How to choose rostering software for an Australian hospitality venue in 2026: a buyer's guide

The short version: rostering tools separate for a hospitality venue on four things: whether the product interprets your award natively and who updates the rates each 1 July; whether the price grows with headcount; whether a second venue or manager is a setting or a new contract; and what happens when someone calls in sick at 3pm on a Saturday. Below are seven criteria with the question to ask in the demo, what each class of product costs a 22-staff pub a year (public price lists, as at October 2026), and an unranked map of the market. Shiftly is in the free-platform class and gets the same treatment as everyone else. General information, not legal or financial advice.

What are the best rostering apps for hospitality businesses in Australia?

There is no single best one, and a list that says otherwise is usually ranking by the length of a feature table. What there is, is a short set of questions that sorts the market quickly for a venue with casuals, weekend trade and an award to apply. Answer them and two or three products will be left standing, and the choice between those is about money and taste rather than risk.

Hospitality is different because the same hour of work has five or six prices depending on the day and time, most of the team is casual, and on some Saturday someone will not turn up. A product built for salaried teams can draw a roster grid. It cannot price one.

The seven criteria, and what to ask in the demo

1. Award interpretation depth

This criterion does the sorting, because it costs money when it is wrong. Under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award (MA000009), a Level 2 adult's minimum rate is $27.08 an hour (clause 18.1, consolidated to 1 July 2026). A casual at that level gets a 25% loading (clause 11.1), so $33.85. Table 14 in clause 29 then prices that casual's hour at $36.80 between 7pm and midnight on a weeknight, $40.62 on a Saturday, $47.39 on a Sunday and $67.70 on a public holiday. Overtime runs at 150% or 200% depending on when it falls, a permanent needs a 10-hour break between ordinary shifts (clause 15.5), and the minimum rates move every year after the Fair Work Commission's Annual Wage Review, usually from 1 July. Our explainer covers whether the Restaurant Industry Award (MA000119) is yours instead.

On a feature page, "award interpretation" can mean the vendor maintains the rule set for named awards, the vendor gives you a rules engine to fill in, or there is a pay rate field per person. What to ask in the demo or trial:

• Which awards, by code? "Supports Australian awards" without a code is a rules engine.
• Show me a Saturday shift for a Level 2 casual from 6pm to 1am. It should split at midnight and show the breakdown line by line.
• Who changed the rates on 1 July 2026, on what date, and where can I see that? A vendor that leaves rate updates to you is selling a calculator, which is fair as long as you know it.

No software signs off your obligations. The product estimates and your business verifies, against the award text or the Fair Work pay guide.

2. The pricing model, and what it costs a 22-staff pub over a year

Four pricing models exist: per user per month, a free tier capped at a headcount, free at every size, and quote-based for the enterprise suites. The figures come from public price lists we read in October 2026; quote-based products are left out because a quote is not a price. The test case is a pub with 22 staff, six permanents and sixteen casuals.

$3,400 a year is about a week of a venue manager's time, every year, and it grows with every casual you add for December. The capped free tier is cheap past the cap, which moves the question from price to whether the product handles Australian awards at all; several in that class are built overseas. What to ask:

• What is a "user"? One list we read bills every active employee whether or not they log in; another bills only staff rostered that month. At a casual-heavy venue that is a third of the bill.
• What does it cost at 30 staff in December? Price it at summer headcount.
• Is there a minimum monthly spend, and does annual billing lock the headcount? One list has a $30 monthly minimum; another discounts 30% for a year upfront, a bet on your headcount not falling.

3. Multi-location and per-manager permissions

One venue today is often two in three years, and even one venue has a bar manager and a head chef who should not edit each other's roster. Public holidays differ by state, and timezones do for part of the year: Coolangatta and Tweed Heads are a few kilometres apart and an hour apart in summer, so each location needs its own calendar and clock. What to ask:

• Can I scope a manager to one location or department and have them see nothing else? Watch the demo from the restricted login.
• Is a second location a setting or a second contract?
• Does it warn when one person is rostered at two sites on the same night?

4. Timesheets and the payroll path

The roster is the plan, the timesheet is the record, and payroll pays the record. Three questions decide this: how hours are captured (a phone with a geofence, a tablet at the venue, or typed in), how they are approved, and how approved hours reach payroll. A direct post sends approved hours into the payroll system against the right pay items; an export gives you a file to import. Both work; the direct post is the one that removes a job from the pay run. Our timesheet app checklist covers capture and approval. What to ask:

• Which payroll systems does it post into directly, and which does it only export for? Ask for yours by name, Xero, MYOB or whichever you run, and ask to see the post.
• What is in the post? Hours by pay item, leave, tracking categories, or just hours.
• What happens when an approved timesheet is corrected after posting?

5. The staff app

The staff app has four jobs: show each person their roster and tell them when it changes; collect availability and leave before you build; let someone offer a shift out and someone else pick it up under your rules; and clock them in and out. Most products in the per-user and free classes do all four; the differences are in the swap rules and whether the app is free and on both stores. Self-service swaps mostly save manager time, about 45 minutes per shift otherwise chased by text. What to ask:

• Is the staff app free for staff, on iOS and Android? A paid staff app is a per-user fee by another name.
• Can a casual offer a shift to a colleague, with my approval before it moves?
• When I mark a shift open, who sees it? Everyone, or only people who are available and under their hours.

6. Onboarding, yours and your new starters'

There are two onboardings. Yours: how long from sign-up to the first published roster for 22 staff, and whether you can import the team from payroll rather than typing them. Your new starters': a casual starts Friday, and the tax file number declaration, super choice and bank details have to be collected before the first pay run. Paperless onboarding that flows to payroll is the difference between a clipboard and a profile ready before the shift. What to ask:

• How long to the first published roster, and will someone do it with me? Ask whether that costs extra.
• Can a new starter complete their paperwork from their phone before the first shift?

7. Cover for last-minute gaps

Most buyer's guides skip this one, and it is the one the venue manager feels most. There are three ways to fill a shift that opens at 3pm. In-house, through swaps and open shifts: cheapest, and limited by your own bench on a long weekend. An agency: reliable, with a markup on every hour; we priced an agency shift against a direct casual. And a gig or on-demand app, where the venue engages an independent contractor for one shift and pays the shift plus a platform fee; this group varies most in vetting and in who is the employer of record, so read the terms first. Shiftly's own On-Demand network is in the third group and is coming soon, starting in Sydney. We mention it because it is why Shiftly's rostering is free, not because it is available to you today. What to ask:

• When a shift opens at 3pm, who is told, in what order, and can I limit it to people who are available and under their hours?
• Is there a path outside my own team, what does it cost per shift, who employs that worker, and is it live in my city today?

The options in the market, by type

Unranked. Four classes, who they suit, and the catch. We have not named vendors because the classes are stable and the vendors inside them move every year.

• Enterprise workforce suites. Rostering sold alongside HR, payroll and recruitment, priced by quote in tiers, with an implementation project. Built for groups with many venues, an enterprise agreement or a payroll team. The catch is the price and the project: at one or two venues the suite is doing a job you do not have.
• Per-user rostering apps. The largest class: $6 to $13 per user per month for a rostering plan, native interpretation of the main awards on most products at some tier, apps for staff and managers, and integrations with the common payroll systems. They suit a venue that wants a known product with a help desk. The catch is that the bill tracks headcount, and award interpretation is sometimes a tier above the one you signed up for.
• Free platforms. Two things share the label: a free tier capped at a headcount, usually around ten users, after which you pay (many are built overseas, so ask the award question first); or free at every size, with no per-user fee and the vendor earning somewhere other than the roster. Shiftly is the second kind. The catch for both: ask what funds it, and whether that thing is live.
• Spreadsheets. Free, no learning curve, no award logic, no single version and no record beyond the files. They suit one room, one editor and stable availability. The catch is that the cost moves to your Sunday afternoon and to the award rules a sheet cannot see.

The four classes against the criteria

Where Shiftly fits

Shiftly is in the free-platform class, the free-at-every-size kind. Rostering, timesheets, award interpretation, leave, availability, paperless onboarding and messaging are free for every business with no per-employee fee, so 22 staff costs the same as 12; the pricing page is short for that reason. The only thing a venue ever pays is an 8% service fee on shifts filled through Shiftly On-Demand, which is coming soon, starting in Sydney, with a waitlist open now. That is the funding model, and it is fair to weigh it like any other.

Eight awards are supported in code: Hospitality (MA000009), Restaurant (MA000119), Fast Food (MA000003), General Retail (MA000004), Registered and Licensed Clubs (MA000058), Clerks Private Sector (MA000002), Seafood Processing (MA000068) and Broadcasting, Recorded Entertainment and Cinemas (MA000091). Their rates are updated for each 1 July change, and our Hospitality Award reference page carries the date they were last checked against the award text. Every estimate shows its breakdown. Shiftly is a calculation tool, not a payroll provider or legal adviser, and businesses are responsible for verifying rates and their own obligations.

The payroll path is Xero today, with leave sync and tracking categories; MYOB is coming soon, and anything else takes a CSV export. Managers run the roster from Shiftly Go; staff use Shiftly Me to see their roster, set availability, offer a shift to a colleague for your approval, pick up open shifts and clock in inside a geofence. Several locations live in one account with their own timezones and public holidays, and a permission matrix scopes each manager to their sites. Where we do not fit: a group on an enterprise agreement, or a business that wants one vendor for payroll and rostering; those are enterprise-suite jobs, and the honest answer is to go and price one.

Frequently asked questions

Which rostering tools automatically calculate penalty rates under Australian Modern Awards?

The ones that carry named awards in the product, by code, and maintain the rates themselves. Most per-user rostering apps and some free platforms do this for MA000009, MA000119 and MA000003; the enterprise suites do it for enterprise agreements too. A rules engine you fill in yourself also calculates penalty rates, but you keep it current each 1 July. Test with a Saturday shift that crosses midnight for a Level 2 casual: under the Hospitality Award those hours are 150% and 175% of the minimum rate, casual loading included. Whatever the tool produces is an estimate for your business to verify.

What are the top workforce management platforms for Australian hospitality businesses compared?

Compare them by class, because the classes are stable and the products inside them change every year. Enterprise suites are quote-priced, modular and built for groups with many venues or an enterprise agreement. Per-user rostering apps run about $6 to $13 per user per month on the public price lists we read in October 2026, with native award interpretation on most. Free platforms are either free up to a headcount cap, usually around ten users, or free at every size with the vendor earning elsewhere; Shiftly is in the second group. Spreadsheets cost a 22-staff pub about $13,700 a year in manager time and errors by our estimate.

Is there a free rostering app in Australia?

Yes, and "free" covers two things. Some apps are free up to a headcount, commonly around ten users, and charge beyond it; at 22 staff you will be paying, and several are built overseas, so check whether they interpret Australian awards at all. Others are free at every size with no per-user fee, funded by something other than the roster. Shiftly is one of these: rostering, timesheets, award interpretation, leave, availability and onboarding are free at any headcount, and the only charge is an 8% service fee on shifts filled through its on-demand network once that is live. Whichever you look at, ask what funds it.

How much does rostering software cost for a 22-staff pub in Australia?

On the public price lists we read in October 2026, a per-user rostering plan at $6 to $13 per user per month comes to about $1,600 to $3,400 a year for 22 staff, generally before GST, and a bundle with payroll and HR at $12.80 to $16.40 per user per month comes to about $3,400 to $4,300. A capped free tier charging $29 a month past ten users is about $350. A free-at-every-size platform is $0. The enterprise suites quote rather than list, and a spreadsheet costs about $13,700 a year to run at this size by our estimate. Price every option at your December headcount.