For hospitality venuesFree rostering and award pay for hospitality venues
Shiftly is free rostering, timesheet and award pay software for Australian cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants. It applies the Hospitality Industry (General) Award and the Restaurant Industry Award to every shift, and from September 2026 fills open shifts with on-demand staff in Sydney. No per-employee fees.
Free at every size
Rostering, timesheets, leave, onboarding and award interpretation cost nothing, with no per-employee fees. A six-person cafe and a forty-person pub pay the same: $0.
Hospitality awards built in
The Hospitality Industry (General) Award (MA000009) and the Restaurant Industry Award (MA000119) are supported awards. Casual loading, weekend and public holiday penalties, late-night loadings and split shift allowances are worked out per shift.
The roster that fills itself
Open shifts go to the staff who are actually available. From September 2026, Sydney venues can also post a shift to Shiftly On-Demand and bring in an independent shifter, with no agency fee.
Built for the way your venue trades
Every hospitality venue rosters differently. Pick yours to see which award rules bite hardest and how Shiftly handles each one.
Which award covers a hospitality venue in Australia?
Most pubs, hotels, bars and cafes are covered by the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009). Restaurants and cafes that are not part of a hotel or pub usually fall under the Restaurant Industry Award 2020 (MA000119). Both set a 25% casual loading and pay penalties for weekends, public holidays and late nights, and Shiftly supports both as configured awards.
The rates that decide whether a shift is profitable are the loadings on top of the base rate. Under MA000009 a casual working a Sunday earns 175% of the base rate, a public holiday pays 250%, and every hour worked between 7pm and midnight on a weekday adds $2.95 on top. Working out those figures by hand for thirty staff across a week is where most venues either overpay or underpay someone.
Shiftly applies the award you choose to every shift as you roster it, so the cost of a Sunday brunch or a Friday close is on the shift card before you publish. Once timesheets are approved the same rules run against the hours actually worked, and the breakdown (base hours, penalty hours, overtime, loadings and allowances) is there to check before anything goes to payroll. Shiftly is a calculation tool, not a payroll provider or legal adviser.
| When worked | Full-time and part-time | Casual (includes 25% loading) |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday | 125% | 150% |
| Sunday | 150% | 175% |
| Public holiday | 225% | 250% |
| Monday to Friday, 7pm to midnight | 100% + $2.95/hr | 125% + $2.95/hr |
| Monday to Friday, midnight to 7am | 100% + $4.42/hr | 125% + $4.42/hr |
Rostering
Roster around service, not around the software
Drag shifts onto a weekly calendar, copy last week or a saved template, and publish to every phone in one click. Shiftly flags double-bookings, a casual shift under the two-hour minimum, a part-time shift under three hours, and a turnaround of fewer than eight hours between a close and an open, so the roster is award-safe before it goes out.
- Split shift allowances applied when a split is rostered
- Shift cost shown on the card before you publish
Award pay
Casual loading, penalties and late nights, calculated per shift
Set each person's award, classification and employment type once. Shiftly works out the 25% casual loading, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday penalties, the 7pm-to-midnight and midnight-to-7am loadings, overtime and age-based junior rates for every shift, and shows the breakdown so a manager can check it against the award.
Timesheets
From clock-in on the floor to your Xero pay run
Staff clock on and off from the Shiftly Me app, with location checked at clock-in and breaks tracked as they happen. Timesheets build from real hours, managers approve them in a tap, and approved hours sync to Xero as a pay run with the award calculations already applied.
On-demand cover
When nobody on the team can take the shift
Most rostering tools stop at telling you a shift is unfilled, and Shiftly is built to go one step further. Open shifts go first to your own available staff. From September 2026, Sydney hospitality venues can post the shift to Shiftly On-Demand, where independent shifters with an ABN accept it directly. You pay for the hours worked plus Shiftly's fee, with no agency markup, and because shifters work for themselves there is no payroll to run. Shiftly moves the payment from your venue to the worker.
- Launching in Sydney, September 2026, starting with hospitality
- No agency fees, no payroll for temporary cover
“I've really enjoyed using Shiftly, it's not often you come across a premium rostering system that is completely free. ... Highly recommend these guys and this software.”
Start rostering your venue today, for free
Create your account in minutes, import your staff from Deputy, Xero or a CSV, pick your award and publish your first roster before the next service.
FeaturesExplore more of Shiftly
Employee rostering
Easily plan shifts, publish rosters, sync timesheets and export in seconds, with no spreadsheets and no stress. Stay in control and keep payroll running smoothly with Shiftly.
Read More
Award interpretation
Our smart, automated system calculates wages, penalties, allowances, and overtime using configured award rules to support your payroll processes.
Read More
Paperless onboarding
Streamline your hiring process with our seamless digital onboarding system to automatically sync with Xero for payroll. Reduce the manual workload and onboard staff in minutes.
Read MoreNot sure whether your venue sits under MA000009 or MA000119?
Book a demo and we'll set up the right award with you, then walk through how Shiftly rosters, pays and covers your venue.
Hospitality rostering, answered
Yes. Shiftly's rostering, timesheets, leave, paperless onboarding and award interpretation are free for hospitality venues of any size, with no per-employee fees and no paid tier for the core platform. The only thing you ever pay for is on-demand cover, and only for the hours a shifter actually works.