To build a weekly staff roster, start with when you need people (your busy and quiet hours), then check who's available and who's on leave, fill the must-cover shifts first, check everyone's hours and breaks, and publish it to the team with enough notice. That's the whole method. Everything else is about doing those steps faster and with fewer mistakes.
Most cafes and shops in New Zealand still do this in Excel or on a printed sheet out the back. That works, up to a point. Here's the process I'd follow either way, and where a spreadsheet starts to cost you.
What do you need before you start a roster?
Three lists. Get them in front of you before you touch a single shift.
Your demand. When does the shop actually need bodies? Write down your opening hours, then mark the peaks: the 7am coffee rush, the lunch window, Friday night, Saturday morning brunch. Be specific. "Busy at lunch" is less useful than "need four on the floor from 11:45 to 1:30".
Your people. Everyone on the team, what they can do (barista, kitchen, till, close), and the hours you've agreed with them. If someone's employment agreement guarantees 20 hours, that number needs to be on your list.
Their availability and leave. Who can't work Tuesday because of uni? Who's on annual leave next week? This is the list most likely to live in a group chat, a sticky note and three separate text threads. Pull it together first or you'll be redoing the roster on Thursday.
How do you build the roster, step by step?
1. Start from last week
Unless your trade changes a lot week to week, last week's roster is a better starting point than a blank page. Copy it, then change what's different. Most weeks, that's a handful of shifts, not the whole thing.
2. Block out leave and unavailable time
Before you place anyone, take out the people who can't work. Approved leave first, then regular unavailability. It's far easier than rostering someone and then discovering they're in Rarotonga.
3. Fill the anchor shifts
Openers, closers and anyone who has to be there for a specific reason (the person with the keys, the duty manager, the only qualified barista on Sunday). These shifts decide whether the shop can open at all, so place them before anything else.
4. Cover the peaks
Now layer in people for the busy windows. Short shifts often work well here: someone from 11:30 to 2:30 covers lunch without paying for a quiet afternoon. Check your staff are happy with short shifts, and remember that even a short shift still comes with a rest break (more on that in our guide to rest and meal breaks when rostering in NZ).
5. Check hours against what you've agreed
Add up each person's hours. Is anyone well over what they asked for? Is anyone with guaranteed hours under them? Under-rostering someone with guaranteed hours is the mistake that leads to awkward conversations, so check it every week.
6. Check breaks and public holidays
Look at each shift's length and make sure there's room for the breaks it needs. Then look at the calendar. If there's a public holiday in the week, you'll want to roster it on purpose, not by accident. Our post on rostering on NZ public holidays covers what to think about.
7. Publish with notice and tell people
Get the roster out as early as you reasonably can. Plenty of businesses aim for at least a week ahead, and some employment agreements set a notice period, so check yours. Then make sure each person actually knows their shifts. Pinning a sheet to the staffroom wall only works for people who walk past it.
Excel or rostering software: which should you use?
Honestly, if you have four staff and nothing ever changes, a spreadsheet is fine. It's free and you already know how to use it.
The cracks show as you grow. A spreadsheet doesn't know who's on leave. It doesn't know Sarah can't work Tuesdays. It won't warn you that Tom is six hours short of his contracted hours, and it can't tell staff when their shifts change. You become the system that connects all of those things, usually late on a Sunday night.
Rostering software does those connections for you. In WeRoster, for example, staff set their own availability and it shows behind each person in the roster editor, approved leave blocks out time automatically, public holidays appear on the right days, and you get a warning when someone's rostered hours don't match the hours per week you've recorded for them. You build shifts by clicking and dragging on a 15-minute grid, copy a previous week forward, and publish. Each staff member then gets an email with their own shifts for the week.
That's the difference: a spreadsheet records the roster you made. Software helps you make it.
What mistakes do people make with weekly rosters?
A few come up again and again.
- Building from scratch every week. Copy the last good week and edit it.
- Rostering before checking leave. It guarantees a rewrite.
- Forgetting guaranteed hours. Easy to miss in a busy week, and it matters.
- Shifts with no room for breaks. A 9 to 5 with three people on the floor and no overlap means someone skips their break.
- Publishing late. Staff have lives. A roster that appears on Sunday night for Monday morning makes it hard for them to plan, and harder for you to keep good people.
- Changing it quietly. If you change a published roster, tell the people affected directly.
How long should a weekly roster take?
There's no right number, but if it's taking you hours every week, the process is doing the work your tools should be doing. The biggest time savings come from starting with last week's roster, having availability and leave in one place, and not having to message everyone individually after you publish. We wrote a whole post on how to cut your rostering time.
If you want to try building your next roster in WeRoster, there's a 14-day free trial, and the plans for each team size are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
What should a staff roster include?
At minimum: each person's name, the days and start and finish times of their shifts, and the week it covers. Useful extras are roles (for example barista or kitchen), notes for the day, and total hours per person.
How far in advance should I publish a roster?
As early as you reasonably can. Check your employment agreements, since some set a notice period for rosters or changes, and remember staff need time to plan around their shifts.
Can I build a roster in Excel?
Yes, and for a very small team it can work well. It gets harder once you need to track availability, leave, contracted hours and changes across a larger team, which is where rostering software helps.
What is the fastest way to make a weekly roster?
Copy last week's roster, remove anyone on leave or unavailable, then adjust for the week's demand. Having availability and leave in the same place as the roster saves the most time.