Manage Roster Templates in the Employee Roster

Learn how to create, edit, apply and delete roster templates in QuickBooks Online Advanced Payroll. 

What are Roster Templates?

Roster templates are pre-made rosters that can help you:

• Plan your resourcing requirements for certain events and/or projects in advance without affecting the standard roster
• Build the basis of the roster specific to the roles required and then assign staff at a later stage
• Cater for all different rostering scenarios applicable across the year in one location or all locations within a business
• Apply any template to the roster on multiple occasions and from any specific date.

How to create a roster template

1. Navigate to the Rostering screen by selecting Employees, then the Manage Employees dropdown menu and selecting Rostering.
2. Select Roster actions dropdown menu, then select Roster templates.
3. Select Add.
4. You’ll now be brought to the roster template page, denoted by the yellow banner on the top of the screen.
5. All the locations under your business will be listed on the template. Select Add resource  under one of the locations to add an employee to the template. You can add multiple resources at a time by selecting the or multiple button. This will add a specified number of rows to the template so you can enter the employee names later.
6. Fill in the tiles for each day and employee with the shift times and shift details. Refer to this article for more information on completing rosters: Create, Edit and Publish Employee Shifts

How to duplicate a roster template 

1. From the roster templates page, select Template actions.
2. Select Copy roster template.
3. Enter a different template name, then in the Copy employees currently assigned to the template field, tick the employees you want to copy over.
4. Select Copy roster template once done.

What will be copied to the new template?

The new roster template will copy over the same data that exists in the original template, with exceptions depending on the aforementioned configuration options. Specifically, the following roster settings will be copied to the new template:

• All shifts: Including break times, locations, work types.
• Employees assigned to the shifts in the original template: This will be managed via the 'Copy employees currently assigned to this roster template' checkbox.
• Time period span: If the template spans over a number of weeks/fortnights, all shifts for the existing timeframe will be copied over.

How do I apply the roster template?

1. Navigate back to the Rostering screen by selecting Employees, then the Manage Employees dropdown menu and selecting Rostering.
2. Select Roster actions dropdown menu, then select Roster templates.
3. Tick the roster template you want to apply, then select Apply.
4. Select the date you want to apply the roster template from, and specify what the system should do if a shift cannot be created for an employee.
5. Select Apply.

Who can see roster templates?

Full access users are able to see all roster templates because they have access to all employees. Managers with restricted access (such as employee or location access) will be able to view a roster template as long as they have permission to view the employee's/locations within the template. You can manage access with the following steps:

1. Select Employees, then select Payroll Settings.
2. Select Manage Users under the Business Management column.
3. Select the pencil icon next to the user you want to give the permissions to.
4. Select the Location or Employee group that the manager has access to, then tick Manage employee rosters under the Rosters section.
5. Select Save.

When a restricted user logs in and navigates to roster templates, the system will show all non-deleted roster templates, even those that a user doesn't have permission to access. However a padlock icon will display against the templates that they cannot access, along with the reason why they don't have permission to access it. 

How to delete a roster template

1. Navigate to the Rostering screen by selecting Employees, then the Manage Employees dropdown menu and selecting Rostering.
2. Select Roster actions dropdown menu, then select Roster templates.
3. Find the roster template you want to delete, then select the red bin icon.

How to restore a deleted roster template

1. Navigate to Payroll Settings, then select Restore Deleted Items under the Advanced column.
2. Select Roster template from the dropdown menu.
3. A list of all deleted roster templates will appear. Select Restore next to the template you want to restore.