How to Build a Weekly Staff Schedule (Worked Café Example)

Q: How do I calculate how many staff hours a week needs?

Multiply hours open by how many people must be on duty at the same time, then multiply by the number of days. A café open 12 hours with 2 people on duty needs 24 person-hours a day, or 168 person-hours in a 7-day week.

Q: What is a fair weekly shift plan?

Divide the required shifts by the number of people. In the worked example, 28 shifts of 6 hours shared by 7 people is 4 shifts and 24 hours each. A plan that uses only 4 of those people gives each of them 7 shifts and 42 hours, and gives the other three people nothing.

Q: How do I check a rest rule on a roster?

Write the rule before you fill names. A simple café rule is one shift per person per day, so nobody works the morning and the evening on the same day. Also decide whether an evening shift may be followed by the next morning: those shifts are 12 hours apart (20:00 to 08:00).

Q: How do I check that every shift is covered?

Count the names on each shift and compare with the coverage you set. In the example every morning and every evening needs 2 names. 7 mornings × 2 plus 7 evenings × 2 is 28 names. If the count is short, that shift has a hole even when the weekly hour total looks fine.

Q: Is there software that builds a weekly staff schedule on Windows?

Yes. Shift Timesheet Maker is an offline Windows app on the Microsoft Store. It keeps a weekly schedule with drag-and-drop planning, employee and shift templates, auto-schedule with fairness and rest rules, Excel employee import, and PDF or CSV export. It is $19.99 one-time, with a 14-day free trial. Schedules stay in a local database on your PC.

The problem: open hours, names, and rest

A weekly roster looks like a grid of names. The question underneath it is always the same: who works which shift so every open hour is covered, nobody breaks the rest rule, and the hours are shared fairly?

Paper and a group chat can do this for a tiny team. They get unreliable as soon as one person is off, a shift is short one name, or the same four people quietly absorb the whole week. You do not need a cloud HR system to see the gap. You need a count.

A worked example

Northline Café is open 08:00–20:00, seven days. Two people must be on duty the whole time. Shifts are Morning 08:00–14:00 and Evening 14:00–20:00. Seven people can work: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.

Step 1: Count the hours and the shifts

Hours open times people on duty is the person-hours you must schedule:

12 hours × 2 people = 24 person-hours per day
24 × 7 days = 168 person-hours in the week

Each shift is 6 hours, and each shift needs 2 people:

2 shifts × 2 people × 7 days = 28 slots
28 × 6 hours = 168 person-hours

Any finished roster has to land on both numbers. Fewer than 28 filled slots means a hole. More than 168 hours means you scheduled overlap you did not ask for.

Step 2: What happens if you fill names in list order

A common habit is to keep using the first people who reply. Cover the week with A, B, C, and D only:

28 slots ÷ 4 people = 7 shifts each
7 × 6 hours = 42 hours each
E, F, and G = 0 hours

The café is covered, and the weekly total is still 168. The plan is still a poor one: four people work every day, three people are unused, and a sick day has no spare person already in the pattern. Because four people must fill four slots every day, each of them works exactly one shift every day and has no day off.

Step 3: Share the shifts, with one shift per day

Write the rules before the names:

Every morning and every evening still needs 2 people.
One shift per person per day. Morning plus evening the same day is 12 hours with no break between them.
Do not follow an evening with the next morning. Evening ends at 20:00 and the next morning starts at 08:00, so the gap is 12 hours. This rule declines that turnaround anyway.
Use all 7 people. 28 ÷ 7 = 4 shifts each, which is 24 hours.

M is morning, E is evening, and a dash is a day off. Each letter appears four times. No row contains both M and E on the same day, and nobody has E followed by M the next day.

Person	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Shifts	Hours
A	M	E	—	E	—	M	—	4	24
B	M	—	M	E	—	E	—	4	24
C	E	—	M	—	M	E	—	4	24
D	E	—	E	—	M	—	M	4	24
E	—	M	E	—	E	—	M	4	24
F	—	M	—	M	E	—	E	4	24
G	—	E	—	M	—	M	E	4	24
Total	2 morning and 2 evening every day							28	168

Monday morning is A and B. Monday evening is C and D. Sunday morning is D and E. Sunday evening is F and G. The same count holds on the other days. 7 × 24 = 168, so the fair plan covers the same hours as the four-person plan.

Step 4: Compare the two plans

Plan	People used	Hours each (those used)	Days off each	Covered?
First four names only	4	42	0	Yes
Shared, one shift a day	7	24	3	Yes

Both plans cover the café. The second one is the plan you can actually repeat: 24 hours instead of 42, and three days off instead of none.

Tips for a roster you can trust

Count coverage before names. Open hours × people on duty is the lower bound. If the grid’s hours do not match, a shift is short or somebody is double-booked.
Write the rest rule in one sentence. “One shift per day” and “no evening then next morning” are easy to check. A vague “be fair” is not.
Balance shifts, not just headcount. Seven names on the employee list do nothing if four of them work every slot.
Check each column, not only the weekly total. 168 hours can still hide an empty Sunday evening if some other shift has an extra person.
Keep a copy before you publish it. The version on the wall and the version you pay from should be the same file.

Let Shift Timesheet Maker build the week

The grid above is 7 people and 2 shift types. A real shop adds leave, different shift lengths, and a new week every Monday. Shift Timesheet Maker is a Windows desktop app for that weekly plan:

Weekly schedule. Drag people onto the week instead of rewriting a sheet.
Employees and shift templates. Reuse the same morning and evening shifts.
Auto-schedule. Fill the week with fairness and rest rules, then adjust by hand.
Excel import. Load the employee list from a spreadsheet.
PDF and CSV. Export a schedule PDF, a payroll PDF, or CSV for payroll.
Backup. Save and restore the whole file as .stbackup.json.
Offline. Rosters stay in a local database on your PC. 11 languages. Windows 10 and Windows 11.

$19.99 one-time purchase, with a 14-day free trial. Build next week’s roster and compare the hours with the plan you use now.

Get Shift Timesheet Maker on Microsoft Store

FAQ

How do I calculate how many staff hours a week needs?

Multiply hours open by how many people must be on duty, then by the number of days. 12 × 2 × 7 = 168 person-hours.

What is a fair weekly shift plan?

Divide the slots by the number of people. 28 shifts ÷ 7 people = 4 shifts × 6 hours = 24 hours each. Using only 4 people gives those four 42 hours and the others 0.

How do I check a rest rule on a roster?

One shift per person per day stops a 12-hour morning-plus-evening. Evening at 20:00 to the next morning at 08:00 is 12 hours apart; decide explicitly whether that turnaround is allowed.

How do I check that every shift is covered?

Count names on every morning and every evening. Each one needs 2. The week needs 28 names and 168 hours. A matching weekly total can still hide one empty shift if another shift has an extra name.

Is there software that builds a weekly staff schedule on Windows?

Yes. Shift Timesheet Maker is an offline Windows app: weekly drag-and-drop schedule, shift templates, auto-schedule with fairness and rest rules, Excel import, and PDF or CSV export. $19.99 one-time on the Microsoft Store, with a 14-day free trial.