--- id: "the-rota" lang: "en" title: "The rota" summary: "Staff say on their phones which days suit them. A manager builds the week from that and publishes it, and everyone is told their shifts." area: "Team & pay" kind: "task" url: "https://zeropos.shop/help/the-rota" alternate: "https://zeropos.shop/help/the-rota?lang=es" markdown: "https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/the-rota.md" screens: ["/planning/rota/build","/planning/availability","/planning/rota","/backoffice/settings/rota"] where_to_find: ["BACKOFFICE › Team › Build the rota","BACKOFFICE › Team › My availability","BACKOFFICE › Team › Rota","MANAGE › Settings › Rota"] related: ["time-off","users-and-roles","check-in","regions-and-shops"] updated: "2026-10-16" --- # The rota Staff say on their phones which days suit them. A manager builds the week from that and publishes it, and everyone is told their shifts. The rota lives in the **Team** folder of the sidebar: **My availability**, where each person says what suits them; **Build the rota**, where the week is filled one shop at a time; and **Rota**, the published week everyone checks. Where to find it: BACKOFFICE › Team › Build the rota; BACKOFFICE › Team › My availability; BACKOFFICE › Team › Rota; MANAGE › Settings › Rota. ## Before you start - Everyone can fill in **My availability** and see the published **Rota**. By default, building and publishing are for the owner, administrators, managers and Human Resources. - When staff can fill in their week is set in [MANAGE › Settings › Rota](https://app.zeropos.shop/backoffice/settings/rota). - Holidays and sick days go in [Time off](https://zeropos.shop/help/time-off), not in availability. ## Steps ### Say which days suit you 1. Open [BACKOFFICE › Team › My availability](https://app.zeropos.shop/planning/availability) on your phone. 2. Tap a day to change it: **Happy to work**, **Prefer off**, **Can't work**, or back to **Not said**. 3. If this week is not your usual, answer **How many days would suit you this week?** 4. Tap **Save** before the window closes. 5. Once the week is published, open [BACKOFFICE › Team › Rota](https://app.zeropos.shop/planning/rota) to see **Your shifts**. - Each shift shows its times and how many others are on with you. ### Build and publish the week 6. Open [BACKOFFICE › Team › Build the rota](https://app.zeropos.shop/planning/rota/build) and pick the **Shop** and the week. 7. Fill the week with **Use a pattern**, **Copy last week** or **Start from the shop's opening hours** ([Add a shop or storage location](https://zeropos.shop/help/locations)), or tap **Add a shift** under a day. 8. Set each shift's times and **People needed**. 9. Tap **Propose a draft** to fill the shifts by the rules below. - Tap **Why?** on a shift to see why each person is on it. 10. To change a shift, tap it, then tap a name under **Add someone** to put that person on or take them off. 11. Read **Worth a look**: shifts short of people, or someone on a day they asked off. None of it stops you publishing. 12. Tap **Publish the week**. - After a later change, **Publish the changes** tells only the people whose own shifts moved. > Who can do this: Building and publishing the week are limited by role. By default: owner, administrators, managers and Human Resources. ## What happens next - Your availability reaches whoever builds the rota straight away. You can change it until the window closes. - While your shop publishes its rota here, you are told the morning a week's window opens and, if you have not answered, reminded before it closes ([Rota settings and each person's working days](https://zeropos.shop/help/rota-settings-and-working-days)). - The draft saves itself (**All changes saved**); nobody sees it until you publish. - Publishing notifies everyone with a shift and puts the week under **Rota**; the notice opens that week. The rota changes nobody's pay: hours come from [Check in and out](https://zeropos.shop/help/check-in). ## How the draft chooses Nobody is put on a day they have time off booked, said **Can't work**, or are already working at another shop. Then it prefers people who asked for the day, then anyone short of their guaranteed days (**At least**), then whoever is furthest short of the days they usually work. It is a starting point: change anything before you publish. Anyone away or already on elsewhere shows greyed out and can't be picked. ## More than one shop **Show** → **Every shop** puts every shop's week on one calendar, each day split by shop. **Propose every shop** fills them all at once, and nobody is put in two shops at the same time. ## If you see this - “**The window for this week has closed.**” — What to do: You can no longer change your availability for that week. Tell whoever builds the rota what you need. - “**That week has been published. Publish again to change it.**” — What to do: Make your change, then tap **Publish the changes** so the people affected are told. - “**3 shifts for people no longer on this shop's team were removed when this week was saved.**” — What to do: Someone on this week is no longer on the shop's team: they now work only in another region, or their account was turned off. The shifts stay, without them. Fill the gaps, then publish. To have them back, tick the shop's region on their record or reactivate their account ([Add someone to the team](https://zeropos.shop/help/users-and-roles)), then put them on the shifts again. ## Good to know - Save a week you like with **Use a pattern** → **Save these shifts as a pattern**, and tick **Use this automatically on a new week**. - Each person's usual days (**Usually works**, **At least**, **At most**) are on their record in [MANAGE › Users](https://app.zeropos.shop/backoffice/users). ## Related guides - [Time off](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/time-off.md) - [Add someone to the team](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/users-and-roles.md) - [Check in and out](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/check-in.md) - [Regions and shops: who sees what](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/regions-and-shops.md)