Building and publishing rotas as an admin or manager

Build rotas, assign shifts, publish, and import from Google Sheets.

Written By Campsite

Last updated About 1 month ago

Rota management

Build rotas, assign shifts, publish, and import from Google Sheets.

This guide is the detailed Campsite help article for this topic. It is written for UK employers and people teams using a branded organisation workspace such as {org}.camp-site.co.uk.

Rota management is for org admins and authorised managers. Staff use the staff rota guide.

Building and publishing a rota

From Calendar in the sidebar, open Schedule and swaps (or go to /rota):

  1. Open Build rota to create a rota, set draft or published status, and manage roster members.
  2. On Schedule, add shifts on the week grid (assign staff, role label, times). Leave assignee empty for open slots.
  3. Review the Build rota checklist (open slots, shifts awaiting accept after publish).
  4. Publish the rota when ready. Assigned staff receive notifications to accept or decline each shift.

Draft rotas stay visible to editors only until published.

Shift lifecycle

StateMeaning
Open slotNo assignee; staff can claim
Awaiting acceptAssigned on a published rota; member must accept
ConfirmedMember accepted, or open slot claimed
CompletedShift end time passed (logged automatically)

Swaps and unassign requests use Requests & swaps with peer accept (swaps) and manager final approval.

Staff availability

Grant the Submit rota availability permission to roles that should set weekly availability (under Admin → Roles). Managers see availability hints when assigning shifts. Days staff mark unavailable (with a reason) are hard-blocked on assign and on swap approval.

When an assignment would breach a staff member’s contracted weekly hours (from their signed contract configuration, or HR weekly hours when no contract max applies), the save is blocked unless the manager enters an override reason. Overrides are logged and flagged for HR, Finance, and Compliance. Full-time / unrestricted contracts with no max hours are skipped. Configure policy links from Rota settings (/rota/settings).

Google Sheets import

Bulk import helps when schedules are planned externally first. After import, shifts appear on the grid and follow the same lifecycle after publish. Connect Google at Admin → Integrations before importing.

Admin oversight

Admin → Rota shows coverage metrics and links back to the shared /rota grid. Org timezone and import history live under Rota settings.

Tips

  • Publish before reminder lead times so staff get timely alerts.
  • Align departments before multi-team rotas.
  • Review notification defaults alongside your publish cadence.

Before you contact support

  1. Confirm you are signed in on the correct organisation URL ({org}.camp-site.co.uk).
  2. Refresh after a recent role or permission change.
  3. Check whether a colleague with the same role can see the same controls.
  4. Capture the page URL and any error text if you still need help.