A Simple Guide to Creating an Excel Roster

Your roster plan or staff rostering system ensures you have the correct number of employees in the right job at the right time. It is often the central piece of your workforce management. Accurate roster making is achievable when your staff roster visually shows working hours from start to finish. It should also provide employees with crucial information, especially when they have to work. 

Whether you are crafting a duty roster or seeking a staff roster template, this guide will demonstrate the versatility of Excel as both a rostering software and a template solution.

A roster is a straightforward document. However, it should meet specific requirements (formal and legal) to provide proper direction to your employees. When creating a roster, a standard computer program can create professional and homemade work schedules—Excel. 

Of course, the program itself isn't something new. However, if you're having issues creating an Excel roster, this simple guide will be your helping hand. 

Learn how to leverage Excel roster templates to streamline your duty roster process, ensuring every staff member knows their schedule.

How to create a roster in Excel

Follow these detailed steps to create your staff roster in Excel with ease, which can be a perfect alternative to free roster generator tools:

1. Open Microsoft Excel and click on the "File" tab.  

2. Click "New."

3. Double-click the "Schedules" button found on the "Available Templates" screen. 

4. Double-click the "Business Schedules" file folder icon, and double-click the schedule template that corresponds to your needs for staff scheduling. 

5. Click one of the cells populated with a default person's name in the leftmost column. 

6. Edit the default name with the name of one of your staff. 

7. Replicate steps 5 and 6 to add and include every employee on the first day of your Excel roster. 

8. Right-click the row header for any unneeded rows and click delete if you don't need all the rows. 

Tip: When arranging your staff roster, it's crucial to consider the specific roles and shifts, much like a precise duty roster, to maintain organizational efficiency.

9. Right-click a row header, select "Insert" to add a blank line and type one of your employees' names in the left column. 

10. You can copy the cells with employees' names if you don't want to delete or add rows. 

11. Highlight the cells with the employee's name on the next day of the week, right-click it and click "Paste" to replace the default name with actual employees' names. 

12. If you deleted or added some rows, you would have to add or delete corresponding rows in every schedule section of the Excel roster. 

13. In Most, if not all, of Microsoft Excel's supplied roster templates in Excel, you can see the attendance times running across the top of the schedule grid. You can modify the times in these fields by editing the current times. For instance, you want to use time increments that begin past half an hour. 

14. Remove all the default information you see in the scheduling cells by clicking/highlighting any cell with the data and tapping the delete key on your keyboard. 

15. Type an X in every cell the employee is needed to be at work, which is how you remove default details in the scheduling cells. For instance, type an X in every corresponding cell to schedule an employee from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. 

The employee roster template should already set a formula to determine which cells have an X. Then, the template will automatically calculate the number of hours in the "Total" or "Daily" hours column. 

16. The Excel roster template may contain data on top of the schedule grid that you may want to change, like department name, title, fields for the week, and start or end date. You can easily make amends to these details however you want. 

17. Click the "File" and select "Save As."

18. You can either use a start or end date, a week number or type a name for the schedule. 

19. Choose where you want to save your newly created roster, then click the "Save" button. 

By following these instructions, you've mastered how to make a roster in Excel, paving the way for more organized staff scheduling.

There you have it! You can now start using your employee roster. That said, while you have the option to use Excel, it is best to automate the whole roster-making process. And, to make matters more accessible, there are many rostering and payroll software available in the market right now, one of which is RosterElf.  

Save over 8 hours every week by using rostering software. 

Using our Excel templates for roster making can help you to organise your business quicker than using pen and paper. But why would you bother with manually filling out excel sheets when you can have a rostering software that automates all of your workflows? RosterElf makes rostering, time clock and payroll a breeze and saves you lots of time.

Our customers save up to 8 hours and 4% on labour each week. Do you want to learn how? Just book a call with our team today, and we will walk you through our magically simple platform:

 Book a Demo

Seamless Employee Rostering System with RosterElf 

The hidden element behind one of the best employee management software like RosterElf is the power of automation. Yes, you can recreate some of RosterElf's capabilities in spreadsheets, yet not without long-drawn-out hours of manual input—tiring and hassle. What's more, you need to make changes in your Excel roster one by one, which makes it even more dragging. 

• Schedule changes 

With RosterElf, making schedule updates and modifications are easy as ABC. For example, reusing a schedule template for your weekly schedules will only take a few taps and clicks. 

There is no need to change formats and, most of all, no need to doubt if your formulas are correct.

• Shift swap tracking 

When it comes to tracking, Excel is nowhere near ideal. For example, it can't track your employees' shift swapping processes. In RosterElf, shift swapping is a walk in the park. Staff log a shift change request in the platform, and someone can take the shift, or you can assign someone. 

You don't have to call a staff list to find a replacement or make massive changes as you do in spreadsheets since the app does all the legwork. Instead, the app notifies any suitable employees in the workforce about the shift change request, and the schedule automatically updates when an employee accepts and you approve. 

• Time Clock 

RosterElf gives you a live view of the work day; who's running late, who's on leave, and who's working is easy to check. Plus, other features like payroll integration, labour budgeting, and workforce management, to name a few, can help you track profitability, staff availability, and overtime management. 

• Payroll integration 

While Excel can track wages, names, and hours worked, you depend on manual input, which can be fallible. More so, there are no rules to guide you to catch mishaps or alert you that one of your employees is working overtime. 

While Excel roster capabilities are robust, creating a roster in Excel becomes even more efficient when complemented with RosterElf's automation features

Managing payroll is another item where RosterElf has an edge. It can update your employees' timesheets using its payroll integration feature with third-party systems—XERO, MYOB, and Sage. In addition, all computations are done in the system so that when it's time for payroll, you can do a check to make sure everything looks good before wage processing. 

Key Takeaway 

Having an employee rostering and payroll software in place saves you big time if you don't want to get stuck in a tiresome manual rostering process. 

Excel has always been the go-to when creating rosters, and with this simple and straightforward guide, it'll be somewhat less troublesome to make employee work schedules. However, it's still prone to inadvertent errors. 

With the rise of cloud-based staff rostering systems, it's ideal for taking advantage of such an opportunity to optimise your workforce's productivity and your business' profit. Time spent wisely in the world of business is essential. 

In summary, whether you're constructing a detailed duty roster or a simple staff schedule, the power of an Excel roster template, paired with intelligent rostering software, transforms the daunting task into a manageable one.

RosterElf: Rostering Made Easy 

RosterElf's cloud-based rostering software truly is a game-changer. Say goodbye to roster conflicts and chase employees for their availability to work. Instead, employees can easily update their availability to work and notify managers about it through a smartphone app. 

Staff set the times and days they can work, and RosterElf does the rest. Our software then automatically suggests available employees to fill shifts. 

Could you let me know what you're waiting for? Time to take your rostering and payroll game to the next level and boost your business' performance.  

To get a clearer view of how our app works, enjoy 15-day access to our tool for free!

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