# Staff rota software for UK hospitality

Canonical: https://paddl-ai.co/features/rota
Last reviewed: 2026-09-11 by the Paddl team

Paddl's staff rota software builds the week against a demand band drawn from up to thirteen weeks of Square takings, warns before you publish if someone is untrained or over hours, takes the hours from staff check-ins, works out holiday, and exports to payroll.

## What Paddl's staff rota software does

- A week built from templates or drafted by Paddy against the demand band
- Demand band from up to thirteen weeks of Square takings, per day and hour
- Warnings before publishing: untrained for the role, over contracted hours, missing certificate
- Timed publishing so staff get the notice the contract promises
- Hours from GPS check-ins, holiday entitlement and accrual, payroll export
- Open shifts weighted by takings, shift swaps that do not need a manager

## What it does not do

- The rota is per site: it does not schedule one person across several sites
- Square, Zettle, Epos Now and SumUp POS are the only till connections today; without one the demand band uses manual or CSV sales
- Each location includes 5 owner and manager users and extra ones are £2.99 a month each; staff do not take a seat, so it is not a per-head rota licence

## Pricing

- **Price:** £69 per location per month, or £703.80 a year (15% off). Every feature is on the one plan.
- **Trial:** 30 days free with full access. Card required, cancel anytime, no contract after.
- **Included per location:** 5 owner and manager users and 10GB of document storage. Extra owners or managers are £2.99 a month each; staff do not take a seat.
- **Covers:** SFBB, HACCP, allergens and Natasha's Law, temperature and cleaning records, training records, COSHH, risk assessments, licences and insurance, and an EHO-ready audit pack.
- **Apps:** Staff app for iOS and Android with team chat, web dashboard for managers, shared venue tablets with PIN tap-in; works on any phone or tablet.
- **Company:** Paddl is a trading name of Trading Projects Ltd, company number 16456940, registered in England.

Pricing page: https://paddl-ai.co/pricing

## Questions

**What is rota software?**

It is the system that takes a working week from a blank grid to everybody knowing when they are in, and then to a payroll figure at the end of it. In practice that means building shifts, publishing them so staff can see them, recording who actually turned up, and handling the holiday, swaps and availability that change the plan. Paddl does all of that in the same place as your compliance records, which is what lets it warn you before you roster somebody whose training has lapsed.

**How much does Paddl's rota cost?**

It is included in the £69 per location per month plan. Each location includes 5 owner and manager users, extra ones are £2.99 a month each, and staff do not take a seat, rather than a per-head rota licence. Rota tools normally charge per head, from about £2.50 to £6.50, so a fifty-person team costs £125 to £325 a month before you add anything else. The difference is widest in hospitality precisely because the teams are large and part-time.

**Can staff see their shifts on their phone?**

Yes. Staff see their own week in the app, clock in against the shift they are on, check their hours, book time off, set the days they cannot work and offer or claim swaps. Managers can approve leave and swaps from the app too, so a request that arrives on a Sunday does not wait for somebody to find a laptop.

**Does it handle holiday entitlement?**

Yes, including the part most systems get wrong. Statutory entitlement is 5.6 weeks capped at 28 days for somebody on fixed hours, but irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue at 12.07 per cent of the hours they actually work, and that figure moves every week. Paddl tracks both, and shows a manager the balance a request would leave before they approve it rather than after.

**Can Paddl replace RotaCloud or Deputy?**

For most hospitality businesses, yes. Building, publishing, timesheets, payroll export, holiday, swaps and availability are all covered, and with Square connected so are the sales forecast and building against demand, which used to be the specialists' argument. What Paddl still does not do is workforce rules written around union agreements, or a till other than Square. If either of those is why you bought one, keep it.

**Does the rota know about training and certificates?**

Yes, and this is the part a standalone rota tool cannot do. Because training records, certificates and the rota are in one system, dropping somebody onto a shift can check whether the role needs a certificate they do not have, whether theirs expires before the shift, whether they are under 18, and whether they are already on approved leave. It warns rather than blocks, because a manager who has agreed something in person should not be stopped by software.

**How much notice do I have to give for a shift change?**

There is no single statutory notice period in the UK, but the Employment Rights Act sets the framework and reasonable notice is what tribunals and employees expect. Paddl records the notice every change gave against a target you set per site, defaulting to seven days, and the change report shows the pattern rather than individual incidents. Cancelling a shift at short notice repeatedly is the thing that becomes a problem, and this is what makes it visible.

**Does the rota work offline?**

On the app, mostly. Cellars and walk-ins are where the signal goes, so requesting leave, setting availability and offering a shift all work with no connection and send when the phone finds signal again. Claiming somebody else's shift deliberately does not queue: it is a race, and replaying it an hour later could tell somebody they picked up a shift that went to a colleague.

**What is the demand band on the rota?**

A strip under each day of the rota showing how busy that site usually is at each hour, worked out from up to thirteen weeks of takings from the till. It is a picture of the past, not a prediction: Friday at eight is dark because Fridays at eight have been busy. It appears once a site has four weeks of takings from a connected till, which with Square's history is usually the first night. Closed days have no band.

**Can Paddl build the rota for me?**

It can draft one. Ask Paddy to suggest a week and it drafts open shifts against the demand band and your labour target, sized to the shift lengths your site usually runs, then hands them to you as drafts with nobody on them. It never publishes and it never picks the people. You drag your team in, delete what you do not want and save what is left, and nobody is told anything until you publish. A draft that is close is faster than a blank grid, and a draft that is wrong costs a minute.

## Related

- [Best Rota Software for Hospitality (2026)](https://paddl-ai.co/best/best-rota-software-hospitality)
- [Paddl vs RotaCloud](https://paddl-ai.co/compare/rotacloud)
- [Paddl vs Deputy](https://paddl-ai.co/compare/deputy)
- [Paddl vs Planday](https://paddl-ai.co/compare/planday)
- [Paddl vs 7shifts](https://paddl-ai.co/compare/7shifts)
- [Team management software](https://paddl-ai.co/features/team): Paddl's team management software keeps a staff directory per site with roles, groups and permissions, tracks each person's training and certificates, records GPS check-ins and handovers, and gives managers a view of who is on site and who is compliant.
- [Checklist app](https://paddl-ai.co/features/routines): Paddl's checklist app schedules opening, closing, cleaning and temperature routines by shift and role, has staff complete them on a phone with timestamps, readings and photos, and shows a manager what was missed, late or done across every site.
- [Compliance alerts](https://paddl-ai.co/features/notifications): Paddl's compliance alerts send push notifications, email digests and end-of-day reports for overdue checks, expiring certificates, out-of-range temperatures and unfilled shifts, escalating to a manager when a task is missed, with every alert kept on the record.
- [Food safety app](https://paddl-ai.co/features/mobile-app): The Paddl food safety app is a native iOS and Android app for the people on shift: opening and closing checks, fridge and cooking temperatures, cleaning tasks, the SFBB diary and HACCP monitoring records, with quick incident and fault reports, training, the rota and Ask Paddy, working offline and syncing when the signal returns.
- [Team chat app](https://paddl-ai.co/features/team-chat): Paddl's team chat gives every venue its own channels, groups and direct messages, with broadcasts that ask for acknowledgement, open shifts and swaps posted as cards staff can claim, shared-tablet tap-in, translation into 12 languages, and an exportable, retained history. Included at £69/location/month, with 5 owner and manager users per location, £2.99 a month for each extra, and no seat for staff.