Most rota tools sit beside your holiday spreadsheet. In RotaTiger they’re one system, so the rota knows who’s off, and holiday is worked out from the shifts people actually do.
Rota patterns
To plan someone on the rota, put them on a rota working pattern. It says how many hours a week they’re contracted for, which days they usually work and when they usually start, along with the limits every shift is checked against: a weekly cap, the longest shift, the minimum rest between shifts, and an average across a number of weeks.
Casual staff with no contracted hours go on a variable pattern. They’re planned on the rota in the same way.
Booking leave before the rota is out
People often want to book holiday weeks or months ahead, long before that week’s rota exists. So until a week is published for someone, RotaTiger counts their usual days: their contracted hours spread across the days they normally work. Someone contracted for 37.5 hours over five usual days can book a day off, and it’s costed at 7.5 hours.
On the rota, usual days in an unplanned week show as dashed shifts. Plan usual days turns them into real draft shifts in one click.
Once the week is published
From then on, the shifts are what count. Hours worked, cover and holiday accrual all use the published shifts. Someone on a rota with no shifts in a published week has that week off.
Leave that was already booked keeps the hours it was booked with. Publishing doesn’t quietly change somebody’s holiday after they’ve booked it.
Leave and sickness on the rota
Holiday shows in its leave type’s colour inside each day, and sickness shows as well. Approved leave for the whole day, or sickness, stops anyone giving that person a shift. A request still waiting for approval, or part of a day off, is a warning. Auto-fill won’t book either.
Holiday for casual staff
Casual staff build up holiday at 12.07% of the hours they work, the usual UK rate for people with irregular hours. Every published shift counts towards it, and so does approved overtime.
Overtime from the rota
When you publish a week that takes someone over their contracted hours or weekly cap, RotaTiger asks whether the extra is overtime. If it is, the extra hours are recorded as approved overtime, paid or as time off in lieu, ready for the payroll export. Those hours are already in the person’s shifts, so they aren’t counted twice towards holiday accrual. Publishing explains the question.
Hours, not wages
The rota shows hours: each person’s planned hours against their contract, and each day’s total. It doesn’t hold pay rates or show wage costs, because RotaTiger isn’t a payroll system. When it’s time to pay people, the payroll export has the hours.
That’s the whole guide. Back to the start, or plan your first week.