RotaPlanner Update - November 2025

We're excited to announce a series of new features and significant improvements to RotaPlanner this November! Our goal is always to make your rota management smoother, more flexible, and even more intuitive. This update brings you greater control over individual shifts, smarter tools for building shift patterns, clearer insights into staffing levels, and improved communication options for shift swaps. We've also enhanced tools to help staff quickly resolve login issues and better integrate RotaPlanner with your personal calendars.

Unpublish Individual Shifts

We understand that sometimes a shift needs to be pulled back after it's been published, perhaps due to a sudden change in requirements or an error in scheduling. Previously, you might have had to delete and recreate shifts, causing unnecessary hassle. Now, you have the power to unpublish individual shifts directly.

This new feature gives managers much greater flexibility and control over their rotas. If a shift was accidentally published, or if circumstances change rapidly, you can now easily reverse the publication for that specific shift without affecting the rest of your rota. This helps to prevent staff from seeing outdated or incorrect information, ensuring that your team always has access to the most accurate schedule. It ultimately reduces administrative burden and improves the reliability of your published rotas.

Intelligent Shift Pattern Creation with Example Staff

Creating new shift patterns can sometimes be tricky, especially when you're still working out staffing levels or don't have all employees assigned yet. To make this process smoother, RotaPlanner will now automatically create and use example staff when you're building a shift pattern that has unassigned slots.

This enhancement is particularly useful for managers who are setting up new rotas or experimenting with different patterns. Instead of seeing empty slots or errors, you'll have placeholders that clearly show where staff are needed. This allows you to visualise the complete pattern and understand staffing requirements at a glance, even before all employees are finalised and assigned. It helps you design more effective rotas from the outset, ensuring you can quickly identify and address any staffing gaps.

Enhanced Information for Understaffed Shift Patterns

It's crucial to know immediately when a shift pattern doesn't have enough staff to cover all the required slots. To provide you with clearer insights, we've added extra information to the shift pattern modal specifically for scenarios where there aren't enough staff available on the system to fill all positions.

This improvement helps managers quickly identify and rectify understaffing issues. When you're viewing or creating a shift pattern, the system will now provide more explicit details about the staffing shortfall, allowing you to understand precisely where the gaps are. This proactive notification empowers you to make informed decisions, such as adjusting the rota, finding additional cover, or recruiting more staff, ensuring your operations are never compromised due to unexpected staff shortages.

"Go to Related Shift" Button for Error Resolution

Dealing with shift errors can sometimes be time-consuming, especially when trying to understand the context of the issue. To dramatically speed up error resolution, we've added a "Go to related shift" button right next to shift errors.

This incredibly useful button is a game-changer for managers troubleshooting rota problems. When you encounter an error, clicking this button will instantly take you to the specific shift that the error relates to and highlight it on your rota. This immediate context helps you understand the problem much faster, allowing for quicker diagnosis and resolution. It eliminates the need for manual searching, saving you valuable time and reducing frustration when managing complex rotas.

Simplified Login Reset Instructions for Staff

We know that sometimes staff can forget their login details, and getting back into the system quickly is essential. To assist users who are unable to log in, we've provided clear information about how to obtain a manual reset link via their manager.

This update streamlines the process for staff who need to regain access to their RotaPlanner account. Instead of getting stuck, employees will now know exactly who to contact and what information their manager needs to provide them with a manual password reset. This ensures that staff can quickly get back to viewing their rotas and managing their shifts, minimising downtime and ensuring everyone remains connected and informed.

Option to Disable Shift Publishing Requirement

For some organisations with simpler rota setups, the need to explicitly "publish" shifts before staff can view them can be an extra, unnecessary step. We've listened to this feedback and added a new option to disable the requirement to publish shifts.

With the new 'Staff can view unpublished shifts' setting, managers now have the flexibility to choose whether shifts need to be published or not. If this option is enabled, staff will be able to see newly created or updated shifts immediately, without you needing to press the publish button. This simplifies the rota management process for those who prefer a more direct approach, allowing for real-time visibility and reducing administrative overhead for simpler setups.

Shift Swap Rejection Emails for Managers

Clear communication is key when managing shift swap requests. To improve transparency and ensure everyone is informed, managers can now send rejection emails to relevant staff when a shift swap request is turned down.

This new feature ensures that staff who initiated or were involved in a rejected shift swap request receive prompt and clear notification. It allows managers to provide a brief explanation for the rejection directly, fostering better understanding and reducing potential confusion. This improvement streamlines communication within your team, ensuring that all parties are kept in the loop regarding the status of their shift swap requests.

iCal Timezone Selection for Seamless Calendar Sync

For staff who use the iCal link to sync their RotaPlanner shifts with external calendar applications, ensuring the correct timezone is crucial for accurate scheduling. You can now select your preferred timezone for the iCal link.

This enhancement ensures that your RotaPlanner shifts display correctly in your personal calendar, regardless of your location or the default settings of your calendar application. By allowing you to choose the appropriate timezone, we eliminate potential discrepancies and ensure that your synced shifts always reflect the accurate start and end times. This makes managing your schedule across different platforms much more reliable and convenient.