Build a Staff Rota With AI in 1 Hour: Shifts, Swaps, Holiday and the Working Time Rules
How to build a staff rota with an AI agent in an hour in 2026: the Working Time rules a rota must respect, the under-18 limits, holiday at 5.6 weeks or 12.07% for irregular hours, what RotaCloud, Planday, Deputy and the other apps charge, the short-notice rules due in 2027, and four prompts that run the rota, swaps, holiday and the hours report.
The rota is written on Sunday night, posted in the WhatsApp group, and rewritten twice by Tuesday. Someone has a dentist's appointment, someone's child is ill, the Saturday delivery moved, and the owner of a cafe, a shop or a small care agency spends the week moving names between boxes. The cost shows up in the TUC's research from September 2025: more than half of insecure workers are offered shifts with less than 24 hours' notice, and two-thirds of zero-hours workers got nothing the last time hours were cancelled. The Resolution Foundation found 54% of variable-hours workers got less than a week's notice of their shifts in 2023.
That is about to become expensive as well as unfair. The Employment Rights Act 2025 brings a right to a guaranteed-hours offer, reasonable notice of shifts and pay for short-notice cancellations, due in 2027. A rota built by an AI agent handles the rules a human forgets at 11 pm: the 11 hours between shifts, the 20-minute break, the under-18 limits, the holiday accrual, the hours against the contract. This guide gives the rules a UK staff rota must respect, the four prompts that get an agent to build and run it, the holiday maths, and what the rota apps charge, all checked on 21 October 2026.
Want next week's rota built while you read? Open Jobbit, paste prompt 1 below with your staff, their hours and your opening times, and it comes back in a minute with the rules checked. Free plan, 100 credits a day, no card.
The rules a rota has to respect
The Working Time Regulations 1998 set the limits; ACAS's guidance, updated 21 March 2025, is the plain-English version. An agent checks every one of these on every draft.
| Rule | What it means on the rota | Who it applies to |
|---|---|---|
| 48-hour week | An average of 48 hours a week over 17 weeks, unless the worker has signed an opt-out | Adults |
| Daily rest | 11 hours between the end of one shift and the start of the next | Adults |
| Weekly rest | 24 hours off in every 7 days, or 48 hours in every 14 | Adults |
| Rest break | One uninterrupted 20-minute break when the day is longer than 6 hours | Adults |
| Night work | An average of 8 hours in any 24 for night workers, over 17 weeks | Night workers |
| Under-18s | No more than 8 hours a day and 40 a week, a 30-minute break after 4.5 hours, 12 hours' daily rest and 48 hours' weekly rest (or 36 with the rest taken soon after) | 16 and 17 year olds |
| Records | Working-time records kept for 2 years; holiday and holiday pay records kept for 6 years since 6 April 2026 | Every employer |
The opt-out covers the 48-hour average only. Nobody can opt out of the rest rules, and an under-18 cannot opt out of anything.
Build it in four prompts
1. The rota
Message to send
Build next week's rota for Luna Coffee. Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 7 am to 6 pm, Sunday 8 am to 4 pm. Staff and contracted hours: Priya 38 hours full time, barista; Tom 30 hours, barista, not Sundays; Aisha 16 hours, counter, Tuesday and Thursday only, aged 17; Marcus 20 hours, counter and kitchen, any day; me 45 hours, anywhere. Rules: two people on at all times, three from 11 am to 2 pm, one barista on every shift, shifts between 4 and 9 hours, a 20-minute break on any shift over 6 hours, 11 hours between shifts, nobody over their contracted hours without my say-so, Aisha never over 8 hours a day, 40 a week or past 10 pm. Show the rota as a table by day and person with start, end and break, and list any rule you could not meet.
You create a free account first (an email address is all it takes, no card). Your message is kept and sent the moment you are in.
2. Swaps and cover
Message to send
When a member of staff messages to swap or drop a shift, check the swap against all the rules in prompt 1 including the hours between shifts and the contracted hours, propose the best cover from the people who are available and under their hours, and send it to me to approve with one tap. Once I approve, update the rota, tell both people, and keep a log of who requested what and when.
You create a free account first (an email address is all it takes, no card). Your message is kept and sent the moment you are in.
3. Holiday and accrual
Message to send
Keep a holiday record for each person: 5.6 weeks a year pro rata for the contracted-hours staff, and 12.07% of hours worked each month for anyone on irregular hours, with our leave year starting 1 April. When someone asks for leave, check how much they have accrued, check the rota cover on those days, and send me a yes or no to approve. Show each person their balance when they ask. Keep the records for 6 years.
You create a free account first (an email address is all it takes, no card). Your message is kept and sent the moment you are in.
4. The weekly pack
Message to send
Every Sunday at 6 pm send me the week ahead's rota and a report on the week just gone: hours worked against contracted hours per person, any day over 9 hours, any gap between shifts under 11 hours, anyone whose 17-week average is above 44 hours, any under-18 limit touched, shifts changed with less than a week's notice and who changed them, holiday taken, and a payroll export of hours per person as a CSV.
You create a free account first (an email address is all it takes, no card). Your message is kept and sent the moment you are in.
Four prompts, an hour including the first corrections, and the agent keeps running the swaps, the holiday and the report. The free plan does all of it on 100 credits a day; the Go plan at £7 a month adds 2,000 credits for a bigger team and the messages.
The holiday maths
Statutory holiday is 5.6 weeks a year, capped at 28 days. For staff with fixed hours it is 5.6 times the working week: 3 days a week is 16.8 days. For irregular-hours and part-year workers, for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, holiday accrues at 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period, and those workers may be paid rolled-up holiday pay: at least 12.07% on top of pay, paid with each pay period and shown as a separate line on the payslip. Rolled-up holiday pay is not permitted for anyone else. GOV.UK's holiday entitlement calculator handles the fixed-hours and irregular-hours cases, and the agent in prompt 3 keeps the running balance.
What the rota apps charge
| App | Price (21 October 2026) | Free tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| RotaCloud | £10 a month Standard or £15 Pro for 1 to 5 staff, priced by team size | 30-day trial, no free plan | Time and attendance and SMS cost extra |
| Planday | From £2.99 per user a month, minimum 5 users | 30-day trial | Monthly billing, cancel any time |
| Deputy | Lite $5, Core $6.50, Pro $9 per user a month, 10% off yearly | Trial | £20 minimum per monthly invoice since 1 September 2025 |
| When I Work | Essentials $2.50, Pro $5, Premium $8 per user a month | 14-day trial | Time tracking extra |
| Homebase | Free for 1 location and up to 10 employees; Essentials $30 a location a month | Yes | Priced per location |
| Connecteam | Free for up to 10 users; Basic $29 a month for the first 30 users | Yes | 18% off yearly |
| Jobbit agent | Free plan, 100 credits a day; Go £7 a month | Yes | Rota, swaps, holiday, report and payroll export in one place |
A rota app is worth it when you have several locations and clock-in machines. For one site with four to fifteen people, the agent does the rota, the swaps, the holiday record and the hours report from one set of rules, and it also does everything else in the business.
Short notice, cancellations and the 2027 rules
- Today. There is no general statutory notice period for a shift, but ACAS warns that changing a rota at short notice can breach the contract even under a flexibility clause if the notice is not reasonable, and recommends a written policy on cancelled work that says how much notice is given and what is paid. Time spent on standby at or near the workplace counts as working time for the minimum wage. Staff laid off or put on short time after a month's service are owed statutory guarantee pay of £41 a day, up to £205 in any three months.
- From 2027. The Employment Rights Act 2025 gives zero-hours and low-hours workers a right to an offer of guaranteed hours reflecting the hours they actually worked over a reference period (the government's June to August 2026 consultation proposed 12 weeks), a right to reasonable notice of shifts, and payment when a shift is cancelled, moved or cut short at short notice. ACAS's page, updated 20 October 2026, says the government has not yet named the month in 2027. The report in prompt 4 already counts shifts changed with less than a week's notice, so the numbers exist before the rule does.
- Christmas 2026. The bank holidays in England and Wales are Friday 25 December and Monday 28 December (the Boxing Day substitute), and 2027 starts with Friday 1 January. Put them in the rota rules now.
How an AI agent differs from a rota app
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Manus and Meta's Muse will all draft a rota table if you paste the hours. Jobbit runs it:
- It checks every rule on every draft, including the 11 hours between shifts and the under-18 limits, and tells you what it could not meet.
- It handles the swaps from the staff messages, proposes cover, and waits for your one-tap approval.
- It keeps the holiday balances at 5.6 weeks or 12.07%, and the records for 6 years.
- It sends the Sunday pack with the hours against contracts and the payroll export.
- It counts short-notice changes so you are ready for the 2027 rules.
- It does the rest of the admin too: the hiring documents, the invoices, the website.
A one-hour plan
- Minutes 0 to 15. Write the staff list with contracted hours, skills, availability and ages, and your opening hours and cover rules.
- Minutes 15 to 30. Run prompt 1. Read the list of rules it could not meet and adjust the cover rules or the hours.
- Minutes 30 to 45. Run prompts 2 and 3. Send one test swap from your own phone.
- Minutes 45 to 60. Run prompt 4. Share the rota with the team and tell them how swaps work from now on.
Build the rota on the free plan: 100 credits a day, no card, swaps and holiday included.
Open JobbitRead next
- AI for restaurants and cafes: the other nine jobs an agent does for a hospitality business.
- AI for spreadsheets: if your rota lives in Excel today.
- AI document generator: the staff handbook and the contracts.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a staff rota that follows UK law?
Set the rules first: 48 hours a week on average unless opted out, 11 hours between shifts, 24 hours off a week, a 20-minute break on any day over 6 hours, and the tighter limits for anyone under 18. Then give the rules, the staff and the opening hours to an agent on Jobbit and ask it to list any rule it cannot meet before you publish.
How much notice do I have to give for a rota change?
UK law sets no fixed notice period today, but ACAS says short-notice changes can breach the contract if the notice is not reasonable, and recommends a written policy on cancelled shifts. From 2027 the Employment Rights Act 2025 will require reasonable notice and payment for short-notice cancellations, with the details still to be set in regulations.
How is holiday calculated for zero-hours or irregular-hours staff?
At 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period, for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024. Those workers may be paid rolled-up holiday pay of at least 12.07% on top of their pay, shown separately on the payslip. Staff with fixed hours get 5.6 weeks a year, capped at 28 days.
Can a 17-year-old work a 10-hour shift?
No. Workers aged 16 and 17 are limited to 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, need a 30-minute break after 4.5 hours, 12 hours' rest between working days and 48 hours' rest a week, and cannot opt out of these limits.
Do I have to pay staff if I send them home early?
Time they were required to be at or near the workplace on standby counts as working time for the minimum wage. After a month's service, staff laid off or put on short-time working are owed statutory guarantee pay of £41 a day, up to £205 in any three months. Your own policy on cancelled shifts should say what you pay beyond that.
Can an AI agent make a staff rota?
Yes. Give an agent on Jobbit the staff, their contracted hours, skills and ages, your opening hours and the cover you need, and it builds the week as a table with breaks, checks the Working Time rules, handles swap requests, keeps holiday balances and sends a weekly hours report with a payroll export. The free plan covers a small team on 100 credits a day.
Which is the cheapest rota app?
Homebase and Connecteam have free tiers for up to 10 people, RotaCloud starts at £10 a month for 1 to 5 staff, Planday at £2.99 per user with a 5-user minimum, When I Work at $2.50 per user and Deputy at $5 per user with a £20 monthly minimum. An agent on Jobbit does the rota and the rest of the admin on the free plan or £7 a month on Go.