On-call roster template
An on-call roster template with a backup for every night
First on call, second on call, when it starts and when it hands over. Print it for the office wall or download it for the team spreadsheet.
Preview: On-call roster
| From | To | First on call | Second on call | Handover done ✓ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 2 Nov 17:00 | Tue 3 Nov 8:00 | Dev | Yuki | |
| Tue 3 Nov 17:00 | Wed 4 Nov 8:00 | Yuki | Hamish | |
| Wed 4 Nov 17:00 | Thu 5 Nov 8:00 | Hamish | Olu | |
| Thu 5 Nov 17:00 | Fri 6 Nov 8:00 | Olu | Dev | |
| Fri 6 Nov 17:00 | Mon 9 Nov 8:00 | Priya | Hamish | |
The printed version has 16 blank rows under the example ones. The download opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.
How the sheet is laid out
On-call periods cross midnight, so each row has a From and a To with the date and time on both. That stops the classic mix-up where someone thinks Tuesday night means the night going into Tuesday. Second on call is the person the first calls for help, or the one the client tries when the first doesn’t answer.
The example is the after-hours roster for Southern Lift Services, a lift maintenance firm with five technicians who can attend a breakdown. Weeknights run 17:00 to 8:00; the weekend is one long stretch from Friday evening to Monday morning.
Keeping on-call bearable
On-call is tiring even on quiet nights, because nobody quite switches off. Three things help more than anything else.
Count weekends separately
A weekend is worth several weeknights. Track them on their own, and make sure they move round the whole team.
No first-on-call two nights running
Where you can, leave at least one night between first-on-call turns. Second on call is lighter and can sit in between.
A written handover
A two-line note at 8:00: anything called out, anything still open. The tick column is there to make it a habit.
Public holidays deserve a list of their own. Keep it on the back of the sheet, and give the next one to whoever has gone longest without.
Running the on-call rota online
In FairTurns, a date can run overnight: set 17:00 to 8:00 and it shows as ending the next morning. Make First on call and Second on call positions, set weeknights to repeat, and press Fill. Each place goes to whoever has had the fewest turns in that position, nobody is put in both places on the same night, and technicians who mark a night as away are left off it. When someone joins the team, Redistribute shares the nights out again and shows the changes first. The team sees the roster on any phone through one link. Free. Pro adds a reminder email before each turn.
Questions
Can I use this as an on-call rota template?
Yes. Rota and roster mean the same thing. Download it for Excel or Sheets and change the times to suit your after-hours cover.
Should on-call run weekly or nightly?
Weekly suits teams where call-outs are rare: one person carries the phone for seven days. Nightly suits busier teams, so nobody loses a whole week of sleep.
Do I need a second on call?
For anything where one person might be stuck on a job when the next call comes, yes. It also gives newer staff a way to learn before they’re first.
Where do the phone numbers go?
Keep them on a separate contact list, not on a roster that might be pinned up or shared. The roster says who; the contact list says how.
Read next
On-call for small teams
Weekend and after-hours cover for a small team: whose turn holds the phone, shared out and written down.
Duty roster template
A duty roster format with each duty in its own column: open up, lock up, first aid, cash-up.
Rotating roster explained
What a rotating roster is, the two kinds of rotation, and the weekly, fortnightly and monthly patterns most groups use.
Make your roster free
Click a day, add people, share one link. No card, no limit on people or dates.