Rostering software for aged care
The roster never stops. Morning, afternoon and night, seven days, and the job is holding a pattern that works while absences, leave and a changing casual pool pull at it.
| Who | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Priya V.Care worker | 7–3 | 7–3 | 7–3 | 7–3 | 7–3 | off |
| Mei L.Care worker | 7–3 | 7–3 | off | 7–3 | 7–3 | 7–3 |
| Jonah K.Nurse | 7–3 | 7–3 | 7–3 | 7–3 | 7–3 | 7–3 |
| Hana Y.Care worker | 2:30–10:30 | 2:30–10:30 | 2:30–10:30 | 2:30–10:30 | off | 2:30–10:30 |
| Sam T.Care worker | off | 2:30–10:30 | 2:30–10:30 | 2:30–10:30 | 2:30–10:30 | off |
| Ana F.Night | 10–7 | 10–7 | 10–7 | 10–7 | 10–7 | 10–7 |
Mornings and afternoons overlap by half an hour for handover. The night shift is one person, and it crosses midnight.
What makes an aged care service hard to roster
Four things that come up in every one of these weeks, and what happens here instead.
What changes once it is running
What aged care services get back, in the terms this trade measures it in.
A week in an aged care service
What it is used for in an aged care service
Specific things people in this trade do with it, rather than a list of modules.
- Morning, afternoon and night shifts held as a pattern and copied forward
- Handover built in, with shifts that overlap by half an hour on purpose
- A 10pm to 7am shift counted as nine hours rather than split at midnight
- A clash flagged when somebody is rostered onto a night and the next morning
- Leave approved in advance, sitting on the roster while the cycle is built
- An audit trail that answers a question about March when it is asked in June
The night shift and the morning that landed on one person
A residential facility, three shifts a day, seven days, 38 staff.
| When | What happens | What you do here |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Next fortnight is built by copying the cycle forward. | The pattern holds, so only the changes have to be thought about. |
| Monday, minutes later | A care worker is put on Friday night and Saturday morning. | The overlap is flagged as the second shift is placed, before anybody is told. |
| Monday, still | Saturday morning needs somebody else. | The shortlist excludes anybody on approved leave and anybody already rostered. |
| Saturday 6:45am | Handover runs half an hour, as it always does. | The shifts overlap in the grid, so the handover is rostered rather than unpaid goodwill. |
| Fortnight end | Two weeks of hours are approved and sent. | Nights count as worked, handovers are in the hours, and corrections carry reasons. |
A fortnight built from a pattern, with one clash caught on the Monday it was made.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Running a repeating shift cycle | Rebuilding the same fortnight and losing somebody’s regular days | Copy the cycle and change only what moved |
| Catching a night followed by a morning | Finding out when somebody says they cannot do it | A clash flagged at the moment the shift is placed |
| Paying for handover | Half an hour that happens and is never rostered | Overlapping shifts, visible in the grid and in the cost |
| Answering an auditor about a shift in March | A folder, a memory and an afternoon | The trail, in order, with who did what and why |
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.
- Every shift in the cycle, rostered against worked, week by week
- Night shifts crossing midnight, counted as the hours they were
- Overlapping handover time, rostered rather than assumed
- Clashes that were flagged, and what was done about them
- Corrections, approvals and the person behind each one
- Care plans, resident records and anything the regulator requires of them
- Police checks, screening and qualifications, which are not held here
- Night, weekend and public holiday penalties, which payroll applies
- Fatigue and minimum break rules between a night and a morning
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.
Who is usually on the team
Fifteen to sixty: care workers across three shifts, a registered nurse on duty, and casuals who pick up what is left.
What drives the wage cost
Nights, weekends and public holidays at the rates you set, against a base that barely moves. Because the pattern repeats, the estimate is most useful for showing what an unfilled shift costs once it is covered.
Questions people in aged care services ask
Does it manage care plans, clients or funding claims?
No. It rosters staff and records their hours. Care plans, client records and any claim stay in the systems you use for them.
Can we run a fortnightly cycle?
Yes, by copying a week forward. Timesheets are approved and sent a week at a time, so a fortnightly pay run is two sends.
Do staff clock in at the facility?
On their own phone, with the distance from the site recorded and a photo if you require one. It records where a clock in happened rather than verifying who was there.
We run a rotating pattern. Can we keep it rather than rebuild it?
Copy the week and the pattern comes with it, so morning, afternoon and night stay where they were and you change the absences. That is the difference between maintaining a roster and writing one every fortnight.
Handover needs the shifts to overlap. Is that a problem?
No. Shifts can overlap by as long as you need, so a fifteen minute handover at each change is rostered and paid as part of the shift rather than being done unpaid in the corridor.
Night staff start when the office is closed. How does clocking work then?
Each person clocks in from their own account on their own phone, and the time, the distance from the facility and a photo where you require one are recorded with it. There is nobody to sign anything, and nothing waits for the morning.