Checking a roster means testing whether the assignments can work together. Total hours alone do not establish coverage, and a fully populated calendar does not establish that the assigned people are available. Review the draft in a consistent order so later checks use corrected inputs.
1. Fix the boundaries first
Write the week’s start date, end date and time zone. Store complete start and finish timestamps for every shift, including the following date for overnight finishes. Identify whether the sheet groups shifts by start date or splits hours across midnight. Keep the payroll workweek boundary separate if it differs from the roster’s display week.
For a Sunday 22:00 to Monday 06:00 assignment, a start-date roster puts the row under Sunday. A Monday 00:00 boundary splits the eight elapsed clock hours into two on Sunday and six on Monday, before breaks. A single 7.5-hour total cannot tell you which side of midnight contains a 30-minute break. That requires the break’s timing.
2. Check availability and duplicate assignments
Match each assignment to the employee’s availability for the entire occupied interval. “Available Sunday” may not imply availability until 06:00 Monday. Confirm approved leave and role qualifications separately. Two rows for the same employee overlap when each begins before the other ends. Adjacent rows that meet exactly at a boundary do not overlap, but they may still create a long continuous duty period.
| First assignment | Second assignment | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 09:00–13:00 | Monday 12:00–17:00 | One-hour overlap |
| Monday 09:00–13:00 | Monday 13:00–17:00 | No overlap; review the combined duty period |
| Sunday 22:00–Monday 06:00 | Monday 05:00–09:00 | One-hour overlap despite different start dates |
3. Reconcile paid hours
For each row, subtract unpaid breaks from elapsed scheduled hours. Reject negative breaks, nonpositive durations and breaks exceeding the shift. Sum the rows by employee and compare the total with the planning cap. Also include assignments from other teams or locations; an employee’s total does not reset because you opened a different spreadsheet.
Five 8-hour assignments with a 30-minute unpaid break each give 37.5 scheduled paid hours. That arithmetic does not decide whether a break is properly unpaid or whether overtime is owed. Confirm the applicable employment rules and actual records separately. Use the work hours calculator to check time arithmetic.
4. Inspect coverage at every change point
Check the interval after every shift start, finish and break boundary. Compare staff present with required simultaneous positions and qualifications. A daily total can hide a morning surplus and an evening gap. Two eight-hour assignments equal 16 gross hours whether they run together or back to back, but they provide very different coverage.
The coverage and gap calculator helps compare shift intervals with a staffing target. Model break relief explicitly where it affects availability; subtracting break minutes from a weekly total is not enough to locate a gap. If the need changes by hour, review each demand interval against its own target.
5. Review the edges and publish the assumptions
Check the last assignment of the previous week and the first of the next week before evaluating rest or consecutive workdays. A one-week view hides these relationships. Overnight shifts spanning daylight-saving changes also need actual elapsed-time review; an eight-hour wall-clock interval can have a different elapsed duration.
Record the version, reviewer and outstanding unfilled positions. State whether times are local, whether breaks are already deducted and how employees should report a conflict. Keep the published version and document subsequent changes. Do not label an unreviewed generator output “approved.”
When a generator leaves a slot unfilled
A simple greedy generator chooses an eligible person at each step. Its earlier choices can prevent a later assignment even when a rearranged roster would work. Treat an unfilled row as a review prompt: check availability, try swapping earlier assignments, then reassess whether more capacity is needed. Do not automatically raise hour limits just to remove the warning.
Start with the weekly shift schedule maker, maintain the result using the employee schedule layout, or use the rotating calendar for repeating work/off patterns.