Rostering software for catering companies
The work moves. A wedding on Saturday, a corporate lunch on Tuesday, and a crew assembled from a casual pool who need to know where to be and when, with the address in front of them.
| Who | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tobias R.Head chef | 7–3 | 7–3 | 7–3 | 7–5 | 10–11 | off |
| Ana F.Chef | off | 9–3 | off | 9–5 | 12–11 | off |
| Sofia D.Supervisor | 10–3 | off | 10–3 | off | 2–12 | 9–2 |
| Hana Y.Wait | 10–3 | 10–3 | off | off | 4–12 | 9–2 |
| Lucas P.Bar | off | off | off | off | 4–12 | off |
| Kirra D.Wait | off | off | 10–3 | off | 4–12 | 9–2 |
Saturday is one job from noon to midnight, including set up and pack down. Sunday is the clean and the return.
What makes a catering business 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 catering companies get back, in the terms this trade measures it in.
A week in a catering business
What it is used for in a catering business
Specific things people in this trade do with it, rather than a list of modules.
- An event address set up as a venue, so a crew clocks in at the door of the job
- A crew assembled per event from a casual pool, rather than a standing roster
- The site and the start time on each person’s phone, published the moment it is decided
- Short call times and long service days in the same week, each as its own shift
- Approved leave and availability checked before a Saturday crew is confirmed
- Hours by employee for the period, with the venues they worked, as a CSV
The wedding that changed venue on the Thursday
One wedding for 140, a crew of nine, two days out.
| When | What happens | What you do here |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 11am | The venue moves from a garden to a hall 20 minutes away. | Add the new address as a venue and move the shifts to it. The old one stays for history. |
| Thursday 11:20am | Nine people need to know before they set an alarm. | Republish. Everyone on the job gets the change, and nobody else is notified at all. |
| Saturday 1:50pm | Eight of nine clock in at the hall. | The ninth is 30 km away. You ring rather than wait, because it is on the screen. |
| Saturday 11:40pm | Pack down finishes late and the van is loaded at midnight. | Clock outs land after midnight, and each shift keeps the hours it actually took. |
| Monday | The event is costed by whoever does the costing. | The hours by person and venue export as CSV. This counts labour, it does not price a job. |
A venue change two days out, nine people at the right address, and a night paid as it ran.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Telling a crew which address to go to | A group message, and one person who did not see it | The venue on their shift, updated when it changes |
| Building a crew from a casual pool | Twenty texts and a list of who said yes | Availability and approved leave already on the roster while you pick |
| Proving somebody was at the event | A sign-in sheet that went home in a van | A clock in at the address, with the distance recorded |
| A pack down that runs past midnight | Rounding the finish to something that sounds fair | The clock out at the time it happened, counted as one shift |
| Getting event hours into payroll | Collating three jobs from three sheets | Approve the week once, 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.
- Every shift against the venue it was worked at, event by event
- The distance from the event address at each clock in
- Crew changes before the job, with who made them and when
- Hours that ran past midnight, kept as one shift
- Approved hours per person and per venue, exportable as CSV
- Travel, allowances and what a call out or a late finish attracts
- Pricing the job, which this does not do: it counts labour hours only
- Licences, insurances and anything the venue requires of your crew
- Whether a cancelled event is paid, and on what notice
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
A small permanent core and a large casual list: chefs, wait staff, bar staff and a supervisor per event.
What drives the wage cost
Weekend and late-night work at the loadings you set, with the estimate totalling per day so a quote’s staffing cost is visible before you commit the crew.
Questions people in catering companies ask
Does it cost jobs or events?
No. Roster Flow rosters people and records their hours. It does not quote, cost a job, or track food and equipment. Hours by employee export to CSV if you want to allocate them yourself.
Can staff see the address of the event?
They see the venue the shift is at, by name, along with the date and times. Add the site as a venue and give it a name they will recognise.
What if the phone has no signal at the site?
A clock in away from the venue, or without a location, is flagged for you rather than refused. Somebody standing in a cellar still gets to start their shift.
Can I build a crew from the casual pool without ringing everybody?
Staff keep their own availability by the hour, so you can see who is free for Saturday before you offer it, and a clash flags on the shift as you place it with the reason. Publishing tells the people you rostered, and each of them sees the job on their phone.
Do set up and pack down get counted, or just the event?
They are part of the shift you roster, and what gets paid is what was clocked. If pack down runs an hour past the rostered finish, the difference is flagged for you to approve rather than being lost or quietly paid.
Every job is a different address. Does each one have to be a venue?
Only the places you use repeatedly are worth setting up as venues with their own clock in radius. For a one-off address the clock in still records the time and the distance from where you said the job was, and anything well outside it is flagged for a look.