Custom rostering software for trades and service businesses.
Custom rostering software that checks every shift against the rules your business actually runs on, before the roster goes out. For cleaning contractors, care providers, events and hospitality groups, security firms and trade crews across Australia: qualifications, site inductions, client hours and fatigue rules, all checked as you build the roster.
A fixed written quote before we start. Pay upfront or in stages. Ongoing management from go-live.
A roster that is checked before it goes out, not after payroll.
Rostering and staff scheduling apps are good at the mechanics: building shifts, sending them to phones, recording when people clock on and passing hours to payroll. What they cannot know is the set of rules that makes your roster right for your clients and your sites.
Who is inducted at which site. Whose screening check expires next week. How many hours the contract with each client allows. Which participant has asked not to have a particular worker again. Those rules usually live in a spreadsheet and in the head of whoever builds the roster, and the mistakes surface later, when they cost more to fix.
Custom rostering software puts those rules into the roster itself. Every shift is checked as it is placed, every flag explains itself, and a last-minute swap is checked just as carefully as the original roster.
Rostering is one of the tools we build under custom software development. It connects to your payroll software rather than replacing it.
Book a free strategy callSigns you have outgrown your rostering app
Usually a business with staff spread across client sites or events, rostered in Deputy, Tanda, Employment Hero or a spreadsheet, where the rules that matter most are checked by hand.
The roster is checked by hand
Before it goes out, someone works through a spreadsheet of inductions, clearances and availability. When they miss something, it shows up on site or in payroll.
Client hours live somewhere else
Each contract has an agreed number of hours or visits, but the rostering app does not know about them, so overruns surface when the client queries the invoice.
Rules depend on the site, not just the person
One site needs an induction, another a security clearance, another a particular licence. Your app can tag people, but it cannot stop a shift that breaks a site's rule.
Last-minute changes undo the checks
A sick call at 6am means a quick swap. Nobody re-checks the replacement against every rule, and that is when the expensive mistakes happen.
The rules a custom roster can check for you
Six kinds of rule a general rostering app leaves to whoever builds the roster. Yours are written down once, then checked on every shift.
The parts of a rostering system
Most builds use some of these, shaped to your business. We scope only the parts you need, and add more later as the business changes.
A rostering demo we built
To show the idea in practice, we built Roster Guard, a rostering demo set on a fictional commercial cleaning contract in Melbourne's CBD. It is a demonstration, not a client system, and the business, sites and staff in it are made up.
As shifts are placed, it checks them against the kinds of rule this page describes: site inductions, tenant clearances and escort requirements, visa work-hour conditions, penalty rates and public holidays, and the contract's budget. It flags each problem by severity rather than blocking the shift, so the person building the roster decides what to change.
On a strategy call we can walk you through it, then talk about which of your own rules a roster would need to check.
Custom rostering software or a rostering app?
The deciding question is where your rules live. If they are mostly about pay and availability, an app handles them. If they are about sites, clients and qualifications, they usually end up in a spreadsheet beside it.
Fits standard shift work
Deputy, Tanda, Employment Hero and Humanforce handle shift building, clocking on, leave and payroll export well, and keep award updates current. For a single venue or a standard shift pattern, one of them is the sensible choice.
The trade-off is that business-specific rules, such as site inductions, client preferences or contract hours, stay outside the app and get checked by hand.
Fits how you actually roster
A custom build starts from your rules. It suits businesses that roster people across many client sites, where qualifications and inductions decide who can work where, and where each contract has hours or budgets to stay within.
When a client adds a site or a new requirement appears, the rule is added as part of ongoing management, rather than becoming another column in the spreadsheet.
There is also a middle path. Keep the app your staff already clock on with, and add the rules check and client-hours reporting around it. The roster is checked with your rules, then published through the app your team knows.
What custom rostering looks like in different businesses
Illustrative examples to show how the same idea fits different work. They are not past client projects.
Connected to the tools you already use
A roster feeds payroll and follows the work. We connect to the systems on both sides, and never rebuild payroll, awards or STP.
How a rostering project is priced and run
A rostering project runs the same way as every custom software build: discovery, a written scope with a fixed quote, building in stages you test against real rosters, then go-live and ongoing management.
We bring your staff records, sites and contracts across from your current app or spreadsheets, and run the new checks alongside your existing roster before you switch. There is no price list; you see both figures, in writing, for an agreed scope, before we start.
A one-off build fee
Fixed in your quote after discovery. Pay it upfront, or in stages tied to milestones.
Ongoing management
Every build comes with it: hosting, monitoring, updates, fixes and small improvements, billed monthly from the day your roster goes live. New sites, contracts and rules are part of looking after it.
Who owns the software, and who owns the data
We agree code ownership per project, in writing, before the build starts. There are two options.
We keep the code, you hold a licence
Scalepoint owns the code and you get a licence to use the rostering software in your business. You can buy the code out later if your plans change.
You own the code once it is paid for
Ownership of the code passes to you when the build fee is paid in full.
Your data is always yours, whichever option you choose. Staff records, rosters, contracts and timesheets belong to your business, and you can export them at any time.
Other ways we can help
Common questions about custom rostering software
What is custom rostering software?+
Rostering software built for one business. It knows that business's sites, contracts, staff qualifications and rules, and checks every shift against them before the roster is published, with the reason for each flag shown so it can be fixed in seconds.
Does it replace Deputy or Tanda?+
It does not have to. Many businesses keep Deputy, Tanda or Humanforce for clocking on and timesheets, and add a rules check and client-hours layer on top. A full rostering system of your own makes sense when most of your rostering happens outside the app already.
Will it calculate pay and award rates?+
No. Pay, awards interpretation, super and Single Touch Payroll stay in your payroll software, which is built and maintained for exactly that. The roster can highlight penalty and overtime periods using rules you give it, and sends approved hours to payroll.
Does it guarantee we are compliant?+
It checks shifts against the rules you set and flags anything that breaks them. Your obligations under awards, visa conditions and screening requirements remain yours, and we recommend confirming the rules themselves with your adviser or industry body.
How much does custom rostering software cost?+
It depends on how many rules, sites and integrations it has to handle, so there is no price list. After a discovery session you get a fixed build fee and the monthly management fee in writing, for an agreed scope, before any work starts.
Who owns the rostering software and our staff data?+
Your data, including staff records, rosters, contracts and timesheets, is always yours, and you can export it at any time. Code ownership is agreed in writing before the build: by default we keep the code and you hold a licence to use it, with the option to buy it out, or the code becomes yours once the build fee is paid in full.
Tell us the rules your roster has to follow
Bring last week's roster and the spreadsheet you check it against. We will show you what a roster that checks itself would look like.