Sound familiar?
It is not just the rota that is broken. It is the whole process around it.
The availability chase
Texting 8 people to see who can work Saturday. Some reply in 3 days. Someone says yes, then cancels at 9pm.
The agreement limbo
Swaps via WhatsApp. Holiday via text. Sick cover via a missed call. Nothing is in writing, everything is disputed later.
The rota lottery
You post the schedule to the group chat. Did they see it? "I never got that." Now you are chasing again.
Batch handles every step
From the first availability question to the moment everyone knows their shifts.
Staff share availability
Once, from their phone. The system remembers it, no chasing every week.
Requests agreed in-app
Holiday, swaps, sick days. Formally requested, formally approved. Nothing lost in a thread.
AI builds the rota
Pick the week. It works from availability, approved leave, roles, your staffing needs and UK working-time rules, and builds the full rota in about 90 seconds. Or copy last week and let it check the result.
Everyone is notified
Publish once, every team member gets their shifts instantly. Change anything, they are notified again.
What the AI takes into account
It asks before it guesses: if nobody is available on a day you are open, or you need two bar staff and have one, it tells you and stops. Then it builds, and the rules below are enforced on the result, not just suggested.
Who can work when
Each person's days and preferred times of day, approved holiday, sick days, and who has already left.
Hours people want
Minimum and maximum hours a week per person, and what they have worked already this week and month.
Your staffing needs
Two on the bar Saturday, one in the kitchen every day. Type it in plain English or set it once in Settings. Roles and tags do the matching.
The odd week
A one-off note when you generate: "Sam opens Monday", "nobody past 10 on Sunday". Applied that week only.
UK working time
48-hour weeks, 11 hours between shifts, breaks over six hours, six days in a row, under-18 limits. Checked before anything reaches the grid.
Fairness and coverage
Hours spread across the team, shifts staggered across opening hours, and any shift that goes against a preference flagged so you see it.
Prefer to build it yourself? Copy last week or start from your usual week, and Batch runs the same checks over what you made: leave clashes, days marked unavailable, hours nobody covers, anyone over 48 hours. Fill the gaps with AI, or fix them by hand. Then publish.
Everything else Batch handles
The rota is where it starts. Batch runs the whole operation around it, so you are not stitching together five different tools.
UK compliance, built in
Working-time checks, guaranteed-hours tracking and short-notice flags watch every rota, with a compliance record you can export.
Self-serve time clock
Staff clock in and out from their phone. Worked hours flow straight into payroll, no paper timesheets to chase.
Swaps & time off, in-app
Shift swaps, holiday and sick cover are requested and approved in the app. Every change is logged, nothing lost in a thread.
One-click payroll export
Timesheet CSV for your bureau: BrightPay, Sage 50, Xero, QuickBooks, or a full-detail generic format.
Hours & reports
Hours by person and period with overtime flags, saved and shareable reports, and an AI you can just ask.
Staff self-service
Everyone sets their own availability, sees their shifts and their own hours, and can take an open shift with one tap.
Told on their phone
Publish once and every affected person gets an email and a phone notification with their week. A reminder before each shift, one, two or 24 hours ahead, their choice.
Copy, check, publish
Copy last week or start from your usual week, and Batch checks it against leave, availability, staffing needs and working-time rules before you publish.
Ask AI anything about your team's hours
No spreadsheets. No exports. No waiting. Just ask.
Try the real thing on a sample venue
The live demo is the actual app running on a made-up café with a made-up team. Build a week, publish it, switch to the staff view, take an open shift. It resets itself every night.
One price.
Everything included.
No tiers, no add-ons, no per-seat fees.
- ✓AI schedule builder, full rota in 90 seconds
- ✓Unlimited staff, unlimited rotas
- ✓Time-off, swaps, sick cover and open shifts, all in-app
- ✓Time clock, payroll export & reports
- ✓Email and phone notifications, UK compliance built in
The least expensive, with AI built in
Deputy and Planday bill per person, so the cost climbs as you hire, and Rotaready does not publish a price. Batch is £10 flat for unlimited staff, with AI rota building built in.
* Competitor pricing from each vendor's own pricing page, July 2026, shown for a team of 12. Per-user tools cost more as your team grows; quote-only vendors do not publish a rate.
I ran a café for three years. I knew every member of my team, and I still spent two hours every Sunday figuring out the rota on a spreadsheet. It was not that there were no tools out there. It is that none of them were built for how hospitality actually works: last minute, flexible, and never quite the same week to week.
Batch is built for the managers doing everything themselves. AI does the hard work. You just make the calls.
Common questions
Your next rota takes 90 seconds.
Join hospitality managers who stopped arguing with spreadsheets and started finishing Sundays on time.