Can ResoFlow draft the rota for me?

On the Rota page, Fill the week for me puts people into your saved shifts to cover Staff needed — making a shift up only where no saved shift fits — keeping to each person's areas, set hours, time off, rest breaks, under-18s' limits and the 48 hours. It only makes draft shifts, shows a one-line result first, and says where it's still short.

Yes. Fill the week for me on the Rota page (in the sidebar's Team area — not in Settings) drafts shifts for you. It always makes draft shifts — nobody is told anything until you send the rota, and you can change any shift first like any other.

Set it up once

Open Settings → Team → Rota:

• Staff needed — choose Change. Pick the days (for example Monday to Thursday), then for each area say from when until when you need people and how many: "Bar 10:00–17:00, 2 people", "Kitchen 10:00–17:00, 2 people", "Bar 17:00 until close, 3 people". Use Add a line for another area or time, and Add another set of days for days that are different (say Friday and Saturday). Each day sits in one set. Any time works — a 07:00 clean or a staff meeting too — and a line can run past midnight (a sleepover, say 22:00 until 07:00). Then Save.
• Until close — tick it on a line and the line ends at that day's closing time. Set your closing times in Closing times on the same page (they're filled in from your opening hours where the venue has them), or tick Open 24 hours / no closing time — then "until close" means 05:00 the next morning. A day with no closing time isn't filled for "until close" lines; the plan tells you which day.
• Overlapping lines add up. "Bar 10:00–17:00, 2 people" and "Bar 12:00–14:00, 1 person" means 3 on Bar from 12:00 to 14:00 — the screen says so under the days ("That’s 3 on Bar 12:00–14:00").
• Areas and their Saved shifts — the shifts you use again and again ("Bar open 10:00–17:00", "Bar close 17:00–23:00"). Fill uses these first. Every saved shift uses your break rule (Use the break rule); untick it to give one its own break.
• Set hours — for each person, on their Staff page → Work → Hours → Change: optional hours a week and days a week. The plan shares hours out fairly towards each person's set hours and never gives anyone more days a week than theirs.
• Each person's areas (their Staff page → Work → On the rota) — the plan only puts people in areas they work, and never anyone you've taken off the rota.

If you used Busy times before, they're carried over into Staff needed the first time you open it — check them and save. Nothing is changed until you do.

Fill a week (or a day)

• On the Rota page, go to the week, open More (⋯) and choose Fill the week for me. (From a day's staff-needed strip, Fill the gaps fills just that day.)
• Pick what happens to shifts already on: Keep what’s there (only what's still needed is filled — a shift already on counts for the time it covers, so a 10:00–16:00 shift on a 10:00–17:00 line leaves just 16:00–17:00 to fill) or Replace the draft (draft shifts that were never sent go to Recently deleted for 30 days and the week is filled again; sent shifts stay).
• Read the result at the top: how many Staff needed lines are met, how many shifts it adds (and how many it made up), and where it's still short — one line each. Anything else worth knowing is listed below it; clear each with ✕, or Clear all. The new shifts and everyone's hours are folded away underneath if you want to look.
• Choose Add to save the shifts as drafts, or Cancel to save nothing.

If the week has already been sent, tick the box to add the shifts as changes first — then send them when you're ready. Days that have already gone are never filled, and nor is anything today that has already started. When that leaves nothing to fill, Fill says why instead of a result: This week has finished. (every line of Staff needed this week was on a day already gone) or Everything left this week has already started. — Fill only adds shifts from now on. Press Fill next week to move the Rota page on a week and see the plan for next week (still nothing saved until Add). Only when Staff needed really has nothing for those days does it say Nothing in Staff needed for these days, with a link to set it.

How it decides

• Saved shifts first. For each stretch still needed, Fill takes the saved shift of that area that matches it best (it has to cover most of the stretch). Only where no saved shift fits does it make one up — marked "made up" — and a made-up shift never runs into the next line: "2 Bar 10–17, 3 Bar 17–close" is never one 13-hour Bar shift. A leftover under an hour that no saved shift covers is shown as short rather than made into a tiny shift.
• Joining back-to-back lines into one long shift for one person (a day and a sleepover, say) only happens with Join back-to-back staff needed into one shift on in Settings → Rota, and never past the most hours you set there. It's off unless you turn it on.
• Never broken: only people who work the area; never on a day they're off; never over a time they can't work; one shift a day each; never more days than their set hours; no made-up shift longer than 13 hours; never an under-18 between midnight and 4am; never a new working-time warning — 11 hours' rest between working days (12 for under-18s), 24 hours off in a row each week (48 for under-18s), under-18s' 8 hours a day and 40 a week, and 48 hours a week unless the person has opted out in writing.
• Breaks follow your break rule (Settings → Rota → Breaks), never below the law: 20 minutes over 6 hours (30 minutes over 4½ hours for under-18s). A saved shift with its own break keeps it. With paid breaks, a person's hours include the break.
• Who goes first: people still under their set hours (the furthest below first), then people with no set hours (fewest hours first), then people already at theirs. Someone who has asked for holiday that day and hasn't had an answer yet goes last — the plan says so if it had to use them. Any other time off still waiting for an answer counts as a day off.
• The hardest shift is filled first, so someone who works two areas isn't used up on a shift anyone could do.

When it can't fill something

Each one says why, for example "No one with Bar free Fri 16 Oct 17:00–23:00", with a short reason for each person — "Sam would pass 48 hours", "Jo is on holiday", "Kit can’t work then", "Mia’s set hours are 3 days a week". Time off other than holiday shows as "off" — the plan never says why someone is off.

If nothing is set up yet, it sends you to Staff needed. Plans are worked out fresh each time; if something changes between your look and Add (someone books holiday, say), you're shown the new plan instead of saving the old one.

Related: How do I build the rota? · How do I ask for time off? · How do I publish the rota and tell my team?