A commonly described Kelly schedule uses a nine-day cycle with three 24-hour tours: work, off, work, off, work, then four off-duty blocks. At that pattern and shift length, each cycle contains 72 scheduled hours and averages 56 hours per seven days. Verify the department's actual pattern because “Kelly schedule” and “Kelly day” are not interchangeable labels everywhere.
Read the nine-day pattern
Use W for one 24-hour duty tour and O for one 24-hour off-duty block. The pattern is W O W O W O O O O. Each block starts at the same clock time; the table below uses 08:00 solely as an example.
| Cycle block | Status | Hours scheduled |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 to day 2 | On duty | 24 |
| Day 2 to day 3 | Off | 0 |
| Day 3 to day 4 | On duty | 24 |
| Day 4 to day 5 | Off | 0 |
| Day 5 to day 6 | On duty | 24 |
| Day 6 to day 10 | Four off-duty blocks | 0 |
The next cycle begins at 08:00 on day 10. A day marked O in a calendar based on shift starts can still include work before 08:00 from the preceding tour. When planning an appointment, inspect the actual start and finish timestamps rather than treating a calendar square as midnight-to-midnight time off.
Calculate cycle hours and the weekly average
Three tours multiplied by 24 hours gives 72 hours. To convert a nine-day total to a seven-day average, calculate 72 ÷ 9 × 7 = 56. Two complete cycles last 18 days and contain 144 hours. The weekly average describes the repeating pattern over time; it is not the number that every payroll week must contain.
For the example anchor, the first seven 24-hour blocks include three tours, or 72 hours. Blocks 8 through 14 also include three tours. Blocks 15 through 21 include two tours, or 48 hours. Longer stretches of the pattern bring the average back toward 56. Count the actual tours and any boundary-crossing hours for the reporting interval you need.
Distinguish the pattern from a Kelly day
A Kelly day can mean an additional scheduled day off used to reduce hours under a department's arrangement. It may be applied to a different base rotation. A roster with extra relief days will not necessarily keep the unadjusted 56-hour average calculated above.
As a mathematical example, six complete nine-day cycles contain 18 tours and 432 hours. If one 24-hour tour is removed, the adjusted total is 408 hours over 54 days, equivalent to 52.8889 hours per seven days. That example illustrates the effect of a removed tour; it does not prescribe how often a department grants relief days.
Check staffing separately from one person's calendar
A single employee's W/O sequence does not establish station coverage. Other platoons must be placed at the correct offsets, and the roster must account for leave, training, vacancies, required qualifications and relief assignments. Check coverage at the handover time and each operating interval, not only the sum of hours across the month.
Use the rotating calendar's custom pattern for dates, and verify the exported start dates against a known roster. Scheduled presence also does not automatically equal compensable hours or establish overtime entitlement. Eligible public fire-protection employees can have special federal work-period rules; confirm the applicable arrangement rather than subtracting 40 from the average of 56.
Pattern reference: Snap Schedule's documented Kelly pattern. Work-period reference: U.S. Department of Labor Fact Sheet 8. Sources checked October 21, 2026.
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