Shifts and Breaks

Shifts are the building blocks of your rota. Each shift represents a block of time an employee is scheduled to work, including any breaks. StaffBrik makes it straightforward to create shifts, configure breaks correctly, preview costs, and assign roles.

Creating a Shift

To create a shift, click on an empty cell in the rota builder or click Add Shift from the toolbar. The shift creation form includes:

Field	Description	Example
Employee	Who the shift is for (pre-filled if you clicked on their row)	Sarah Patel
Date	The day of the shift	Monday, 23 Feb 2026
Start time	When the shift begins	07:00
End time	When the shift ends	15:00
Break duration	Length of the break in minutes	30 min
Break type	Paid or unpaid	Unpaid
Role	The role the employee is filling on this shift	Barista

Once you confirm, the shift appears on the rota and the week's cost total updates immediately.

Quick-Create Example

A breakfast cafe that opens at 07:30 might schedule a morning shift as follows:

• Start: 06:30 (arrive for prep)
• End: 14:30 (8 hours total)
• Break: 30 minutes, unpaid
• Paid hours: 7.5 hours

Editing a Shift

Click on any existing shift block in the rota to open it for editing. You can change:

• Start and end times (drag the edges of the block for quick adjustments, or use the form for precision).
• Break duration and type.
• The assigned employee (useful for swapping a shift to cover absence).
• The role. Choosing Use employee's default role takes the shift's own role off, so it shows the person's usual role. A role you have deleted cannot be picked.
• The notes. Clearing them saves, so an old note does not linger.

Opening a shift never changes its break. The default break only goes on or comes off when you change the times across your break threshold (see Break Policy).

Changes to Published Shifts

Changes to published shifts trigger a notification to the affected employee:

• Moving a shift to another day sends "Shift Moved", for example "Your shift on Friday 2 Oct has moved to Saturday 3 Oct, 09:00-17:00".
• Moving it to another person tells the original person the day they lost and the new person the day they gained.
• Changing the times or deleting the shift tells the person what changed.

If a change fails to save, nobody is told, so staff never hear about a change that did not happen.

If you do not know who can cover, click Convert to open shift instead. The shift comes off the employee and is posted for eligible staff to claim from the Team App. See Open Shifts.

Shifts cannot be created for an archived employee, or given to one. A shift that still belongs to someone who has left can only be deleted or given to someone else (see Staff Who Have Left).

Break Configuration

Breaks can be configured as either paid or unpaid:

• Paid break - the employee is paid for the break time. The break duration is included in the total paid hours for the shift.
• Unpaid break - the employee is not paid during the break. The break duration is subtracted from total shift time to calculate paid hours.

Example: 8-hour shift with a 30-minute unpaid break

	Time
Shift start	09:00
Shift end	17:00
Total shift length	8 hours
Break (unpaid)	30 minutes
Paid hours	7 hours 30 minutes

Example: 8-hour shift with a 30-minute paid break

	Time
Shift start	09:00
Shift end	17:00
Total shift length	8 hours
Break (paid)	30 minutes
Paid hours	8 hours

tip

In UK hospitality, unpaid breaks are the norm. Most operators offer a 30-minute unpaid break for shifts of 6 hours or more. If you offer paid breaks as a perk, make sure your budget accounts for the extra cost.

UK Break Regulations

Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, workers are entitled to an uninterrupted rest break of at least 20 minutes when their daily working time exceeds 6 hours. StaffBrik helps you stay compliant:

• When you create a shift of 6 hours or more without a break, or with a break under 20 minutes, StaffBrik displays a warning.
• It is only a warning. A break you type by hand, including 0, is kept, because only you know what was agreed.
• You can set breaks longer than 20 minutes (30 minutes is standard in most hospitality venues).

caution

The 20-minute break is a legal minimum, not a suggestion. Consistently scheduling 6-hour-plus shifts without breaks puts you at risk of a Working Time Regulations breach. StaffBrik's warning is there to protect you - do not ignore it.

Young Workers (Under 18)

If you employ anyone under 18, the rules are stricter:

• A 30-minute break is required for shifts exceeding 4.5 hours (not 6 hours).
• StaffBrik applies this threshold automatically based on the employee's date of birth.

Cost Preview

When creating or editing a shift, StaffBrik shows a cost preview in real time. This tells you exactly how much the shift will cost before you commit:

Detail	Value
Employee	Sarah Patel
Hourly rate	£11.44
Paid hours	7.5 hrs
Shift cost	£85.80

The cost preview updates as you adjust times and breaks, so you can experiment with different configurations and see the impact on your budget instantly.

info

The cost preview uses the employee's own pay rate in force on the shift's date. The role on the shift never changes the rate.

Shift Costs and Pay Changes

Each shift is costed at the employee's pay rate in force on the shift's own date. When pay changes, StaffBrik keeps the rota up to date for the weeks that are still to come, and leaves finished weeks alone:

• These re-cost the current rota week and every week ahead: scheduling, editing or deleting a pay rate, a backdated rate arriving from your payroll sync, and a change to someone's contracted hours.
• Each shift uses the rate in force on its date, so a rise from 1 April applies to shifts from 1 April, whenever they were added to the rota.
• Weeks that have ended keep their costs. Last month's rota and reports always show what those weeks cost at the time.

Example scenario:

1. In March, you build Tom's rota for March and April at £11.44/hr.
2. You then schedule Tom's pay rise to £12.00/hr from 1 April.
3. Tom's shifts dated from 1 April move to £12.00/hr straight away, even though they were created in March. His March shifts stay at £11.44/hr.
4. Once March's weeks have ended, they are never re-costed, even if his March rate is later corrected.

The rota and the shift cards refresh as soon as a pay rate changes.

tip

Schedule a known pay rise, such as the April minimum wage increase, as soon as you know it. The rota weeks ahead are re-costed at once, so your budgets show the real cost before you publish.

Role Assignment

Each shift can optionally be assigned a role - the specific job the employee is performing during that shift. Common roles in hospitality include:

• Barista
• Server / Front of house
• Kitchen porter
• Chef / Cook
• Shift supervisor
• Baker
• Delivery driver

Roles give clarity on the rota: when you print or publish the rota, staff can see not just when they are working but what role they are filling. A shift with no role of its own shows the person's usual role, on the rota and in the Team App.

The role does not change what a shift costs. Shift costs always use the employee's own pay rate. If someone is paid more when they run a shift as supervisor, give them a pay rate that reflects it.

Shift Patterns for Hospitality

Here are some common shift patterns used by Brikly customers:

Early / Late Split (Restaurant)

Shift	Time	Break	Paid hours
Early	08:00 - 15:00	30 min (unpaid)	6.5 hrs
Late	15:00 - 23:00	30 min (unpaid)	7.5 hrs

Single Full Day (Bakery)

Shift	Time	Break	Paid hours
Full day	05:00 - 13:00	30 min (unpaid)	7.5 hrs

Weekend Short (Cafe)

Shift	Time	Break	Paid hours
Morning	07:00 - 12:00	None (under 6 hrs)	5 hrs
Afternoon	12:00 - 17:00	None (under 6 hrs)	5 hrs

info

Shifts under 6 hours do not legally require a break - but many operators still offer a 15-minute break as good practice, especially in physically demanding roles like kitchen work.