The problem
Marquee firms run on casual crew, often students and part-timers who build on Thursday and Friday and take down on Monday, booked through a group chat. Building the weekly rota around who's free, chasing replies and filling gaps takes the owner about 2.5 hours a week in season, about 10.75 hours a month, and one person short on a 12m build means a late finish.
What the AI does
RotaCloud is staff rota software with free mobile apps. Its Standard plan includes drag and drop rota planning, staff availability patterns, shift swapping, unlimited shift notifications by email and push, and daily, weekly and monthly labor costs. Crew set when they're available, the owner builds build and take-down shifts around the jobs, and everyone sees their shifts on their phone. Swaps go through the app instead of the group chat, and the week's labor cost shows before you publish.
A worked example
A marquee firm in Cornwall with the owner and 8 casual crew runs builds most weeks from April to September. They move the group-chat rota into RotaCloud Standard, with crew setting their availability in the app.
Before
About 2.5 hours a week building and chasing the rota: 2.5 × 4.3 = about 10.75 hours a month in season
After
About 45 minutes a week to build the rota from availability and approve swaps: about 3.2 hours a month
What it's worth
About $250£188€224A$361C$353 a month saved in season, against about $27£20€24A$38C$38 for RotaCloud Standard. That's about 7.5 hours (10.75 minus 3.2) at an assumed $33£25€30A$48C$47 an hour. RotaCloud is priced by number of employees including the owner; 9 people falls in the 6 to 10 band, $27£20€24A$38C$38 a month on Standard on the page's team-size selector, so check the price for your team.
How to set it up
- Start the 30-day free trial and add yourself and every crew member, since the price counts everyone.
- Ask crew to set their availability patterns in the app, such as 'free Thursdays and Mondays'.
- Build each week's build and take-down shifts around the jobs, naming the site in each shift.
- Publish the rota so crew get notifications, and handle swaps in the app instead of the group chat.
- Check the weekly labor cost before you publish, against what you allowed for labor in the quote.
What goes wrong
- Clocking in and timesheets are a paid add-on, not in Standard. Without it, keep recording hours for pay the way you do now.
- Casual crew are still workers with rights to holiday pay and the National Minimum Wage. A rota app doesn't change that.
- If crew don't keep their availability current, the rota is built on guesses. Remind them at the start of each month.
- The price is by headcount band. An 11th person in peak season moves you up a band.