Australian Hospitality Awards Explained: Why your rostering software matters

If you run a cafe, bar or restaurant in Australia, you know the drill. You open the roster, stare at a Saturday night shift and suddenly your brain is doing mental gymnastics:

“Is that 150 percent? 175 percent? Does it flip over to Sunday after midnight? And why is everyone suddenly unavailable?”

Hospitality awards are complex. Spreadsheets make them painful. And managers deserve better.

"Most payroll mistakes do not start in payroll. They start in a spreadsheet that was never designed for Australian hospitality awards."

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Let’s fix that.

Why Manual Rostering Quietly Costs You Money

Rostering manually feels harmless until you realise how much time it eats:

• Chasing availability
• Updating shifts because someone swapped with their cousin
• Re typing everyone’s hours into payroll
• Fixing mistakes because Sunday rates accidentally slipped into Monday
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The bigger issue is compliance. One forgotten break or miscalculated penalty can turn into back pay, interest and a very unwelcome email from a regulator.

A single underpayment can cost more than an entire year of proper software.

Why Generic Scheduling Tools Break in Australia

Australian hospitality awards are a completely different beast. Casual loading, weekend penalties, public holidays, overtime, minimum engagements, split shifts, rest periods... they all stack.

Generic overseas tools simply do not understand them. If your platform tells you to “configure your own award rules”, that is your sign to run.

Award aware software should already know the rules and update them automatically.

What Good Rostering Software Should Actually Do

A real hospitality scheduling platform doesn’t just show you a calendar. It should:

• Apply Australian award rules instantly
• Show accurate shift costs as you build
• Warn you about illegal shift patterns
• Let you build and edit rosters on your phone
• Let staff update availability and clock in with GPS
• Push approved timesheets straight into payroll without re typing anything
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Basically, it should answer two questions for you:

1. Can I roster this staff member?
2. Can I afford this staff member?

If the system cannot do that, it is not built for Australian venues.

Why Rostering Software Pays for Itself

Most venues save hours every single week. That alone usually covers the cost. Add in fewer payroll mistakes, fewer disputes and far better control over labour costs, and the software becomes a no brainer.

Plus, your stress levels drop dramatically. Always a bonus.

Why Shiftly Fits Australian Hospitality Perfectly

Shiftly was built specifically for Australian cafes, bars and restaurants.

That means:

• Award logic for the Hospitality Industry General Award is already built in
• Penalty rates, loadings and overtime are calculated automatically
• Real time costing shows you the price of every shift
• Managers can edit rosters from their phone
• Staff get instant notifications and GPS clock in
• Timesheets go straight into Xero
• It is completely free!
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Shiftly removes the penalty maths, the Fair Work stress and the late night "why is everyone unavailable" chaos.

If you are still using spreadsheets, now is the time to move. Your future self, and your payroll team, will thank you. Read our take on the Hidden Costs of using Spreadsheets.

And if you want rostering that is actually built for Australian hospitality (not a global tool pretending to be), Shiftly is ready when you are.

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