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Roster Building & publishing

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Building your roster

In foundU, rosters are created from operations. Each operation can have many sub rosters which are useful for separating departments or teams. You can also print rosters as needed.

In this article, we'll walk you through the basics of how to build your rosters. We'll also look at some time-saving features, reporting, and notifications.

  • Managing the roster overview page
  • Adding employees and shifts to your roster
  • Sorting and adjusting your display features on your roster
  • Editing, copying, and deleting shifts
  • Using the notes feature on your roster
  • Publishing your roster so employees can see the shifts in their App
  • Creating roster templates can be found in this article
  • Copying your roster from week to week 
  • Roster Export report
  • Roster notifications to your employees & admin

  Once you've got a handle on all the basics, make sure you check out our Roster Shortcuts article to ensure you're using all the time-saving tools & tips available.

Managing the roster overview page

Understanding & navigating the roster overview page

Locate your rosters by navigating to Work > Rosters. Here you will see an overview of all of your rosters within each operation.

Understanding the roster overview

There are two key things to note on the roster overview; Operations, and Rosters.

In the below image, the highlighted text is Operations. Within the Operations sit your rosters.

  • Clicking on the Operation name (e.g. Caffeine Express Milton above) will open all the rosters within that operation.
  • Clicking on the blue badge (e.g. 7 Rosters above) or the white space to the right of the Operation name will expand the operation so that you can see each roster individually. 
    Click on a single roster to open that one individually. 

 

Navigating the roster overview

  • All the operations & rosters that you have access to will be visible by default. You can filter to single operations by using the Select Operation drown-down menu.
  • Use the Date picker to navigate to the desired week. Click on the arrows to move a single week or click on the date to expand a date selector. When opening the rosters menu, the system will always default to the current week. 
  • The Hide Rosters without shifts toggle can be used to display only rosters with shifts. This will work in conjunction with the Select Operation filtering & the date selector.
  • You can create new or restore archived rosters from the Add Roster button. 
  • Create Bulk Shifts allows you to create multiple shifts at once and assign them or offer them out to multiple employees. You can read more about this in the 'Create shifts in bulk' section below. 

Roster Building Basics

Add employees

The best place to start when building out a roster is often to add the pool of employees that you would like to assign shifts to. 

There are multiple ways to add employees and shifts to your roster. These include:

    • Add employees 
    • Add shifts
    • Add positions (see Sort your roster and adjust your roster view below)
    • Copy & paste shifts from one day/week to another 
    • Copy a roster forward from a previous week
    • Apply a roster template
    • Use the bulk shifts feature from the roster overview
    • Or use the Bulk Roster shifts Import 

The method you use to build your roster, as well as whether you utilize any or all of the above features, will depend on the preferences of your business, its size, and workforce.

We will cover the basic way to add an employee using the 'Add employee to Roster' modal. From this modal you can add employees one at a time, or in bulk.

To add a single or multiple employees:

  1. Select the + box under the Name header on the roster.
  2. From the 'Add employee to roster' modal you'll see all employees who have the relevant location assigned to work on this roster. You have various ways to search for or add employees including:
    • Select an individual employee.
    • Multi-select employees in bulk.
    • Use the search by name field to locate a specific employee.
    • Use the search by position field for all employees who have a specific position assigned to them. This will return only employees who have this position.
  3. Additionally slide on the Availablity toggle - Once activated, the pool of employees will only return available employees.  be displayed with their availability seen on the right.
  4. Additional sorting options of Name, Hours worked or Age are also available. 

  5. Choose your employee/s and select Add.

You'll now see your selected employees displayed on the left-hand side and are ready to assign shifts to these employees.

  Tip: If you cannot find an employee on your roster, this could be due to an employee configuration issue, position issue, or Award issue. To diagnose your issue please refer to this troubleshooting guide. If you happen to know that this is a new employee, try and add a shift on their initial start day (for example, directly to the Thursday 05/09).

In the below example, you can watch along to see how we add a single employee, add multiple employees, search for a specific employee as well as use the Name, Hours worked and Age sorting options.

 

Pin employees to your roster

The 'pin empty rows' display feature allows employees without shifts to stay on your roster from week to week. Like all roster display features, this feature is unique to each admin user, meaning your pool of saved employees may differ from another user of the same roster.

There are various uses for this feature including:

  • Keeping permanent employees pinned on your roster and adding casuals as needed.
  • Keeping your A-team pinned on the roster so they can be rostered first.
  • Pinning a specific casual pool of employees to each roster.

In the example below you can see the use of 'pin empty rows' and how it retains your selected employee pool from week to week.

             

Add shifts

You can add shifts either individually or in bulk.

Add a shift individually

  1. Click the + sign on the day you wish to add a shift. 
    • If you click the + sign at the top of the roster (against no employee), this will not pre-select any employees. This method works best when you want to add a position and find which employees are available. 
    • If you have added employees to the roster, you can click the + sign next to the employee name to assign a shift to them. This method works well if you know exactly who is getting what shifts.

  2. This will open the Create shift menu on the right.

  3. Enter the start and end time of the shift. Some helpful time input shortcuts:
    • 4p = 4:00 pm
    • 730 = 7:30 am (no colons or full stops required)
    • 7.5 = 7:30 am (decimal points)
    • 1630 = 4:30 pm (24hr time)
  4. Optionally mark the checkbox to Display end time to employee as "Until required".

      Hot tip: An end time for the shift is still mandatory for the creation of the shift. The end time specified will be used for roster costing & analytics. The 'until required' state of the shift will be displayed as follows:
    • The admin would see the following in the create shift menu & roster.



    • The employee would see an 'until required' end time in their profile.

  5. Include a break by selecting the option to do so and change the default of 30 minutes if required.
    • Optionally add a start time for the break. This will be visible to the employee in their app and (if no break is clocked) will be used for the break time in Approve Shifts.

        Hot tip: You can create and set break rules using Roster break rules. This will automatically apply a break time to your shifts. If you require a different break time or length, you can override it in the shift.
  6. Select a Position.

      Hot tip: Selecting a position with no employee set will filter your available employees based on who can work in this position.
  7. Select an Employee. Employee availability can be clearly seen and employees can be sorted by Name, Hours worked, or Age.

      Hot tip: Selecting an employee with no position set will filter the available positions based on what is assigned to the employee and what can be worked on this roster. 
  8. Optionally Add Notes.
    • Clicking into Add Note will display another menu to the left where you can enter your shift note.
    • Optionally choose to make the note visible to the employees by enabling the toggle.
    • Add more notes by clicking Add a note under your existing note/s.
    • Once done, click the green tick at the top.

  9. Optionally Add Allowances.
    • Clicking into Add Allowance will display another menu to the left where you can enter your allowances for the shift.
    • Multiple allowances can be added if required. 
    • Once done, click the green tick at the top.

  10. Optionally Add Requirements.
    • Clicking on Add Requirements will display another menu to the left where you can enter your tag or license requirements.
    • Adding requirements to a shift will filter your available employees so that only those that meet the requirements are selectable.
    • Searching in the tag field will search for both tags & tag groups.
    • Multiple requirements can be added to a shift.
    • Once done, click the green tick at the top.

  11. Click Create Shift at the bottom.

Add shifts in bulk

  1. In the quick menu select Work > Rosters (or via Work> Create shifts in the Operations portal) and select your desired roster.
  2. Click the + symbol (any day) on the required roster, then click create multiple shifts toward the bottom of the Create shift menu.

  3. Select the bulk shift details including the individual desired days (or you can also select weekdays or weekends instead of clicking individual on the days). The start time of the shift. End time of the shift or until required (if the end time is flexible). Break time. Roster (will default to the current roster that you're on, or you can select a different roster)
  4. If have any specific requirements you can add these here:
    • The position 
    • Count (how many people in that position are required)
    • If any allowances apply to the position (optional)
    • Any notes (including if you would like the employee to be able to see these notes).
    • Tags are optionally used to filter the available employees (employees must have the tag to be selectable).
    • Click Add requirement.
    • And then Create.
  5. The shifts will then display in red on the roster because people have yet to be assigned to those positions.
    • Click the add person icon under name and select your desired person to fill the position. 
    • You can also search by employees who have the desired position, e.g. 'chef' in the example below

  • You can then click and drag the red shifts to the employee and they will turn white.

  Hot tip: Each 'bulk shift' will have the same start/end time. You are able to change the shift times by utilising the edit function if required. 
Sort your roster and adjust your roster view

When building the roster the default view is shift view with employees being sorted alphabetically. You can also click on sort by a-z to display employee reverse alphabetically.

You can also choose to sort your roster by position. This will display positions on the far left column and employee names and shifts under each day.

You can also adjust your roster view to a day view.

This view is useful for:

  • Seeing employee coverage over busy parts of the day.
  • Adjusting employee start and end times for employees in bulk(or adjusting start and end times quickly).

Or you can adjust your roster view to a week view

Using the edit, copy, and delete functions

There will be many scenarios in which you will need to edit a shift to change times, details or even the employee. You can edit shifts even after they have been published but you will be locked from editing once the shift has been clocked onto or approved.

We will cover all key shift changes in the content below:

  • Editing a shift
  • Copying shifts from different days or employees
  • Deleting shifts

Making edits to shifts

To edit a shift:

  1. Click on the shift and click the Edit icon. You can also double-click the shift.
  2. Make your adjustments and click Save.

  Need to edit multiple shifts? You can do this in bulk! Read more about how to do this here.

Copy shifts

You can copy shifts from one day to another and also copy from one employee to another. In the case of the employee, the position needs to remain consistent or else the shift will error.

To copy shifts:

    1. To copy shifts in the roster: Click on the shift you want to copy. Select copy.
    2. Hover the mouse over the days the shift is being copied to and click to paste shifts.
    3. Click Save once you have selected all required days to paste the shift/s.

 

 

Delete shifts

You can delete shifts individually or in bulk.

To delete a single shift:

You can delete an individual shift, click on the shift and then on the delete icon. 

To delete multiple shifts, hold down 'Shift' (or 'Command' if using a Mac) on your keyboard and select the shifts you'd like to delete. From the action bar at the bottom, select delete shifts. 

To delete all the shifts of a single employee for the week, hover over the ellipsis next to the employee name and select Remove employee and shifts.


Delete all shifts on a day

If you have made an error on a day and need to rebuild your roster you can use the 'Delete all shifts over an entire day' function.

In the roster header, you can use the ellipsis to delete all the shifts on a single day. This will delete shifts that are:

    • Published or unpublished
    • In error (red) state or warning (orange)

This function will not delete shifts that are:

  • Approved in any manner (pre-approved, auto-approved)
  • Shifts that have been edited or added in Approve shifts
  • Shifts that have been submitted by candidates
  • Shifts that have been clocked onto
  • Shifts that have been locked by an admin

The below video shows the option to delete all shifts for an entire day.

Other methods for deleting shifts

Should you need to remove multiple shifts from a roster, you can do so using:

  • Delete the employee/s entirely on the left-hand side next to their name
  • Use the bulk shift delete option by holding down the shift key (see video below)
  • Delete all shifts on a day
  • or, select all shifts on an entire roster to delete

  For more information on the methods of bulk deleting shifts from the roster, please see this helpful section in our Roster Shortcuts guide.

Add roster, day, or shift notes

There are three types of notes that you can make use of within your rosters.

  • Roster Note - one note for the entire roster.
  • Day Note - a note for the entire day on a single roster.
  • Shift Note - a note for a specific person on a specific shift on the roster.

 

Roster notes

Roster Notes can be added per roster which will display in your employee rosters and appear on the printed roster.

This is great for a reminder that you'd like everyone on this roster to see when they view their roster receive each week.

To add a roster note:

  1. Click on the note icon next to the roster name.
  2. Add in the roster note and choose if you would like employees to be able to see the Roster notes by selecting the on for visible to the employee toggle.
  3. Select update note. You'll now see the roster displayed at the bottom of the roster (if you have visibility on).

  Hot tip: If roster notes are visible to the employee, they can be seen from the employee profile without the need to republish the roster, assuming the employee has a shift on that roster.

 

Day notes

Roster Day Notes can be added per roster which will display in your employee rosters on the selected day and appear on the printed roster.

This is great for team announcements (e.g. today we have a large group coming through- we will be busy).

To add a day note:

  1. From your roster, click the ellipsis on the day, then select Day note.



  2. Optionally toggle visible to employees.
  3. Type in your comment and click Add note.
  4. The note icon will now turn orange and be added to the bottom of the roster with the date.

  Hot tip: If day notes are visible to the employee, they can be seen in the Employee App without the need to republish the roster, provided the employee has a shift on that day.

 

Shift notes

Notes can be added to individual shifts. This is great for individual communications with or about an employee or shift (e.g. Please remember to bring your keys as you are closing tonight.)

To add a shift note:

  1. Add a new shift, or edit an existing shift
  2. Click on Add note and then add in your comment.
  3. Optionally toggle 'Note is visible to employee'.

  4. Click the green tick and then Save shift.

  Hot tip: If shift notes are visible to the employee, they can be seen from the employee profile once the roster has been published. Shift notes are also displayed in the communication sent to the employee via email or SMS.

Managing shift errors

There are instances where your shifts may end up in an error state. Errored shifts are unable to be published until the issue has been resolved. Most shift errors are easy to identify and resolve.

  • Shifts in an error state are coloured red.
  • you can publish a roster with errored shifts. Only the errored shifts will not publish.

Below is a list of some of the common shift errors and ways that you can resolve them.

  • Employee has a conflicting shift.
    The employee has a published shift at the same time. This may be on the same roster or a different one. To rectify, remove the conflicting shift or assign the current shift to a different employee.
  • Maximum shift duration has been exceeded.
    The default maximum shift duration is 12 hours. To rectify, reduce the shift length if this was done in error. Alternatively, you can customise the maximum shift duration from system settings. 
  • Employee does not have the selected position assigned.
    In order for an employee to be assigned a position on a roster, they must have that position with the correct location assigned on their profile. To rectify, ensure that the employee has the assigned position and the corresponding location for that roster. You can also assign the position to a different employee or assign a different position to the current employee.

  You can read more information about shift errors here. 

Publish roster

Publishing your roster is the final step in your rostering build. Once you publish your roster, you make your roster public 

You have 3 options for publishing:

  1. Publish & Notify - Employees will receive an email/SMS regarding their upcoming shifts.
    This is the default option and will be used in most cases.
  2. Publish - Employees will not receive a notification regarding their shifts but can still see them in the employee app.
    This option is ideal for when you make minor changes to an already published roster. If you don't need your employees to be aware of the changes you've just made, you can publish without notifying them.
  3. Send offers - Employees will have the ability to accept or decline the rostered shifts you've created. A notification email/SMS will be sent.
    If your business allows employees to accept or decline shifts, this option will help facilitate that. You can read more about shift offers here. 

Publish a roster

When you are ready to publish the roster, click Publish & notify in the top-right corner.

  • This will send your employees an email and/or SMS notification of their shift details. Employees will also be able to see their assigned shifts in their employee app.
  • The number displayed above the Publish & notify button indicates the number of shifts that will be published.
  • Within the roster menu, the shifts will turn green, denoting that they are published.

Admin view:


Employee view:

Once published employees will be able to see their shifts.

 

Additional information

All the publishing options work in conjunction with the various filtering methods. Some examples of how this can be used are:

  • Publish shifts for specific employees and send offers to the rest
    • Use the filters to select the individual employees (or positions). 
    • Note that the number above publish & notify has changed. Publish & notify.
    • Clear the filters or navigate back to the same roster (effectively clearing the filters in doing so).
    • Send offers.
  • Publish shifts for specific days that are completed before you finish the entire roster
    • Change your roster to the Day view
    • Navigate to the correct day
    • Publish & notify

Options for Faster Rostering

Copy roster to a future week *NEW

If your rosters remain consistent from week to week, or if you use similar shifts for different employees, you can duplicate an existing roster from a previous week to a future week. This will help you streamline the rostering process.

When copying a roster forward you'll be able to choose which elements of the roster you would like to carry forward onto the copied week. Included in a roster copy are:

  • Employees
  • Budget 
  • Shift comments 
  • Day notes
  • Cost codes 

Some of the above elements are optional to include in the copy, however the option of Employee will always be selected by default. 

  Tip: Deselect the employee option to copy shifts forward to a future week as unfilled shifts. Using this method you'll be able to reassign shifts to new employees each week depending on availability.

 

To copy a roster:

  1. Select Tools > Copy roster.
  2. Select the week commencing date you'd like to copy the roster to.
    • Starting next week - The dates will default to next week which allows for a quick copying of shifts week to week.
    • Starting another week - This will enable the date picker allowing you to specify which week you want to copy shifts to.
  3. Choose the roster elements to include in the copy. By default 'Employees' will be selected and the additional fields will be unselected. Make adjustments as you wish.
    • Employees - deselect to copy shifts across without employees attached.
    • Budget (optional)
    • Shift comments (optional)
    • Day notes (optional)
    • Cost codes (optional)

        Please note: Allowances, requirements, and tags attached to shifts will automatically copy with the associated shifts, eliminating the need to select a checkbox for these items.
  4. Review the copy roster summary in the blue field to ensure you are copying to the correct week. This will include the number of copied shifts and the date the shifts are being copied.
  5. Select Copy roster.

Your copied shifts will be in a draft state, allowing you to edit them before publishing. You're now ready to review any errors and warnings, before publishing and notifying your employees of their shifts.

If you have copied a roster into a week in error you can individually delete shifts that are not required, or use the Bulk delete shifts option from the Tools menu.

  If you would like to create multiple weeks of rosters at once instead of copying your roster forward over and over, you may consider using the Roster Templates feature instead, we will cover this below.

Create a Roster Template

Now that you've created a roster, you may want to save it as a template to make rostering easier in the future. Roster templates are a great time-saving tool, designed to make rostering faster and easier! 

Some common use cases for Roster Templates include:

  • 2 and 3-week Rotating rosters
  • Using a roster template to build out rosters 8-12 weeks in advance
  • Event rosters
  • Rosters for busier weeks or quiet weeks
  • Weeks that contain public holidays

  You can read more about Roster Templates here.

Create shifts in bulk by import or using Bulk shifts

If you'd like to create shifts in bulk shifts to save time we have multiple options for you to use. The 2 most commonly used will be:

  • Using the Bulk shifts option from the Roster overview page to:
    • Create shifts in bulk across single days or recurring weeks and days.
    • You can also use this method to offer shifts in bulk.
  • Using the Bulk Roster shifts Import to easily create rosters with or without shifts attached.

 

Using the Bulk Shifts option

The Bulk Shifts feature is the general go-to method when offering shifts and is particularly beneficial in the following situations:

    • Filling shifts when employees call in sick
    • Rostering for a large event or shift work
    • Building out rosters months in advance

    • The ability to create rosters with assigned shifts (for your A-grade team) while using Shift Offers to offer remaining shifts (for your casual pool) in one place

  To understand the full details about using this feature, please use our detailed guide.

 

Using the Bulk Roster Shifts Import

The Bulk Import for Shifts feature allows you to quickly and easily create rosters with our without employees attached by using a CSV Import. This is beneficial in the following situations:

    • As an alternate method of templating rosters
    • To create a large number of shifts in bulk
    • To create rosters quickly in foundU when coming from another software system

  To understand the full details about using this feature, please use our detailed guide.

Roster Metrics and Reports

Using Roster Budgets & Roster Analytics

If you would like to display additional metrics on your roster to use in understanding the data behind your workforce, you can optionally use the below roster features.

To get the most from your roster data, consider using the following features:

  • Roster Budget -  From the Tools menu, set a daily or weekly budget to ensure you use your employee labour accurately.
  • Roster Analytics - See a total running summary of your weekly total for your rosters. This permission-controlled feature will allow you to see more detailed roster metrics including key costs such as estimated wage costs, average hourly wage, and many more.
  • Import additional data to display in Roster Analytics - You can import sales values, number of sales, number of customers or number of items sold to display against your Roster Analytics.

 

Using the Roster Budget

Generally in most industries the amount of employee labour hours used each week is dictated by a budget that is based on the business needs or sales. In foundU you can use your Roster budget to:

    • Set a daily or weekly budget in either a dollar figure or an hours figure.
    • See a percentage of the budget used in your Roaster analytics bar after and during the roster drafting process.
    • Prevent a roster from being published when over budget.
    • Roster budgets can also be imported in bulk should your business forecast these far in the future.

  To understand the full details about using this feature, please use our Roster Budget detailed guide.

 

Using Roster Analytics

Understand all of your labour costs at a glance on the top of your roster as well as in a more detailed Roster Analytics drawer. In foundU you can use your Roster analytics to:

    • Deep dive into all of the key metrics used on your roster displayed in 2 key places - The Roster Analytics Bar on the top of your roster, and the more detailed Roster Efficiency Drawer.

    • Within Roster Analytics, you can see a running summary of your weekly totals for your rosters. Key roster metrics include:

      • Staff - Amount of staff with shifts. 
      • Hrs -  The total number of hours from shifts. 
      • Sales - A total of estimated sales. 
      • Est. wage - The total of estimated labour costs.
        • You can hover over Est. wage to see the percentage of your budget used. 
      • Avg. hr wage - Average hourly wage for the week. 
      • Labour: Sales - The percentage of sales estimate used by labour costs.
      • SPLH avg - Average dollar value of sales per labour hour.

  To understand which costs are included in Roster Analytics and how to use the Analytics drawer, please use our Roster Analytics detailed guide.

 

Import data to display in Roster Analytics

Create a new data source to flow into your Roster Analytics. In foundU you can setup an additional date source to display including:

    • Sales made in $ values per day (hourly, or in 15 min intervals). 
    • Number of sales orders or transactions made (quantity).
    • Number of customers.
    • Number of items sold.

  To understand the full details about using this feature, please use our Import data to display in Roster Analytics detailed guide.

Roster Export Report
The Roster export is a helpful Excel file export that you can produce to:
  • Export your roster with shift status filters including published, unpublished, offered, accepted, assigned or cancelled.
  • Easily conduct checks on shift status' in an easy-to-read layout. 
  • Provide a summary report for approvals.

To produce a roster export:

  1. Navigate to your roster via Work > Rosters and select your relevant roster.



  2. Use the Filter to select to view multiple rosters at the same time (if needed).
  3. Select the Tools menu > Export Roster, the default shift types will Published, Offered and Unpublished shifts. Select any additional shift types to export such as Cancelled, Offer Declined and Reassigned shifts. Select Export Roster.
  4. A message will appear letting you know that your export is downloading. This may take a minute or so, depending on the number of rosters you have selected.
  5. When the download is ready it will appear in your notifications speech bubble in the top right of your screen.

  6. Your report is now available to view.
    • You'll be able to see your report formatted in excel grouped by Roster.
    • If you have selected multiple rosters, you'll see a grey line between your rosters in your download.

Roster Notifications

Roster notifications to employees 
There are notifications which will be sent automatically to your employees that are enabled by default. 

These are:

  • When a roster has been published (or republished/updated), a notification informing an employee of their shifts (what their shifts are now).
  • When a shift has been cancelled, a notification informing an employee of their cancelled shift.

      Please note: You will need to republish your roster to take action on the cancellation and trigger the shift cancellation notification for your employee/s. 

  • And sending an offer to an employee from the roster e.g. using 'Send offers'.

If you would like to turn off or customise the message that goes out, this can be located by selecting the hamburger icon > Communication > Communication content and using the search to locate the below templates (either by name or by number).

Assign a shift/ update a shift notification message

  • 100  Shift assign/ update message and/or 101 Shift assign/ updated (no smartphone)- the default template also includes placeholders called #shiftcount and #shiftlist/ #shiftlistsms, using these will allow your employees to see what shifts they have been assigned, updated to work.
    • Below is an example of a platform that sends emails. As the shift has been updated, the employee can click on the link to see the shifts.

    • If however, the template uses #shiftcount and #shiftlist placeholders then the employee will see their new shifts as per the below email example.

Shift cancellation notification message

  • 154 Shift Cancel Message template and/or 155 Shift Cancel Message template (no smartphone user)
    • The example below is for a platform that uses SMS. The cancellation message would be received if a shift was cancelled and the person didn't have a smartphone. If they did have a smartphone, the shifts that were cancelled will be listed. 

       

Shift offer notification message  

  • 57 Employee Roster offer template
    • The example below is for a platform that uses SMS. If your platform does not use SMS, an email will be sent instead.

  You can also see a history of the communication sent to employees in their employee profile and via the Communication log.

Roster notifications to admin

Notifications regarding shift offers can be optionally enabled per roster. The notification can be triggered when an employee accepts or declines an offered shift. You can also customise which admin users receive the notification. 

  You can read more about this here. 

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