Rostering software for takeaway shops
A small team and a sharp peak. Most of the week is two people and a fryer, and then Friday needs four, one of whom is at school and has to finish by nine.
| Who | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Declan M.Cook | 3–9 | 3–9 | 3–9 | 2–10 | 3–10 | 3–9 |
| Marisol D.Counter | 4:30–9 | 4:30–9 | 4:30–9 | 4–10 | 4:30–9:30 | 4:30–9 |
| Tom H.Casual | off | off | 5:30–8:30 | 5–9 | 5:30–9 | off |
| Ruby N.Casual | off | 5:30–8:30 | off | 5–9 | 5:30–9 | 5–8 |
Friday starts an hour earlier and carries both casuals. Tom is at school and finishes by nine.
What makes a takeaway shop 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 takeaway shops get back, in the terms this trade measures it in.
A week in a takeaway shop
What it is used for in a takeaway shop
Specific things people in this trade do with it, rather than a list of modules.
- A three hour shift for a two hour peak, placed where the orders actually are
- A school age casual whose availability ends at nine, visible while the week is built
- Friday staffed differently from the rest of the week, because it is a different week
- A clean down that runs past the rostered finish, recorded rather than forgotten
- Clock in at the shop on their own phone, with no shared kiosk or shift code
- Free while the whole team is small, with the hours exported as a CSV
The Friday the school casual could only stay till nine
A fish and chip shop, five on the books, two of them at school.
| When | What happens | What you do here |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday | Friday needs four people from five, and two of them are fifteen. | Their availability ends at nine, so the roster flags the shift that runs past it. |
| Wednesday, two minutes later | The second casual is asked to stay to close instead. | Her hours say she can. The shift is placed and the week is published. |
| Friday 8:58pm | The first casual leaves at nine as agreed. | He clocks out. The shift he worked is three and a half hours and it says so. |
| Friday 9:40pm | The clean takes longer than the roster allowed for. | The closer clocks out 25 minutes late, and that difference is on the record. |
| Saturday | The week is approved in the time it takes to make a coffee. | Five people, one difference, and the hours go out to payroll. |
A Friday with two school nights in it, and no phone call about who worked what.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Remembering who can work past nine | Holding it in your head, and finding out on the night | Availability by the hour, flagged as the shift is placed |
| Rostering a peak that lasts two hours | Putting somebody on for a whole evening to cover it | A short shift, placed where the orders are, priced as you place it |
| Paying for the extra twenty minutes on a clean | Rounding it away, or paying for an hour that was not worked | The clock out against the rostered finish, decided the next day |
| Keeping hours for five people | Dockets in a drawer and a notebook by the till | Clock ins on their own phones, and a week you approve 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.
- Short shifts and their actual start and finish times
- Hours worked past the rostered finish, on the night they happened
- Which person clocked in, from their own account, with the distance from the shop
- Corrections and who approved them
- The approved week, locked, before it reaches payroll
- Junior rates and the pay rates that change with age
- Any limit on hours or finishing times for staff under 18, which is not applied here
- Minimum engagement periods under your award
- Whether the extra twenty minutes is approved as worked
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
Four to twelve: the owner or a cook, one or two regulars, and casuals for the evening rush.
What drives the wage cost
Evening and weekend loadings on a small team, where one extra person on Friday is a visible share of the night.
Questions people in takeaway shops ask
Is it worth it for four people?
There is a permanently free plan for a small team. If that is your whole team, the rostering, clocking in, timesheets and CSV export cost nothing. Sending hours straight into Xero is on the paid plans, and MYOB is coming soon. The pricing page has the current ceiling.
Can staff clock in on a shared phone at the counter?
Clock in happens in each person’s own account, on whatever phone they sign in with. There is no shared kiosk or shift code.
Do you track hours limits for younger staff?
Not by age. Availability covers what somebody can work, and a visa hours limit is counted where one is recorded. Anything set by an award or the law is for you to apply.
Is a two hour Friday shift worth rostering properly?
That is the shift this is best at. A two hour shift goes on the roster like any other, it prices in the estimate, and the person works it knowing exactly when they start and finish.
School finishes at half past three. Can that stop me rostering earlier?
Staff set the hours they can work rather than the days, so a three o’clock finish is visible while you build the week and a clash flags on the shift with the reason. It warns rather than refuses, because sometimes the shift still has to be covered. It is just never by accident.
Somebody stays back to finish the clean. What happens to the extra half hour?
Worked time is compared to rostered time and the difference is flagged at the top of your timesheet, so you either approve the extra half hour or ask about it. Nothing is paid silently and nothing is lost.