BondiByte Robotics

Guide

Set up Smart Rostering in the right order.

From roster pattern to published shifts, BondiByte helps automate the rostering workflow while keeping managers in control.

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What Smart Rostering does

Explains Smart Rostering as supervised end-to-end rostering automation.

Smart Rostering supports the rostering workflow from pattern and shift creation through staff interest, suitability checks, assignment support, manager review, publishing, notifications, and ongoing roster changes.

It uses hard blocks before weighted scoring. Managers stay in control of review and publishing.

Supervised rostering automation
Automation that helps create, check, assign, review, and publish rosters while managers keep control.
Hard block
A rule that prevents an unsuitable assignment before scoring is considered.
Weighted scoring
A scoring layer that ranks suitable options using availability, continuity, fairness, fatigue, capability, and site relationship.
Manager review
The human review step before a roster is finalised or published.
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Before enabling Smart Rostering

Explains why base recurring shifts should be created before enabling Smart Rostering for a site.

Create the base recurring roster before enabling Smart Rostering. This gives the system a clean shift pattern to work from before you move into interest requests, suitability checks, draft assignments, and publishing.

When Smart Rostering is enabled for a site, use the Smart Rostering pattern workflow for future automation instead of relying on the standard recurring shift path.

  1. Complete staff, clients, sites, service agreements, capability settings, and availability first.
  2. Build the base roster using standard shift and recurring shift tools while Smart Rostering is not yet enabled.
  3. Create the repeated shift structure needed for the roster period.
  4. Confirm the base shifts look right.
  5. Then enable Smart Rostering for the site.
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Create the base recurring shifts first

Shows how to prepare the repeated shift structure before Smart Rostering takes over future workflow steps.

Build the base roster in standard Rostering first. This is the clean pattern Smart Rostering later uses to support future roster periods.

Once Smart Rostering automation is enabled for the site, the normal recurring shift path is no longer the main path for that site.

  1. Open Rostering.
  2. Select the relevant site and roster period.
  3. Create the repeated shifts needed for the operating pattern.
  4. Check site, client, staff, sleepover, active night, and billing context where relevant.
  5. Confirm the shift pattern before enabling Smart Rostering.
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Create the Smart Rostering pattern

Explains selecting shifts and saving the automation pattern.

After the base shifts exist, select the relevant shifts and create a Smart Rostering pattern. The roster board includes actions to select shifts, create or add to a pattern, and choose the future roster period where automation starts.

Reusable patterns can help keep future roster periods consistent when the operating structure is stable.

  1. Select the shifts that form the automation pattern.
  2. Choose Create pattern or Add to pattern where available.
  3. Name the pattern.
  4. Choose whether it should be reusable.
  5. Select the future roster period where automation should start.
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Request staff interest

Explains staff interest collection before publishing when interest requests are enabled.

Where staff interest collection is enabled, managers can request interest for upcoming shifts before publishing. Staff can raise or withdraw interest through staff-facing workflows.

Interest is one signal in the rostering workflow and should be reviewed with availability, capability, site relationships, and manager judgement.

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Review suitability and hard blocks

Explains hard-block checks before scoring.

Smart Rostering applies hard blocks before weighted scoring. Hard blocks prevent unsuitable assignment options before the system ranks remaining options.

Suitability can consider staff active status, tenant boundaries, availability, capabilities, site and staff relationships, overlap rules, fatigue or double-shift settings, and cancellation history when those signals are available.

Availability
Whether staff are available, unavailable, preferred, or blocked for relevant work times.
Capability
A staff qualification, check, or skill used for suitability.
Overlap rule
A check that prevents conflicting shift assignments.
Cancellation history
Past cancellation context that can influence suitability scoring.
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Review draft assignments

Explains manager review of assignment support and gaps.

Draft assignments are decision support. Managers should review the proposed roster, check unfilled shifts, confirm exceptions, and make manual adjustments where needed.

The goal is to reduce roster preparation effort while keeping the manager responsible for final review.

Best practice

  • Review unfilled shifts and edge cases before publishing.
  • Check staff continuity and fairness where those factors matter.
  • Use manual changes when operational judgement is needed.
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Publish roster

Explains publishing after manager review.

Publish only after the roster has been reviewed. Publishing makes shifts visible to staff through staff-facing workflows.

Notifications and reminders depend on provider configuration and email readiness.

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Common mistakes

Lists common Smart Rostering setup mistakes.

Common mistake

  • Turning on Smart Rostering before creating a clean base recurring roster can make setup harder because the normal recurring shift workflow is no longer the main path once Smart Rostering is enabled.
  • Skipping staff/site links and expecting site-based suitability to work well.
  • Treating draft assignment support as a replacement for manager review.
  • Ignoring Automation Capacity when running automation-heavy roster work.
Rostering guide Build the base roster before Smart Rostering. Automation Capacity guide Understand how automation work uses capacity.

Need help applying this setup path?

Book a BondiByte demo and we can walk through the right setup order for your provider.

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