We have a UK-specific site with local content and compliance information.
Schedule retail staff to trading patterns, see wage cost against sales before you publish, and pay correctly — without enterprise complexity.
Retail shift scheduling by department
General Retail Award rates built in
Integrates with Xero and MYOB
Retail labour is the largest controllable cost in the store, and it is committed a week before the sales it is supposed to serve.
Trading patterns that differ by day and season
Wage cost as a percentage of sales
Large casual and student workforces
Late-night and Sunday penalties
Multiple departments under one roof
Junior rates by age
Retail shift scheduling is a coverage problem priced by the hour: every extra body on the floor is both a sale you might make and a cost you certainly incur.
Live wage cost while the roster is still a draft
Build each department’s pattern once and reuse it, with wage cost visible against your sales target before anything is published.
A fashion floor, a trade counter and a dispensary are scheduled against completely different things — product knowledge, tradie early starts, a registration that has to be on site. One roster, nine patterns.
Schedule by department, balance fitting room, floor and register coverage, and template Boxing Day and EOFY sales.
Roster product specialists and repair technicians by certification, and split sales floor from service counter.
Homewares, furniture, gifts and florists — design consultants, warehouse and delivery, peaking at Mother's Day and Christmas.
Extended and overnight trading with lean teams, RSA tracked for alcohol sales and penalties applied automatically.
Trade counter, floor and warehouse together, with forklift and dangerous goods licences held per person.
A registered practitioner on duty every trading hour, with registrations tracked and expiry alerts before the date.
Appointments and walk-ins across specialist practitioners, scheduled by treatment skill and hygiene certification.
Music, sporting goods and hobby retail, where the roster is really an expertise roster with lesson bookings attached.
Standardised templates across locations and fast onboarding for seasonal stores — see [franchise workforce management](/industries/franchise-workforce-management-software).
A bike shop is two businesses sharing a door: a retail floor that peaks at the weekend and a workshop that runs on booked hours.
Schedule mechanics by skill level and brand certification against the workshop’s booked hours, and keep the sales floor covered through weekend peaks.
Common roles: bike mechanic, sales consultant, e-bike specialist.
A nursery’s year is two spikes and a long middle — the spring planting rush and Christmas — and the staffing question is how fast you can scale into each.
Schedule nursery, landscaping and checkout teams against the season rather than the week, with horticultural and chemical handling qualifications held per person.
Common roles: nursery attendant, horticulturist, landscape advisor. Gardenworld nursery runs its roster on RosterElf.
Animals need care on days the store is closed and hours the floor is empty, so a pet store roster has a duty-of-care floor underneath the trading one.
Schedule livestock and grooming coverage as a requirement rather than a preference, alongside the retail floor, with animal handling qualifications tracked.
Common roles: pet care attendant, dog groomer, aquarium specialist.
A studio roster is really a booking diary with a front desk attached, and the compliance question underneath it is infection control.
Schedule artists by specialty against their booking patterns and keep the front desk covered for consultations and walk-ins, with infection control certification held per artist.
A published roster is a plan. Payroll needs what actually happened on the floor.
Tablet kiosk or mobile clock-in
Staff clock in on a store tablet or their own phone, and hours are reconciled against the roster before they reach payroll.
Penalty rates, overtime and break rules vary by day, time, employment type and shift length — and one week’s roster touches most of them.
General Retail Industry Award (MA000004) — pay rates by period
| Period | Full-time & part-time | Casual |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary hours (Mon–Fri, day) | 100% | 125% |
| Evening (Mon–Fri after 6pm) | 125% | 150% |
| Saturday | 125% | 150% |
| Sunday | 150% | 175% |
| Public holiday | 225% | 250% |
Casual rates are set by the award directly, not by adding a loading to the permanent rate. Rates change each 1 July; the full breakdown by classification, junior age and allowance is in the general retail award pay guide. Always verify against Fair Work.
Approved hours should reach the pay run without being re-keyed, penalties and all.
Award interpretation already applied
RosterElf connects retail scheduling and time tracking to payroll, so approved hours flow cleanly to Xero or MYOB with penalties already applied.
Australian retail businesses using RosterElf report significant time savings on schedule creation. Based on customer feedback and ROI calculator data.
Scheduling is one job of several. RosterElf puts communication, HR and time tracking in the same place, so a retail team has one app rather than four.
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.
Less time building and re-fixing the roster every week.
See live wage cost as you schedule — no guesswork until payday.
General Retail Industry Award rates and penalties built in.
Works for casual, part-time and full-time staff.
Intuitive for managers and staff, with minimal training.
Scales from one site to a group.
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
“We're probably paying half of what we were paying.”
Luke Kelsey · Director, Pressed Earth
Wellness brand cut rostering costs by 50%
Read the Pressed Earth storyHear from Australian 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."
Download free job description templates for your retail team
Stay compliant with Australian Modern Award pay rates
Accredited RosterElf-partner accountants and bookkeepers who work with retail 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.
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 retail businesses
Build your first retail 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 retail scheduling software shows live wage cost against your sales target while the roster is still a draft, applies General Retail Industry Award penalties and junior rates as you schedule, covers every department and store in one view, and exports to payroll without re-keying. RosterElf does all four.
Template each department separately and combine them into one store view. Fashion, electronics and a trade counter peak at different hours, so a single weekly roster hides the gaps — while one combined wage-cost figure is the number the store is actually managed on.
Set the target before you build, not after you pay. RosterElf shows the cost of the roster as you schedule, so an extra Saturday shift is a decision rather than a surprise on the payroll report.
An afternoon or evening shift — in retail it is usually the late shift, covering the trading peak through to close and pack-down. Under the General Retail Award, ordinary hours worked after 6pm Monday to Friday attract a penalty, so a late shift costs more per hour than the same hours earlier in the day.
