Rostering software for cafes and restaurants
Rosters that change on Thursday afternoon, staff who move between the floor and the kitchen, and a wage cost you need to know before the week starts.
What makes cafes and restaurants hard to roster
The problems that come up in this trade whatever software you use, and what happens here instead.
What you get out of it
The parts of the week that stop taking your evening.
A typical week, as an example
What it is used for in cafes and restaurants
Specific things people in this trade do with it, rather than a list of modules.
- A split shift for one person in one day, prep in the morning and service at night
- Short overlapping shifts stacked through a rush, so 8am has three people and 3pm has one
- Two venues on one screen, and the staff who work across both kept as one person
- Saturday, Sunday and public holiday rates in the estimate before the week is published
- Availability by the hour, so a Tuesday lecture is visible while you are still placing shifts
- Clock in at the pass on their own phone, with a photo where you ask for one
- A casual who came in to help clocked in unrostered, waiting for you to approve it
- The approved week sent to Xero, or taken as a CSV of hours by employee
The Friday the chef called in at six
One cafe, eleven people, a roster published on Thursday afternoon.
| When | What happens | What you do here |
|---|---|---|
| 6:04am | The chef texts: not coming in. | Mark the shift for cover. The shortlist shows who is free today and not already rostered. |
| 6:20am | The second cook says yes on the phone. | Move the shift to them and republish. Their phone has the change before they leave home. |
| 10:40am | A casual comes in to help with prep, nobody rostered her. | She clocks in anyway. It is marked unrostered and waits for a manager rather than vanishing. |
| 3:38pm | Service ran long. The closer clocks out 38 minutes past the rostered finish. | The difference is recorded against that shift, for you to accept or query on Monday. |
| Monday 9:10am | The week is open on the timesheet screen. | Four rows need a decision and the rest are already right. Approve the week and send it. |
Three changes, one unrostered shift and one overrun, and the record still matches the week.
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.
| The job | Usually | Here |
|---|---|---|
| Building next week | A blank grid, and last week photographed on somebody’s phone | Copy last week and change only what moved |
| Finding out who is free | Messages on Thursday night, and two people who never reply | Availability sits on the roster, and a clash flags as you place the shift |
| Covering a sick call | Ringing down the contact list in the order you remember | A shortlist of who is free, then republish so the phones update |
| Knowing what the week costs | A calculator, after the roster is already decided | An estimate that moves as each shift is placed, with your loadings in it |
| Getting hours to payroll | Typing a paper book into a spreadsheet on Sunday night | Clear the exceptions, approve the week, send it once |
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.
- Who was rostered, who worked, and the difference between the two
- The time of each clock in and out, and how far from the venue it happened
- A photo at clock in, where the venue requires one
- Every correction: who asked, who decided, and the reason they gave
- Approved weeks locked, so a later change is visible as a change
- The award or agreement that sets rates, penalties, overtime and casual loading
- Breaks, minimum engagements and any rule about how a split shift is paid
- Whether an unrostered shift is paid, and at what rate
- Keeping records for the period the law requires, which is longer than a pay run
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 cafes and restaurants
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.
- Roster the rush by the hour it needs, not by whole shifts
- Check student availability before exam periods and term changes
- Look up weekend and public holiday rates in your award, and enter them as your multipliers
- Check your state’s public holidays before building December and Easter
- Keep every swap approved by a manager before it reaches the roster
- Approve the week before the pay run, starting with the exceptions
Free templates and tools for cafes and restaurants
Questions people in cafes and restaurants ask
How long does it take to write a roster for a cafe or restaurant?
Most weeks are a copy of the last one with three or four changes. You copy the week, move the shifts that moved, cover the function on Saturday, check the estimate and publish. The first week takes longer because you are entering your team and your rates; after that it is the ten minutes the whole product is built around.
Can I see what a weekend costs before I publish it?
Yes, and that is the point of building the roster on one screen. The estimate adds up as you place each shift, using the pay rates and the weekend loadings you entered, so the fifth person on Saturday is a decision you make with the number in front of you. It is a planning figure for the week rather than a pay calculation, and it does not interpret an award.
Somebody calls in sick an hour before service. What actually happens?
You get a shortlist of people who are free and usually on time, ring one, and republish the shift. Everyone affected is notified. If whoever comes in was not the person rostered, they clock in unrostered and it waits for you to approve rather than leaving a hole in the record.
Can one person work two shifts in the same day?
Yes. A split like 6 to 11 and 5 to 9 is two shifts on the same day, and the timesheet handles both without counting the gap between them as paid time. Staff who move between the floor and the kitchen are one person with one set of hours, whichever role the shift was for.
We employ students on visas. Does it track the fortnightly hour limit?
Staff record whether they are a citizen, a permanent resident or on a visa, and where there is an hours limit Roster Flow counts the fortnight and warns you before a shift takes somebody over it. The details come from your staff, so treat it as a reminder while you are rostering rather than a VEVO check. The entitlement itself is still yours to verify.
Do the hours reach Xero, or is it back to typing?
Approved hours go across, and nothing else does. You connect once through Xero’s own sign in, import your employees so the names match, and send the week when you have approved it. MYOB is coming soon, and in the meantime the hours by employee report exports to CSV for whoever runs your payroll.
Closer to what you run
The same product, written around one kind of week, with that trade's hours and its own sample roster.