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Schedule and roster hospitality staff smarter, control wage costs and support your compliance efforts — without the complexity of enterprise systems or manual spreadsheets.
Hospitality staff scheduling with live labour budgets
Australian award compliance built in
Integrates with Xero and MYOB
Hospitality shift scheduling isn’t the same as office scheduling. Venues deal with unpredictable demand, casual staff, split shifts and strict award compliance — often all at once.
Rapidly changing demand across services
Split shifts and short turnarounds
High casual and part-time workforces
Award rules, penalty rates and overtime
Last-minute absences and shift swaps
RSA and food safety certification tracking
Scheduling hospitality staff means balancing skills, availability, cost and compliance — usually under time pressure.
Build around service peaks instead of repeating last week
RosterElf puts the scheduling decisions in front of the manager while the roster is still a draft — when they can still be changed for nothing.
Three questions come up on almost every hospitality roster, and getting any of them wrong is the kind of mistake that surfaces at an audit rather than on the day.
Common Hospitality Award shift rules
A summary, not advice. Check the detail against Fair Work and the full hospitality award pay guide, which is updated each 1 July.
RosterElf flags these while the roster is a draft
Breaks that fall under 10 hours, engagements under the minimum and unintended split shifts are surfaced before publishing — not discovered when the timesheet is reconciled.
Accurate hours matter most when shift scheduling changes quickly and most of the team is casual.
Clock-ins the manager can trust without standing at the door
RosterElf gives managers confidence that the timesheet reflects the floor, including the shifts that started late and the ones that ran over.
Penalty rates, overtime and break rules vary by day, time, employment type and shift length — and a venue roster touches most of them in a single week.
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.
Approved hours should reach the pay run without being re-keyed, penalty rates and all.
Award interpretation already applied
RosterElf connects hospitality scheduling and time tracking to payroll, so approved hours flow cleanly to Xero or MYOB.
Australian hospitality businesses using RosterElf report significant time savings on schedule creation. Based on customer feedback and ROI calculator data.
Bakeries balance pre-dawn production with retail service and weekend peaks.
RosterElf handles 2am and 4am production starts, tracks food safety certifications, and calculates early morning penalties automatically.
Pizzerias manage kitchen, delivery and counter staff against order volume rather than a fixed week.
RosterElf helps roster delivery drivers by order volume, track driver licences and vehicle registrations, and template the nights that always spike.
Wine businesses balance cellar door service, vineyard operations, production and events — with a hard seasonal peak at vintage.
RosterElf manages RSA for cellar door staff, ChemCert for vineyard workers, and coordinates people across areas that do not share a roster pattern.
Liquor stores need staff with current RSA certification across every trading hour — the licence depends on it.
RosterElf tracks RSA expiry dates, alerts you before credentials lapse, and stops uncertified staff being scheduled — which is the part that protects the licence.
Whether you run a single site or a group, RosterElf’s hospitality scheduling scales with the operation.
Scheduling is one job of several. RosterElf puts communication, HR and time tracking in the same place, so a venue team has one app rather than four.
Venues including The Embassy by Devlin’s, Bagel O’s, In The Pink Gelato and Opal Ridge Motel run their rosters on RosterElf. It is built for Australian workplaces, with Fair Work compliance, modern awards and local payroll integrations as the starting point rather than an add-on.
Less time building and re-fixing the schedule every week.
See live wage cost as you schedule — no guesswork until payday.
Hospitality Award rates and penalties built in.
Works for casual, part-time and full-time staff.
One venue onboarded 30 staff in about 45 minutes.
Scales from one site to a group.
“Our managers wrapped their head around it in about 45 minutes.”
Teresa Klenk · Founder, The Embassy by Devlin's
Subiaco venue trained managers in 45 minutes
Read the The Embassy by Devlin's storyHear from restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels that simplified their hospitality staff 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."
See how much time and money your business could save with RosterElf rostering software.
Based on 70% time reduction with automated rostering
No credit card required
Download free job description templates for your hospitality team
Stay compliant with Australian Modern Award pay rates
Accredited RosterElf-partner accountants and bookkeepers who work with hospitality businesses on payroll and award-compliant pay runs.
Christine Owng
Melbourne, VIC
Bookkeeping Partners is a Melbourne bookkeeping and payroll practice led by Christine Owng — an accredited RosterElf partner for shift-based businesses.
Eliza Revoltar
Ringwood, VIC
Mizael Partners is a Ringwood-based accounting, audit and advisory firm working in Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks — an accredited RosterElf partner.
Client advisory team
Hawthorn, VIC
POP & Co is a Hawthorn-based accounting and payroll practice and Xero Gold Partner — an accredited RosterElf partner serving Melbourne businesses.
See how RosterElf helps other businesses like yours
Free scheduling tools, templates and guides for Australian venues
Build your first venue roster in minutes. No credit card required.
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
The best hospitality staff scheduling software combines fast roster creation, live labour cost tracking, award compliance and payroll integration. RosterElf is built specifically for Australian venues, with the Hospitality Industry (General) Award applied automatically, RSA and food safety certification tracking, and integrations with Xero and MYOB.
Under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award the minimum break between rostered shifts is 10 hours, extended to 12 hours following a change of roster. A close followed by an open the next morning is the breach venues hit most often, and RosterElf flags it while the roster is still a draft.
Yes — 2 hours is the minimum engagement for a casual under the Hospitality Award, so a shorter shift is not permitted no matter how quiet the service. Full-time and part-time employees have their own minimum engagement depending on classification. Check the detail in the hospitality award pay guide.
Start from the trade, not from last week’s roster. Identify the peaks, schedule your qualified and fastest staff into them first, and build support roles around that. Keep a casual pool for surges, hold skills and certifications against each person so only qualified staff can be assigned, and watch live wage cost as you build rather than discovering it at payroll.
