Catering rostering & staff scheduling software for Australian events
Scale event crews up and down, control wage costs and support your compliance efforts — without enterprise complexity or manual spreadsheets.
-
Event-based catering staff scheduling
-
GPS clock-in at every venue
-
Integrates with Xero and MYOB
Designed for the realities of catering work
Catering has no standing roster. The team for a 400-head gala and a Tuesday boardroom lunch share almost nobody, and both are built from the same casual pool.
Crew size set by the event, not the week
A different venue every shift
Almost entirely casual workforce
Travel and venue clock-in
RSA and food safety per person
Award penalties across weekends and nights
Catering staff scheduling that scales with the event
Catering workforce scheduling is a supply problem: the right number of qualified people, at a venue they have never worked, on a date that moved twice.
Build the crew from the pool, not from memory
Offer, accept, confirm — without a group chat
Publish the event’s open shifts to your casual pool, let qualified people accept, and watch the crew fill without ringing round.
- Scale crew size up and down per event
- Offer open shifts to the pool and take the first qualified acceptance
- Filter by RSA, food safety and licence before anyone is offered a shift
- See live wage cost against the event’s quoted labour
The casual pool is the catering business
Every event is staffed from the same list, and how quickly that list converts into a confirmed crew is the operational constraint.
One pool, filtered by skill and certification
Open shifts pushed to phones, not to a group chat
First qualified acceptance takes the shift
Certification expiry checked before the offer goes out
Minimum engagement applies to event work too
A casual cannot be engaged for less than 2 hours under the Hospitality Award, however short the function. A one-hour canapé service is a two-hour shift — see the hospitality award pay guide.
Time and attendance across every venue
When the team is at a different address each week, clock-in has to prove where as well as when.
GPS clock-in at the venue, not at the depot
Hours you can bill and pay from the same record
Staff clock in on their own phone at the event site, with GPS confirming the location, so travel time and on-site hours are separated cleanly.
- GPS clock-in at the event venue
- Photo verification to reduce time theft
- Late finishes and overnight events tracked accurately
- Worked hours convert straight into payroll-ready timesheets
Catering award compliance, made simpler
Penalty rates, overtime and break rules vary by day, time, employment type and shift length — and one week’s roster touches most of them.
Hospitality Industry (General) Award (MA000009) — pay rates by period
| Period | Full-time & part-time | Casual |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary hours (Mon–Fri) | 100% | 125% |
| Evening (Mon–Fri 7pm–midnight) | +$2.95/hr | +$2.95/hr |
| Night (Mon–Fri midnight–7am) | +$4.42/hr | +$4.42/hr |
| Saturday (all day) | 125% | 150% |
| Sunday (all day) | 150% | 175% |
| Public holiday | 225% | 250% |
Casual rates are set by the award directly, not by adding a loading to the permanent rate — which is why Sunday casual is 175% rather than 150% plus 25%. Rates change each 1 July; the full breakdown by classification, junior age and allowance is in the hospitality award pay guide. Always verify against Fair Work.
Payroll-ready workforce data
Approved hours should reach the pay run without being re-keyed, penalty rates and all.
From the roster to the pay run without a spreadsheet in between
Award interpretation already applied
RosterElf connects catering scheduling and time tracking to payroll, so approved hours flow cleanly to Xero or MYOB.
- Fewer payroll errors from manual data entry
- Less time reconciling timesheets each fortnight
- Clear records for audits and compliance checks
- Faster pay runs, even through a busy period
Australian catering businesses using RosterElf report significant time savings on schedule creation. Based on customer feedback and ROI calculator data.
More than catering scheduling software
Scheduling is one job of several. RosterElf puts communication, HR and time tracking in the same place, so a catering team has one app rather than four.
Why catering businesses choose RosterElf
RosterElf is built for Australian workplaces, with Fair Work compliance, modern awards and local payroll integrations as the starting point rather than an add-on.
Save hours on scheduling
Less time building and re-fixing the roster every week.
Control labour costs
See live wage cost as you schedule — no guesswork until payday.
Australian award compliance
Hospitality Award rates and penalties built in.
All employment types
Works for casual, part-time and full-time staff.
Easy to adopt
Intuitive for managers and staff, with minimal training.
Single or multi-site
Scales from one venue to a group of sites.
Trusted by catering businesses across Australia
Hear from hospitality businesses that simplified their scheduling with RosterElf
Andrew Nathan
November 13, 2025
"We are extremely happy with Roster Elf, it's a great improvement on the previous system we were using. Sean and all the staff have been fantastic, really know their stuff and make using RosterElf a pleasure."
Monica Van De Laak
October 16, 2025
"Sean was an amazing help, very patient and thorough."
Mary C.
October 13, 2025
"I can see my roster, enter availability, put leave in advance and clock on and off easily."
Calculate your catering scheduling savings
See how much time and money your business could save with RosterElf rostering software.
Your current rostering
Based on 70% time reduction with automated rostering
Your potential savings
No credit card required
Common roles in catering
Download free job description templates for your catering team
Relevant awards for catering
Stay compliant with Australian Modern Award pay rates
Explore similar industries
See how RosterElf helps other businesses like yours
Catering scheduling and rostering resources
Free scheduling tools, templates and guides for Australian catering operators
Try catering staff scheduling free
Build your first catering roster in minutes. No credit card required.
Real support from people who understand your business
At RosterElf, support isn't a ticket system — it's part of the product. Our Australian-based team helps you set up correctly, understand award rules, and stay compliant as your business changes. No scripts. No offshore handoffs. Just real help when you need it.
-
Guided setup and onboarding
-
Award and payroll questions answered
-
Ongoing help as your team grows
Catering staff scheduling FAQ
-
-
Publish the event’s open shifts to your casual pool filtered by the certifications the work needs, and let the first qualified person accept each one. That replaces the ring-round and the group chat, and it means nobody is offered a shift their RSA or food safety certificate no longer covers.
-
Three recur: staffing from memory rather than from the pool, so the same handful of people are over-used and the rest go cold; offering shifts without checking certification expiry, which fails at the venue rather than in the office; and rostering a casual for less than the 2-hour minimum engagement on a short function.