A Café Roster Example: 8 Staff, 7 Days, Opening to Close
30 October 2026 · The Rosterly team · 4 min read
Here's a complete café roster example: a café open 6:30am to 3pm on weekdays and 7am to 2pm on weekends, run by 8 staff across barista, kitchen and floor roles. It uses five shift templates on weekdays and six on weekends, totals 221.5 paid hours a week, keeps the one full-timer under 38 hours and gives no one more than five days.
Seeing a full week laid out is often more useful than any rule of thumb. Copy the structure, change the times to suit your café, and use the totals to check your own labour cost.
The café
•
Trading hours: weekdays 6:30am to 3pm; weekends 7am to 2pm.
•
Busy periods: the 7 to 10am coffee rush every day, and a weekend brunch peak from 9am to 1pm.
•
Roles: barista, kitchen, floor and register.
•
Keyholders: Ana, Ben and Gus can open; Dev and Eli can open the kitchen.
Assumption for this example: shifts of six hours or more include a 30-minute unpaid meal break. Check the break rules in your award or agreement.
The staff and their skills
Person
Skills
Type
Ana
Skills: Barista, floor, keyholder
Type: Full-time
Ben
Skills: Barista, keyholder
Type: Part-time
Gus
Skills: Barista, keyholder
Type: Casual
Dev
Skills: Kitchen, kitchen open
Type: Part-time
Eli
Skills: Kitchen, kitchen open
Type: Casual
Cara
Skills: Floor, register
Type: Part-time
Fia
Skills: Floor, kitchen hand
Type: Casual
Hana
Skills: Floor, register
Type: Casual (student)
Shift templates
Weekdays (Monday to Friday)
Shift
Time
Unpaid break
Paid hours
Opening barista
Time: 6:00am–2:30pm
Unpaid break: 30 min
Paid hours: 8.0
Kitchen
Time: 6:30am–3:00pm
Unpaid break: 30 min
Paid hours: 8.0
Floor open
Time: 6:30am–12:30pm
Unpaid break: 30 min
Paid hours: 5.5
Peak barista
Time: 7:30am–11:30am
Unpaid break: none
Paid hours: 4.0
Floor close
Time: 10:30am–3:30pm
Unpaid break: none
Paid hours: 5.0
That's 30.5 paid hours a day.
Weekends (Saturday and Sunday)
Shift
Time
Unpaid break
Paid hours
Opening barista
Time: 6:30am–2:30pm
Unpaid break: 30 min
Paid hours: 7.5
Second barista
Time: 8:00am–1:00pm
Unpaid break: none
Paid hours: 5.0
Kitchen
Time: 6:30am–2:30pm
Unpaid break: 30 min
Paid hours: 7.5
Kitchen hand
Time: 9:00am–1:00pm
Unpaid break: none
Paid hours: 4.0
Floor open
Time: 6:45am–12:45pm
Unpaid break: 30 min
Paid hours: 5.5
Floor close
Time: 9:30am–2:30pm
Unpaid break: none
Paid hours: 5.0
That's 34.5 paid hours a day. The second barista and kitchen hand cover the brunch peak only.
The week
Shift
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Opening barista
Mon: Ana
Tue: Ana
Wed: Ana
Thu: Ana
Fri: Ben
Sat: Gus
Sun: Gus
Second or peak barista
Mon: Ben
Tue: Ben
Wed: Gus
Thu: Ben
Fri: Gus
Sat: Ana
Sun: Ben
Kitchen
Mon: Dev
Tue: Dev
Wed: Dev
Thu: Dev
Fri: Eli
Sat: Eli
Sun: Eli
Kitchen hand
Mon: –
Tue: –
Wed: –
Thu: –
Fri: –
Sat: Dev
Sun: Fia
Floor open
Mon: Cara
Tue: Cara
Wed: Cara
Thu: Fia
Fri: Hana
Sat: Cara
Sun: Hana
Floor close
Mon: Fia
Tue: Hana
Wed: Fia
Thu: Hana
Fri: Fia
Sat: Hana
Sun: Cara
Hours per person
Person
Days
Paid hours
Ana
Days: 5
Paid hours: 37.0
Dev
Days: 5
Paid hours: 36.0
Cara
Days: 5
Paid hours: 27.0
Hana
Days: 5
Paid hours: 26.0
Ben
Days: 5
Paid hours: 25.0
Fia
Days: 5
Paid hours: 24.5
Gus
Days: 4
Paid hours: 23.0
Eli
Days: 3
Paid hours: 23.0
Total
Days:
Paid hours: 221.5
The rules behind it
1.
Every opening shift has a keyholder. Ana opens Monday to Thursday, Ben on Friday, Gus at weekends.
2.
Skills cover every shift. Each day has a barista through the main trading hours and a kitchen opener.
3.
The rush gets an extra barista. The 4-hour peak barista shift adds coffee capacity from 7:30 to 11:30 without paying for a full day.
4.
Weekends are spread. Ana, Dev, Ben and Fia each work one weekend day, so the weekend load is shared across the team.
5.
Nobody works more than five days. Casuals get 3 to 5 shifts; part-timers keep regular patterns.
6.
The full-timer stays under 38 hours. Ana's 37 hours leaves room for a stay-back without tipping into overtime.
What it costs
At an illustrative average rate of A$31 an hour, 221.5 paid hours is A$6,866.50 in wages. Add super at 12% (A$823.98) and labour costs about A$7,690 a week. Against A$27,000 of weekly sales, that's a labour cost of about 28.5%. Weekend penalty rates under your award will change the real figure, so use actual rates. Our post on how to reduce labour costs in a café shows where this roster could be trimmed if sales drop.
Build this week in Rosterly
Add your skills and people, set up the shift templates and copy the week forward. 14-day free trial, no card needed.
No roster is perfect. Testing this one against a bad week shows where it would struggle:
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If Ana is sick on a weekday, Ben or Gus has to open. Ben works the peak shift Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, so he can start earlier, but that leaves the peak barista slot to fill. A second weekday opener would make this easier.
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If Eli is away at the weekend, Dev is the only other kitchen opener, and he's on the Saturday kitchen hand shift. Training Fia to open the kitchen would add depth.
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On a public holiday, penalty rates make every hour dearer. Many cafés trim the second barista and kitchen hand shifts and run with the core crew.
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In school holidays, Hana may want more hours and the café may get busier mid-morning. The floor close shift could start earlier to cover it.
Checking a roster against two or three "what if" days before publishing is the fastest way to find the gaps.
Adapting it to your café
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Change the templates first. Match the shift times to your trading hours and rush.
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Then fill names. Start with keyholders and skills, then share the rest fairly.
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Check the totals. Hours per person against their agreed or preferred hours, and total hours against sales.
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Copy it forward. Next week, start from this one and adjust for leave.