Free Staff Roster Template NZ: Build One in Sheets and Excel

A staff roster is the schedule that tells each person which shifts they are working, and in New Zealand a well-built one also helps you meet the country’s pay, break and record-keeping rules. You do not need expensive software to make one — a free spreadsheet does the job perfectly well for most small teams. This guide shows how to build a reusable staff roster template in Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel and LibreOffice Calc, explains which fields every NZ roster should include, and walks through the employment rules your roster needs to respect so you stay on the right side of the law.

What is a staff roster?

A staff roster is a table that sets out who is working, on which days, and at what times, usually across a week or a fortnight. It is also called a shift schedule, a work roster or a staff rota. The goal is simple: make sure every shift is covered by enough people with the right skills, while giving staff a clear, fair view of when they are expected to work.

In a small cafe or shop the roster might be a single sheet showing five or ten names down the side and the days of the week across the top. In a larger operation it can run to multiple teams, locations and shift patterns. Either way, a spreadsheet handles it well because you can total hours automatically, copy last week’s layout forward, and share it instantly with the team.

Roster vs timesheet: what is the difference?

A roster is a forward-looking plan of who should work when, while a timesheet is a backward-looking record of the hours someone actually worked. You publish a roster before the week starts so people know their shifts; you fill in a timesheet afterwards to calculate pay and keep legal records. The two work together — many businesses roster in one sheet and then confirm actual hours in a timesheet template for payroll. Treat them as separate documents so your plan and your payroll record never get confused.

What should an NZ staff roster include?

A good roster is readable at a glance and captures enough detail to run the week without constant questions. At a minimum, include the following columns or fields:

• Employee name and role — so everyone can see who is on and what they are covering (for example barista, supervisor, cleaner).
• Dates and days of the week — one column per day, ideally with the date shown, so the roster is unambiguous.
• Shift start and finish times — the core of the roster; use a consistent 24-hour or am/pm format.
• Unpaid break — note the meal break so the paid-hours total is accurate (more on breaks below).
• Total hours per shift and per person — let the spreadsheet calculate these automatically.
• Location or department — useful if staff move between sites or areas.
• Notes — leave, training, on-call status or anything the team needs to know.
• Coverage totals — a row that tallies how many people are on each day so you can spot gaps.

Keep contact details off the public roster and in a separate, access-controlled sheet. A roster is often shared widely, and staff phone numbers and addresses are personal information you should protect under the Privacy Act 2020.

How to build a free staff roster template in Google Sheets

Google Sheets is the easiest free option for teams, because you can share one live roster that everyone sees update in real time. Here is a reliable way to build one from scratch:

1. Create a new sheet at sheets.google.com and name it something like “Roster – week starting [date]”.
2. Set up the grid. Put employee names down column A and the seven days across the top row (B to H). Under each day, use two cells or a single “08:00–16:00” entry for the shift.
3. Add a start, finish and break layout. For automatic hour totals, give each day a start-time cell and a finish-time cell, plus a break column in minutes.
4. Total the hours. Use a formula such as =(finish-start)*24-break/60 to convert the time difference into paid hours. A weekly total per person can then use SUM across the daily totals.
5. Format for clarity. Freeze the top row and first column, apply conditional formatting to highlight overtime or empty shifts, and colour-code roles.
6. Share it. Use the Share button to give staff view-only access and managers edit access.

If the time maths is new to you, our guide to Google Sheets formulas explains SUM, IF and date functions step by step. You can also start from a dated layout — a Google Sheets calendar template gives you a ready-made weekly or monthly grid you can turn into a roster in minutes.

How to build a staff roster in Microsoft Excel

Excel is ideal if you prefer a desktop app, work offline, or already pay for Microsoft 365. The build is almost identical to Sheets, with a few Excel-specific touches:

1. Open a blank workbook and create one tab per week, or a single tab you copy forward.
2. Lay out names and days the same way — people down the side, days across the top.
3. Use time formatting. Format the start and finish cells as Time (h:mm) so Excel treats them as real times rather than text.
4. Calculate hours with =(finish-start)*24 to get decimal hours, then subtract the unpaid break. Wrap overnight shifts in an IF so they do not return a negative number.
5. Add data validation drop-downs for roles, locations or leave codes to keep entries consistent.
6. Save and reuse. Save the finished layout as an Excel template (.xltx) so each new week starts clean.

Excel’s built-in template gallery (File > New) also includes schedule and shift templates you can adapt, and anything you build in Excel opens in Google Sheets or LibreOffice if your team is mixed.

How to make a roster in LibreOffice Calc (free)

LibreOffice Calc is a completely free, open-source spreadsheet that does everything most rosters need, with no subscription and no account required. It is the best fit if you want a desktop tool but do not want to pay for Microsoft 365.

1. Download and install LibreOffice from the official site, then open Calc.
2. Build the same grid of names and days, formatting time cells via Format > Cells > Time.
3. Use the same formulas — Calc shares Excel’s syntax, so =(B2-A2)*24 works for hours.
4. Save in the format your team uses. Calc saves natively as ODS but exports cleanly to XLSX for Excel users and PDF for printing or emailing.

Because Calc reads and writes Excel files, you can hand a roster to a staff member who only has Excel without anyone losing formatting. If you are weighing up the free suites, our comparison of LibreOffice vs OpenOffice explains which one to install and why LibreOffice is the more actively maintained choice.

NZ employment rules that affect your roster

A roster is not just an organisational tool in New Zealand — it intersects with several employment laws. Getting these right protects both your staff and your business. The points below are general information, not legal advice; check the employment agreement and Employment New Zealand for your specific situation.

Breaks you must roster around

Staff are legally entitled to minimum rest and meal breaks based on how long their work period is, and your roster should build these in. Under the current Employment New Zealand table, the minimum entitlements are:

• 2 to 4 hours: one paid 10-minute rest break.
• 4 to 6 hours: one paid 10-minute rest break and one unpaid 30-minute meal break.
• 6 to 10 hours: two paid 10-minute rest breaks and one unpaid 30-minute meal break.
• 10 to 12 hours: three paid 10-minute rest breaks and one unpaid 30-minute meal break.
• 12 to 14 hours: three paid 10-minute rest breaks and two unpaid 30-minute meal breaks.

Rest breaks are paid; meal breaks do not have to be. When you roster a long shift, show the unpaid meal break so the paid-hours total is correct.

Shift cancellations and availability

If your staff work shifts, the Employment Relations Act 2000 requires the employment agreement to include certain protections. An availability provision — asking an employee to be available for work beyond their guaranteed hours — is only lawful if there are genuine reasons and the employee is paid reasonable compensation for being available. Separately, if you cancel a shift, the agreement must set out a reasonable notice period and reasonable compensation if that notice is not given. You cannot lawfully put staff on call for nothing, or cancel a rostered shift at the last minute without consequence, unless the agreement and good-faith rules are met.

Minimum wage and pay

Every hour you roster must be paid at least the minimum wage. From 1 April 2026 the adult minimum wage is NZ$23.95 per hour, up from $23.50, while the starting-out and training minimum rates are $19.16 per hour (80% of the adult rate). The starting-out rate applies to certain workers aged 16 to 19; the training rate applies to some employees aged 20 or over doing recognised training. Build your roster so no one’s paid hours, once breaks are deducted, fall below these rates, and remember that minimum wage applies to casual and part-time staff in exactly the same way as full-timers.

Keeping roster and time records

New Zealand employers must keep accurate wage, time, holiday and leave records for each employee, and these must be held for at least six years under the Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Holidays Act 2003. Inland Revenue separately asks you to keep tax records for seven years. A roster is a planning document rather than the legal record itself, so pair it with a confirmed record of actual hours worked. Keeping both makes it far easier to resolve any pay query and to show you have met your obligations.

How far ahead should you publish the roster?

Publish the roster early enough that staff can plan their lives around it. There is no single legal minimum notice period in New Zealand for issuing a roster, but good-faith obligations and any availability or shift-cancellation terms in the employment agreement set the practical floor. Most well-run teams publish at least one to two weeks ahead. The further ahead you commit, the more notice (and compensation) you may owe if you later cancel a shift, so balance certainty for staff against your own flexibility.

A fixed rhythm helps: pick a day each week to finalise and send the next roster, and copy the previous week to a fresh tab or file as your starting point. That keeps a history of every version, which is useful if a pay or hours question comes up later. If shifts rarely change, a rolling fortnightly roster saves time; if demand is unpredictable, a weekly cycle with clear change rules works better.

Where to get a ready-made roster template

You do not have to build from a blank sheet. Genuine, safe starting points include the Google Sheets template gallery (which has schedule layouts), Excel’s built-in shift and schedule templates, and the free spreadsheet apps’ own sample files. Dedicated rostering apps such as Deputy and RosterElf also offer free tiers and free downloadable templates aimed at New Zealand businesses, which can be worth it once your team grows past simple weekly scheduling.

For related planning tools in the same free spreadsheets, a Gantt chart template helps you map projects and shift coverage over longer periods, and a free budget template lets you check your rostered wage cost against your labour budget before you publish the week.

Common roster mistakes to avoid

Most roster problems come from a handful of avoidable errors:

• Forgetting breaks. Rostering a straight eight-hour block with no meal break breaches break rules and inflates your paid-hours total.
• Last-minute changes without notice. Cancelling or shortening shifts at short notice can trigger compensation obligations and damages good faith.
• Overwriting last week. Editing over the previous roster destroys your history; copy it to a new tab or file instead so you keep a record.
• Treating the roster as a legal time record. A plan is not proof of hours worked — confirm actual hours separately for payroll and records.
• Manual hour totals. Typing totals by hand invites errors; let formulas do the maths and reduce payroll disputes.
• Publishing personal details. Keep phone numbers and addresses out of a widely shared roster to respect privacy.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is a spreadsheet roster good enough for a small NZ business?

Yes. For most cafes, shops and small teams, a free Google Sheets, Excel or LibreOffice Calc roster is more than enough. It lets you cover shifts, total hours automatically and share the schedule instantly. You might move to a dedicated rostering app only once you have many staff, multiple sites or complex award-style pay rules.

What is the difference between a roster and a timesheet?

A roster plans who should work which shifts in the week ahead, while a timesheet records the hours each person actually worked afterwards. The roster helps you organise coverage; the timesheet feeds payroll and forms part of your legal wage and time records. Most businesses use both.

Do I have to roster meal breaks?

You must give staff their minimum rest and meal breaks based on the length of their work period, so it is good practice to show these on the roster. For a shift of between six and ten hours, that means two paid 10-minute rest breaks and one unpaid 30-minute meal break. Showing the unpaid break also keeps the paid-hours total accurate.

How long do I need to keep staff rosters and records in New Zealand?

Wage, time, holiday and leave records must be kept for at least six years under employment law, and Inland Revenue asks you to keep tax records for seven years. The roster itself is a planning document, so keep it alongside a confirmed record of the hours each person actually worked rather than relying on the roster alone.

Can I change or cancel a rostered shift at short notice?

Only within the rules in the employment agreement. If staff work shifts, the agreement must set out a reasonable notice period for cancelling a shift and reasonable compensation if that notice is not given, and any availability provision must be genuine and paid. You also have good-faith obligations, so communicate changes early and fairly.