Rota (Admin Panel)
By Reece
By Reece
Step-by-step guides for venue managers using the Taybl Admin Panel to build rotas, manage shift patterns, holidays, timesheets, payroll and staff settings.
Building a Weekly Rota
The Weekly Rota Builder is where you drag and drop staff onto shifts, see who's available, and keep an eye on labour cost for the week. Steps 1. Go to Rota, then "Weekly Rota" in the sidebar. 2. Use the arrows either side of the date range to move between weeks. Staff are listed down the left, with each day of the week across the top. 3. Each day's column shows the total covers booked for that day. Hover over a covers total to see a chart of bookings by hour, useful for judging when you need extra cover. 4. 5. Each staff member's availability for the day appears above their row, or "Day off" if they're not available that day. 6. Tap the "+" under a day to add a shift for that staff member, or drag an existing shift to move it to another day or person. 7. When you're happy with the rota, tap "Update Rota" at the top to save and publish it to staff. Tips Unassigned shifts sit in a row at the top of the grid, so you can spot anything that still needs a team member before publishing. The Totals column on the right shows each team member's hours and estimated pay for the week, so you can check contracted hours are being met. Use "Copy to Another Week" to duplicate the whole rota to a future week instead of rebuilding it from scratch.
Viewing Labour Cost and Setting Average Spend Per Head
The Weekly Rota Builder estimates each day's spend from your covers and shows labour cost as a percentage of that, so you can see if you're overstaffed or understaffed before you publish. Steps 1. Go to Settings, then "Rota Settings" under the Rota Settings section. 2. Scroll to "Average Spend per Head" and enter an amount for each day of the week - this is what a typical covered guest spends. 3. If the amount is the same every day, enter it for Monday and tap "Copy to All Days". Otherwise set each day individually, for example higher amounts on busy weekend evenings. 4. Tap "Save Changes". 5. 6. Go to Rota, then "Weekly Rota", and scroll to the bottom of the grid. 7. Daily Cost, Estimated Spend and Labour Cost are shown for each day. Estimated Spend is covers multiplied by your average spend per head, and Labour Cost is your staffing cost as a percentage of that. Tips Aim for a Labour Cost around 25-35% depending on your venue - much higher and you may be overstaffed for the covers you're expecting. Leave a day's Average Spend per Head blank if you don't want the calculation to run for that day - it will be skipped instead of showing as 0%.
Creating Shift Patterns
Shift patterns let you save a common set of shifts, like a standard week, so you can seed a new rota in seconds instead of building it from scratch. Steps 1. Go to Rota, then "Shift Patterns" in the sidebar. 2. Tap "New Pattern". 3. 4. Give the pattern a name, for example "Standard Week". 5. For the first shift, choose the day, start and end time, and the role it covers. 6. Tap "Add Shift" to add another shift to the pattern, and repeat for every day and role you want to include. 7. Tap "Save Pattern" once you've added all the shifts you need. Tips Leave a shift's role as "No specific role" if it can be covered by anyone, rather than tying it to one particular skill. You can create separate patterns for different situations, for example a quieter "Winter Week" alongside your usual "Standard Week".
Viewing Team Availability
See when every team member is available to work for the week, all in one place, before you start building the rota. Steps 1. Go to Rota, then "Staff Availability" in the sidebar. 2. Use the arrows either side of the date range to move between weeks. 3. Each team member is listed down the left, with their availability for each day of the week across the top, shown as a time range or "Unavailable". 4. 5. Use the search box to quickly find a specific team member if your list is long. Tips Availability shown here comes from each staff member's Recurring and One Off settings in the Staff App, so it's always kept up to date by them. Check this page before publishing a rota to avoid scheduling someone on a day they've marked as unavailable.
Viewing and Approving Holiday Requests
Review holiday requests from your team, check remaining balances, and approve or decline them from one place. Steps 1. Go to Rota, then "Holiday & Leave" in the sidebar. 2. The "Requests" tab lists every holiday request, showing the dates, number of days, reason and status. 3. 4. Tap a Pending request to open it. 5. Add an optional note to the staff member, then tap "Approve" or "Decline". 6. 7. Switch to the "Balances" tab to see each team member's holiday allowance, days used, pending and remaining. Tips Approving a request automatically updates the staff member's rota and reduces their remaining balance, so check the rota for that period isn't left short-staffed. Use the note field when declining a request to let the staff member know why.
Viewing Shift Swap Requests
When staff swap shifts between themselves, you can see the status of every request here. Steps 1. Go to Rota, then "Shift Swap Requests" in the sidebar. 2. Every swap is listed showing who is covering for whom, along with the shift's date, time and section. 3. 4. The badge on the right shows where the swap is up to: "Awaiting colleague" while the other staff member hasn't yet accepted, or "Approved" once it's confirmed. 5. Approved swaps show a note confirming cover was checked and there are no rota conflicts, and both staff members' rotas update automatically. Tips Swaps are only offered to team members with the matching skill for that shift, so cover is always qualified. If a swap causes a rota conflict, such as double-booking someone, it won't be approved automatically - check the note on the request for details.
Reviewing and Approving Timesheets
Check clocked hours against scheduled hours, spot anything unusual, and approve timesheets ready for payroll. Steps 1. Go to Rota, then "Timesheets" in the sidebar. 2. Use the arrows either side of the date range to select the week you want to review. 3. Each team member's row shows their Scheduled hours, Actual hours worked, Cost and Status for the week, with a day-by-day breakdown across the columns. 4. 5. Tick the checkbox next to a team member to select their timesheet, or tick the header checkbox to select everyone at once. 6. Once you've selected the timesheets you want to sign off, tap "Approve X Timesheets" to approve them together. 7. To approve just one person's timesheet without selecting anyone else, tap the "Approve" button on their row instead. Tips Timesheets compare Scheduled hours against Actual hours worked, so a big gap between the two is usually the first thing worth checking before you approve. If Geofencing is switched on in Rota Settings, any clock-in or clock-out that happens away from the venue is flagged here for review, so check those rows before approving. Once a timesheet is approved it feeds through to payroll, so it's worth reviewing the full week before using the bulk "Approve" option.
Exporting Payroll
Export a payroll-ready summary of hours and pay for any date range, in a format your payroll provider can import. Steps 1. Go to Rota, then "Payroll Export" in the sidebar. 2. Use the pencil icons next to Date From and Date To to set the pay period you want to export. 3. By default, pay is calculated only from weeks that have been fully approved on the Timesheets page - unapproved weeks show as "excluded" and don't count towards the total. 4. 5. If you need to include weeks that haven't been approved yet, switch on "Include unapproved weeks". 6. 7. Choose a Format that matches your payroll provider: Generic CSV, Xero (Bills import), QuickBooks Online (Journal Entries import), or Sage Business Cloud (Journal import). 8. Tap "Preview" to check the figures on screen before exporting. 9. Once everything looks right, tap "Export CSV" to download the file and send it to payroll. Tips The export is based on actual clocked hours, not scheduled shifts, so a staff member's pay reflects the time they actually worked. If a week you expect to see is missing figures, check whether it's still waiting on approval on the Timesheets page - approve it there first, or switch on "Include unapproved weeks" here. Always use "Preview" to sanity-check the figures before exporting - it's much easier to catch a mistake here than after the file has gone to payroll.
Enforcing GeoFencing for Clock-in
Flag clock-ins and clock-outs that happen away from the venue, so you can review them on the Timesheets page. Steps 1. Go to Settings, then "Rota Settings" under the ROTA SETTINGS section. 2. 3. Switch on "Require Geofencing to Clock-in". 4. Enter a Radius in metres - this is how far from the venue a clock-in or clock-out can happen before it gets flagged. 5. 6. The venue's location is normally taken from its address automatically. If that's not set, add an address on Venue Settings, or enter Manual Latitude and Manual Longitude here - the "Use My Current Location" button can fill these in for you. 7. Save your changes. Tips Geofencing never blocks a clock-in or clock-out - it just flags it for review on the Timesheets page, so staff can still clock in even if their location can't be confirmed. If you leave the Radius field blank, Geofencing won't flag anything - a radius has to be set for it to take effect. Make sure the venue's address is set correctly on Venue Settings first - it's the simplest way to get an accurate location without entering coordinates manually.
Requesting Shift Acknowledgement
Ask each staff member to review and confirm their shifts when you publish a rota, so you know they've seen it. Steps 1. Go to Settings, then "Rota Settings" under the ROTA SETTINGS section. 2. Switch on "Request Shift Acknowledgement". 3. 4. Save your changes. 5. From now on, whenever you publish a rota, each staff member gets a push notification and email asking them to review and acknowledge their shifts. 6. On the Weekly Rota Builder, shifts that have been acknowledged are highlighted, so you can see at a glance who's confirmed their shift and who hasn't. Tips This doesn't stop staff from working an unacknowledged shift - it's a way to confirm they've seen and reviewed their rota, not a hard requirement to clock in. If you switch this off, publishing a rota still notifies staff as normal - they just won't be asked to acknowledge it, and the Weekly Rota Builder won't show acknowledgement status. Use the highlighted shifts on the Weekly Rota Builder as a quick way to chase up anyone who hasn't confirmed a shift close to the start of the week.
Setting Up Employee Contracts, Pay and Holiday Allowance
Set a team member's contract type, hours, pay rate and holiday allowance so their rota, timesheets and payroll figures are accurate. Steps 1. Go to Team, then "Team Management" and select the team member. 2. Open the "Pay & Contracts" tab. 3. 4. Set Contract to Full-Time, Part-Time or Zero-Hours, and enter their Hours/Wk. 5. Choose a Pay Type - Hourly rate or Annual salary - and fill in the Rate/Hr or Salary/Yr field that appears. 6. Set Holiday to either Fixed days per year or Accrued from hours worked, then enter their Holiday Days. 7. Set Holiday Year From to the date their holiday year starts. 8. Tap "Save Changes". Tips Hours/Wk and Rate/Hr feed into the estimated labour cost shown on the Weekly Rota Builder, so keeping these accurate helps you plan shifts against budget. Choose "Accrued from hours worked" for Zero-Hours or casual staff whose holiday builds up as they work, rather than a fixed number of days upfront. Holiday Year From doesn't have to match the calendar year - set it to whenever this team member's holiday entitlement actually resets.
Adding User-Specific Documents
Upload certificates, right-to-work checks and other files for a specific team member, or share a document with everyone. Steps 1. Go to Team, then "Team Management" and select the team member. 2. Open the "Documents" tab. 3. 4. Tap "Add A Document". 5. Tap "Click to upload a file" and choose the file from your device. 6. 7. Give it a Document Name and choose a Category, such as Certificate. 8. Set Applies To - choose Company-wide to share it with everyone, or select a specific person under Link to User. 9. If the document has an expiry date, switch on "Does this document expire?" and enter the date. 10. Tap "Save Document". Tips Use Company-wide for policies, handbooks or anything every team member should have access to, rather than uploading the same file separately for each person. Setting an expiry date on things like right-to-work checks or food hygiene certificates makes it easier to spot documents that need renewing. You can edit or remove a document at any time from the Documents tab using the pencil and bin icons next to it.
Using Skills to Manage Roles
Define the roles your venue schedules against and assign them to team members, so shifts, Open Shifts and Shift Swaps can be matched to the right people. Steps 1. Go to Settings, then "Skills" under the ROTA SETTINGS section. 2. Type a skill name, such as "Host", into the field and tap "Add Skill" to add it to your venue's skill list. 3. Each shift on the rota is tagged with one of these skills as its role, and it's what Open Shift and Shift Swap eligibility check against - so keep the list matched to the roles you actually schedule. 4. 5. To assign a skill to a specific person, go to Team, then "Team Management" and open their profile. 6. On the Profile tab, tick each Skill that applies to them. 7. 8. Set their Default Role from one of the skills you've ticked - this is the role used when scheduling them on the rota. 9. Tap "Save Changes". Tips A team member can hold more than one skill - for example, someone who can work both Bar and Front of House - but only one can be set as their Default Role. Skills drive who's eligible for an Open Shift or a Shift Swap, so if someone can't see a shift they should be able to pick up, check they have the right skill ticked. Keep skill names short and specific, like "Bar" or "Bar - Cocktail Trained", rather than long descriptions - they're used as labels throughout the rota.