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Free Excel Rota Template for Hospitality Teams
Build and manage staff rotas in minutes.
Our free Excel rota template is built specifically for restaurants, bars, hotels and pubs and comes with built-in cost tracking, absence management, shift validation and staffing pattern monitoring included.
What's inside the rota template?
Settings - set up your team once
Before you build your first rota, add your team details to the Settings tab. You can configure:
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Up to 10 staff groups (e.g. FOH, BOH, Management)
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Up to 30 staff members, each with their contracted hours and hourly pay rate
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Up to 10 custom shift types (e.g. Bar Manager, Kitchen Porter, Sous Chef)
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Your site's opening and closing hours
Everything else in the template pulls from these settings, so you only ever enter each detail once.
Rota - build your weekly schedule
The main rota tab gives you a full week view with each team member on a row and each day of the week as a column. Assign shifts using your pre-configured shift types, or mark absences as Holiday, Sick, Day off or Other leave. The layout is built for hospitality shift patterns.
Budget & cost tracking - see your wage % before the rota goes live
The template automatically calculates your wage percentage for the week based on the sales, hours and/or wages you input to the template. You can immediately see whether your wage percentage and total labour cost are within your weekly target.
Staffing pattern - see cover at a glance
The staffing profile graph shows how many staff are scheduled per 30-minute slot, for each day of the week. Useful for spotting gaps during peak service or trimming cover in quieter periods.
Built-in shift validation
This free staff rota template automatically checks your rota for common scheduling errors before you publish:
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Shift length flags shifts that exceed legal or reasonable working limits
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Rest days checks that each employee has sufficient days off between shifts
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Contracted hours alerts you if a team member's scheduled hours don't meet their contracted amount
These checks run automatically as you build the rota with no manual cross-referencing required.
Who is this Excel rota template for?
This free staff rota template works for any hospitality business that schedules shift-based teams:
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Restaurants - to plan front-of-house and kitchen cover across service periods
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Bars and pubs - to manage split shifts, weekend peaks and part-time staff
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Hotels - to coordinate housekeeping, front desk and F&B rotas in one file
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Cafés and quick service - to keep labour costs in check with the built-in wage % tracker
Whether you manage a team of five or thirty, the template scales to fit your needs.
How to use the free staff rota template?
1. Download the file - click the button below to get your free Excel rota template instantly. No sign-up required.
2. Set up in the Settings tab - enter your staff groups, team members (with contracted hours and pay rates), shift types and opening hours.
3. Build your rota - assign shifts and absences for each team member across the week.
4. Check your costs - review total hours, wages and wage percentage against your weekly target.
5. Check the staffing pattern - use the staffing profile graph to confirm you have the right cover at the right times of day.
6. Validate and share - the template flags any shift issues automatically. Once clear, share the rota with your team.
Free rota template download
Click below to download your free Excel rota template — built for hospitality, ready to use straight away.
When a spreadsheet isn't enough
A rota template like this one is a great starting point, but it has a natural ceiling.
Every figure has to be manually gathered, checked and typed into the template – every week. Changes to the rota have to be communicated manually. There's no way to flag when a team member requests time off, or to automatically adjust costs when a shift swaps. And there's no AI forecasting to tell you whether your staffing levels match predicted demand, so you only find out you were overstaffed or understaffed once the shift is done.
Rotaready Evo connects your rota directly to live labour data, so costs update as shifts change, compliance checks run automatically, and your team always has the latest version on their phone. With built in AI that analyses sales trends, reservations and local events, it helps forecast your staffing needs, so you know whether you're over or understaffed before the week begins, not after.
You get everything this template offers, plus AI that forecasts demand before you schedule, without any of the manual work.
Free rota template vs scheduling software: what's the difference?
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Rotaready Evo |
Excel template |
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Easily shareable |
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Manual (file share) |
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Visibility of upcoming costs & shifts |
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Customisable settings e.g. staff groups, names, shift types & opening times |
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Staffing chart |
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Automatic validation of contractual hours |
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Automatic rota building |
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Free mobile app |
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Shift swaps |
✅ |
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Working time compliance |
✅ |
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Cost control |
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AI sales and labour forecasting |
✅ |
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See upcoming reservations |
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Local weather |
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Accommodates for salaried staff |
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Overtime rules |
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Split shifts |
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Cover shifts |
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Accurate social taxes |
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Shift broadcasting |
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Document storage |
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Time & attendance monitoring |
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Record notable events |
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Employee sentiment analysis and AI insights |
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See how Rotaready Evo can streamline your scheduling
From live cost tracking to AI forecasting, find out what's possible beyond a free template.