A shift planner and a rota are the same object seen from two ends: the planner is the week being built, the rota is the week once it is published. Shift planning is the part where the arithmetic happens, and it is the part a spreadsheet does worst, because a spreadsheet shows the grid and hides the totals. The shift swap is the part that happens afterwards, and it is where every spreadsheet rota stops being true, because the swap is agreed by text and the sheet is never told. This page covers both: what a staff planner has to show before the week is published, and what has to be recorded when it changes.
Shift planning: the totals before the names
Days open times shifts a day times people a shift is the shifts to fill; times hours a shift is the rota hours; over the headcount is the average per person; times the rate is the cost. On the worked example on this site that is 42 shifts, 336 hours, 28 hours a head across twelve people and £4,270.56 at £12.71 an hour, with 20 hours of headroom per person under the 48 hour weekly average and 24 contracted hours the rota does not use. A shift planner that shows those numbers while you are placing people is doing its job; one that shows only the grid is a diary.
The shift swap, and why it is the whole problem
Two people agree to swap a Saturday. The supervisor says fine. The sheet still shows the original names, the team's group chat holds the truth, and three weeks later payroll pays the wrong person for the wrong hours, or the person who covered is over their contracted hours and nobody noticed. Shift swapping apps exist to make the swap a recorded change on the rota, made or approved by a named person, so the published version updates and the hour and cost totals move with it. That record is the difference between a rota and a rumour.
A free shift planner, and what stays free here
The shift planning arithmetic is free on this site, in the work rota template, with no account and no cap: it takes the five figures above and returns the totals. What is paid is the record: the people with their rates and contracted hours, each week's shifts, every swap and cover with who made it, the published version and the export. That is Weekrota Pro at a flat £6.50 a month for the whole team, and it is where a free shift planner stops and a staff planner the team can rely on starts.
Questions people ask about shift planner
What should a shift planner show before the rota is published?
Shifts still empty, hours per person against the weekly limit and against each contract, and the cost of the week at each person's rate. If it shows only the grid, the checks are being done in someone's head or not at all.
How should a shift swap be recorded?
On the rota itself, by or with the approval of a named person, with the date, so the published version updates and the totals follow. A swap recorded anywhere else is a swap the payroll will get wrong.
Is the shift planner on this site free?
The worksheet is, permanently, with no account. Storing the plan, publishing it and recording swaps is Weekrota Pro at £6.50 a month for the whole team.