Departments and teams
One roster for every team in the building
Give each department its own team, positions and team lead, all on one calendar. FairTurns hands out the duties by turns taken and checks across every team before it puts anyone on.
Free, with no limit on people or dates. No card.
Three departments, three spreadsheets, one person on two of them
At Ironbark the workshop supervisor keeps the Saturday crew on a whiteboard, the office manager has a spreadsheet for lunch cover on reception, and first aid cover on the floor lives in an email from February. Each list makes sense on its own. Then Tomás, who is a fitter and a first aider, turns up on both the Saturday crew and first aid for the same morning, and nobody spots it until Friday afternoon.
The bigger the place, the more of these little rosters there are, and the more people sit on two or three of them. What helps is one calendar that every team writes into, where each team lead runs their own patch and the overlaps get caught before they reach anyone’s inbox.
That is how FairTurns is laid out: an organisation holds as many teams as you like, each in its own colour. Administrators see everything; a team moderator sees and runs their team. When Fill hands out duties it looks across all of them.
How a department runs its rosters in FairTurns
A team for each department
Workshop, Office, Stores, First aid: each one is a team with its own colour, people and positions, on the one calendar.
Team leads run their own
Make the workshop supervisor a team moderator. They add dates and fill their team’s roster without touching anyone else’s.
Checked across teams
Fill and Redistribute never put one person in two places at overlapping times anywhere in the organisation. Booking someone twice by hand asks first and shows where they already are.
The right people on each job
Limit first aid cover to the people who hold the certificate, and Fill only puts them there. Nobody lands on a job they aren’t set up for.
Duties handed out by turns
Each empty place goes to whoever has had the fewest turns in that position. The Turns booked chart beside Fill shows the count for every person.
Away days in one place
People mark the days they’re away once, for every team they’re on. Organisers see them greyed out and labelled Away, with no reason given.
Set it up
- 01
Create the organisation
Set up the business once, then add a team for each department, site or duty.
- 02
Name the positions
Give each team its positions and headcounts, such as “Saturday crew, 3 people”.
- 03
Bring people in
Invite staff by email, paste a list, or add people by name only. Put each person on every team they belong to.
- 04
Appoint team leads
Make a moderator for each team so the supervisor or office manager runs their own roster.
- 05
Add dates and fill
Click the first day, choose how it repeats, then press Fill for the next 1 to 12 months.
When you want it to run itself
Pro emails each team its schedule on the day you choose and a reminder before each date to everyone who has accepted an invitation. Staff can reply “I can’t make it” from the email; the team’s moderators are told and the next person in line is put on and asked. How often lets you set an apprentice to Now and then on a job while they learn it.
A$1 a month per organisation, paid 1 to 5 years at a time. See Pro and pricing
Good to know
- Start with the duties people argue about (the Saturday crew, the late close, the public holiday), not every hour of every shift. That is where a shared roster earns its keep.
- Staff don’t book their own duties. Team leads put people on, or Fill does, and staff mark the days they’re away.
- FairTurns shows who is on and when. Pay, leave balances and clocking in stay in your payroll system.
- The clash check covers every team inside your organisation. Rosters held in other organisations aren’t compared.
Questions
Can a team lead see and run only their own team?
Yes. Make them a team moderator and they run that one team: its dates, people and Fill. Administrators see every team in the organisation.
What happens when one person is on two teams?
They appear on both, and Fill and Redistribute check across every team before putting them on, so they are never placed at two overlapping times. If you do it by hand, FairTurns asks first and shows where they already are.
We have two sites. Should they be separate organisations?
Keep them in one organisation with a team per site if any staff work at both, so the clash check covers them. Use separate organisations only when the sites share nobody.
Someone has left the department. How do we hand out their duties?
Untick them and run Redistribute. It hands their places out, moves as few other people as it can, and lists everyone who gains or loses a date before anything changes.
How much does it cost for a large organisation?
Running every team is free, with no limit on teams, people or dates. Pro is A$1 a month for the whole organisation, paid 1 to 5 years at a time.
Free templates and guides
Team duties roster template
Parent duties for a junior sports team: oranges, scoring, goal umpire, jerseys and first aid.
A roster for a small team
Rostering three, four or five people: patterns that work, covering when one is away, and keeping it fair.
Positions and headcounts
Name the jobs on each date and how many people each needs. Nobody gets a job they’re not set up for.
Similar rosters
Duty rosters
Rotating duties like duty officer, lock-up or first aid, handed out by turns and visible to the whole office.
Front desk and reception
Opening, closing and Saturday reception shifts handed out by turns, with the week on one page.
Small business roster
A free, simple staff roster for a small business: who’s on, when, shared with the team on one link.