Free roster template for Australian hospitality venues
A weekly staff roster for pubs, restaurants and cafés, laid out by section the way a venue runs. Download it for Excel or Google Sheets, or print the PDF and fill it in by hand. Free, with no sign-up and no email.
Download the template Download the printable PDF
Excel (.xlsx), 14 KB. Works in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers.
| Section | Name | Start | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bar | Mia | 17:00 | 01:00 |
| Tom | 18:00 | 00:00 | |
| Ana | 20:00 | 01:00 | |
| Floor | Priya | 17:00 | 22:00 |
| Jack | 18:00 | 23:00 | |
| Kitchen | Luca | 16:00 | 22:00 |
| Sam | 17:00 | 21:30 | |
| Gaming | Nobody rostered | ||
A section with nobody on shows up in the cover summary before you publish.
What’s in it
- Rostered by section. Bar, floor, kitchen, gaming and functions are the rows, so you can see who’s covering what. Rename them to match your venue.
- A start and finish for every day. Monday to Sunday, with the dates filled in from the week you pick.
- Hours that add up correctly. Shifts that finish after midnight count properly, and unpaid breaks come off the total.
- A cover summary. How many people each section has every day, and total hours per day. A zero on a night you trade is a gap.
- An optional wage estimate. Enter a base hourly rate to see a rough base cost per person and for the week.
- Ready to print. Landscape on one page wide, with the headings repeated on every page.
How to fill in a weekly roster, step by step
Take a pub with a bistro as the example: a floor (front of house), a kitchen and a bar, open for lunch and dinner, busiest on Friday and Saturday night. The order you fill the roster in matters more than the template.
- Start from your trading hours, not your staff list. Write down when each section is open each day, then mark what’s different about this week: a function in the back room, a footy final, a public holiday. Last week’s sales or covers by the hour tell you where the peak actually sits.
- Set up the sections. Rename the rows to match how you run, such as Floor, Bar and Kitchen, plus Functions if you have a room. The cover summary counts people per section, so get these right first.
- Put in the fixed shifts first. Full-timers and part-timers go in before anyone else. A part-timer usually has regular hours agreed in writing, so roster those as agreed and check your award before changing them. There’s more on this in rostering casual, part-time and full-time staff.
- Fill the peaks with casuals, and stagger the starts. Bring people on as the night builds rather than everyone at five: the kitchen at 16:00 to prep, the first floor staff at 17:00 and a second at 18:00, the bar from 17:00 to close. Check each casual’s availability before you roster them, not after.
- Put a split shift on two rows. The template has one start and finish per person per day. For someone working 10:00 to 14:00 and back again 17:00 to 21:00, add a second row in the same section with the same name. The hours add up correctly; just remember the cover count shows that person twice that day.
- Enter unpaid breaks. Each person’s unpaid breaks for the week come off their total, so rostered hours match paid time.
- Check the cover, then publish. Look at the cover summary under the roster. A 0 on a night you trade is a gap. Fix it, then send the roster out at the same time every week.
For a full Friday night worked through section by section, see how to roster a pub for a busy Friday night.
Rostering fairly and keeping wage costs under control
- Share the hard shifts around. Keep a note of who closed last Friday and who did last Sunday’s double. When the same people always get the late finishes, they’re the first good casuals you lose.
- Publish at the same time every week. Staff can plan around a roster that comes out every Wednesday afternoon. One that lands at 11pm on a Sunday gets swapped, missed and resented. Our post on the right to disconnect and rosters has more on keeping contact in work hours.
- Roster to the trade, not to habit. Compare the hours you rostered with how busy each shift actually was over the last few weeks. Quiet weekday lunches and slow last hours are where hours drift.
- Treat the wage estimate as a floor. The template multiplies hours by a base rate. Evening, weekend and public holiday penalty rates, casual loading, allowances and super all sit on top, so a Saturday hour costs more than a Tuesday one. Put your most expensive hours where the trade is.
- Watch the hours that creep. An early start to set up and a late finish to get the close done add up across a week. Compare what you rostered with what people actually worked before the pay run.
Award rules to check before you publish
A spreadsheet adds up hours. It doesn’t know your award. Most venues are covered by the Hospitality Industry (General) Award, the Restaurant Industry Award or, for clubs, the Registered and Licensed Clubs Award. Before a roster goes out, check what yours says about:
- the minimum shift length for casual and part-time staff (our guide to minimum shift length and breaks covers the hospitality and restaurant awards)
- meal and rest breaks, and the break between one shift and the next
- penalty rates for evenings, weekends and public holidays
- the notice or agreement needed to change a part-timer’s hours or a published roster
- rules and allowances for split shifts
- junior pay rates for younger staff
This is general information, not legal advice. Pay rates and rules change, usually from 1 July each year, so confirm the current details for your venue with the Fair Work Ombudsman, whose pay calculator works out the rates for a given award and level.
When a spreadsheet stops working
A template is a good way to run one venue’s roster. It gets harder when:
- availability clashes, because someone’s uni timetable changed and the roster still has them on Tuesday
- shift swaps happen in the group chat, and the file on the office computer never hears about them
- penalty rates need tracking, because the spreadsheet doesn’t know a Sunday from a Tuesday
- last-minute changes mean sending the whole roster out again and hoping everyone sees the new one
That’s what we’re building Kaslu Work for. Staff see the roster on their phone and get an email when it’s published or a shift changes. You’re warned when you roster someone outside their availability. Staff propose swaps and a manager approves them, so the roster stays the record. Each clock-in is checked against the venue, so rostered and worked hours sit side by side. It doesn’t work out award pay either; if you want that built in, here’s how we compare with Tanda. Our hospitality rostering guide covers the rest, and there’s more on how Kaslu Work fits pubs, restaurants and cafés.
Questions
Is the roster template really free?
Yes. Download it, change it, and use it at as many venues as you like. There’s no sign-up and no email needed.
Does it work in Google Sheets or Numbers?
Yes. In Google Sheets, choose File, then Import, and upload the Excel file. Numbers opens it directly.
How do I roster a split shift?
Give the person a second row in the same section, with lunch on one row and dinner on the other. Their hours add up across both rows. On the printable PDF, use a second row the same way.
How does it handle shifts that finish after midnight?
Type the finish time as it is, such as 01:00. The template counts it as the next morning, so a 17:00 to 01:00 shift is 8 hours.
Does it work out award pay or penalty rates?
No. It adds up rostered hours and, if you enter a base hourly rate, a rough base wage cost. Penalty rates, casual loading, allowances, overtime and super aren’t included. Check your award’s rates with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Can I add more sections or staff?
Yes. Rename the sections in the first column to match your venue. For more people, insert a row inside a section and copy the row above into it, so it picks up the hours formula. The totals and the cover summary include any rows added inside the table.
Done with rosters in spreadsheets?
Kaslu Work puts the roster on every phone and checks each clock-in against the venue’s boundary. There’s a waitlist, and the first pub group is being set up with the team.