Help Center

The fastest way to learn RosterMates is the built-in interactive tutorial. Click the Tutorial button (the graduation-cap icon) in the navigation to open the setup hub — it walks you through building your first template or event, publishing a roster, setting up a kiosk, reviewing timesheets, and exporting from the Summary page, step by step on the real pages.

Finishing the tutorial within your trial also unlocks a one-time 16-day trial extension — 30 days free in total. You can pause and resume it any time, and there's an "ask us a question" option if you get stuck. The steps below cover the same ground in written form.

The first thing to decide is whether your business needs one location or multiple. This affects everything — rosters, timesheets, employees, and settings are completely separate between locations.

You Need Multiple Locations If:

You operate multiple distinct sites (e.g. two different clinics, or separate stores) where each site has its own rosters, its own staff, and its own timesheets. Each location is effectively a separate RosterMates account.

You Only Need One Location If:

You have one site, or you want all your staff and schedules managed together in one place. If you have different teams or departments within the same business, use Areas to separate them — you don't need multiple locations for that.

How to Add a Location

Go to Settings → Locations Access and click Add Location. Enter the location name and save. Once a second location exists, a selector will appear at the top of your screen to switch between them.

Switching Between Locations

Use the location dropdown at the top of the screen to switch between your locations. Everything you see — employees, rosters, timesheets — belongs to the currently selected location. Make sure you're on the correct location before adding employees or creating schedules.

For a full guide, see Locations .

Head to the Management page. This is where all your employee information lives. Before adding employees, make sure you're switched to the correct location using the selector at the top of the screen.

Adding an Employee

Click the Add Employee card at the top of the employee list. Enter the employee's first name, last name, email address, and phone number, then save. The system will automatically send them a setup email so they can register their account and set a password.

Adding Your Whole Team at Once

If you have more than a handful of staff, use the Batch Add Employees card instead. Upload a spreadsheet or paste a list in any format — the AI import wizard extracts names, emails, phone numbers, and even positions and areas — then review and add everyone in one go.

Setup Pending vs Active

After adding an employee, their status will show as Setup Pending until they complete registration. Once they register through the email link, their status becomes Active and they can use the app and clock in at kiosks.

Assigning Positions and Areas

After creating an employee, select their card and use the detail panel on the right to assign them Positions (the roles they can work, e.g. Nurse, Supervisor) and Areas (the departments or zones they work in). These assignments drive rosters, open-shift eligibility, and the auto-rostering bots, so it's worth setting them up before you start scheduling.

Collecting Their Details

Use the Request Details button on an employee's card to send them a form that collects their emergency contact, IRD number, tax code, bank account, and KiwiSaver details — they fill it in from the app and you review it on the Forms page.

For a full guide, see Management .

Roles control what each employee can see and do inside RosterMates. By default, every new employee is given the standard employee role with basic permissions. You can change this from the employee's card on the Management page.

Assigning a Role

Select an employee on the Management page, then click the Manage Role button in their detail panel. A modal will appear listing all available roles with descriptions of their permissions. Choose the appropriate role and save.

Creating Custom Roles

If the built-in roles don't suit your needs, you can create custom roles in Settings → Roles with specific permission combinations — for example a "Supervisor" role that can approve timesheets but not see pay rates. Permissions cover page access (rosters, templates, timesheets, forms, events), pay (summary, pay rates, paying with IRD), security (roles, locations, kiosks), and day-to-day approvals (leave, swaps, announcements).

Who Should Get What Role

Most staff need no elevated role — they use the mobile app for shifts, leave, and clocking. Only assign elevated roles (such as Manager or Admin) to people who genuinely need to manage schedules, approve timesheets, or access other sensitive areas of the system.

For a full guide, see Roles .

Before creating your first roster, we recommend building a template. A template is a reusable schedule pattern — think of it as a blank week that you design once and can then stamp onto any week of the year.

Why Use Templates First?

Most businesses run on a repeating schedule — the same shifts, same positions, same staffing levels week after week. Rather than rebuilding that schedule from scratch every week, you set it up once as a template and apply it to each new roster in seconds. It saves a significant amount of time and reduces errors.

Position View vs Employee View

Position View is best when coverage matters most — you define which positions need to be filled each day and then assign employees to those slots. Employee View is best when you schedule based on who's available — you create rows for each employee and assign them shifts directly. Choose the view that matches how your business thinks about scheduling.

Building Your Template

Go to the Templates page, create a new template, and lay out your standard working week — or describe your week to the Template Assistant (the AI sphere button) and let it build the grid for you to review. Once saved, this template is ready to be applied to any roster week.

For a full guide, see Templates .

With your employees set up and a template ready, creating a roster is straightforward. Go to the Rosters page.

Applying a Template

Drag your template from the left sidebar onto the date you want it to start. The template's shifts populate a new roster which you can adjust for that specific week — swapping employees, adding extra shifts, or removing staff who are on leave. The Auto-Generate bot can also fill empty shifts for you based on rules you set.

Publishing the Roster

Once you're happy with the schedule, select the roster and click Save & Publish so employees can see their shifts in the app. Check the two notification toggles in the header — the envelope emails each affected employee their shifts, and the phone icon sends an app push notification; both are off until you switch them on.

For a full guide, see Rosters .

Clocking feeds directly into your timesheets. RosterMates offers two options — use either or both.

Option 1 — Geofencing (Employee Phones)

Employees clock in and out with the RosterMates app on their own phone, but only when they're physically inside a radius you define around your workplace. Zero hardware cost — set up your geofence locations in Settings → Kiosk Settings.

Option 2 — Kiosk Device (Shared Tablet)

Set up a shared tablet in a fixed location such as a reception area or staffroom. Employees walk up and enter their 4-digit user code — optionally with photo verification (facial recognition) to prevent buddy punching. Register the device in Settings → Kiosk Settings to generate its API key, then enter that key in the app's Kiosk Mode on the tablet.

For a full guide, see Kiosks .

Once employees start clocking in and out, their hours are automatically captured and matched to their shifts on the Timesheets page. This is where you review, adjust, and approve hours before processing payroll.

Reviewing Clock Times

Each timesheet entry shows the employee's clock-in and clock-out time alongside their rostered shift, so you can quickly spot discrepancies. Choose whether to pay scheduled shift hours or actual clocked hours for each shift, make adjustments, and add notes. The AI Timesheet Bot can even resolve the routine exceptions for you daily using rules you write in plain English.

Approving and Exporting

Once you're satisfied the hours are correct, approve the day. Approved hours flow to the Summary page, where you export to your payroll system (Xero, Crystal, iPayroll, PayHero, Smartly, or Excel) — or pay employees and file with IRD directly using RosterMatePay.

For full guides, see Timesheets and Summary .

Once your core setup is complete, RosterMates has more features to help you run the day-to-day.

Events

Staff one-off engagements — festivals, conferences, production runs — on the Events page: per-day areas and positions with capacities, shift bidding with a waitlist, and an Auto-Staff bot.

Forms

Build custom forms and checklists on the Forms page (or let the AI draft them), assign them to employees, or attach them to rosters and events so they arrive as tasks on people's shifts.

Messages

Use the built-in Messages page for direct messages, team channels, and company announcements with push notifications — no external group chat needed.

Leave Management

Employees submit leave requests through the app; you review and approve them on the Leave page. Approved leave flags the employee on the roster for those dates, balances track automatically with accruals, and holiday pay flows through timesheets.