Contracted hours are the hours a person's contract promises them each week, and they are the number a rota is measured against and almost never written on. When contracted hours vs actual hours drift apart, one of two things is happening: the business is paying for hours the rota does not use, or people are working over their contract week after week without anyone deciding that they should. Both are found in the payroll, months later, unless the rota shows the gap as it is written. This page is about what contracted hours mean for the rota, how to read the gap and what the free work rota template on this site does with it.
Contracted, rota'd and worked are three different numbers
Contracted hours are what the contract promises. Rota hours are what the published rota gives the person this week. Worked hours are what they actually did once the swaps, covers and the late finish are counted, and they belong to the timesheet rather than the rota. A rota that shows only who is on when hides the first two, and a payroll that pays the third cannot tell you whether the difference was planned. The rota should carry contracted hours beside rota hours for every person, every week, so the gap is a number rather than a suspicion.
The gap, and what each sign of it means
Twelve people on 30 contracted hours are 360 hours the business has promised to pay. A rota that uses 336 has a gap of 24 hours: contracted hours nobody is on the rota for, which are paid anyway. A rota that uses 380 has a gap of minus 20: hours worked over contract, which is fine if agreed and expensive and possibly unlawful if it becomes the pattern and pushes people past the 48 hour weekly average GOV.UK sets. The free work rota template on this site returns the contracted total, the gap and the average hours per person from your own figures.
Salaried people, zero hours people and the same gap
A salaried person on the rota has contracted hours too, and a rota that gives them 44 against a 40 hour contract has given them four hours the salary does not pay for; the hourly rate calculator on this site prices that week. A zero hours person has contracted hours of zero, so the whole of their rota is over contract by definition, and the gap for the team should be read with that in mind. Enter each person's real contracted figure, including zero, and the gap is honest for the whole team.
Questions people ask about contracted hours
Do contracted hours have to be on the rota?
Nothing requires it, and almost nothing works without it. The gap between contracted and rota hours is the number that tells you whether you are paying for hours you do not use or working people beyond what they agreed.
What if someone regularly works over their contracted hours?
Then the contract and the rota disagree and one of them should change. Check the average against the 48 hour weekly limit on GOV.UK, and check the contract for what it says about additional hours before the pattern becomes the expectation.
Does the free sheet handle part timers?
Yes. Contracted hours per person is an average input on the worksheet, so a mixed team is entered at its average; the paid record holds each person's own figure and shows each person's own gap.