For care homes
Rota software for care homes that understands nights
Long days, waking nights and four-on-four-off break most rota tools, because they assume a working week runs Monday to Friday. Rotasmith counts leave in shifts against the pattern each person actually works, so a carer on four-on-four-off is not charged five days for a week off.
What usually goes wrong
You approve a day off, then find out on the day you are short.
Set the minimum number of carers a shift needs and Rotasmith checks before you approve, not after. The warning names the day and the team.
Half your staff have no work email and will not download an app.
Put a shared screen in the office — a tablet, the office computer, an old phone. Staff tap their name and a four-digit PIN. No email, no app store, no smartphone needed.
Somebody retypes paper timesheets into payroll every month.
Clock-in times are compared against the rota automatically. Overtime is what is left over, and the month exports as one file.
Patterns it already handles
- ✓Four-on-four-off, days and waking nights
- ✓Long days, 07:00–19:00 and 19:00–07:00
- ✓Part-time care assistants on fixed weekdays
- ✓Bank staff picking up shifts as cover
The rules you answer to
Sickness absence is health data under UK GDPR. Rotasmith keeps it visible to HR only and never shows it to line managers, and absence reporting includes the Bradford Factor with the caveats it needs.
Questions
- Does it handle four-on-four-off?
- Yes — set the cycle and the date it starts, and leave is charged in shifts against it. Shift workers keep working through bank holidays; fixed-pattern staff get them off. Neither needs anyone to do mental arithmetic.
- Can staff without a smartphone clock in?
- Yes. A shared device in the building lets anyone clock in with a four-digit PIN. It only clocks people in and out — it cannot see rotas, leave or records.
- Will it tell us if leave drops us below safe staffing?
- That is the point of it. Each team has a minimum, and the approvals screen warns you before you say yes, because it can see the rota for that day.
See it on a real rota
The demo opens a working example with a published rota, three weeks of clocked hours and a leave request waiting to be approved. Nothing to sign up for, and it is deleted after a week.
Open the demo