Staff scheduling for cleaning teams

Short shifts spread across many addresses, often before anyone else is awake. You need the hours captured without chasing paper. Roster Flow rosters and records staff hours rather than managing client jobs or routes.

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A cleaner with equipment at a commercial site

What makes cleaning and services hard to roster

The problems that come up in this trade whatever software you use, and what happens here instead.

Many sites, short shiftsEvery site is a venue, and the roster shows the whole run in one week view.

Nobody to sign offThe phone is the timesheet. Clock in, clock out, done.

Early starts get slept throughA reminder before the shift, at an interval that suits a four in the morning start.

Hours get queriedA timestamp, the distance from the site and a photo if you require one are kept with each clock in.

A site is added mid weekA new contract starts Wednesday and the run has to change around it. The site becomes a venue with its own radius, the shifts go in, and the people affected are notified.

Nobody sees each otherA team spread across nine addresses before six in the morning has no noticeboard and no handover. The roster on the phone is the only shared copy, and it is the current one.

What you get out of it

The parts of the week that stop taking your evening.

Nine sites, one billVenues are unlimited, so the price follows how many people you employ.

A no show comes with a shortlistReliable names suggested in order, and whoever comes in can clock in unrostered.

The fortnight is quick to closeHours arrive as they happen, so closing it is the exceptions first and the rest together.

The whole run copies forwardNext week starts as last week across every site, so building it is changing the handful of things that actually moved.

A query is answered with a recordTwo hours at a site is a clock in, a clock out, the distance at each and a photo if you had that on. It is exportable to CSV, and enough to settle it without a conversation about somebody’s memory.

A typical week, as an example

SundayCopy last week run across all sites.

Each shiftClock in at the site, clock out when the run is finished.

MidweekClear anything flagged out of range.

FortnightlyApprove and send hours to payroll.

Two cleaners in uniform standing back to back

A cleaner with a bucket wiping down a table

What it is used for in cleaning and services

Specific things people in this trade do with it, rather than a list of modules.

Several short shifts in one day for one cleaner, each at a different address
A contract site set up as a venue, with the radius that suits that building
Four in the morning starts with a reminder sent at the interval you choose
A run copied forward each week, with only the changed sites touched
Clock in at each door, so a missed site is visible the same morning
Casuals added for one busy month and deactivated when it ends
Hours by employee for the period, as a CSV, when payroll is done elsewhere
The week approved once and sent to Xero in a single action

The night one site was missed

Eleven cleaners, twenty three sites, a run that starts at four in the morning.

The night one site was missed: when each thing happened, what happened, and what was done
When	What happens	What you do here
4:00am	The run starts. Three cleaners, eight sites between them.	Each site is its own shift, and each is clocked at the door.
5:40am	One shift has no clock in. The third site of the night.	It shows on the attendance view without anybody being woken up to ask.
7:15am	The client rings about the third site.	You already know, and you know which shift, which cleaner and what time.
9:00am	The site is covered by somebody on a later run.	A shift is added for them, clocked at the door like any other.
Monday	The week is approved.	The missed shift, the cover and the reason for both are on the record, not in an inbox.

One missed site, found before the client finished the phone call, and paid as it was worked.

The jobs that stop being jobs

Where the hours in a week like this go. No stopwatch: the left column is what the work takes without it, and the right is what is left of the same task.

Each job, the way it usually goes, and what it becomes here
The job	Usually	Here
Building a run of many short shifts	A spreadsheet per cleaner and a separate list of sites	One week, several shifts a day, each attached to its site
Knowing a site was done	A phone call from the client the next morning	A shift with no clock in, visible while the run is still going
Adding a new contract	Retyping the address into three places	A venue with an address and a radius, then shifts against it
Paying for travel between sites	Guessing at the gaps between jobs	Each visit counted as its own shift, so what is paid is a decision you make
Sending the hours on	Reading a clipboard into a payroll screen	Approve the exceptions, approve the week, send it

What the record shows, and what stays yours

Roster Flow keeps the record. Meeting the obligation is still the workplace's job, and these are the parts of it nothing here decides for you.

What is recorded, on the day it happens

Every visit as its own shift, at its own site, with its own clock in
The distance from the site at the moment somebody clocked in
Shifts with no clock in, listed while the run is still on
Who added a shift after the fact, when, and why
Approved weeks locked, with later changes visible as changes

What is still yours to decide

What travel between sites is paid, which is an award or agreement question
Police checks, insurances and site access, which are not held here
The contract you have with each client, and what it says about attendance
Minimum engagement rules on a short shift

What has to be kept, and for how long, is set out by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Nothing here interprets an award or certifies that a workplace complies with one.

A roster checklist for cleaning and services

Checks worth running before a week is published. Where a rule applies, the check is to look it up in the award or agreement that covers your staff.

Set each site’s address and clock in radius before the first shift
Check travel between sites against the award before rostering back to back
Check the minimum engagement for short early morning cleans
Compare hours at each site with what was rostered
Check visa hours limits for students over the fortnight
Approve the week before the pay run, starting with the exceptions

Free templates and tools for cleaning and services

Cleaning staff roster templateSeveral sites, early and evening cleans, and travel between them.Clock in and clock out sheetA printable daily sign in sheet for everybody at a site.Work hours calculatorSeveral shifts across any dates, with breaks, totalled and saved as CSV.Roster to payroll checklistThe checks between the last shift of the week and the pay run.

Questions people in cleaning and services ask

We clean nine sites with six people. Does that cost nine subscriptions?

No. Each site is a venue, venues are unlimited on every plan including the free one, and the price follows how many people you employ. Nine sites and six cleaners is a six-person bill.

Nobody is on site to sign a timesheet. How do the hours get recorded?

The phone is the timesheet. One tap at the door to start, one to finish, with the time and the distance from the site recorded and a photo if you require one. Nothing is typed up afterwards and there is no paper to chase at the end of the fortnight.

Early starts get slept through. Can anything be done about that?

Staff get a reminder before they are due, at an interval that suits a four in the morning start rather than a nine o’clock one. If somebody is late enough to count as a no show you are told and given a shortlist of who is free and reliable, which is the part that saves the client call.

A client queries whether we were there for the full two hours. What can I show them?

The clock in and clock out, the distance from the site at each and the photo if you had that switched on. Bear in mind it is your record of your staff’s hours, exportable to CSV. It is not a client portal, and Roster Flow does not invoice clients or price contracts.

One cleaner does four short visits in a morning. Is that four shifts?

Yes, and that is the right shape for it. Four shifts with their own places and times, the gaps between them unpaid, and the whole run on one week view so you can see a day that is too tight before you publish it.

We pay fortnightly. Does that work?

Yes. Hours arrive as they happen rather than in a pile at the end, so closing a fortnight is clearing the flagged ones, a missing clock out or a start well outside the radius, then approving the rest together before sending them to Xero or exporting them as a CSV.