FREE · PLANNING & SCHEDULING TOOLS
Shift Schedule Maker.
Build a staff rota for 1 to 8 weeks: shifts through midnight, staff needed per day, skills, absences, rest between shifts and fair nights and weekends.
Your data stays in your browser: nothing is uploaded.
Step 4 of 4: Rota
Steps to use Shift Schedule Maker
Set the first day, the length and the rules (minimum rest, days in a row, nights in a row, days off), then the shifts with their times and the staff needed each weekday, then the employees with their skills, hours, absences and preferences. Press Build the rota, edit any cell, and export a PDF, a CSV or one calendar file per employee.
How Shift Schedule Maker processes your input
Hard rules are never broken by the search: availability, absences, skills, staff needed, minimum rest (overlaps included), consecutive days and nights, no day shift after a night, weekly hours and days off. Uncovered shifts are explained with the number of qualified, available and blocked people. Fairness of nights, weekends and public holidays, hours in proportion to contracts, preferences and grouped days off are optimized by seeded simulated annealing.
Shift Schedule Maker: worked example
A fictitious care unit: 10 staff (2 part-time), early 06:00–14:00 and late 14:00–22:00 with two people each and a night 22:00–06:00 for night-qualified staff, every day for two weeks.
Build a staff rota in four steps
- Period and rules: the first day, 1 to 8 weeks, the open days, public holidays, the minimum rest between two shifts (11 h by default), the maximum days and nights in a row and the days off per week.
- Shifts and needs: name, start and end (a night such as 22:00–06:00 ends the next day), an optional required skill, and the number of people for each weekday. The 3 × 8 h and 2 × 12 h buttons fill a common pattern.
- Employees: skills, maximum and contract hours per week, weekdays they never work, absence dates and preferred or avoided shifts. You can paste a list.
- Rota: press Build the rota. Every rule is kept; the tool then staffs as many shifts as possible and shares nights, weekends and holidays fairly.
Example: the sample care unit has 10 staff and three 8-hour shifts every day for two weeks. All 70 shifts are staffed; the six night-qualified staff work 1 to 3 nights each (the one who avoids nights works one); the needs equal 80 % of the contracted hours, so full-time staff work 56 to 64 hours and part-time staff 32 hours.
Read and adjust the rota
Each row is an employee and each column a day; a cell shows the shift code in its colour. The totals give hours, contract hours, nights, weekend days and holiday shifts, and the bottom rows show staffed / needed for each shift and day.
Change any cell: the rule problems it creates (rest too short, a day shift after a night, too many days in a row, absence, missing skill, overstaffing) are listed at once, and the cell is kept as it is when you press New rota. When a shift cannot be staffed, the tool explains why, for example “Mon 9 Nov, Night: 6 needed, 5 assigned; 5 of 6 qualified employees are available that day”.
Share the rota
Download a PDF of the grid with a view by shift, a CSV file, or a calendar file (.ics) for one employee or for everyone, which phone and computer calendars can import. Save the rota as a .json file or share a link. To total the hours of a timesheet, use the work hours calculator; to find public holidays of a country, the public holidays tool.
Questions about Shift Schedule Maker
Does the tool follow labour law?
It applies the rules you enter (rest, days and nights in a row, weekly hours, days off) and never breaks them. It does not know the law or collective agreement where you work, so set those values yourself.
What happens when there are not enough people?
The rota keeps every rule and leaves the shift short. Each gap is listed with the number of qualified employees, how many are available that day and how many are blocked by rest or limits.
How large can the rota be?
Up to 100 employees, 12 shifts and 8 weeks. A rota of 30 employees over 4 weeks is built in well under a second on a computer.
Are names and schedules uploaded?
No. The rota is calculated in your browser and saved only in this browser, unless you save a file or copy a share link yourself.
Is Shift Schedule Maker free, and do I need an account?
Yes. This tool is free to use in your browser without an account. Processing takes place on your device.
What are the limits and what should I check?
Up to 100 employees, 12 shifts and 8 weeks; one shift per person per day. Weeks are counted from the first day, and the rules you enter are applied as given: the tool does not know local labour law. The rota is the best found by a seeded heuristic, not a proof of the best possible one. Nothing you type is uploaded. Review the result before using it in your work.
Is my input sent to a server?
Your input is processed in your browser and is not uploaded by this tool. Files and pasted text are cleared when the page is refreshed. Normal website requests are still required to load the page and its libraries. Read the privacy explanation.