Service covered, from first flat white to last table
Rostering for Australian restaurants, cafés and bars — split shifts that behave, weekend peaks planned in advance, RSAs tracked, and a casual pool that covers its own drop-outs from the app.
Hospitality rosters change daily and break weekly. Here's how RosterMates keeps service covered without the group-chat scramble.
Split Shifts That Behave
Lunch service, a break, dinner service — one person, two blocks, one day. RosterMates rosters it, clocks it and pays it exactly as worked, without spreadsheet gymnastics.
Floor and Kitchen Together
FOH and BOH run different rhythms but one service. Separate areas keep each organised; one roster keeps them in sync — and the head chef can own the kitchen's roster under permissions.
The 4pm Drop-Out
A waiter texts in sick an hour before doors. Push the shift to available floor staff — first taker wins — or approve the swap they already sorted themselves in the app.
Weekend-Heavy Economics
Friday to Sunday carries the week — at penalty rates. Wage estimates update as you build, so the expensive nights are staffed deliberately, not by habit.
RSA & Food Safety
Bar staff need current RSAs; the kitchen needs food safety coverage. All certificates are dated and tracked, with reminders before anything lapses mid-season.
Sunday Night Payroll Prep
Instead of reconstructing the week from memory and paper dockets, timesheets are already matched and approved — the payroll-ready export is one click, not one evening.
Purpose-built tools for cafés, restaurants and bars.
Service-Shaped Rosters
- Split shifts for lunch and dinner service
- Floor, bar, kitchen and pass as separate areas
- Templates for the standard week and the big weekends
- Late closes handled cleanly across midnight
- The AI bot fills gaps within your rules
Casual Pool Management
- Availability maintained by staff in the app
- Open shift offers — first to accept wins
- Manager-approved shift swaps
- Fair-hours preference across the pool
- Publish notifications hit every phone instantly
Certificates & Compliance
- RSA tracking with expiry reminders
- Food safety certificates per employee
- First aid coverage visibility
- Digital forms for opening/closing checklists
- Incident reports completed on the phone
Time & Attendance
- Back-of-house kiosk with PIN or facial recognition
- Geofenced GPS clock-in from the app
- Late clock-in alerts before service suffers
- Split-shift blocks clocked separately
- Breaks handled under your standard rules
Team Communication
- Kitchen and floor channels that stay on-topic
- Announcements for menu changes and briefings
- Swap requests inside the conversation
- Read receipts on the messages that matter
- No personal numbers doing the rounds
Costs & Payroll
- Wage estimates as you build the week
- Rostered vs actual hours on every timesheet
- Payroll-ready exports for Xero, MYOB, KeyPay & Employment Hero
- Public holidays split out per state calendar
- Custom CSV matched to your bookkeeper's format
How RosterMates helps Lena run a 120-seat restaurant and its sister café with 32 staff.
7:00 AM — Café Opens
Lena checks the app at home: both baristas clocked in at the café, prep chef in at the restaurant. Nobody had to text "you in?" to anyone.
10:30 AM — Friday Gap
A floor casual can't do Friday dinner. Lena converts the shift to an open offer; a second-year uni student on the casual list accepts it from the library within the hour.
12:00 PM — RSA Check
Two RSAs expire next month — the reminders arrived this morning. Lena forwards the refresher links between lunch orders; both staff book the course that afternoon.
3:00 PM — Next Week Published
Standard-week template in, Mother's Day Sunday beefed up, kitchen roster already done by the head chef. Lena reviews the wage estimate, trims one mid-week double, publishes.
4:30 PM — Timesheets Between Services
Yesterday's timesheets: one waiter forgot to clock out after lunch — fixed with a note. Day approved for both venues in the quiet before dinner prep.
Sunday — The Export
Pay period ends. Because approvals happened through the week, the export is one click: hours, leave and the public holiday Monday, payroll-ready for the bookkeeper before family lunch.
Service stays covered, and the admin stays small.
Common questions from restaurant, café and bar operators.