Rostering software for pubs and clubs
Bar, gaming, bistro and functions, each with its own crew and its own hours. Twenty or forty staff, mostly casual, mostly rostered week to week.
What makes pubs and clubs 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 pubs and clubs
Specific things people in this trade do with it, rather than a list of modules.
- The bar, the bistro and gaming as separate venues in one building
- A duty manager who builds rosters and approves hours, but never sees the billing
- Shifts that finish after midnight counted as the hours worked, not split across two days
- A function rostered as its own venue, with a crew that only works that night
- The estimate read a day at a time, because Friday is most of the week
- Punctuality across a long casual list, without anybody standing at the door
- Swaps offered to a named workmate, accepted by them, then approved by you
- A fortnight closed as two weeks, each approved and sent on its own
Saturday, a function upstairs and nobody behind the bar
One pub, three areas, 34 on the books, a 60 person function at seven.
| When | What happens | What you do here |
|---|---|---|
| 4:50pm | The bar shift started at four thirty. No clock in. | It is on the attendance view before anybody asks where he is. |
| 5:05pm | He is not answering. | The shortlist shows two people free tonight who are not already on the function. |
| 5:30pm | One of them takes it, starting at six. | The shift is moved and republished. The function crew upstairs is untouched. |
| 11:40pm | The function finishes late and the crew stays to pack down. | They clock out at 12:20. The shift crosses midnight and counts as one shift. |
| Sunday 11:00am | Two people never clocked out at all. | Both are at the top of the timesheet, with the rostered finish offered as the fix. |
A Saturday with a no-show, a function and two missed clock outs, closed on Sunday morning.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Rostering three areas | Three spreadsheets, and a person who appears on two of them | One week, filtered by area or read all at once |
| Letting a duty manager run the roster | Sharing the login that also opens the billing | A manager role that rosters and approves, and an owner who keeps the rest |
| Counting a shift that ends at 1am | Two lines, two dates, and an argument about the second one | One shift, nine hours, compared with the clock in and out |
| Handling a swap between two staff | A group chat, and a roster that no longer matches who is coming | Offered to one person, accepted, approved, and only then changed |
| Closing a fortnight | Two weeks of paper reviewed in one sitting on a Monday | Each week approved and sent as it ends |
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.
- Shifts that cross midnight, counted as the hours actually worked
- Missed clock outs flagged and sorted first, with the fix and its reason recorded
- Which area each shift was worked in, for a person who works across three
- Who approved each week, and when they approved it
- Swap requests, who offered, who accepted, and who approved
- Penalty rates for nights, weekends and public holidays, which payroll applies
- RSA, RCG and gaming requirements, which are not recorded or checked here
- Break rules on a long shift, and what happens when one is missed
- Any licensing condition about who may be on the floor at a given hour
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 pubs and clubs
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.
- Check the break between a late close and the next day’s open
- Cost the weekend and late trading before publishing, at your own rates
- Line up cover for functions that may run past the rostered finish
- Use open shifts for a busy night, and choose who gets them
- Check the public holidays for your state before long weekends
- Approve the week before the pay run, starting with the exceptions
Free templates and tools for pubs and clubs
Questions people in pubs and clubs ask
Can I roster a shift that finishes after midnight?
Yes. A 6pm to 2am shift is one shift, and the hours are counted as eight rather than being split across two days or read as somebody clocking in thirteen hours early. Ten past midnight against an eleven o’clock start is recorded as seventy minutes late, which is what it is.
We run a bar, a bistro and gaming. Is that one roster or three?
Either. Each area can be a venue with its own roster, staff list and clock in radius, and the wage totals add up across all of them, so the duty manager sees the bar and you see the site. Venues are unlimited, so splitting them out costs nothing.
Does it track RSA, RSG or gaming certificates?
No. Profiles hold contact details, a photo and each person’s own record of hours and attendance, and there is no certificate or expiry tracking beyond visa work rights. Keeping competency cards current stays wherever you keep them now. This is the roster, the clock and the timesheet.
Staff swap shifts between themselves constantly. Can we manage that?
A swap is offered to a specific workmate with a reason. They accept, then a manager approves, and only then does the roster change, so the published roster is always the one that is true, and nothing moves because two people agreed in a group chat.
Can a duty manager build the roster without seeing everything?
Three roles cover it: owners, managers and staff. A duty manager can run the roster and approve hours for their venue without the owner-level view of the whole business, and every change is recorded with who made it and when.
Closers forget to clock out after a late one. How bad is that?
It is flagged and sorted to the top of the timesheet, so you find it on Monday rather than after a pay run. You can fix it, or the employee can send a correction with a reason for you to approve, and either way the change is recorded with who made it and why.
Closer to what you run
The same product, written around one kind of week, with that trade's hours and its own sample roster.