Navigating to the rota
Open the rota by clicking Rota in the main sidebar, or navigate to/rota. Your default view is My schedule, scoped to your own shifts and open slots you can claim.
The page has two sections:
Managers open Rota setup from the schedule page (header Get started when you have no rotas yet, or the tools menu wrench). Use New rota to name a schedule and add people. New web rotas start as drafts; expand Type, department and visibility to change defaults. Choose Review setup, check the summary, then Save draft (or Create published rota if you changed visibility). After you save, the drawer moves to People on a rota so you can add who should see that schedule. You can also switch to People on a rota anytime to manage membership on existing rotas. Managers can open the tools menu and choose Suggest assignments to fill open slots for the week from staff availability and weekly hours, then edit anyone before publishing. To publish a draft, select it under People on a rota, choose Published, then confirm Publish rota on the review. Types are organisation-owned: create and edit them in Rota setup or under Rota settings (
/rota/settings).
Rota views
Managers who can see department or org coverage should use By rota when building or checking a single schedule: choose the rota, scan the week by day, and read each shift by the assignee’s name. Use Rota setup for rota management (create a schedule and add people). Individuals stay on My schedule for their own shifts.
Times on the week grid
The week grid uses the same Schedule-X calendar as Calendar, shown in your organisation timezone (set in Admin → Organisation). Hour labels run through the full day and the view opens around working hours, so a 09:00 shift lines up with the 09:00 row for everyone on the rota. Click an empty slot to add a shift, or click a shift to edit it. Switch to list view for claim and swap actions. Rota shows shifts (and, on My schedule, org calendar busy blocks that can conflict with a shift). Approved leave and TOIL do not appear on the rota grid; open Calendar for the full picture of leave, TOIL, shifts, and events.When you are assigned a shift
When a manager assigns you to a shift on a published rota (or publishes a draft that already has you on it), the shift is confirmed straight away. You get an email (and a push notification if you use the mobile app). There is no accept or decline step. If you cannot work the shift:- Open Schedule (list view is easiest), then choose Request swap, or open Requests & swaps.
- Pick your shift and a colleague’s shift, then submit. Your colleague must accept before a manager gives final approval.
- Or speak with your line manager in the usual way. Your line manager is also notified when you request a swap.
Contract hours hard stop
If a staff member’s employment contract caps weekly hours, managers cannot assign additional rota time that would breach the remaining allowance for that Monday-start week unless they record an override with a reason. The same hard stop applies when editing an existing assignment. Overrides on student / visa contracts always notify HR viewers. Vacation Exceptions (Contracts → Vacation Exceptions) open those hour limits for linked hourly pay elements on chosen dates or ranges: no hard block and no HR override alert during the window. When you add or edit a shift, the assignee search lists people with their hours already assigned this week versus their weekly cap (for example12h / 20h), with a green / amber / red proximity cue. Results are ordered so people with fewer hours appear first; unavailable people sit at the bottom. Filter by department, level, and pay element. Optionally set a worksite (org setting can make it required). After you pick someone, the editor shows their used, contracted min, and max for the week. If they are already at their weekly max, you cannot select them or save another assignment. If this shift would go over their remaining hours, Campsite still hard-stops unless you record an override. Overrides are visible later to Finance on wagesheets and timesheet review.
Approved leave and logged sick days both write rota unavailability for the affected dates, so managers cannot assign or move someone onto a new shift while they are away. Existing shifts are not auto-removed. Shifts on a day with sickness unavailability show a Sick chip. Shift pay can still appear on the timesheet for those days; review Sick / SSP flags before approving pay.
Repeating and duplicate shifts
When creating a shift, managers can enable Repeat this shift (daily, weekly, or every 2 weeks) and set an inclusive Until date. Campsite creates each occurrence and still applies department, pay element, worksite, and hours rules on every instance. From an existing shift, Duplicate (+1 week) copies the shift one week later. Repeating creates independent shifts (not a linked series). Editing or deleting one occurrence does not change the others. To change a whole run of repeats, edit or remove each occurrence, or create a new repeating shift with the corrected details. Duplicate always adds a single new shift one week ahead. If someone has an active phased return or adjusted duties plan (from an absence review case or their employee Leave tab), rota shows a Plan warning chip when a scheduled shift falls outside allowed weekdays or exceeds the plan’s daily or weekly hours. Saving a shift that would breach the plan asks for confirmation (Save anyway). This is a warning only: Campsite does not delete or rewrite shifts, and it is separate from the contract hours hard stop above. Completed or cancelled plans stop warnings.Swaps and unassign requests
To swap with a colleague or ask to be removed from a shift:- Open Requests & swaps.
- For a swap, pick your shift and their shift, then submit. Your colleague must accept the swap before a manager gives final approval. Your line manager is notified when you submit the swap request.
- For unassign, pick your shift, add an optional note, and submit. A manager approves the change. Your line manager is notified as well.