Audience
This article is for people managers and supervisors who use Roubler to create and manage rosters, assign shifts, and support employees with roster‑related questions and issues.
Before you start
Before building or changing rosters, make sure:
- You have the right access
Your permission group allows you to view and edit rosters, and manage employees for your locations.
Your primary location and location access are correct so you can see the right staff list.
- Your employees are set up correctly
Employees have the correct primary location, position and employment type.
Staff who work across sites have location access to all relevant locations, so different managers can roster them if needed.
- You understand your organisation’s roster rules
Standard hours or patterns your team should follow.
Whether you use shift bidding/acceptance, open shifts, or shift swaps.
Any internal rules around maximum hours, overtime, weekends, or qualifications, especially if you plan to use Smart Roster.
This article assumes managers and employees can already log in; it focuses on rostering and shifts only.
How Rostering works
This section explains how rostering and shifts work in Roubler from the manager view, once everyone is already logged in.
1. Where rosters and shifts appear
- On web (manager view):
Use the Roster screen to build, edit, cost and publish rosters for your locations.
- For employees:
On mobile, they see shifts under Roster or Shifts.
On web, they see shifts under Roster / Schedule / My shifts.
Only published shifts appear in their roster views.
2. Ways to build a roster
Your organisation may use one or more of the following approaches:
- Build from scratch – add shifts per employee per day and copy/paste to other days/weeks.
- Build from standard hours – recommended for stable teams; use employees’ standard hours as a base, then adjust.
Use roster templates – create reusable templates (e.g. “Week A / Week B” or seasonal rosters) and apply them to future periods.
Smart Roster – automatically assign unassigned shifts based on rules (hours worked, rating, max hours, weekend rules, and other criteria).
Whichever method you choose, you can still edit individual shifts before publishing.
3. Publishing, updating, and notifications
- Draft vs published
Shifts remain internal until you Publish the roster (or specific shifts).
Once published, employees see those shifts on mobile and web.
- Shift changes
When you change and re‑publish shifts, employees may receive push and/or email notifications about new, changed, or cancelled shifts, depending on your configuration.
Always ensure rosters are published before the period starts so shifts can connect correctly to clockings and timesheets.
4. Shift options: open shifts, bidding, swapping, and availability
Depending on your setup, you may have additional tools:
- Open shifts / shift acceptance / bidding
You can publish available shifts that staff can accept or decline from their app (for example, extra or “open” shifts).
Accepted shifts move into their main roster automatically.
- Shift swaps
Employees may be able to offer their shift to other eligible co‑workers at the same location.
The shift remains on the original employee’s roster until someone accepts; once accepted, both rosters update.
If no one accepts, the original employee is still responsible for working the shift.
- Employee availability
Staff can set ongoing or one‑off unavailability (e.g. “every Wednesday evening” or a single date).
You see this when building rosters and should aim not to schedule people during times they’ve flagged as unavailable.
5. Rosters, timesheets, and unassociated shifts
Rosters, clockings, and timesheets work together:
- When you publish shifts, they appear in Time & Attendance as unassociated shifts.
When employees clock in and out, Roubler can automatically link those clockings to the matching rostered shift and complete the timesheet.
If a shift is unpublished after being associated, or if there is a missing clock‑in/clock‑out, you may see unassociated shifts or incomplete timesheets that need manual review.
Managing unassociated shifts correctly helps ensure accurate time tracking and payroll.
Frequently asked questions and troubleshooting
1. “My employee says they can’t see their upcoming shifts.”
Ask them to:
Check they’re in the correct company/brand if they work across multiple.
Pull down to refresh their roster in the app or refresh the browser page.
Manager checks:
Confirm the roster (or relevant shifts) are published, not just drafted.
Confirm the employee’s primary location and location access include the rostered location.
If the roster is published and locations are correct, capture screenshots (manager roster view vs employee view) and escalate via your internal support process.
2. “The roster looks different on the app vs the web. Which is correct?”
Both views read from the same Roubler data.
Steps:
Ask the employee to refresh the app or browser, or sign out and back in.
- Confirm there are no recent unpublished changes in your manager roster view.
If differences remain after refresh, have them send screenshots of both views and raise it internally for further investigation.
3. “Employees can’t accept/decline shifts or swap shifts.”
Most often this means the feature is not enabled for your organisation or for that location/role.
Manager actions:
- Check internally (HR/Payroll or system admin) whether:
Shift acceptance/bidding is enabled and configured.
Shift swaps are turned on for that location.
If features are not in use, explain to staff that shifts are assigned directly and they must follow your normal change/cover process instead.
4. “We need two managers/teams to roster the same employees.”
Roubler supports this where employees work across locations:
Add the employee to multiple locations in their Location Access.
Managers with rostering permissions at those locations will be able to see and schedule those employees.
If two managers try to roster the same person at the same time, Roubler will raise alerts and prevent publishing until the conflict is resolved, avoiding double‑booking.
5. “We used Smart Roster and nothing happened / error about no unassigned shifts.”
Smart Roster only works when there are unassigned shifts to fill.
Check:
- You’ve created shifts without employees (unassigned) on the roster.
If the message says there are no unassigned shifts, create them first (you can copy last week’s roster as a template), then run Smart Roster again.
Also confirm Smart Roster settings match how you want to prioritise staff (employment type, even allocation, additional criteria).
6. “Timesheets don’t match the roster / we see many unassociated shifts.”
- Shifts were not published before staff worked and clocked.
- Shifts were published, then unpublished or changed, breaking the original association.
- Employees missed clock‑ins or clock‑outs, so automatic linking couldn’t complete.
Manager steps:
In Timesheets, look for entries without an associated shift.
Where appropriate, link a published shift to the timesheet, or adjust manually following your payroll rules.
Remind staff to clock correctly and ensure future rosters are published in time.
7. “A shift should be leave instead of work.”
Roubler allows converting a published rostered shift into leave, so leave and timesheets stay aligned:
- From the Roster screen, open the relevant shift and choose Convert to leave.
Select the correct leave type and times, then confirm.
This creates the appropriate leave record and associated timesheet entry according to your configuration.
Who to contact for help
If you still need help after following this guide, managers should use internal support channels, not contact the external vendor directly.
- Your HR / Payroll team
Validate employee locations, positions, standard hours and leave rules.
Confirm how rosters should interact with pay, overtime and leave.
- Your internal Roubler/system administrator or IT/support team
Review and adjust roster settings, Smart Roster, shift acceptance/swaps, and notifications.
Investigate issues where the roster view, timesheets, or app behaviour don’t match expectations, and if necessary escalate to the external vendor on behalf of your organisation.
- Local site or operations leadership (if applicable)
Clarify business rules for coverage, overtime, availability, and who should be rostered where, so that your rosters align with operational needs.
Employees should be encouraged to raise roster or shift concerns with their manager first, who can then coordinate with HR/Payroll or internal support as appropriate.