How it works

Roster Creator builds a roster of shifts, rest days and flexi days, adds up the hours, and exports it for your Duty Management System (DMS). It’s free, and it all runs in your browser.

1. Start a roster

On the Create a roster page, choose Build new roster. Give the roster a name if you like, and say how many weeks it covers. Every week runs Monday to Sunday.

You’ll then be asked whether you want to pre-make shifts. Pre-made shifts and meal breaks can be added to any day with one click. You can always add more later.

2. Make your shifts and meal breaks

A shift has a name, a start time and a finish time. Times use the 24-hour clock, so type 0700 or 07:00. A shift can finish the next day, for example 22:00 to 06:00.
A meal break can go under the shift (leave it empty for none), or be created separately to add to a day later. Give it a start and finish time, or just its length in minutes. Meal breaks are taken off the working hours.
Hotkeys. When you create a shift or meal break you can give it a hotkey – one letter or number. Click into the hotkey box and press the key you want.

3. Fill in the calendar

Click a day, then click a shift on the right to add it. The calendar moves on to the next day for you. If you’d rather it stayed put, untick Move to the next day after adding under Selected day.
The arrow keys move around the calendar.
Rest Day and Flexi Day are on the right too. Both count as a day off with no hours.
Right-click a day to add a custom shift or a custom meal break, or to remove what’s on it.
A separate meal break goes on the day that’s selected, and that day needs a shift on it already. Because the calendar moves on after a shift, either put the meal break inside the shift, untick the move-on box, or click back onto the day first.
Ctrl + Z undoes the last change.

4. Set or change a hotkey at any time

Every shift, meal break, Rest Day and Flexi Day has a small key box on its row on the right. Click it, press a letter or number, and Save. With a day selected, pressing that key adds it to the day. To change or remove a hotkey, click the box again and press a different key, or press Backspace to clear it. Each key can only be used for one thing at a time.

There are no built-in letter or number shortcuts – only the ones you set yourself. The arrow keys and Ctrl + Z always work.

5. Check the hours

Each day’s hours are the finish time minus the start time, less any meal break. You’ll see a total at the end of every week and for the whole roster.

Importing a roster from Excel

Choose Import and pick an .xlsx file. Roster Creator looks for the weeks and shows you what it found, with the total hours, before anything is imported. It understands two ways of writing a day:

One code per day, such as 07X15, 0700-1530, RD (rest day) or FD (flexi day). Add M30 for a 30-minute meal break, for example 07X15M30.
Separate start, finish and meal cells for each day.

If it doesn’t read your file quite right, open Layout settings to choose the column, the rows and how each day is written. Any code it doesn’t recognise is listed so you can say what it means.

Every roster layout is a little different, so always check the summary and the imported calendar against your original before you rely on it.

Exporting

Export Excel – a workbook with the roster, a key of your shifts, and a day-by-day sheet. The hours are worked out by formula, so you can edit a code and the hours update.
Export PDF – a printable A4 roster, week by week, with the totals.
Export to DMS – a CSV file for uploading to a Duty Management System.

What’s in the DMS file

The CSV has one line for every day, Monday to Sunday, week after week, with eight values on each line:

#	Value	Example
1	Shift code – the start and the finish, each written without the minutes when they’re on the hour. Blank on a day off.	`816` (08:00–16:00), `81630` (08:00–16:30)
2	Week number, counting up through the roster.	`1`, `2`, `3`
3	Day number, counting up through the whole roster (it doesn’t go back to 1 each week).	`1` to `7`, then `8` to `14`
4	Start time, four digits. `0` on a day off.	`0800`
5	Finish time, four digits. `0` on a day off.	`1630`
6	Blank when working. `RD` for a Rest Day, `FD` for a Flexi Day.	`RD`
7	Meal break in minutes.	`30`
8	Always 0.	`0`

Every DMS is set up a little differently. Try a small roster first, and check the file imports the way you expect, before uploading a full one. If some days aren’t filled in yet, Roster Creator warns you before it exports.

If you open the CSV in Excel just to look at it, don’t save it from there – Excel can drop the leading zeros from times like 0800. Upload the file exactly as it was downloaded.

Saving and privacy

Your roster is saved in this browser on this device as you work, so it’s still here next time. Nothing is sent to a server. If you clear your browser’s site data, or use a different browser or computer, the saved roster won’t be there – so export anything you want to keep.

Please read the disclaimer before relying on anything Roster Creator produces.