Hospitality rota and scheduling software for UK venues
Build the rota, publish it to phones, and keep an hours record accurate enough for minimum wage, the 48-hour average and a defensible tipping policy.
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Live wage cost in pounds as you build the rota
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Working Time Regulations warnings built in
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Accurate hours for fair tip allocation
The four things that actually go wrong
Not the generic scheduling problems — the ones specific to running a UK venue.
The rota changes after you publish it
Someone swaps, someone calls in sick, and the copy on the wall stops matching the file. From 2027 the Employment Rights Act adds a payment where a shift is cancelled, moved or cut short at short notice — so tracking changes stops being tidiness and starts being cost.
The finish time is never the finish time
Last orders run late, the clean-down overruns, the handover takes twenty minutes. That time is working time and it is payable — and it is the most common route to an accidental minimum wage breach in hospitality.
The 48-hour average creeps up quietly
No single week looks unreasonable. The average across 17 weeks is what the Working Time Regulations measure, and by the time it is visible in a spreadsheet it has usually already happened.
Tips are now a compliance question
Since 1 October 2024 all tips must be passed to workers without deduction and allocated fairly, with a written policy and records kept. Fair allocation usually depends on hours worked — which means it depends on your rota being accurate.
Rota software that understands a service peak
Live wage cost in pounds
The cost of the rota updates as you build it, so an extra shift is a decision rather than a discovery on the payroll run.
Working time warnings
Flags a shift that would breach the 11-hour rest rule, and warns as someone approaches the 48-hour average across the reference period.
The rota on every phone
Published to staff instantly, so a swap updates one version of the truth instead of creating a second.
Clocked hours, not remembered ones
Timestamped clock-in and clock-out from a tablet by the door, which is what a minimum wage enquiry actually asks for.
Skills and certification cover
See at a glance whether the people on shift can actually do the roles the shift needs — including a personal licence holder on site.
Hours data for fair tip allocation
Accurate hours per person per shift, which is the input almost every fair tronc allocation depends on.
Built for pubs, restaurants, cafés and hotels
Pubs and bars
Trade that swings with the football fixture list and the weather, covered by a mostly part-time team.
Restaurants
Front of house and kitchen planned as two different problems, with a service peak that does not move.
Cafés and coffee shops
Early opens, a hard lunch peak, and split shifts that have to respect the 11-hour rest rule.
Hotels
Housekeeping, reception and F&B on different patterns, with night workers on their own hours limit.
Nightclubs and late venues
Late finishes where the 11 hours before the next shift is the constraint that binds first.
Quick service and delivery
Rotas that change on the day, published to phones rather than pinned to a wall.
What UK hospitality has to get right
UK hospitality pay and hours are governed by statute rather than by any sector agreement, and there are no statutory penalty rates. What does apply sits in four places, and three of them depend on an accurate record of hours.
Working Time Regulations 1998
A 48-hour weekly average measured over a rolling 17 weeks, an uninterrupted 20-minute break once a shift passes six hours, and 11 hours of rest between working days. Late finishes make the 11-hour rule the one hospitality breaches most — a 01:00 close rules out a 10:00 start.
Read the rota laws guideNational Minimum Wage
£12.71 for 21 and over, £10.85 for 18 to 20, and £8.00 for under-18s and eligible apprentices from 1 April 2026. The breach is rarely the headline rate — it is the twenty minutes of clean-down that never reached a timesheet, divided into the week’s pay.
Check your effective rateEmployment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023
In force since 1 October 2024, and the most hospitality-specific obligation on this list. All tips, gratuities and service charges must reach workers without deduction and be allocated fairly, under a written policy, with tipping records kept for three years. Fair allocation is usually built on hours worked — so the rota and the hours record are the evidence behind the tronc, not just behind payroll.
The government has committed to strengthening tipping law further by the end of 2026 under the Employment Rights Act 2025 roadmap, including a duty to consult staff before creating or changing a tipping policy. No date is set and the detail is still to come — but a policy you can show was discussed with the team is the safer position either way.
Employment Rights Act 2025
Statutory sick pay from day one with no earnings threshold, in force since 6 April 2026. Expected in 2027: a right to be offered guaranteed hours, reasonable notice of shifts, and a payment where a shift is cancelled, moved or cut short at short notice. All three are aimed squarely at how hospitality rotas work today, and the detail is still subject to consultation.
What changes and whenCalculate your rostering savings
See how much time and money your business could save with RosterElf rostering software.
Your current rostering
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Free rota and hours templates for UK venues
Excel downloads with no signup, built on UK working time rules rather than adapted from somewhere else.
Free rota templates
Weekly, daily, rolling, zero-hours and event rotas in Excel.
OpenAttendance and timesheets
Attendance register, timesheets and an overtime tracker.
Open17-week hours tracker
The rolling average behind the 48-hour limit, with amber and red thresholds.
OpenHoliday entitlement calculator
Pro-rata 5.6 weeks, plus 12.07% accrual for irregular-hours staff.
OpenReviews from our customers
Read what our clients have to say about us
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."
Why UK hospitality teams choose RosterElf
Built for shift-based teams, not adapted from an office HR system
Live wage cost in pounds while you build, not after payroll runs
Clock-in records that stand up as evidence of hours actually worked
Rota, swaps, absence and hours in one place rather than four spreadsheets
Works on the phones your team already has, with no per-device cost
Free plan for small venues, with no card required to start
Real support from people who understand your business
Our team knows UK rota and working time rules, and can walk you through setting up your venue. No call centre, no ticket queue.
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Help with rota setup and working time settings
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Import your team and go live in a day
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Real people, not a chatbot
5.0 average rating Rated 5.0 by Australian businesses
Hospitality rota questions
Working time, minimum wage, tips and holiday for UK venues.
- There is no general statutory minimum today — it depends on the contract. The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a right to reasonable notice of shifts and a payment where a shift is cancelled, moved or cut short at short notice, expected in 2027 and still subject to consultation. See our Employment Rights Act shift rights guide.
- An uninterrupted 20-minute rest break where the shift is longer than six hours, 11 hours of rest between working days, and 24 hours off each week (or 48 hours every fortnight). The break has to be genuinely uninterrupted — someone kept on the floor or answering the bar is still working, and that time is payable.
- The 48 hours is an average, normally measured over a rolling 17 weeks, so a 60-hour week during a peak is not itself a breach. Exceeding the average needs an individual written opt-out that is genuinely voluntary and can be withdrawn on notice — a clause in a handbook is not one. Our free 17-week hours tracker is built around that window.
- Yes, and they remain lawful under the Employment Rights Act 2025. Exclusivity clauses in them have been unenforceable since 2015. What is changing is a right for eligible workers to be offered guaranteed hours reflecting the hours they actually work over a reference period — expected in 2027. Our free zero-hours rota template keeps offers, acceptances and hours worked apart for that reason.