Shift Pattern Generator

This is our tool to easily create your rotating shift schedule.

What are you trying to achieve today?

Once generated, you can view your working hours and estimated pay for the selected period. You can export your schedule to PDF or just print it out. It's totally free.

If you're looking for more advanced features, check out our full scheduling software. With our software, you can easily update your employees on changes to their schedule, track working hours, manage leave requests, and more.

Personal shift pattern visualisation tool

Use this engine to quickly visualise how your own repeating shift pattern plays out across a full year. It is designed for one person’s pattern, so you can see your actual working days, rest days, and weekends at a glance.

You can experiment with different start dates, tweak the pattern, and see how many hours you work and how your weekends are affected over time. If you want to build or manage a full team rota, the main shift pattern generator above is the better tool to use.

Pattern Request custom shift pattern

Start of Week

Start date

Define custom pattern

Shift length

Hours

Shifts

{{ month.name }}
{{ dayName.substring(0,3) }}
{{ day.date }}

Turn on 'Background graphics' in the print dialog for colours to show.

Hours & wage calculator

Here's a helpful calculator to work out how many hours you would work per week, month or year in the {{ name }} shift pattern.

You can also use this calculator to work out your weekly and monthly pay for {{ name }} shift schedule.

Options

Hours per shift

Hourly rate

Results

Results recalculate automatically.

	Hours	Pay
Per week	{{ hoursPerWeek.toLocaleString() }}	${{ wagePerWeek.toLocaleString() }}
Per month	{{ hoursPerMonth.toLocaleString() }}	${{ wagePerMonth.toLocaleString() }}
Per year	{{ hoursPerYear.toLocaleString() }}	${{ wagePerYear.toLocaleString() }}

These values are based on the generated calendar above, therefore the numbers depend heavily on the start date.

Our rota software can do these calculations for you, and more.

Average weekly hours

For a {{ name }} shift pattern, the average weekly working hours is {{ hoursPerWeek.toFixed(1) }} hours.
This assumes you're working {{ hoursPerShift }}-hour shifts.

Average yearly hours

Assuming {{ hoursPerShift }}-hour shifts, your hours per year will be {{ hoursPerYear }} hours using the {{ name }} schedule.

You can use the calculator above to work out your hours for other variations of {{ name }} rota pattern.

How many weekends?

With the {{ name }} shift pattern, you will work at least one day on {{ calendar.weekends.worked }} weekends, of a total of {{ calendar.weekends.total }} weekends in the above calendar year.

So you would work {{ Math.floor(calendar.weekends.worked / calendar.weekends.total * 100) }}% of weekends with the {{ name }} pattern.

Supported Patterns

Our rotation generator supports shift patterns:

4 on 4 off (Rotating): Rotates shift types across a repeating 4 days on, 4 days off cycle to spread workload evenly across the team.
4 on 4 off (2D2N): Schedules two day shifts then two night shifts within each 4-on block, followed by four consecutive days off.
4 on 4 off (Days): A straightforward 4-on/4-off plan using day shifts only, with four consecutive days off after each block.
4 on 4 off (Nights): A straightforward 4-on/4-off plan using night shifts only, with four consecutive days off after each block.
4 on 4 off (2D2E): Combines two day shifts and two evening shifts each 4-on block, then provides four days off.
2 on 2 off (1D1N): Works one day shift then one night shift for two consecutive days, followed by two days off.
2 on 2 off (Days): Two consecutive day shifts followed by two consecutive days off, repeating for each team member.
Continental: A rotating sequence of day, evening and night shifts, with a block of non-working days after the three shift types.
Panama (Pitman): A Pitman-style rotating pattern that spreads work and rest into a repeating structure of day-heavy blocks separated by shorter breaks.
Dupont: A classic four-team rotation that cycles nights and days through longer working blocks with dedicated rest periods between them.
4 on 5 off: Two day shifts then two night shifts, followed by five days off for recovery before the next cycle.
4 on 6 off: Two day shifts then two night shifts, followed by six days off before repeating the rota.
5-2 Rotating: Schedules five day shifts, two days off, five evening shifts, then two days off before the pattern repeats for the next team.

Custom Shift Patterns

You can also create your own custom shift patterns by defining the pattern yourself!