If your business already runs on Microsoft 365, Shifts is the scheduling tool you almost certainly already own. It sits inside Microsoft Teams, costs nothing extra on most business plans, and lets staff see their shifts in an app they have already installed. For a lot of Australian employers that is genuinely enough — right up until payday.
The gap is not features. It is that Shifts was built to distribute a schedule, not to cost one. Nothing in it knows what a Modern Award is. This article covers what Teams Shifts does well, exactly where it stops, and how to tell which side of that line your business sits on.
Quick summary
- What it is:
A scheduling app built into Microsoft Teams, included with most Microsoft 365 business plans.
- Best for:
Salaried or flat-rate teams already standardised on Microsoft 365, where pay does not change by shift.
- The gap:
No Modern Award interpretation, and Microsoft documents no payroll sync — so penalty rates and pay happen somewhere else.
- Cost:
Microsoft publishes no standalone price for Shifts; it rides on your existing Microsoft 365 licence.
What Microsoft Teams Shifts actually does
Shifts gives a manager a schedule grid inside Teams. You build shifts, assign them to people, and publish. Staff open the same Teams app they use for chat and see what they are working. From there they can request time off, offer a shift to a colleague, and clock in and out where the organisation has enabled it.
The genuine advantages are practical rather than technical:
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No extra app for staff to download, and no new password to forget
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No additional licence to buy on most Microsoft 365 business plans
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Schedule changes surface in a tool people already check daily
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Managers can approve swaps and leave without leaving Teams
For an office, a warehouse of salaried staff, or a volunteer roster, that combination is hard to argue with. The tool is free at the point of use and the adoption problem is already solved. If a spreadsheet is still doing the job today, our free roster templates are a simpler starting point than either option.
Where it stops for Australian employers
Australian shift work has a cost model that most global scheduling tools do not carry. A Saturday evening shift in hospitality is not the same cost as a Tuesday morning one, and the difference is set by the relevant Modern Award, not by your business. Three specific gaps follow from that.
1. No award interpretation
Shifts will happily let you roster a casual for five hours on a Sunday. It will not tell you that the shift attracts a Sunday penalty rate, that a minimum engagement period applies, or what the shift costs you. Microsoft lists labour-law automation as a future capability rather than a current one, so this is not a configuration you are missing — it is not there yet. If you want to see how that calculation looks when the software does it, our award interpretation feature walks through it, and the award rates guides show the underlying rates.
2. No documented payroll sync
Microsoft’s own Shifts material describes no payroll integration. In practice that means someone exports or re-keys hours into Xero, MYOB or your payroll system each cycle. That is the step where underpayments and overpayments creep in, and it is exactly what payroll integration is designed to remove.
3. No live wage cost while you build
Because Shifts does not know pay rates, it cannot show a running labour cost as you drag shifts around. You find out what the week cost after payroll has run, which is far too late to change anything. Live costing while you build is what rostering software adds.
A straight comparison
| Capability | Teams Shifts | Dedicated rostering software |
|---|---|---|
| Publish shifts to staff | Yes | Yes |
| Shift swaps and leave requests | Yes | Yes |
| Clock in and out | Yes, where enabled | Yes, with GPS or kiosk and photo proof |
| Modern Award penalty rates | No | Yes, applied per shift |
| Live wage cost while scheduling | No | Yes |
| Payroll export to Xero or MYOB | Not documented | Yes |
| Extra licence cost | Usually none | Per user, per month |
The honest read
If nobody in your business is paid a penalty rate, Teams Shifts may be all you ever need, and paying for anything more would be waste. The moment pay varies by when someone works, the schedule becomes a payroll document — and that is a different category of tool.
How to tell which side you are on
Three questions settle it quickly:
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Does anyone’s hourly pay change depending on the day or time they work? If yes, you need award interpretation.
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Does someone manually move hours from the schedule into payroll each cycle? If yes, you are paying for that time and carrying the error risk.
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Can you see what next week’s roster costs before you publish it? If not, you are managing labour cost after the fact.
Answer yes to the first, or no to the third, and a dedicated tool will pay for itself in avoided rework rather than in features. If you are weighing up the alternatives, our guide to the best employee scheduling software in Australia ranks ten platforms including Teams Shifts, and staff scheduling vs rostering explains why the two terms describe the same thing here.
RosterElf applies Modern Award penalty rates as you build each shift and sends approved timesheets straight to payroll.
Frequently asked questions
Does Microsoft have an employee scheduling tool?
Yes. Microsoft Teams includes Shifts, where managers publish rosters and staff view shifts, swap them and request time off inside Teams. It is aimed at schedule distribution rather than workforce management, so it does not interpret Modern Awards or send hours to payroll.
Is Microsoft Teams Shifts free?
There is no separate charge for Shifts on most Microsoft 365 business plans, and Microsoft does not publish standalone pricing for it. It is effectively included with the Teams licence you already hold, which is a large part of its appeal.
Does Teams Shifts handle Australian award rates?
No. Shifts has no Modern Award interpretation, so penalty rates, overtime thresholds and casual loading are not applied to shifts. Microsoft lists labour-law automation as a future capability. Australian employers whose pay varies by day or time need to calculate those rates in payroll or in dedicated rostering software.
Can Teams Shifts send hours to Xero or MYOB?
Microsoft documents no payroll integration for Shifts, so hours are typically exported or re-keyed into your payroll system each cycle. That manual step is where most timesheet errors originate.
Should I use Teams Shifts or dedicated rostering software?
Use Teams Shifts if pay does not change based on when someone works and you simply need to tell people their hours. Choose dedicated rostering software once penalty rates apply, you want live wage costs while scheduling, or you want approved timesheets to flow into payroll without re-keying.
