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Shift schedule generator
Pick the system, the crews and the month, and take the rota away as a CSV for Excel. No spreadsheet to balance by hand, and none of your team's names leave the browser.
- No sign-up, no card
- Continuous rotas included
- CSV download
Pick the shift system, the number of crews and the month. The rota is worked out for you and downloads as a CSV you can open in Excel.
Name the crews
One name per line, in the same order as the crews. Any you leave blank are numbered automatically.
How the month falls
It is worked out in your browser. Neither the names nor the rota are sent to any server.
Which system you need, based on what you have to cover
The question is not how many shifts you want, it is how many hours the doors have to stay open. The number of crews follows from that, and the cycle follows from the crews.
| What you must cover | System | Crews | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday to Friday, one shift | Straight day shift | 1 | Nothing. You do not need a rotating rota at all. |
| Monday to Friday, mornings and afternoons | Two alternating shifts | 2 | Every other week on afternoons. |
| Monday to Friday, 24 hours | Three rotating shifts | 3 | One week of nights in every three. |
| Seven days, 24 hours | Four-crew continuous | 4 | Six working days out of every eight: annual hours run high and need compensating. |
| Seven days, 24 hours | Five-crew continuous | 5 | Six days out of every ten. Annual hours land where they should, but it takes one more crew on the payroll. |
Four things a rota has to respect
A rota is not only a way of sharing out the work: it is a document with obligations behind it. These four turn up in one form or another in almost every jurisdiction.
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Rest between shifts
The EU Working Time Directive sets a minimum of eleven consecutive hours between the end of one shift and the start of the next, and Spain raises it to twelve. It is the rule that breaks any rota chaining a night straight into a morning.
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Weekly rest
At least twenty-four uninterrupted hours on top of the daily rest, and thirty-six in Spain, which can be averaged over a fortnight. That is why continuous cycles group rest days in twos and fours instead of scattering them.
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A night work limit
Night workers average no more than eight hours in twenty-four, and where the work is hazardous or physically demanding that eight hours becomes an absolute cap rather than an average. Check it before you stack consecutive nights.
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Notice of the schedule
Predictable-scheduling laws and most collective agreements require the rota to be published in advance and compensate late changes. Between five and fourteen days is the usual window.
Frequently asked questions
How do I build a shift schedule?
You start from the cycle, not from the people: first you decide which sequence of shifts and rest days repeats — two mornings, two afternoons, two nights and four days off, for instance — and then how many crews walk through it staggered against each other. From that the calendar falls out on its own and the rotation stays even. In the generator you pick the system and the month, and the rota appears already built.
How many crews do you need to cover 24 hours, seven days a week?
Five is the usual answer. Four crews will also cover it, but each person ends up working six days out of every eight, which pushes annual hours far above what most agreements allow and forces you to compensate with extra rest days. With three crews the weekend cannot be covered without overtime.
How do I make a shift rota in Excel?
Build the rota here and press «Download CSV»: the file opens straight into Excel, Numbers or LibreOffice, with one row per crew and one column per day. It uses a semicolon separator and a byte order mark, which is what European editions of Excel expect, so there is no import wizard to fight and no broken accented characters to repair.
How much notice do employees need of their shifts?
It depends on where you operate, but the direction is the same everywhere: predictable-scheduling rules in several countries and most collective agreements require the rota to be published in advance — commonly between five and fourteen days — and to compensate late changes. Publishing early is not a courtesy, it is the part an inspection will ask you to evidence.
Is the rota I generate stored anywhere?
No. The whole calculation happens in your own browser with JavaScript: neither the rota nor any names you type leave your machine, nothing is sent to a server and nothing is stored. It disappears when you close the tab, so download the CSV before you leave.
From the CSV to everyone's phone
Generating the rota is half the job; the other half is making sure everyone has it, that changes are announced and that the hours end up recorded. That is what LapsoWork does.