How do I build the rota?

The Rota page (Team → Rota) is the week — people as rows, days as columns. Add shifts from each person's saved shifts, copy and paste shifts, repeat a week onto the next ones, copy last week (with Undo), print it, leave open shifts for anyone in that area, see booked covers in each day's heading, and see planned hours and working-time warnings that never stop you saving. Nothing asks for a PIN.

The Rota page sits in the Team area of the sidebar, beside Staff. It shows one week at a time like a spreadsheet: your team as rows, the days as columns, each shift in its day, and each person's planned hours at the end of their row. Door and Kitchen screen logins, and anyone you've left off the rota, don't get a row — unless they have a shift that week, so a shift is never hidden.

At the top, the line says which week it is and whether it's a draft or published; the buttons are Add shift and Publish (once the week is published, Send changes — see How do I publish the rota and tell my team?), and More (⋯) holds everything else: Copy last week, Fill the week for me, Copy and paste and Repeat this week; Send the whole week again once it's published; then the week's files — Download this week (CSV), Download this week (Excel), Print this week and Import a rota; then Saved shifts and Recently deleted; and last, in red, Delete this week (on a phone More holds Add shift too). Nothing on the rota asks for a password or a PIN — whatever you delete waits in Recently deleted for 30 days. The gear opens the rota settings. The arrows to the week before and after sit just under the top, on the page's own row.

Rotas come with the Complete plan, or with the Team product (£25 per month) on any other plan. The rota starts switched off: an owner or admin switches it on once with Set up the rota on this page (see "How do I set up the rota?"). The Team product covers up to 25 people on the rota in all — your full staff logins and your Team members together (Door and Kitchen screen logins, and anyone you've left off the rota, don't count); Complete has no limit. If your team grows past 25, the Rota page says so and points to Complete — nothing is switched off and nobody is taken off the rota.

If the Team product comes off your bill (and you're not on Complete), the rota can't be viewed or changed and no new Team member (shifts and clock-in only) logins can be added. Taking Team off deletes nothing — your rotas, clock-ins, holidays and the Team member logins on Staff are still there when you add Team again (or move to Complete).

Someone who only needs their shifts can have a Team member (shifts and clock-in only) login: they clock in and out, see their own shifts, ask for time off and swaps, read your tipping policy, comment on a draft of it and ask for their own tips record, and never use one of your plan's staff logins.

Add a shift

Click an empty day in someone's row (or + Add there) and a small menu opens right in that spot:

On a phone, + Add in the Day and Person views opens the same menu. Click a shift that's already on the rota and the shift editor opens for it; Add shift at the top opens the same editor. The shift editor has everything:

On a computer you can drag a shift to another person or day; hold Alt (Option on a Mac) while you drop it to copy it instead. On an iPad or tablet, press and hold a shift for a moment, then drag it where it goes. While you drag, a box the shift can't go to is greyed (they're off or on holiday that day, or already working then). Dropping it on someone outside their areas, or where it would break a working-time rule, asks first — "Sam doesn't usually work Bar — give it anyway?" — with Give it anyway or Cancel.

Areas and saved shifts

Your Areas (Kitchen, Bar…) and your Saved shifts (the times you usually run — "Lunch 11:30–15:00") are set in Settings → Team → Rota. The areas each person works are on their Staff page → Work → On the rota (or click their name on the rota) — they decide which saved shifts the quick menu offers them.

Click an empty day in someone's row and pick a saved shift in the menu — the shift is added at once. In the shift editor, Saved shifts fills in its times, break, area and note instead, and Save as a saved shift keeps what you've typed under a name you give it. Saved shifts in the rota's More (⋯) lists them all too. Deleting one never changes the shifts made from it.

Copy and paste a day or a person's week

Copy and paste in the rota's More (⋯) menu (or the copy button beside a day's name or a person's name) copies A day — everyone's shifts or one person's — onto others in the week, or A person’s week onto someone else (or as open shifts). The rota checks the copies first and lists every clash: someone on holiday or away, a time they've said they can't work, or a shift they already have then. A clash is left out unless you tick to add it anyway. Copies for screen logins, or anyone off the rota, are open shifts. Nothing already on the rota is ever replaced — the copies are new draft shifts beside it. Straight afterwards Undo takes them out again.

Repeat this week

Repeat this week copies the week's shifts onto the weeks after it — choose how many under For the next (1 to 8 weeks). Each week is listed first with what it adds. A week that already has shifts is left as it is. If someone is on holiday or away then, their shift becomes an open shift for someone else to take — and so does a screen login's shift, or anyone's off the rota, which each week's line counts. Everything is added as draft shifts and nothing is published, so each week waits for you to publish it. Undo straight afterwards takes them all out again.

Print the week

Print this week (in the rota's More ⋯) opens your browser's print with the week on one page: your team down the side, the seven days across, each person's hours and each day's hours (choose "Save as PDF" in the print window for a file). The paper lists the same people as the week's rows — no empty rows for Door and Kitchen screen logins. On paper sickness is never named and nobody's pay is shown — it's made to go on the wall. A shift that isn't published yet has a * beside it.

Use the keyboard

On a computer, click a cell in the grid (or Tab to it) and use the arrow keys to move between days and people; Home and End jump to the first and last day. Enter opens the menu on an empty day (or the shift editor on a day with a shift); the arrow keys, Home and End move through the menu, Enter picks, and Esc closes it again. Ctrl+C copies the shifts in a cell and Ctrl+V pastes them into another (⌘C and ⌘V on a Mac) — if they'd clash, the rota asks first.

Mark someone off, sick or on holiday

Click an empty day in a person's row and choose Holiday, Sick or Day off in the menu — or, in the shift editor, the same three under "Or mark them" (in the Day and Person views, the … beside them offers the same Holiday, Sick and Day off). The day then shows in its colour — holiday blue, sick red, off grey. If Holiday would take someone past what they have left (or past what they'll have built up by then), the rota says so first and offers Mark anyway with how far over it goes — marking it anyway is recorded, just like Approve anyway on Requests.

If they already have a shift that day, the rota asks each time what happens to it: Make it an open shift (someone else can take it) or Remove the shift (it waits in Recently deleted for 30 days). If your venue has open shifts switched off, there's no open-shift choice — the rota says it removes the shift and asks you to confirm. It never asks for a password or a PIN. Straight afterwards Undo puts everything back. If the week is published, the person keeps seeing the shift until you press Send changes.

Only people who approve time off can mark someone (owners, admins and managers to start with). A marked day is time off like any other — it shows on Requests and a holiday counts against the person's allowance. Sick shows as "Off" to anyone who can't see sickness. To change your mind, click the day and choose Remove the time off (for time off that runs over several days, all of it goes).

One person's work details

Click a person's name on the rota (on a phone, the Person view's "work details" link) and their work cards open beside the week — the same cards as their Staff page → Work: On the rota, Hours, When they work, and Holiday and Pay when those are switched on (pay only for owners and admins). Change on a card opens a small window. Managers can use this even when they can't open Staff.

Booked covers and days off on the grid

Each day's heading shows how many covers are booked that day ("84 booked") — from your real bookings, so you can staff a busy Friday properly. Someone's regular day off ("always off", set on their Staff page → Work → When they work) shows greyed in their row as "Off (Tue)", and a shift put there warns you, as before.

See the rota your way

Choose Week, Day or Person above the rota. Week is the spreadsheet. Day lists who's working that day by start time, then open shifts, then who's off — and last, under Not working, everyone on the rota who has no shift and no time off that day, each with + Add for the same menu as an empty box on the week (pick a saved shift, Holiday, Sick, Day off or Custom times…). Door and Kitchen screen logins, and anyone left off the rota, are never listed. Person shows one person's seven days, their hours and their days off — Whose week offers the same people as the week's rows.

On a phone you get the whole rota too. It opens on Day — one day at a time with everyone's shifts; the arrows beside the days (or a swipe left or right) move to the next or the day before. Week is the full spreadsheet: it scrolls sideways while the names stay put down the left. Tap a day in someone's row for the same menu as on a computer, and a shift for the shift editor.

Totals and costs

Each person's row ends with their planned hours for the week, and under it their days off — holiday, sick and off are counted on their own and never as hours worked. The last row gives each day's planned hours and how many people are off. If you can see pay and your venue has pay rates switched on, each person's planned pay shows too, and Planned cost at the top estimates the week (pay, employer National Insurance and pension).

A shift on someone's approved time off, or at a time they've said they can't work, shows a warning on the shift. When requests are waiting, a link above the rota takes you to Requests.

Let ResoFlow draft it

Fill the week for me drafts the week from your Staff needed (in the rota settings) and each person's set hours (on their Staff page → Work) — always as draft shifts you check first. On a week that's already over it says so and offers Fill next week. See Can ResoFlow draft the rota for me?.

Copy last week

Copy last week asks first ("Copy 23 shifts from last week into this week as drafts?"), then copies every shift from the week before into this week as a draft, keeping each weekday and person. A screen login's shift comes across as an open shift, as does one for anyone off the rota; the message counts them. If your venue has open shifts switched off, those are left out instead (the message says how many). Undo straight afterwards takes the copies out again (any you've changed since stay). Nothing is sent to anyone until you publish — or, in a published week, until you send changes.

Under each day: who's on against Staff needed

Under each day, the strip compares who's on with Staff needed: an area in red shows how many are on, how many are needed and when; Fill the gaps fills that day. An overnight shift or sleepover from the last night of the week before counts on the first day until it finishes, and the rest warnings count from then too. A name with a "Seen" tick has seen the latest version you sent them — sending changes to someone else doesn't undo it.

Warnings never stop you

The rota warns about the UK working-time rules — less than 11 hours' rest between working days, more than 6 hours with no 20-minute break, more than 48 hours in a week (a quiet note for someone who has opted out in writing), no 24 hours off in a row, and the rules for anyone under 18 (8 hours a day, 40 a week, a 30-minute break after 4½ hours, 12 hours' rest). A warning shows on the shift and above the grid; you can always save. These are reminders, not legal advice.

Who is under 18, who has opted out of the 48-hour week and which areas each person works are on their Staff page → Work → On the rota (or click their name on the rota).

Import or download a rota

In the rota's More (⋯), Download this week (CSV) or Download this week (Excel) gives you the week as a file — who, day, start, end, area, break and note. Import a rota reads a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file from a spreadsheet or another rota tool: you see every row before anything is saved, names are matched to your team (match any it doesn't know, or make them open shifts — a name is never matched to a Door or Kitchen screen login: those rows come in as open shifts), and imported shifts start as a draft. A blank template comes in both kinds. More in Can I import or export the rota as a spreadsheet?

Related: How do I publish the rota and tell my team? · Where do I see my shifts? · What can each role do?