Free tool
Shift Roster Template That Checks Itself
Build the week, and the roster adds each person up as you go. It flags the 48 hour weekly ceiling, the rest day nobody was given, and the quarterly overtime cap you are on course to breach. No sign up, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
Click any box to move that person through the shifts and then to a weekly off. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere; the roster is built entirely in your browser.
Shift roster
Week beginning 27 July 2026.
| Employee | Mon27 | Tue28 | Wed29 | Thu30 | Fri31 | Sat1 | Sun2 | Hours | Check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | |||||||||
| 2. | |||||||||
| 3. | |||||||||
| 4. | |||||||||
| 5. | |||||||||
| 6. | |||||||||
| 7. | |||||||||
| 8. |
A worked example: the roster where nothing looks wrong
Sunrise Fitness Studio opens early and closes late, so it runs two shifts: a morning from 06:00 to 15:00 and an evening from 14:00 to 23:00. Both are 9 hours, which is exactly a normal working day. Rahul is rostered on six of them and gets Sunday off.
Look at that roster one decision at a time and every decision is legal. A 9 hour day is the normal working day. Six days on and one off satisfies the weekly rest requirement. Nobody is being asked to do anything unusual. Now total the week.
| Shift length (06:00 to 15:00) | 9 hours |
|---|---|
| Days rostered (Monday to Saturday) | 6 |
| Weekly off (Sunday) | 1 day |
| Hours in the week | 54 hours |
| Weekly ceiling under Section 25 | 48 hours |
| Over the ceiling by | 6 hours |
Six hours of overtime, produced by a roster in which no single choice was wrong. Rahul is on Rs 20,000 a month. His daily wage is Rs 769.23, being 20,000 divided by 26, and because his normal working day is 9 hours rather than 8, his ordinary hourly rate is Rs 85.47. Overtime is paid at twice that, so Rs 170.94 an hour, and the six hours come to Rs 1,025.64 for the week, or roughly Rs 4,440 a month.
The part that actually bites arrives later. Six hours a week is 78 hours across a thirteen week quarter, against the 50 hour quarterly cap in Section 27. The cap is breached in the ninth week. Nobody notices in week one, because in week one the roster looks completely reasonable, which is exactly the problem this page exists to solve.
How to build the roster
Set your shifts and their real times
Three shifts are set up to start with, and the times are yours to change. The length of each one is worked out as you type, and a shift longer than the 9 hour normal working day is marked as such, because every hour past it is overtime before the week has even been totalled.Pick the week and add the names
The roster opens on the current week, running Monday to Sunday. Type one name per line, or leave the list empty for eight numbered blank rows to print and fill in by hand.Click through the shifts
Each click moves a person through the shifts and then to a weekly off. The hours for that person update on the same click, so the week is totalled while you build it rather than after you have published it.Read the check column before you publish
Each row is checked against the 48 hour weekly ceiling in Section 25 and against the requirement for one day of rest in Section 26. A row over the ceiling shows how many hours over it is; a row with no rest day is flagged even when its hours are well inside the limit.Look at what the overrun costs across a quarter
Where anyone is over, the roster projects the same week across a quarter and shows which week breaches the 50 hour quarterly overtime cap in Section 27. A weekly overrun that reads as affordable is usually the one that breaches the cap.Print it and publish it a week ahead
The roster prints on A4 landscape in black on white whichever theme you are reading in, with the shift legend and a line for who prepared it and when. Publishing ahead of the week is what stops the roster becoming an argument later.
The three limits a roster has to respect
All three come from the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020, in force since 21 November 2025.
Section 25, hours of work. A normal working day of 9 hours and a weekly ceiling of 48 hours. The daily figure can go to 12 hours with the employee consenting, and a compressed week is possible where a state permits it, but the 48 hour week holds regardless of how the days are arranged. A rest interval is required after five continuous hours of work.
Section 26, weekly and compensatory holidays. One day of rest in every week. Where the rest day is not given, a compensatory holiday is owed in its place. This is why a roster with no marked rest day is flagged here even when its hours are well inside the ceiling.
Section 27, overtime. Hours beyond the normal day or the weekly ceiling are paid at twice the ordinary rate of wages, overtime must be voluntary, and it is capped at 50 hours in a quarter. State authorities can grant project based exemptions and some states set their own figure under rules made below the Code, so check your state before building a roster that depends on sustained overtime.
A roster is a plan, and the plan is not the record. What was actually worked belongs in the attendance register, which is the document you would have to produce if the hours are ever disputed.
This page is a working tool and a plain reading of the provisions above. It is not legal advice, and state rules vary.
Shift roster questions, answered
What is the maximum number of working hours per week in India?
Forty eight. Section 25 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 fixes 48 hours as the weekly ceiling and it is the one figure in the section with no flexibility. The daily limit can stretch to 12 hours with the employee consenting, and some states permit a compressed four day week, but however the days are arranged the week still stops at 48. Everything past it is overtime.
Can I roster someone for a 12 hour shift?
Yes, with their consent, and it does not buy you extra weekly hours. Section 25 allows a working day of up to 12 hours including the rest interval, but the 48 hour week still applies, so a roster of four 12 hour days is at the ceiling with nothing left. Hours past the normal working day are also overtime, payable at twice the ordinary rate under Section 27.
How many days off does a roster have to give?
At least one in every week. Section 26 requires a day of rest each week, and where that rest day is not given the employee is owed a compensatory holiday instead. Mark the rest day on the roster rather than leaving the cell blank, so that the person working from it can see which day is theirs.
What happens if the roster crosses 48 hours in a week?
The hours past 48 are overtime and must be paid at twice the ordinary rate of wages. They also count towards the 50 hour quarterly overtime cap in Section 27. This is where rosters quietly go wrong: six hours over in one week looks affordable, and the same roster repeated reaches 78 hours in a quarter, breaching the cap during the ninth week.
Does the meal break count towards the 48 hours?
No. The rest interval is not working time, and Section 25 requires one after five continuous hours of work. What the interval does affect is the spread over, which is the total elapsed time from the start of a shift to its end including breaks. The rules that apply to your establishment set that limit, commonly at around 12 hours, so a long break in the middle of a split shift can breach the spread over even when the hours worked are modest.
Can women be rostered on night shifts?
Yes. The OSH Code permits women to be employed in all establishments and at all hours, with their consent and subject to the safety, holiday and working hour conditions the appropriate government prescribes. Transport and security arrangements are usually part of those conditions, so check the rules for your state before publishing a night roster.
How much notice do I have to give before changing a shift?
There is no single central rule, which is why this is worth settling yourself. Certified standing orders and some state rules do set notice requirements, so check both if either applies to you. As a practical matter, publish the roster a week ahead and put changes in writing. A roster that moves at short notice generates disputes about hours worked, and the register is what you would have to produce to settle them.
Can I average hours across several weeks instead?
Not as a general rule. The 48 hours is a weekly ceiling, not an average, so a quiet week does not create headroom for a busy one. Where a state permits a compressed working week, the compression is in how the 48 hours are spread across days, not in how many hours the week contains.
The roster is the plan. Somebody still has to record the week.
A roster that checks itself stops you publishing an illegal week, which is worth doing. It cannot tell you who actually turned up, and that is the half a wage dispute turns on. Shiftelio records the clock in and clock out as they happen, compares them against the roster you published, and shows you the gap while the week is still running rather than at the end of the month.
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