Free pub roster template for Ireland, built around licensing hours

A pub roster in Ireland is shaped by two clocks: the licensing hours, which decide when the doors open and when the last drink is served, and the 11-hour daily rest rule, which decides who can come back in the morning. This template is built around both. Copy it into a spreadsheet or print it; fill it in a week or two ahead; keep each week's version.

Part 1: your licensing hours and the earliest restart

Citizens Information gives these hours for selling alcohol for drinking on the premises. Your own licence or any exemption may differ, so check yours. Staff don't finish at last sale: allow time to clear, clean down and cash up. The "finish" column below assumes about 45 minutes; change it to match your pub.

Doors can open from 10.30am Monday to Saturday and 12.30pm on Sunday. Two things jump out:

• Your Thursday closer can't do Friday's 10.30am open or a morning delivery. Plan a separate opener.
• Sunday's 12.30pm start works for Saturday's closers, because 1.15am to 12.15pm is exactly 11 hours. Any earlier Sunday start for a Saturday closer breaks the rule.

A restaurant certificate lets a pub serving a substantial meal (costing more than €9) serve alcohol one hour after normal hours with that meal, and a special exemption order from the District Court can take serving to 2.30am at the latest (Citizens Information). Add a row for any such nights.

Part 2: the weekly pub roster

Week commencing (Monday): ________ Published: ________ Events this week: ________

Shift codes. Write real times with the break: 10:00-18:00 (30). Or use these standard pub shifts and write the break alongside:

Under the Organisation of Working Time Act, a shift of more than 4½ hours needs at least 15 minutes and more than 6 hours needs 30 minutes, in the middle of the shift, not at the end. The ☀ Sunday column marks Sunday work for whatever Sunday premium your contracts provide. If a public holiday falls in the week, write PH at the top of that day's column.

A filled-in example: a town-centre pub with food

Illustrative week. Kitchen serves 12:00 to 21:00. Match on Saturday at 17:30.

Checks:

• Róisín closes on Tuesday night (finishing 00:15 on Wednesday), has Wednesday off and opens on Thursday at 10:00: a gap of nearly 34 hours. She closes Friday at 01:15 and has Saturday off. ✓
• Declan closes Saturday at 01:15 (Sunday morning) and starts Sunday at 12:00: only 10¾ hours. ✗ Move his Sunday start to 12:15 or later. Doors don't open until 12:30, so it costs nothing.
• Kevin has a long Saturday for the match, with a 45-minute break in the middle. He finishes Friday 01:15 and starts Saturday 15:00. ✓
• Ella is 17, in school, on general duties only (collecting and washing glasses, clearing tables, never serving from behind the bar). Friday to 23:00 is allowed in licensed premises because Saturday isn't a school day, and she can't start before 11:00 on Saturday (12 hours' rest); 13:00 is fine. Saturday to 21:00 is well inside her limits, and her 8-hour Saturday shift is 7½ hours worked. ✓
• Friday opening has no manager until Róisín arrives at 16:00. Either Aisling is a trusted keyholder, or the roster needs changing.
• Marek is at 45¼ hours this week: fine if his average stays at or below 48 over your reference period, usually 4 months.

Under-18s on a pub roster

From S.I. No. 350/2001 and Citizens Information:

• General duties only: no supplying alcohol from behind the bar counter or for off-sales.
• Hours: up to 8 a day and 40 a week (16 and 17-year-olds).
• Finish: 10pm, or 11pm in licensed premises on a night that isn't immediately before a school day; then no start before 7am, and in practice not before 12 hours have passed.
• Breaks and rest: 30 minutes after 4½ hours, 12 consecutive hours between shifts, 2 days off in 7.
• Under-16s: light work only and never after 8pm, so not part of the evening bar trade.

The full rules, including the Code of Practice you must have regard to (written terms, a parent's written consent, exam leave), are in young workers in licensed premises.

How to use the template

1. Fill in Part 1 once with your actual closing and clean-down times.
2. Mark events: fixtures, functions, music nights, public holiday weekends.
3. Place an opener and a closer (M) every day, then check the closer isn't the next day's opener.
4. Fill the bar, floor and kitchen around your busiest sessions.
5. Write start, finish and break in each cell.
6. Run the rest gap row for every day and fix every ✗.
7. Publish at least 24 hours before anyone's first shift where contracts don't fix their times, and preferably 10 to 14 days ahead. Keep the published roster and the actual hours: the WRC lists start and finish times, meal breaks and rest periods among the records you must keep.

For a general weekly roster that isn't built around licensing hours, use the staff roster template. Planning the festive fortnight? See the Christmas roster guide.

Or let ShiftComplete run the pub roster

ShiftComplete was built inside our own hospitality group, Kirkham Hospitality in Oswestry, to stop the roster being a weekly headache. Staff set their availability from their phone. You add events (match on Saturday, +2 on the bar), weight the people you want on, and ShiftComplete builds a draft roster in seconds, fair across the team, with up to four time blocks per person per day tagged to areas like Bar, Lounge or Kitchen. Publish it to every phone; day notes carry the details. With time tracking on, staff clock in and out on their phone or a tablet behind the bar, and you can download actual hours with a total per person. It also keeps your opening and closing checklists and fridge temperature logs in the same app.

It helps you keep the roster and hours records a WRC inspector asks to see. €1.99 per active staff member per month, free for 60 days, no card, no contract.