How to build a duty roster

What to collect before you start

• Daily staffing needs: how many people each day shift, night shift or 24-hour duty needs; separately for weekends and public holidays if they differ.
• Staff list: who is senior, standing preferences (days only, nights only, 24-hour duties) and part-time staff.
• Leave and requests: leave, sick leave, annual leave and duty requests staff have already made.
• Your organization's rules: rest after a duty, the maximum number of consecutive working days, monthly working hours.
• The last days of the previous month: someone on duty at the end of the month may need to rest on the first day of the new one.

Building a duty roster step by step

1. Prepare the calendar. Mark the days of the month, weekends, public holidays and half-day holiday eves.
2. Enter the fixed items first. Leave, sick leave, annual leave and days someone cannot work go in first; adding them later breaks everything.
3. Assign the hardest days. Share night duties, weekends and holidays across the team in turn.
4. Check there is a senior on every shift. Especially on nights and weekends.
5. Check the rest rule. Nobody coming off a duty should be on duty again the next day, and the consecutive-day limit should hold.
6. Fill the remaining shifts and balance hours. Narrow the gap between whoever works the most and the least.
7. Check and share. Make sure no shift is empty, compare hours, nights and weekends per person, share the roster and agree in advance how changes and swaps work.

Common mistakes

• Adding leave after the roster is done: one leave request means rewriting the month.
• Looking only at total hours: nights and weekends can pile up on a few people.
• Forgetting the month boundary: the last duty of the previous month affects rest on the first day of the new one.
• Not recording swaps: the roster on paper drifts away from who actually works.
• Giving holidays to the same people every time.

Building the roster with Planlat

Planlat does most of these steps for you; the final check and decision stay with you.

1. Define your team: paste your staff list, add it from Excel or CSV, or import your old roster (Excel, PDF, photo).
2. Enter staffing, rules and leave: staff can send their own leave and shift requests through a request link or QR code.
3. Press Planlat: in minutes you get a roster that tries to leave no shift empty, balances hours, nights and weekends, and follows rest rules. Change any cell by hand and plan again.
4. Check and share: hours per person are on one screen; share the roster as Excel, an image or an always up-to-date link, or publish it on the staff portal.

You can try Planlat free for 15 days with every feature included. The app interface is in Turkish. Features · Pricing · Fair distribution guide

This guide describes a general method. For limits on working time, rest and overtime, follow your organization's rules and current regulations.

Frequently asked questions