Free bar staff rota template (with a cover planner and closers built in)

A bar rota needs more than names and times. It needs to know who's closing, who's got the cellar, who's on the door when it gets busy and how many people the 9pm rush actually takes. Generic rota templates miss all of that.

Below are three templates built for bars. Use them in order: plan the cover, collect availability, then write the rota. Copy any table into Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers (paste and it'll keep the columns), or print it.

Template 1: the bar cover planner

Before you put a single name on the rota, decide how many people each part of the week needs. This is where most bar rotas go wrong: they're built from who's available, not from what the trade needs.

Fill in your own hours and numbers. The example is a town-centre bar open 12 till 11 Sunday to Thursday, and 12 till 1am Friday and Saturday.

How to fill it in:

1. Start with last month's till reports. Note your busiest hour each day.
2. Estimate how many drinks one bartender can serve in that hour. Cocktail-heavy bars need more people per pound taken than pint-pulling ones.
3. Add a glass collector or bar back on any night that would otherwise pull a bartender off the bar.
4. Write this week's events in the bottom row and add the extra cover to that band.

Template 2: the weekly bar staff rota

This is the rota itself. Every day has a named closer (the person responsible for cash-up and lock-up) and a cellar duty (lines, gas, stock rotation). Shifts use a simple code: start-finish then an area letter.

Area codes: B = Bar, C = Cellar, F = Floor / glass collecting, D = Door (if in-house)

Week commencing: ____________

How to use it:

• Write closer and cellar first. These are the jobs that go wrong if nobody owns them. Rotate them so it isn't always the same person.
• Split shifts go in one cell, separated by a slash, like Priya's Saturday. Count only the hours worked, not the gap.
• Add up hours in the last column and compare against each person's contract or expected hours.
• Day notes are for anything the whole team needs: deliveries, events, private hires, a stocktake.

Template 3: the bar availability sheet

Send this out (or pin it up) a week before you build the rota. Ask for it back by a set day.

Key: ✓ available all day · ½ partial (write the hours) · ✗ can't work

The notes column is where the useful information is: "exams 12th to 20th", "no closes on Sundays, first bus is 7am", "can do lates but not after a close".

Before you publish: the bar rota checks

Run through these every week. They catch the mistakes that cause no-shows, burnout and the odd complaint.

• Every night has a named closer and key holder.
• Event nights have the extra cover from your cover planner.
• Nobody closes and then opens. Under GOV.UK guidance, adult workers are normally entitled to 11 hours' rest between working days. A 1am close and an 11am start gives 10.
• Breaks are planned. Adults working more than 6 hours get one uninterrupted 20-minute break. Under-18s get 30 minutes once they work more than 4.5 hours.
• Weekly rest is there. Adults get 24 hours off each week or 48 hours each fortnight; under-18s get 48 hours a week.
• Under-18s aren't over their limits. No more than 8 hours a day or 40 a week, and 12 hours' rest between working days. See our young workers guide.
• Average hours are sensible. Workers can't average more than 48 hours a week (normally over 17 weeks) unless they've opted out in writing.
• Late closes are shared fairly. Count who's done the most Friday and Saturday closes this month.
• Holidays are honoured. Check the holiday book before you publish, not after.
• Labour cost is in budget. Multiply hours by rate and compare with the forecast takings.

For the full rules, read our guide to UK working time rules in hospitality.

Common bar rota mistakes

• Building from availability, not demand. You end up with four people on a quiet Tuesday because four people were free.
• Same closer every weekend. Fast way to lose your best bartender.
• Rota published too late. Staff with second jobs, kids or university timetables need notice, and late rotas are a big cause of no-shows. Our guide to reducing staff no-shows has more.
• Changes made by text. Once the rota's published, changes sent as individual messages get missed. Republish instead.
• Forgetting the cellar. If cellar jobs aren't on the rota, they happen when someone remembers.

Or let ShiftComplete run the bar rota for you

A template works until the week it doesn't: someone drops out, the match moves, and you're redoing the grid on your phone at midnight. ShiftComplete does the same job as these three templates, without the rewriting:

• Availability comes from staff phones. Available, partial or off, weeks ahead, with a note. That's Template 3, filled in for you.
• Events add the cover. "Saturday match, +2 Bar from 5" goes on the day, and the draft rota includes it. That's Template 1.
• A fair draft rota in seconds. Weight the people you want on the big nights, and ShiftComplete spreads the rest fairly. Drag shifts to adjust, then publish.
• Areas and split shifts. Your own areas (Bar, Cellar, Floor, Door) and up to four time blocks a day, per person.
• Day notes, holidays and labour cost on the rota while you build it, and fixed weekly schedules for anyone on the same shifts every week.
• Clocking in and out. Switch on time tracking and staff clock in on their phone or the bar tablet; you see hours worked against the rota and can download them as a spreadsheet with a total per person for payroll.
• On every phone. The published rota appears under My rota for each person, and you can email it too.
• Closing checks as well. Closing and cellar checklists that change by weekday, named and timestamped, where a 2am close still counts as "today".

It costs £1.49 per staff member per month with every feature included and no contract. A bar with 12 staff pays £17.88 a month. It's free for 60 days with no card needed, and set-up takes about five minutes.

"The rota stopped being a Sunday-night argument the week we switched over. The chef stopped being the only person who knows what's in the kitchen. And the EHO turn up to a screen, not a box file."

Graeme Kirkham, Owner, The Lounge Oswestry & Knock & Snitch

See how a rota app for bars works in more detail, or start your free trial.