Prepare the period
The next roster period opens on your organisation's calendar: weekly or fortnightly, starting on the day you nominate. Its dates are locked once it is scheduled, so changing a setting later only affects periods still to come.
Smart Rostering
Smart rostering that works the way NDIS providers do.
Stop juggling spreadsheets, chasing staff, and rebuilding the roster every time something changes.
BondiByte builds smarter rosters faster by automatically weighing staff availability, qualifications, what each site and shift requires, and compliance, so you spend less time scheduling and more time delivering support. Managers keep a review gate they control.
From gaps to a published roster 
Intelligent scheduling
Rostering that thinks before you do.
Before you assign a shift, BondiByte checks:
- Is this staff member available, and not already booked?
- Do they hold what this site and this shift require?
- Are they on this site's team, and which one?
- Would this push them past their hours for the period?
- Would this create a compliance issue?
Requirements sit on the site and on the individual shift, so a house where several people share a roster is checked once, against what that house and that shift actually need.
Critical conflicts are blocked first, so managers never review a roster full of obvious problems. Then suitability signals rank the best available staff, and you approve before anything publishes.
The roster period, step by step
How a roster period actually comes together.
Six steps, each on its own schedule, each one a manager can do by hand instead.
Create the shifts
Your roster pattern for the site becomes real shifts, with times, how many staff are required, and the requirements those staff must meet. By default this happens about three weeks before the period starts.
Open staff interest
Staff see the shifts that need people and register interest from the portal or the app. Interest is on by default and can be switched off for a site that does not work that way.
Generate the draft
BondiByte works through the unfilled shifts and recommends staff for each one, a few days after interest opens. It is a draft. Nothing has been published and nobody has been told.
Manager review
The draft waits for a manager. Change anyone, fill what is still open, and open any recommendation to see the reasons behind it before you accept it.
Publish
Publishing is the moment staff see the roster, and notifications go out. Coverage reviews and unfilled-shift alerts pick up anything still open.
Supervised automation
The roster is prepared for you, not decided for you.
This is the question every provider asks, so here is the plain answer: BondiByte does not decide who works with whom. It does the preparation a coordinator would otherwise do by hand, then stops and waits for a manager.
Review before publish is the standing default, at organisation level and at every site. Auto-publish is available for sites that have earned the confidence, it is off until someone deliberately turns it on, and it is set site by site rather than across the whole organisation. It can email the manager whenever it runs.
Until a manager publishes, the draft is invisible to staff. No shift appears in the portal or the app, no notification is sent, and nothing is committed. A draft that sits too long can remind the manager it is waiting.
Review before publish is the default, for the organisation and for every site.Auto-publish exists, is off unless you turn it on, and is set per site.Staff see nothing until the roster is published.Every recommendation shows the reasons behind it.You can require a reason whenever someone changes an automated assignment.
Inside a recommendation
What the recommendation actually weighs.
A recommendation is not a black box. Anyone who fails a critical check is blocked outright and never appears. Everyone else is ranked across a set of signals you can see, and each one carries a weight you can change.
Start from a ready-made setting: Balanced, Compliance first, Continuity first, Fairness first, Availability first, or the opt-in Cost aware. Then tune the weights yourself if you want to, and let an individual site override the organisation where its needs differ.
The same signals rank the staff list when a manager fills a shift by hand, so the recommendation is there whether or not the roster was generated for you.
- Availability, and no clash with another shift
- What this site and this shift require
- Whether they are on the site's primary, secondary or relief team
- Continuity with the site's regular team
- Fatigue: same-day double shifts, and hours already rostered for the period
- A fair spread of work across the team
- Weekend and weekday load balanced separately
- Whether they registered interest in the shift
- Whether the shift falls in the hours they prefer
- Recent cancellation history
- Cost, if you choose the cost-aware setting
On your terms
Turn it on site by site, or leave it off.
Smart Rostering is off until you switch it on, and it is switched on for one site at a time. A guided setup walks the organisation settings, the weights, site enablement, the site team, an active roster pattern, and an open roster period, and tells you which step is still missing.
With automation off, nothing is taken away. The roster board works exactly as it always has: build the period, add shifts, assign staff, handle swaps and cancellations, publish when you are ready. Sites that use it and sites that do not sit side by side in the same roster.
Recommendations are a separate switch again, and on by default. A site can use the ranked staff list when a manager fills a shift without ever letting the platform build a draft.
Off until you turn it on. Enabled per site, not all at once. The manual roster board never goes away. Recommendations without generation, if that is all you want.
Everything you need in one roster.
Connected capabilities that take rostering from a chore to a strategic advantage.
Prepare the roster with less manual work
- Roster patterns and shift templates
- Scheduled roster automation
- Recurring shift creation
- Flexible manager controls
- Faster roster publishing
Fill shifts faster
- Staff interest requests
- Shift swap management
- Shift cancellation management
- Manager approval workflows
- Faster replacement allocation
Never lose sight of unfilled shifts
- Unfilled-shift alerts
- Coverage review emails
- Real-time roster visibility
- Faster vacancy management
Handle diverse workforce needs
- Sleepover shift segments
- Shift costing
- Billing line items
- Pay level integration
- Multi-site rostering
Learn from workforce patterns
- Cancellation history
- Staff reliability signals
- Assignment patterns
- Data-informed decisions
Intelligent shift matching
- Smart staff recommendations
- Suitability across the signals that matter
- Qualification and capability matching
- Availability-aware rostering
- Maximum-hours checks
- Manager review and approval
Connected workforce
One connected workforce platform.
Smart Rostering doesn't work in isolation. Every rostered shift flows into timesheet drafts, payroll-ready exports, and invoice drafts, so nobody re-keys the same information.
Staff qualifications, availability, leave, and compliance are all considered as the roster is built. Your roster becomes the foundation of a connected workforce system, from planning through to payroll and billing.
Smart Rostering is automation-heavy work, so it's metered against your Automation Capacity, giving owners governance over automated activity. How Automation Capacity works →
- Staff management
- Smart rostering
- Timesheets
- Invoice drafts
- Audit evidence
- Compliance
The machinery underneath, in depth.
Patterns, templates, checks and sleepovers are parts of one rostering engine. Here is what each part does.
Roster patterns & periods
Set up your roster calendar once, capture how each site really runs, and let every future period start from that shape.
- Fortnightly or monthly periods, starting on the Sunday or Monday you pick, org-wide
- Patterns built from real shifts: select them on the board and save the shape
- A library of reusable patterns, with each site running its own active one
- Changes apply from the future period you choose; published rosters never move
- The period anchor locks while automation runs, protecting payroll and billing rhythm
Shift creation & site templates
Create a whole period of shifts from your patterns and site templates, instead of cell by cell.
- Site-scoped templates with default times, staffing numbers and sleepover detail
- Recurring shifts daily or weekly, by count or to an end date, capped so a typo cannot flood the roster
- Overnight shifts that end the next day are handled properly from creation
- Client billing line items attach at the shift, so what you roster is what you invoice
- Staff see nothing until a manager publishes
Suitability & hard-block checks
Critical conflicts are blocked before staff are even considered, and the same rules run for automated suggestions and manual assignment alike.
- Leave, inactive status, double-booking, blocked time and full shifts stop an assignment outright
- Mandatory requirements enforced: expired evidence does not count
- Warnings stay distinct from blocks, so judgement calls stay with managers
- Compliance overrides need a specific permission and are logged
- Per-site fatigue rules decide whether same-day double shifts are allowed
Sleepover segments
Overnight support has a shape: active hours, the sleepover, active hours again. BondiByte records that shape and delivers it to timesheets already split.
- Segment times on shifts and site templates, inherited by every generated shift
- Override a single night without touching the template or the rest of the roster
- Timesheets arrive as three components with the right pay treatment for each
- Sleepovers spread fairly across the team, at a priority you set per site
When shifts change after publishing, that is its own workflow: Shift Coverage & Changes covers staff interest, open shifts and claims, swaps, cancellations with cover offers, and escalation.
Change happens
When your day changes, BondiByte doesn't.
Staff called in sick?
Offer the shift to suitable, available staff.
Participant cancelled?
Update the roster in the same place.
Need to swap shifts?
Managers approve before it publishes.
Qualification expired?
That staff member stops being recommended.
Every operational change flows through the platform without creating new admin or disrupting service delivery.
Manual rostering vs Smart Rostering.
Manual scheduling
BondiByte Smart Rostering
Multiple spreadsheets
One connected platform
Manual qualification checks
Automatic suitability and hard-block checks
Phone calls to fill shifts
Staff interest requests
Duplicate data entry
Enter once, it flows through
Manual timesheets
Shifts flow into timesheet drafts
Separate invoicing
Invoice drafts from approved time
Automated notifications
The roster emails managers actually get.
When coverage is at risk, BondiByte emails the right people automatically: unfilled-shift alerts, daily roster summaries, and coverage reviews that explain why a shift could not be filled.
Unfilled-shift alert (demo data).
Daily roster summary (demo data).
Go deeper into rostering.
Every part of the engine has its own dedicated page: the problem it solves, how it works, and the controls that stay with managers.
Feature
Roster patterns & periods
Set up your roster calendar once, capture how each site really runs, and let every future period start from that shape.
Explore Roster patterns & periodsFeatureShift creation & site templates
Create a whole period of shifts from your configured patterns and site or period settings, including recurring shifts.
Explore Shift creation & site templatesFeatureStaff interest requests
Ask the whole team who wants the shifts, in one step, and get answers you can actually roster from. Staff respond from their own portal, unsuitable…
Explore Staff interest requestsFeatureSuitability & hard-block checks
Critical conflicts are blocked before staff are even considered, then suitability signals rank who fits best.
Explore Suitability & hard-block checksFeatureSmart recommendations
Once blockers clear, BondiByte ranks and prepares assignment options using the signals that matter to your operation.
Explore Smart recommendationsFeatureShift swap management
Handle swap requests, approvals, and replacement needs without breaking roster integrity.
Explore Shift swap managementFeatureShift cancellation management
When a staff member cancels, BondiByte manages the cancellation and surfaces replacement coverage needs.
Explore Shift cancellation managementFeatureCancellation history & reliability
Reliability stops being a gut feeling. BondiByte records cancellations and swaps as they happen, measures recent reliability for every staff member,…
Explore Cancellation history & reliabilityFeatureShift cost & billing line items
Shifts carry client billing line items and hours so roster decisions flow straight into invoicing.
Explore Shift cost & billing line itemsFeatureUnfilled-shift escalation
Automated alerts and coverage reviews explain why a shift could not be filled, so the right people act early.
Explore Unfilled-shift escalationFeatureSleepover segments
Overnight support has a shape: active hours, the sleepover, active hours again. BondiByte records that shape on the shift and the template, lets you…
Explore Sleepover segmentsFeatureScheduled roster automation
BondiByte can run each roster period through the cycle on its own timing, instead of waiting for someone to start.
Explore Scheduled roster automationFeatureOpen shifts & staff claims
A shift on a published roster that still needs someone becomes an open shift for the teams you choose. Staff claim it from their phone, you decide…
Explore Open shifts & staff claimsFrequently asked questions.
Do I still have to rebuild the roster each fortnight?
No. Once a pattern is active for a site, BondiByte creates each new period's shifts from it. You review and adjust rather than rebuild.
Will a roster ever publish without us seeing it?
Not unless you switch auto-publish on for that site. The default requires a manager to review and publish, and auto-publish can notify you every time it runs.
What is the difference between a block and a warning?
A block stops the assignment entirely, such as a double booking or a missing mandatory requirement. A warning is shown but does not stop you, such as a missing optional requirement or a staff member who is not on the site's team.
Can we see why someone was recommended?
Yes. Every suggestion lists its reasons in plain language, positive and negative, so the ranking is never a mystery.
Does it consider cost?
Only if you choose the Cost Aware preset or weight cost yourself. Even then, safety and eligibility signals stay weighted high so cost never overrides them, and by default cost carries zero weight.
How does a sleepover end up paid correctly?
BondiByte separates the shift into active hours and a sleepover allowance component in the timesheet, so your pay setup applies to each part properly. The actual rates come from your own pay configuration.
What happens when no one fits a shift?
The shift is flagged as unfilled with the reasons, such as every linked staff member already being rostered elsewhere, and the escalation workflow makes sure the right people hear about it early.
Can different sites run differently?
Yes. Patterns, automation, recommendation weights, fatigue rules and publishing behaviour are all per site, so a stable SIL house and a flexible community roster can run different settings under the same organisation.
Ready to make rostering less manual?
Start your free trial, or book a demo to see how BondiByte runs the full roster workflow, from setup to published shifts, with managers in control.