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How to add and copy Roster shifts

Updated

Audience

This guide is for people managers and supervisors who use Roubler to build rosters and need to add new shifts and copy existing shifts for their team.

Description

From the Roster screen, managers can:

  • Add new shifts for individual employees or as unassigned shifts.
  • Copy and paste shifts within a day, across days, or into future weeks.

  • Use copied shifts together with standard hours, templates, or Smart Roster as part of their rostering process.

This guide focuses only on adding and copying roster shifts; publishing and timesheets are covered in separate articles.

Steps

1. Open the Roster screen

  1. Log in to Roubler (web).

  2. Go to Roster / Rostering / Schedule from the left-hand menu.

  3. Use the location selector at the top to choose the site you want to roster.

  4. Use the date navigation (arrows or date picker) to move to the week you want to edit.

     

2. Add a shift for an employee

  1. Make sure you are in a view that shows employees as rows (e.g. “By employee”).

  2. Find the employee row and day column where you want the shift.
  3. Click in the empty cell to open the Add shift panel.
  4. Enter at least:
    • Start time and finish time.
    • Position/role (if required).

    • Any breaks and notes as per your process.

  5. Save the shift. It will appear on the roster as a Draft shift until published.

Tip: Repeat for other days/employees, or use copy/paste (below) to speed up.

3. Add an unassigned shift (optional)

Use unassigned shifts when you want to plan coverage first, then decide who works later (often used with Smart Roster).

  1. Click on the large green plus sign in the tool bar at the top.

  2. Add the position, Location start dates and times (do not add an Employee)

4. Copy and paste shifts within the roster

There are a few common patterns for copying shifts. Exact buttons may vary slightly by account, but the behaviour is similar.

4.1 Copy shifts to another day in the same week

  1. Build at least one complete day of shifts (for example, Monday).
  2. Use the Copy / Paste options to duplicate shifts to other days or weeks (for example, copy last week’s pattern). 
  3. Click on any shift and select the copy icon to copy its properties

    • On any open cell, click on the copy icon to paste in the relevant properties to that cell from the shift your copied. 

 

4.2 Copy shifts into another week

  1. Use the Copy roster / Copy week option to copy the current week’s shifts.
  2. Select the from week date range that you would like to copy from and the to date range where you want to copy to 
  3. Click on copy
  4. All Assigned and Unassigned shifts will be copied as draft shifts ready to be edited and published

     

Troubleshooting

1. “I can’t add or edit shifts for this location.”

Common causes:

  • You do not have a manager-level permission group for that location.
  • The employee does not have location access to that site.

Actions:

  • Check with HR/Payroll or your internal Roubler administrator that:
    • You have rostering permissions for the site.

    • The employee has the correct primary location and any additional location access.

2. “Copied shifts went to the wrong employees or days.”

  • Confirm you were in the correct view (e.g. By employee vs By position) before copying.
  • Double-check the source and target dates when applying a copied roster/week.

  • If needed, use Clear / Unassign all to remove copied shifts and try again more carefully.

3. “Smart Roster says there are no unassigned shifts.”

  • Smart Roster only works on unassigned shifts. If every shift already has an employee, you’ll see an error like “There are no unassigned shifts that need to be filled.”

  • Create shifts without assigning employees (or clear assignments on some shifts), then run Smart Roster again.

4. “Timesheets don’t match my added/copied shifts.”

  • Check that all relevant shifts were published before staff worked and clocked.
  • If you changed or unpublished shifts after they were worked, you may see unassociated shifts or mismatches in Timesheets.

  • Use the Timesheets screen to link or adjust entries and make sure future rosters are published on time.

Who to contact for help

If you still need help adding or copying shifts after following this guide:

HR / Payroll team

Contact HR/Payroll for:

  • Questions about who can be rostered where (locations, positions, employment types).

  • How rosters should align with standard hours, overtime rules, and leave.

Internal Roubler/system administrator or IT/support

Contact your internal Roubler admin for:

  • Issues with rostering permissions, Smart Roster, templates, or roster alerts.

  • Problems where the Roster screen, employee app view, and timesheets don’t match and may need configuration changes or vendor escalation.

Provide examples (employee, location, dates, screenshots) so they can investigate and, if necessary, escalate to Roubler/MYOB Support on your organisation’s behalf.