Let Conciar suggest a rota
Suggest rota looks at how busy you were on the same weekday in past weeks and proposes the shifts you need. Nothing changes until you add the shifts, and they're added as drafts you can edit before you publish.
You need the admin or manager role, and Staff planning (see Rota).
How the forecast works
For each day of the week, Conciar:
- takes the same weekday over the last weeks (8 by default), leaving out public holidays, days you didn't trade and unusual days;
- adjusts for the weather forecast, but only when enough of those past days had similar weather;
- counts bookings already made for that day as a minimum.
Restaurants are measured in guests seated (from reservations) and orders an hour. Other businesses are measured in orders an hour. With less than three comparable days of history, the suggestion only uses bookings and your minimum staffing.
Each day in the suggestion shows a short explanation and how confident the forecast is.
Suggest shifts for a week
- In my.conciar.com, go to Staff → Rota and pick the week.
- Click Suggest rota.
- Check the totals at the top: suggested shifts, paid hours, open shifts and, if your team has hourly rates, the labour cost.
- Untick any shifts you don't want. Each shift shows who it's for, or Open shift if nobody suitable is free.
- Click Add … as draft shifts.
- Review the drafts on the rota, change what you need, then click Publish week.
Shifts already on the rota count as planned, so only the gap is suggested. Running it again doesn't double up.
To start over, tick Replace this week's draft shifts. Drafts are then removed when you add the new shifts. Published shifts always stay.
Right after adding, click Undo in the message at the top to remove the suggested drafts again.
Who gets which shift
Conciar gives each shift to someone who has worked that position before, is free at that time, has had enough rest since their last shift, and stays under their Contract hours / week. It prefers whoever is furthest under their contract hours. People without contract hours are capped at Max hours/week without contract.
Set hourly rates and contract hours per person in Team members.
Set your staffing rules
The rules turn the forecast into people. Until you save your own, Conciar uses starting points that aren't based on your business.
Go to Staff → Staffing rules.
Under Positions, add a row for each position (for example Bar, Kitchen, Floor) with Add position, and set:
Field What it means 1 person per How many guests seated, or orders an hour, one person handles. Minimum while open People needed even when it's quiet. Starts before opening Minutes the first person starts before you open. Stays after closing Minutes the last person stays after you close. Under Shifts, set the Shortest shift (hours), Longest shift (hours), when a break is added (Break after (hours), Break (minutes, unpaid)), the Rest between shifts (hours), Bridge quiet gaps up to (min) and whether to Plan in blocks of 1 hour or 30 minutes.
Under Forecast and cost, set how many weeks to Compare with the last … weeks, and optionally a Labour cost target (% of forecast takings).
Click Save rules.
You can also change the rules inside the Suggest rota panel under Rules, click Regenerate to try them, and Save as my staffing rules to keep them. Reset to defaults on the Staffing rules page goes back to the starting points.
The suggestion uses your opening hours. Set them in the settings for your business type, for example Settings → Restaurant.
Common problems
The suggestion is empty or very small. There's not enough history yet, or the rota already covers the week. Check the explanation under each day.
Everything comes back as open shifts. Nobody has worked those positions before, or everyone is at their contract hours. Assign the open shifts yourself on the rota.
The labour cost target is greyed out. Nobody in your team has an hourly rate. Add rates in Team members.