How to set up recurring shifts and roster patterns

Written by Roster Flow. Published 1 September 2026.

Look back over the last eight rosters of most cafes, shops or kitchens and the same shifts appear week after week. The opener works Monday to Friday mornings. The weekend casuals work Saturday and Sunday. The part-time cook works Tuesday to Thursday. Yet the roster is often built from a blank page every week, and each rebuild is another chance to leave someone off or book them twice.

A roster pattern writes down what repeats once, so each new roster starts from it and only the differences need thought. This article covers setting one up. If your pattern moves people through different shifts in turn, creating a rotating roster without double-booking staff goes further into designing the rotation itself.

Find what actually repeats

Take the last eight weeks of real rosters, not the roster you meant to run, and sort every shift into one of three groups:

• Repeats every week: the same person, the same days and the same times, such as a part-time employee’s agreed hours or the owner’s opening shifts.
• Repeats in a cycle: shifts that come around every second, third or fourth week, such as weekend closes shared between three people.
• Changes every week: shifts set by bookings, events, sales or availability, such as an extra person on a Friday night for a function.

The first two groups become the pattern. The third stays as the work you do each week, and it is now the only part of the roster that has to be built from nothing. If the first two groups are small, start with them anyway: a pattern that covers only the openers and closers still leaves less to build.

Choose the kind of pattern

Most businesses end up with a mix: a fixed core for the people whose hours do not change, a rotation for the shifts nobody wants every week, and the rest filled week by week. The glossary defines a fixed roster, a rotating roster and the roster pattern a rotation is built from.

Set up the pattern step by step

1. Write the pattern as lines, not namesDescribe each repeating shift as a line, such as Tuesday to Friday, 6:30 to 14:30, opening barista. Then put a name against each line. When someone leaves, the line stays and only the name changes.
2. Choose the cycle lengthUse the shortest cycle that shares the shifts fairly. A fixed roster is a one week cycle. Two people taking turns at the weekend need a two week cycle, and four people need four weeks. Check the length against your award, as the next section explains.
3. Check availability and agreed hoursLay each line against the person’s availability and, for part-time staff, the hours agreed in writing. Rostering part-time and casual employees together covers what those agreements hold.
4. Check a whole cycle against the awardDays off, consecutive days, the break between one day’s work and the next and the length of the roster period all apply across the cycle, not just within one week. A mistake in a pattern repeats every cycle.
5. Give it a start dateWrite down the date week 1 of the cycle starts, so anyone can work out which week of the pattern a future date falls in.
6. Show the team their linesGive each person their line for the whole cycle, and explain which parts of the roster still change from week to week.

The shift pattern generator lays out a repeating pattern from a start date and saves it as a CSV file, and the rotating roster template is a starting point for a cycle.

The award rules a pattern has to meet

These rules from three common awards shape how a recurring roster is set up and changed. Other awards differ, so confirm which award covers you with the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Find my award tool.

Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, the guaranteed hours can be set over the roster cycle where the employer operates a roster, rather than each week (clause 10.4(a)), and any change to them needs the employee’s written consent (clause 10.5). Under the Retail award, a roster period cannot be longer than 4 weeks, except by an agreement to average 38 hours a week over a longer period (clauses 15.7(a) and 15.6(g)(v)), and the employer must keep a copy of each completed roster for at least 12 months (clause 15.9(c)).

All three awards also require consultation before you change an employee’s regular roster or ordinary hours, unless their hours are irregular, sporadic or unpredictable. You provide information about the change, invite the employee’s views about its impact on them, including on family or caring responsibilities, and consider those views (clause 35 of the Retail award, clause 33 of the Restaurant award and clause 39 of the Hospitality award).

Plan the exceptions before they arrive

A pattern works because it is the default, not because every week matches it. Decide how each kind of exception is handled, so the pattern survives it.

• Leave. Approved leave comes off the pattern for those dates only, and the shifts become open shifts for that week. Managing annual leave when building a roster covers approving it.
• Public holidays. Check every public holiday that falls in the cycle before the roster for that week goes out. The public holidays page lists the dates for each state.
• Swaps. A swap changes one week, not the pattern. Record it on that week and let the pattern carry on. Handling shift swap requests covers approving them.
• Busy and quiet weeks. Add or remove shifts on the week itself, and leave the pattern alone unless the change will last.
• Lasting changes. When trade or someone’s availability changes for good, change the line, following your award’s consultation and notice rules.

A worked example: a two-week pattern for a cafe

This is an example, not a real business. A cafe covered by the Restaurant Industry Award trades from 7:00 to 15:00, Tuesday to Sunday, and is closed on Mondays. Two part-time baristas, Alex and Sam, take turns opening at the weekend. Each has agreed in writing to 67.5 guaranteed hours over a two-week roster cycle, and to being available Tuesday to Sunday from 6:30 to 14:30. The cycle starts on Tuesday 12 January 2027 as week 1.

Each shift is 6:30 to 14:30 with a 30 minute unpaid meal break at 10:30, so each day is 7.5 paid hours. Across the two weeks, each barista works 5 + 4 = 9 days, and 9 × 7.5 = 67.5 hours, which matches the guaranteed hours over the cycle (clause 10.4(a)). Every shift sits inside their availability (clause 10.7(a)), and each has at least 2 days off every week, counting the Monday the cafe is closed (clause 10.7(c)). Over four weeks each has 10 days off, more than the 8 full days off in a 4 week period required by clause 15.1(f).

The meal break at 10:30 is 4 hours into the shift, after the first hour and within the first 6 hours (clause 16.2). Finishing at 14:30 and starting at 6:30 the next day leaves 16 hours, clear of the 10 hour minimum in clause 15.1(e). The longest run of work for either barista is 5 days. Every weekday from Wednesday to Friday has both on, and every other day has one of them opening. Because a week number is fixed to a date, any future week can be placed in the cycle: a week that starts an odd number of weeks after 12 January 2027 is a week 2.

When Sam takes a week of annual leave in a week 2, the pattern is not touched. Sam’s five shifts that week become open shifts, a casual picks up the weekend, and the following week runs from the pattern again. If the cafe later decides to open on Mondays, that is a lasting change to both baristas’ regular rosters, so it starts with consultation (clause 33). Any change to their guaranteed hours needs their written consent (clause 10.5), no Monday shift can sit outside the availability they agreed (clause 10.7(a)), and the pattern is rebuilt from there.

In Roster Flow, a pattern is kept by copying the week forward and changing what is different on the week it applies to. Around that sit 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.

When to change the pattern

Look at the pattern every few months, and sooner when the business changes. These are signs it needs work:

• The same shift is edited on the roster most weeks
• Someone’s actual hours regularly differ from their line
• Trade has moved, such as a new late night or a quieter day
• Someone’s availability has changed for good
• Weekends or closes have drifted onto the same people

Check part-time hours at the same time. Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, a part-time employee who has regularly worked more ordinary hours than their guaranteed hours for at least 12 months may ask in writing for their guaranteed hours to be increased (clause 10.8 of each). The Retail award has its own review of guaranteed hours in clause 10.11. Fair weekend and closing-shift rotations covers resetting a rotation that has drifted.

A checklist for a roster pattern

• Eight weeks of real rosters have been sorted into shifts that repeat and shifts that change
• Each repeating shift is written as a line, with a name against it
• The cycle is as short as it can be and within your award’s roster period
• Every line fits the person’s availability and agreed hours
• A whole cycle has been checked for days off, consecutive days and breaks between days
• The pattern has a start date for week 1
• Leave, public holidays and swaps are handled on the week, not in the pattern
• Lasting changes are consulted on and given the notice your award requires

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 Ombudsman: find my award

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