Opening and closing duties: putting them on the roster
Opening and closing are the two parts of the day most likely to run over, get skipped or fall to whoever happens to be there. Putting them on the roster, with times, names and a checklist, fixes all three. Here is how, with the award rules to check and a worked example from a cafe.
Opening and closing are the bookends of every trading day, and they are easy to leave off the roster. The roster says 7:00, the doors open at 7:00, and somebody has been arriving at 6:40 to turn on the machine, count the float and put out the tables. In the afternoon the doors shut at 15:00, and the close takes another 40 minutes the roster never showed.
Putting the duties on the roster does three things. It makes the time visible, so it is planned and budgeted. It names who is responsible, so tasks do not fall between people. And it gives the manager a way to check the work was done. Fair weekend and closing-shift rotations covers sharing those shifts around the team; this article is about what goes into them.
Start with the list of tasks
Walk through a real opening and a real close with the person who usually does them, and write down every task in the order it happens. Most lists fall into the same groups.
| Group | Opening | Closing |
|---|---|---|
| Security | Disarm the alarm, open up, check the premises are as they were left | Check nobody is left inside, lock doors and windows, set the alarm |
| Money | Count the float into the till | Count the takings, reconcile the till, secure the cash |
| Equipment | Turn on the coffee machine, ovens and display lights | Clean and turn off equipment, check fridges are running |
| Food and stock | Receive deliveries, check dates, prepare the first items | Store, label or throw out food, note what needs ordering |
| Front of house | Set out tables, lights, music and signage | Stack chairs, clean the floor, empty the bins |
| Records | Read the notes left by the last close | Complete the closing checklist and leave notes for the opener |
Time each task, then roster the real start and finish
Time the list over a few normal days, not your best day. Add the tasks up and you have the length of the opening and closing blocks. Then put them on the roster: if the opening takes 30 minutes before the doors open at 7:00, the opener starts at 6:30, not 7:00.
This matters for pay as well as planning. The work gets done either way, and when it happens outside rostered hours it can cost more. Under the Fast Food Industry Award 2020, a full-time or part-time employee is paid overtime for hours worked before their rostered start or after their rostered finish (clauses 20.2(b) and (c), and 20.3(b) and (c)). Rostering the real start and finish keeps that time planned.
Check the times against your award as well. Under the General Retail Industry Award 2020, ordinary hours fall between 7:00 am and 9:00 pm Monday to Friday, 7:00 am and 6:00 pm on Saturday and 9:00 am and 6:00 pm on Sunday, extended to 11:00 pm on all days if the shop trades beyond those times, with some exceptions such as newsagencies (clauses 15.1 and 15.2). Hours outside that span are overtime (clause 21.2), so an opener who starts at 6:30 on a weekday to set up is working outside it. Other awards draw different lines: under the Restaurant Industry Award 2020, ordinary hours worked between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am Monday to Friday attract an additional amount per hour (clause 24.2, Table 8).
The rates are on each award’s pay rates page, such as the General Retail Industry Award pay rates and the Restaurant Industry Award pay rates, and the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Find my award tool confirms which award applies to you.
Name who opens and who closes
- Name the person, not just the time. Write "Open: Sam" on the roster rather than only a 6:30 start, so everyone knows who holds the keys and the alarm code that day.
- Roster people who can do it. Only roster people trained to open or close, with access to the keys, codes and safe. A skills matrix shows who can.
- Have a back-up. For every opener and closer, know who else can do it if they call in sick, and make sure that person has access too.
- Do not leave the close to whoever is left. A close that belongs to nobody in particular is the close that gets rushed.
Think about safety at the start and end of the day
Opening and closing often mean one person on their own, early or late, handling cash. Safe Work Australia notes that working alone can increase the health and safety risks of any job, because workers may be isolated from support and assistance by where or when they are working. Your state or territory work health and safety regulator can tell you what applies to your business.
- Roster two people for the close where the takings, the location or the hour make working alone a risk
- Agree a check-in, such as a message once the alarm is set, for anyone who opens or closes alone
- Count the takings after the doors are locked and out of sight of the street
- Make sure first aid arrangements cover early and late hours: Safe Work Australia says workers must be able to access trained first aiders at all times
Leave enough time between a close and the next open
In a small team, Friday’s closer is often Saturday’s opener. Before rostering a close followed by an open, check the break between them against the award.
| Award | Minimum break | Clause |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant Industry Award 2020 | 10 hours between finishing ordinary hours one day and starting the next, or 8 at a roster changeover, for employees other than casuals | 15.1(e) |
| Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 | 10 hours, or 8 at a roster changeover, for full-time and part-time employees | 15.5(e) |
| General Retail Industry Award 2020 | 12 hours between finishing work one day and starting the next, or 10 hours if agreed | 16.6 |
A close that finishes at 22:30 followed by an open at 6:30 leaves 8 hours, short of the usual minimum in all three. Preventing accidental overtime covers what a short break can cost, and the shift hours calculator works out the length of each shift.
Keep breaks out of the opening and closing blocks
The busiest part of an open is the last half hour before the doors, and the busiest part of a close is the first half hour after them, so roster meal breaks away from both. Under the General Retail Industry Award, an employer cannot require an employee to take a rest break or meal break within the first or last hour of work (clause 16.5(a)). Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, an employer who rosters breaks must make all reasonable efforts to spread them evenly across the shift (clause 16.3 of each).
A worked example: a cafe’s opening and closing blocks
A cafe covered by the Restaurant Industry Award trades 7:00 to 15:00 every day. Its roster shows everyone on 7:00 to 15:00, but the owner times the open and the close over a normal week and finds this.
| Opening task | Minutes | Closing task | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disarm the alarm, open up, lights and music | 5 | Clean the coffee machine | 15 |
| Turn on the coffee machine and set the grind | 10 | Clean the kitchen, store and label food | 20 |
| Count the float into the till | 5 | Stack chairs, sweep and mop | 15 |
| Set out tables and signage | 5 | Count and reconcile the till, secure the cash | 10 |
| Read the closing notes, check the delivery | 5 | Complete the checklist, lock up, set the alarm | 5 |
| Total | 30 | Total | 65 |
The open takes 30 minutes, so the opener is rostered from 6:30. That is after 6:00 am, so on weekdays the early morning additional amount in Table 8 does not apply. The close takes 65 minutes of work, shared between two people. The barista cleans the machine and does the floor (30 minutes) while the supervisor cleans the kitchen and counts the till (30 minutes), and then they complete the checklist and lock up together (5 minutes). Both are rostered to finish at 15:35 and leave together, so nobody counts cash or sets the alarm alone.
Each day now carries 30 minutes of opening time and 70 minutes of closing time (35 minutes for each of two people), which is 100 minutes a day. Across a seven day week that is 700 minutes, or 11 hours 40 minutes, that now sits on the roster and in the wage budget instead of outside both.
Put the checklist by the door
A written checklist is how the closer knows they are finished and how the opener knows what they have walked into. Keep it short, in the order the tasks are done, and where the work ends: beside the alarm panel or the back door.
- One list for opening and one for closing, each on a single page
- Tasks in the order they happen, with the critical ones, such as the alarm and the safe, marked
- A line for the name of the person who completed it and the time
- Space for notes to the next shift, such as low stock or a machine playing up
Keep completed checklists for a few weeks, so a problem can be traced to the shift where it started. The shift handover template is a good place to start the notes.
Roster Flow handles the roster side of this: availability and leave from staff phones, the roster published to everybody at once, clock ins that become timesheets, and approved hours sent to Xero, MYOB or a CSV file.
A checklist for opening and closing on the roster
- Opening and closing tasks are listed and timed on a normal day
- Rostered starts and finishes include the opening and closing blocks
- Starts and finishes are checked against the award’s span of hours and penalty rates
- Each open and close names a trained person, with a back-up
- Anyone opening or closing alone has a check-in and a safe way to handle cash
- The break between a close and the next open meets the award
- Meal breaks are kept out of the opening and closing blocks
- A checklist sits by the door and is signed at the end of each shift
Questions
Should opening and closing time be on the roster?
Yes. Rostering the real start and finish means the time is planned and budgeted, instead of turning up later as extra hours or not being recorded at all.
Is it overtime if staff arrive early to open?
It can be. Under the Fast Food Industry Award, hours worked before a full-time or part-time employee’s rostered start are paid at overtime rates, and under the General Retail Industry Award hours outside the span of ordinary hours are overtime.
How long should a close take?
Time it on a normal day in your own business. Add up each task, share the work between the people closing, and roster the finish the work actually needs.
Can the same person close at night and open the next morning?
Only if the break between the shifts meets the award. For full-time and part-time employees it is 10 hours under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, and 12 hours under the General Retail Industry Award unless 10 has been agreed.
Should anyone close alone?
Weigh up the risks first. Safe Work Australia notes that working alone can increase health and safety risks, so consider two closers, a check-in once the alarm is set and counting cash behind locked doors.
Where should the closing checklist go?
Where the close ends, such as by the back door or the alarm panel, so the last person out sees it. Keep signed copies for a few weeks.
Sources
- Fair Work Commission: General Retail Industry Award 2020 [MA000004]
- Fair Work Commission: Restaurant Industry Award 2020 [MA000119]
- Fair Work Commission: Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 [MA000009]
- Fair Work Commission: Fast Food Industry Award 2020 [MA000003]
- Safe Work Australia: remote and isolated work
- Safe Work Australia: first aid
- Fair Work Ombudsman: find my award