Google Sheets pub rota: does it actually work?

Last updated: 11 April 2026

Most pub landlords think Google Sheets is free, therefore it solves staff scheduling. It doesn’t. You’ll spend three hours every Monday afternoon fixing duplicate shifts, chasing staff for availability, and manually calculating who’s worked overtime—work that should take 20 minutes. The real cost of a spreadsheet rota isn’t the zero pounds you pay Google; it’s the time you lose and the scheduling conflicts you don’t catch until someone calls in sick on Saturday night. If you’re managing a small team, a Google Sheets pub rota might feel adequate, but the moment you have more than five staff across multiple shifts, it creates more problems than it solves. This guide walks you through what Google Sheets can actually do, where it falls short, and what actually works for managing UK pub staff rotas in 2026.

Can You Build a Pub Rota in Google Sheets?

Yes, you can build a basic pub rota in Google Sheets, but whether you should depends on your team size and how comfortable you are with manual management. Google Sheets offers templates and the flexibility to create columns for dates, shifts, staff names, and shift types (bar, kitchen, cleaning). If your pub has four or five staff who work regular patterns, a spreadsheet might be adequate for a few months. The problem emerges when your pub gets busier, staff request time off, and you need to see who’s available across multiple venues or track which staff member is due annual leave in three weeks.

I’ve watched this play out at venues across the north east. A landlord creates a clean spreadsheet in January, staff update it through February, and by April it’s a mess of comments, conflicting entries, and outdated information. The spreadsheet becomes a record of chaos rather than a management tool.

How Does a Google Sheets Rota Actually Work?

A basic Google Sheets rota typically follows this structure:

• Rows for staff names and columns for dates (often one week per set of columns)
• Cells containing shift type (morning shift, evening shift, day off, holiday)
• Optional columns for notes (training, late start, swap request)
• Manual updates when staff request time off or swaps
• Sharing via a link so team members can view and edit

The collaboration part sounds good in theory. In practice, when three staff members are editing the same spreadsheet at the same time, conflicts happen. One person marks themselves as available on Tuesday, another marks the same shift as a request, and you don’t notice until Thursday. Google Sheets doesn’t have conflict detection for your specific use case—it just shows you who edited what and when.

Using the pub staffing cost calculator shows you quickly that even a small team of 7–8 staff costs £15,000–£20,000 annually in wages. A scheduling system that saves two hours of admin time per week is working back the cost of proper software within months.

The Real Problems with Spreadsheet Rotas

No absence management

When a staff member calls in sick on Saturday morning, you manually delete them from the rota and scramble to find cover. There’s no audit trail showing who was supposed to work. With 17 staff across FOH and kitchen at Teal Farm Pub in Washington, Tyne & Wear, absence management is not optional—you need to see instantly which shift is now understaffed and who is nearby or flexible enough to cover.

Overtime tracking falls apart

Google Sheets doesn’t calculate how many hours each staff member has worked. You manually count it yourself, often getting it wrong. Overtime disputes happen because there’s no clear record of who worked what, and holiday pay calculations become guesswork.

No real-time notifications

If you update the rota on Wednesday, your team doesn’t know unless they check manually. You end up texting staff to say “check the rota.” That’s not a system, that’s you doing everyone’s job for them.

Shift swaps become negotiation nightmares

Staff want to swap a Tuesday shift for Friday. They email you, you manually update the sheet, you forget to tell the other person who’s now working Tuesday instead. You’ve created a gap without knowing it.

No integration with payroll

You export the rota data into Excel, manually input hours into your payroll system (or worse, into your accountant’s spreadsheet), and duplicate information across three different tools. Every duplicate is a chance for error.

The cost of this chaos is real. When I was selecting systems for Teal Farm Pub, the key test was whether we could handle a peak Saturday night where scheduling conflicts would actually hurt service. Most spreadsheet users don’t realise they’re already losing money through overstaffing on quiet nights or understaffing during events.

What Google Sheets Gets Right

Google Sheets isn’t useless—it has genuine strengths for pub management:

• Zero cost. No monthly fees, no setup, no contracts.
• Easy access. Staff can view the rota from any device with an internet connection.
• Simple for very small teams. If you have three regular staff and your pub closes two days a week, a spreadsheet probably works fine.
• Familiarity. Most staff understand spreadsheets and don’t need training to view them.
• Flexibility. You can customise columns and layout exactly how you want without being locked into someone else’s design.

The issue isn’t Google Sheets—it’s the assumption that a scheduling tool is just a place to write names and dates. Real scheduling requires absence management, conflict detection, overtime rules, and integrations. Google Sheets is a blank canvas, not a solution.

When to Move Beyond Spreadsheets

You should consider moving away from Google Sheets if:

• You have more than six staff members
• Staff work irregular shifts or cover multiple roles
• You need to track overtime, annual leave, or sick days
• You manage staff across more than one location
• Your rota changes weekly due to events, seasonal demand, or cover requests
• You use a payroll system and want to import hours automatically
• You’re spending more than two hours per week managing the rota

Most UK pubs hit at least three of these criteria. Once you do, the time cost of a spreadsheet exceeds the cost of proper software. Check your pub profit margin calculator to see how much profit margin you’re absorbing through unpaid admin time.

Better Alternatives for UK Pubs

Proper staff scheduling software designed for hospitality includes:

• Real-time absence alerts. When someone calls in sick, the system notifies available staff and shows you which shift is now understaffed.
• Automated scheduling rules. Set minimum staffing levels by shift type, prevent double-booking, and flag conflicts automatically.
• Employee self-service. Staff request time off, pick up shifts, and swap with colleagues without emailing you.
• Payroll integration. Hours sync directly to your payroll system, reducing errors and duplicate entry.
• Overtime and compliance tracking. The system flags when someone is approaching 48-hour working week limits (Working Time Regulations).
• Multi-location support. If you run multiple pubs, see all staff and shifts in one view.

Many UK pubs use specialist hospitality scheduling software like Deputy, Tes, or integrated solutions within their pub IT solutions guide. The cost is typically £30–£80 per month depending on team size and features, which pays for itself within weeks if it saves you two to three hours of rota admin every week.

If you’re currently using a spreadsheet and want to avoid paying for new software, start by tracking how much time the rota actually takes you. Include time spent chasing staff for availability, fixing conflicts, and manually calculating overtime. That number is your real cost.

For more information, visit pub profit margin calculator.

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