Rota builder

The rota builder is the main scheduling interface in StaffBrik. It is where you plan your week, assign shifts to staff, track labour costs against your budget, and publish the finished rota to your team.

Opening the rota builder

Navigate to StaffBrik > Rota. You will see the rota for the current week at your selected location. Use the location tabs at the top of the page to switch between sites if you operate more than one.

Views

Switch between Day, Week and Month with the toggle above the rota. If you run more than one site, the All locations tab gives a fourth view across every site.

Week view (default)

The standard planning layout. Each column is a day of your rota week, starting on the day set under Rota week start in StaffBrik settings, and each row is an employee. Shifts appear as coloured blocks in the grid.

Employees are grouped by their main role, in the order you set under Ordering roles, and listed alphabetically within each group. Anyone without a main role is shown last, under Unassigned.

This is the view you will use most often for day-to-day rota planning.

Day view

Zooms in on a single day: everyone working, absent or on time off that day, with each shift's times and cost. The top of the day shows its totals: shifts, people absent or on time off, hours and cost, including any SSP and holiday pay. Someone working two shifts that day, a split shift say, has both shown, and each one can be clicked and dragged on its own. Useful for checking coverage on a busy Saturday or managing a large team on an event day.

Month view

A high-level overview of the full month. Each day lists its shifts (first name and times, in the role's colour), absences and time off. When a day has more than fits, +2 more (or however many) opens it in Day view, and the arrow at the end of each week opens that week. Use this to spot patterns - weeks where you are consistently over or under staffing - and to plan ahead. To change shifts, open the week or the day.

You can filter the month to one employee or one role. Filtering by role includes shifts worked on someone's own main role, shown in that role's colour.

All locations view

One screen across all your sites, for looking rather than editing. On the left is one day at every site: who is working where, who is absent or on time off, and the day's shifts, hours and cost across your sites. On the right is a card for each site's week, with its shifts, hours, Planned cost and Wage % of forecast, and badges for drafts and Over budget. Click a card to open that site's rota.

Assigning shifts

Create shifts with the shift form, then drag them around the grid to move or copy them.

Manual entry

In Week view, click an empty cell (the + on a person's day) to create a shift: the Add shift form opens with that person and day filled in. In Day view, click Add shift under the day's list and choose the person in the form. Day view's Add shift also gives someone a second shift on a day they already work, a split shift say.

The shift form sets the times, break, role and notes, and shows an estimated cost. Save as draft adds the shift as a draft, and Save & publish publishes it straight away.

From an existing shift, the form can also copy it to other days of the week. Click the copy icon (Duplicate to other days), pick the days, and Copy to 3 days (or however many you pick) saves all the copies in one go. If some days are refused, for example because the person is on leave, the message names each day and why.

Drag and drop

• Move a shift - drag an existing shift block to a different day or a different employee.
• Copy a shift - hold Alt (Option on a Mac) and drag a shift to copy it.

Dropping a shift next to someone's shift, or as a second shift on their day, works and shows an amber warning, so split shifts are easy to build. Dropping it where it would overlap a shift they already have is refused, for example "Shift not moved: it would overlap the 9am-5pm shift already there."

Moving a shift that is already published asks you to confirm first, because staff can already see it. The dialog shows who and when the shift moves from and to, and a Notify switch, on by default, that sends the people it affects a Team App notification. Switch it off to move the shift without telling anyone, for example when you have already told them in person. Their usual shift reminder still comes before the shift, at the new time. Draft shifts move straight away.

Undo

Dragging a shift is quick on purpose, so it is easy to drop one in the wrong place. Every change you make on the rota (adding, moving, copying, editing or deleting a shift, draft or published) shows a message in the top right corner naming it, with an Undo button. Only the latest change has one, and its Undo only ever reverses the change it names.

Once that message has gone, the bar above the rota, in Week and Day view, still shows your last change with Undo. Cmd + Z (Mac) or Ctrl + Z (Windows) does the same. It is the only keyboard shortcut.

• Undo does nothing while you are typing in a field or while a dialog is open, so it never undoes a rota change by accident.
• Undoing a drag to another person, or a change of person in the shift form, puts the shift back with the original person.
• Undoing a change to a published shift tells the people it affects that it has changed back. If you saved the change with Notify switched off, the undo is quiet too: nobody is told.
• Copy to 2 days or more has no message with Undo, as one press would only take back one copy. Use the bar or Cmd + Z, once per copy. A copy to a single day has its message like any other change.
• Undoing a delete brings the shift back as it was. A published shift comes back published, and the person is sent a new shift notification.
• If an undo cannot be done, the reason shows in the banner at the top of the editor.

Copy week

Most hospitality businesses follow a broadly similar pattern week to week. Instead of building the rota from scratch, copy the week you are on into another week as a starting point:

1. Open the week you want to copy and click Copy in the toolbar. The Copy week dialog opens.
2. Under Copy to week, choose the week to copy into. It starts on the next week.
3. Owners and admins can tick Replace shifts already on that week (see below).
4. Click Copy week. The shifts land on the same days of the new week, as drafts.
5. Make adjustments - swap staff, tweak times, add or remove shifts - and publish when ready.

Copying a week onto itself is refused ("This is the week you are copying. Choose another week."), and so is a date that does not start one of your rota weeks.

Copies are costed at each person's pay rate in force on the new date, so a pay rise you have already scheduled applies to the copied week. Breaks keep their length and follow your current break policy for paid or unpaid. A brand-new week takes the copied week's daily forecast split, but not its takings.

What is left out

Anything that clashes is left out of the copy and listed with the reason, so you can sort it by hand:

• The person is on leave that day (approved time off or a logged absence).
• They have no pay rate that day.
• They are already working at another location that day (the location is named).
• They are already on that week that day, and Replace shifts already on that week is unticked.
• The shift already there is kept because it is in the past, or has clock-ins or attendance flags.

An open shift offered to a role you have since deleted is not copied, and is listed with the reason. A targeted open shift is copied without the deleted role.

Replacing shifts already on that week

Replace shifts already on that week is for owners and admins only. Ticked, anyone already working a day you copy gets the copied shifts instead. Shifts in the past, shifts with clock-ins or attendance flags, and shifts at other locations are always kept. If a replaced shift was published, the person is sent a "cancelled" notification once the copy saves. Replaced shifts are kept in the rota's history.

Members can copy a week too. The dialog tells them that days someone is already working on that week are left as they are, and that only an owner or admin can replace them.

The result

The dialog sums it up in one line, for example "Copied 3 shifts. Replaced 1 shift already on that week. 1 shift not copied, see below.", with each shift not copied listed underneath. The copies appear on the grid straight away.

Open shifts are copied too. Each live open shift becomes a draft open shift on the same day of the new week, with the same times, role, claim mode and eligibility, and its claim cutoff at the same UK time on the new day. Nobody is told until you post or publish them. Open shifts that expired unclaimed are not copied. If you copy the same week twice, an open shift that is already there is listed rather than doubled up, for example "Open shift: The same open shift (09:00 to 17:00) is already on Sat 10 Oct".

tip

Copying last week's rota and making small adjustments is the fastest way to plan. A bakery with a regular team might only need to change one or two shifts each week. A restaurant with variable bookings might adjust more - but starting from a template is still quicker than building from nothing.

Populate from patterns

If your staff have working patterns, Populate in the toolbar builds the week from them. Choose From patterns, tick the people to add, and apply. It works on a week that has no rota yet: the rota is created as the patterns are applied.

• Who is ticked. People with a pattern for this location are ticked. Someone whose only pattern is for All locations is ticked only at their primary location, or when your business has a single location. Otherwise a hint under their name says why, and you can tick them yourself. Patterns for all locations read "(all locations)" in the list.
• Split shifts. A pattern day with two shifts creates both.
• Other locations. A pattern set for another location is not applied here.
• Existing shifts are kept. A pattern shift that overlaps a shift already on the rota, or falls on someone's leave, is not added.

The result lists every shift that was not added, with a plain reason, for example "Sam Smith has no pay rate for Mon 12 Oct. Add one on their profile." Other reasons are another location, already on this rota that day, leave, or a clash at another location.

Budget tracking on the rota

As you add and adjust shifts, the rota builder shows a running total of the week's planned labour cost beside your weekly budget. The planned cost is the cash headline; the budget comparison uses the planned shifts alone:

• Planned - every shift on the rota, drafts included. A shift covered by an absence or approved time off is swapped for that day's SSP or holiday pay, each with employer NI and pension. Unclaimed open shifts cost nothing. When the week has holiday pay or SSP, the split shows beside it, for example "£1,266.68 on shifts + £215.20 holiday pay".
• Budget - your weekly labour budget, from the forecast and target wage % you set for the week.
• Remaining - how much headroom the planned shifts leave, or how far over budget they are. Holiday pay and SSP need no cover, so they are not counted here. When they take the planned cost past the budget, the cash standing shows separately, for example "£181.88 over in cash".
• Status colour - from the planned shifts: green at or under budget, amber when over, red at 125% of budget or more.

The planned figure updates as you add, move, or remove shifts. Once takings are recorded for the week, the tracker also shows your actual wage %, from actual labour: clock-ins for days that are over, and published shifts for anyone who did not clock in and for today. Draft shifts do not count. See Planned and actual labour for the difference.

caution

Shift costs follow pay changes for the current week and every week ahead. Scheduling, editing or deleting a pay rate, a backdated rate arriving from payroll, or a change to someone's contracted hours re-costs those weeks, with each shift at the rate in force on its own date. Weeks that have ended keep their costs. See Shift costs and pay changes.

Shift publication workflow

Rotas in StaffBrik follow a two-stage workflow:

1. Draft - the rota is being planned. Staff cannot see draft shifts. You can freely add, move, and delete shifts without anyone being notified.
2. Published - the rota is final (or as final as it gets). Staff see their shifts in the Team App. Changing a published shift's person, day or times tells the people it affects, unless you switch Notify off.

See Budgets and publishing for the full publication workflow, and for how StaffBrik lets only one person edit a week at a time.

PDF export

Click PDF in the Week view toolbar to download the week you are looking at as a PDF. It is a clean, readable layout, made to be printed and posted on a kitchen noticeboard or staff room wall, or emailed to staff who prefer a paper copy. To print the rota, download the PDF and print it.

The PDF includes:

• The same people as the site's week grid, so with All switched on it includes everyone (see who shows on a site's grid). Staff are grouped by main role in the same order as the week view, following Ordering roles, with anyone without a main role last under Unassigned.
• Every published shift each person has on each day, with its break, along with absences and time off. The PDF is what your team is told, so draft shifts are left out, with a note saying how many, for example "2 draft shifts are not shown: they have not been published yet."
• An Open shifts row, labelled Posted to staff, listing the open shifts waiting for someone, with their times and role. A targeted one also reads Offered to selected staff, so the team can see what is up for grabs.

Staff who have left but still have something that week are marked (archived) next to their name.

If the PDF cannot be made, you see "We couldn't create the PDF. Refresh the page and try again."

info

PDF exports include shift times and break details for each employee. They do not include pay rates or cost information - so they are safe to share with the full team.

Export to Square

If your till is Square and the rota's site is linked to a Square location, an Export to Square button appears in the toolbar for owners, admins and members. It sends the rota's published shifts to Square as scheduled shifts. See Exporting a rota to Square.

Staff who have left

When you archive someone, their shifts from tomorrow onwards are removed, so most leavers simply drop off the rota. If an archived employee still has a shift, absence or time off in a week, their row stays on that week, with an Archived badge in the week view, Day view and All locations view, and (archived) next to their name in the PDF. That way every cost in the week's totals has a name against it.

On a leaver's row:

• Their shifts can be opened, and only deleted or given to someone else. The shift form explains this: "[Name] has been archived. Delete this shift, or choose someone else and save to give it to them."
• Nothing else can be added, edited or dragged.

You cannot create a shift for an archived employee or move a shift to them, and leavers are not offered under From patterns in Populate.

Multi-location planning

If you manage more than one site, the rota builder supports cross-location planning:

• Switch locations using the tabs at the top of the page to plan each site's rota independently.
• All locations view shows every site on one screen, making it easy to spot gaps or overlaps.
• Who shows on a site's grid. Each site's grid lists the people whose primary location is that site, plus anyone with no primary location, who shows on every site's grid. Anyone else with a shift or leave there that week shows too. Switch on All above the names to see everyone. All stays on as you move between sites, weeks and views, and the PDF follows it.
• Floating staff can appear on any site's rota. A shift that would overlap one the same person already has at another site is refused, and the message names that site.

A site where nobody is based yet shows "No one is based here yet" with a Show all staff button, so you can add shifts for people based elsewhere.

Closed sites

When a site is switched off or deleted in Settings > Locations (see Closing a Site), its rotas are kept. If it has any, it shows as a "Station Road (closed)" tab after your live sites, so its past weeks stay readable. On a closed site's tab:

• A banner reads "This location is closed. Its rotas are kept for your records and can't be changed."
• Everything is read-only. Publish is greyed out, and Copy, Populate, setting or adjusting the budget and entering actual takings are not offered.

tip

For a small group - say, a cafe and a bakery next door - it often makes sense to check both rotas together in the All locations view. You can see at a glance whether you have enough cover across both sites.