Restaurant roster software for Irish kitchens, floors and split shifts

A city restaurant roster isn't one shift a day. It's lunch from 11 to 3, a gap, then dinner from 5 until the last table pays. The kitchen starts earlier and finishes later than the floor. Pre-theatre fills the 5.30 slot on Thursdays and Fridays, a group of 20 books the private room at short notice, and December is a different business altogether.

Most restaurants plan this on a spreadsheet the head chef and the floor manager each keep a copy of. The kitchen version and the floor version drift apart by Wednesday, and nobody is sure which one the KP is looking at.

The split-shift problem

Split shifts are normal in Irish restaurants and they're lawful, but they're where most roster mistakes happen. A server does lunch, goes home, comes back for dinner, closes at 11.45pm and is down for an 8am prep shift the next morning because someone was sick. That's eight hours and fifteen minutes between finishing and starting, and the Organisation of Working Time Act says 11.

The WRC is clear that where split or changing shifts prevent normal rest, the employee gets compensatory rest instead: a rest period taken later. It's not a loophole. It means you have to know when it happened and make it up.

Four rules your roster has to respect

On top of that, where the contract doesn't fix start and finish times, section 17 of the Act says staff must be told them at least 24 hours before the first day of the week they're rostered. And the WRC can ask to see each employee's start and finish times, meal breaks and rest periods (Form OWT1 or a record like it). Our guide to working time records and the OWT1 covers what to keep.

How ShiftComplete handles a restaurant roster

ShiftComplete is a roster and operations app for hospitality. It runs in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer, so there's nothing to install for you or the team.

Lunch and dinner as separate blocks

Give one person up to four time blocks in a day, each tagged with an area you set up yourself: Kitchen, Pass, Pastry, Floor, Bar, Private Room. A server's Friday reads 11:30 to 15:00 Floor, then 17:00 to 23:00 Floor, and the gap between is there in black and white. A chef's day can show prep, lunch service and dinner service as separate blocks.

Availability from the team

Staff mark each day as available, partial or off from their phone, weeks ahead, with a note ("lectures until 2 on Mondays"). Holidays are recorded in the app and leave requests can come in from the phone for you to approve.

Bookings as events

Put the busy moments on the day as events: pre-theatre on Thursday needs an extra server from 5pm; the private room has 20 on Saturday, so one more on the floor and one more in the kitchen. Day notes carry the details ("Two coeliacs on table 12 at 8pm, tell the pass").

A fair draft, then your call

Weight the people you want on the big nights, such as your sous chef for Saturday or your best section server for the private room. ShiftComplete builds a draft roster in seconds, spread fairly so the same people don't get every double. Then you drag shifts around, look for the late-close-early-start pairs, and publish.

One version on every phone

Published rosters appear on each person's phone under My rota and can be emailed too. The kitchen and the floor see the same week.

A week in a 70-cover city restaurant (an example)

Picture a restaurant open Tuesday to Sunday, lunch and dinner, with 22 staff: head chef, sous, three chefs de partie, two KPs, a floor manager, an assistant manager, nine servers and three on the bar.

• By the Wednesday before, everyone has set availability. Three students are off for exams.
• The floor manager adds events: pre-theatre Thursday and Friday, a private room for 20 on Saturday, a quiet Tuesday lunch.
• The head chef weights the sous onto Friday and Saturday dinner.
• The draft comes back. They spot one server with a Saturday close and a Sunday 10am brunch set-up, move her to the 12 o'clock start, and publish.

The kitchen's records live in the same place

The same app runs temperature logs for every fridge, freezer and hot-hold point, a 14-allergen list front-of-house can search from the floor, opening and closing checklists that change by weekday, incidents and maintenance with photos, and team announcements. When the EHO from the HSE calls, the records are on a screen, not in three folders. If you turn on clocking in and out, staff clock in on their phone or a shared tablet and you can download hours worked against the roster as a spreadsheet.

Pricing

€1.99 per active staff member per month. Every feature included, no per-site fee, no contract. A 22-person restaurant pays €43.78 a month. Free for 60 days, no card needed. Set-up takes about five minutes, and there's a free 15-minute set-up call if you want one.

From our own hospitality group

ShiftComplete was built inside our own hospitality group, Kirkham Hospitality, which runs The Lounge in Oswestry and Knock & Snitch. Owner Graeme Kirkham:

"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

Who it suits

• Independent restaurants running lunch and dinner with split shifts.
• Head chefs and floor managers who want one roster instead of two spreadsheets.
• Restaurants with a student-heavy floor team and a seasonal December.
• Small groups with two or three sites and staff who move between them.

Want the rules in more depth first? Read our guide to split shifts and rest breaks.