons of the DuPont schedule

For employers

  • Four equal crews cover days, nights and weekends with no gaps and no part-time fill-ins.
  • Every crew works both days and nights, so experience and the tough shifts are spread evenly.
  • The week off is a big selling point when you’re hiring for 24/7 work.
  • The six-shift week means overtime pay wherever overtime is calculated weekly.
  • When someone calls out, that’s a 12-hour hole, usually filled by someone on their day off.

For employees

  • Seven days off in a row every four weeks, without using PTO.
  • You’re off half the days in the year.
  • Four straight nights and several switches between days and nights per cycle are hard on sleep.
  • The long week packs six 12-hour shifts into seven days.

How to run a DuPont schedule in InShift

In InShift, you set up two shift types for your location under “Shift types”: a 12-hour day and a 12-hour night. A night shift that runs past midnight counts as one shift on the day it starts. Make each crew a “Department”, and the planner groups and filters people by crew. You place each crew’s shifts yourself in the “Planner”, week by week from the cycle above; where a week repeats one you’ve already built, “Copy week” brings it forward. The “Month” view shows the whole rotation, with hours and pay under every name.

The “Night hours” rule on the “Premiums” tab of “Payroll” pays the night differential straight from those shifts. Hit “Publish”, and everyone gets their shifts on their phone. If someone can’t make a night shift, they post it in the app, a coworker picks it up, and the manager approves it. Prefer a spreadsheet? Our DuPont schedule template for Excel has all four crews plus coverage rows.

DuPont vs. Pitman vs. 2-2-3

All three use 12-hour shifts and average 42 hours a week. The Pitman schedule uses the same four crews on a two-week cycle, with short stretches of two or three shifts and every other weekend off, and it can keep a crew on days or nights permanently. The 2-2-3 schedule is the same pattern from one person’s point of view. DuPont trades the short stretches for a full week off.

Frequently asked questions

What is a DuPont schedule?+

A 24/7 rotation for four crews on 12-hour shifts. Each crew works a 28-day cycle of four nights, three off, three days, one off, three nights, three off, four days and seven off. The crews start a week apart, so one crew is always on days and another on nights.

How many hours a week is a DuPont schedule?+

42 hours a week on average: 14 twelve-hour shifts in 28 days add up to 168 hours. The individual weeks are uneven: 48, 65, 55 and 0 hours, counting Sunday through Saturday with the cycle starting on a Sunday and nights at 7 PM.

How many people do you need for a DuPont schedule?+

Four crews, each the size of one shift. If a shift needs three people, that’s 12 people, plus whoever covers PTO and sick days, since the schedule has no slack built in.

Do you get a week off on the DuPont schedule?+

Yes. The last seven days of every 28-day cycle are off, so each person gets a full week at home about 13 times a year without using PTO.

Is a DuPont schedule the same as a 12-hour rotating shift schedule?+

It’s one type. Any 12-hour schedule where people switch between days and nights is a rotating schedule; DuPont is the four-week version with a seven-day break. A rotating Pitman schedule switches between days and nights every two weeks.

More rotations, templates and tools

2-2-3 schedule→

The Panama rotation as your own calendar: hours, overtime and pay for any month.

Pitman schedule→

Four crews on a 2-2-3 pattern, fixed or rotating days and nights, 24/7 coverage.

9/80 schedule→

Nine-hour days and every other Friday off: your calendar and weekly hours.

Shift schedule templates→

Pitman and DuPont in Excel with coverage rows, plus weekly and biweekly schedules.

Time card calculator→

Clock in, clock out and breaks per day: hours, overtime and pay for the week.

Shift scheduling software→

Shift types, rotations on a month view, night shifts and coverage by shift.

Get the whole crew on one schedule

Setting up a location, a day shift, a night shift and your first cycle takes an afternoon. From then on, everyone’s hours and night differential come straight from the schedule.

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