Free rota maker for UK staff rotas.

How to make a staff rota in five steps

1. Add each member of staff with their pay per hour and age group. The rota planner uses them to work out the wage bill and check the minimum wage.
2. Pick the week. Rotas start on a Monday, and your last rota stays in this browser for next time.
3. Add shifts with a start time, an end time and any unpaid break. The quick buttons fill in common shifts such as 09:00 to 17:00.
4. Read the checks under the rota. A shift with a problem turns red, and the reason is written underneath.
5. Print the rota on one A4 page for the staff room, download it for Excel or copy it into your staff WhatsApp group.

The UK rules the rota planner checks

The checks follow the rules published on GOV.UK. They are a guide for planning, not legal advice, and a contract can give staff more than the legal minimum.

• Breaks: staff aged 18 or over get an unpaid 20 minute break when they work more than 6 hours in a day, according to GOV.UK rest breaks at work. Staff under 18 get 30 minutes when they work more than 4.5 hours, according to the GOV.UK young workers page.
• Rest between shifts: 11 hours between working days, or 12 hours for staff under 18.
• Time off each week: 24 hours in a row every week, or 48 hours every fortnight. Staff under 18 need 48 hours every week.
• Weekly hours: no more than 48 hours a week on average, normally over 17 weeks, unless someone has opted out. Staff under 18 cannot work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week, according to GOV.UK maximum weekly working hours.
• Minimum wage from April 2026: £12.71 an hour at 21 and over, £10.85 at 18 to 20, and £8 for staff under 18 and for apprentices under 19 or in their first year, according to GOV.UK minimum wage rates.

What the wage total includes

The wage total is each person’s paid hours, after unpaid breaks, times their hourly rate. Holiday pay, employer National Insurance and pension contributions come on top, so treat it as the starting point for your staff costs.

When a free rota maker is no longer enough

A printed rota works well for one site and a small team. It starts to cost hours every week once staff swap shifts by text, ask for holidays in person and sign in on paper. Rota apps such as RotaCloud, Deputy and Planday do that for a monthly fee that grows with the number of staff. We set up your own staff rota app for one fixed price, agreed in writing before any work starts, with no fee per staff member. You can compare the options in the best rota apps in the UK.

Prefer a spreadsheet? Our free staff rota template works in Excel and Google Sheets.