Staff rotas for pubs and bars
The rota your team can actually find.
Luna Rota replaces the paper rota and the photo in the WhatsApp group. You build the week as a draft, publish it when it's right, and your team see it on their phones. Managers see the hours and costs. Staff never see the pay.
Grown out of the Half Moon Inn's own rota. Built by people who have run a pub rota.
Read how it startedThe problem
Paper rotas get lost. Shifts shouldn't.
The paper rota is on the wall.
Nobody can check it from home, and the one in the kitchen isn't the one in the office.
The WhatsApp photo is out of date.
Someone snaps the rota, someone else has last week's, and half the team ask what they're on.
Last-minute changes get missed.
A shift moves on Thursday and the one person who needed to know didn't see the message.
How it works
Three steps, one week at a time.
Build the draft
Lay out the week for your team. Nobody but managers can see a draft, so you can change your mind as often as you like.
Publish
When it's right, publish it. Your team get an email, and the week appears on their phones.
Change it, tell the right people
Edit a published week and re-publish. Only the people affected by the change are emailed.
Before and after
Paper rota or Luna Rota
| Topic | Paper and WhatsApp | Luna Rota |
|---|---|---|
| Where it lives | A wall, a notebook, a photo in a chat | One rota your whole team can open on their phones |
| Unfinished weeks | Everyone sees the half-done version | Drafts stay with managers until you publish |
| Pay | Kept on a separate sheet, if at all | Managers see hours and costs. Staff never receive pay figures |
| Changing a past week | Scribbled over, no one knows | Luna Rota asks you to confirm first |
| A mistake | Hope someone kept a copy | Snapshots of your venue's data, and only the owner can restore one |
| Who published what | Guesswork | An audit trail of publishes and restores |
Features
Built for a busy bar, not a head office.
Draft, then publish
Build the week in private. Staff only ever see weeks you have published.
On your team's phones
Staff open the rota in their phone's browser and see the whole team's names and times for published weeks. No app store download.
Hours and costs for managers
Owners and admins see the hours and costs for the week. Pay figures are never sent to staff.
Past weeks ask first
Editing a week that has already happened asks you to confirm, so nobody rewrites history by accident.
Snapshots and restore
Take a snapshot of your venue's rota data and download it. Only the owner can restore one. Publishes and restores are recorded in an audit trail.
Email when it matters
Staff are emailed when a week is published, and when a change to a published week affects them.
Where it started
The Half Moon Inn, Ryton
Luna Rota began as the Half Moon's own staff rota: a small app to build the week, show the team their shifts and keep pay out of sight. It worked for one pub, so we rebuilt it for many.
The multi-venue version follows how the Half Moon's rota behaves today, and it is being piloted with a small number of venues.
- Draft, then publish
- Staff see times, never pay
- Past weeks ask first
Questions
What venue owners ask us
Do my team need to download an app?
No. Luna Rota opens in the phone's browser, on iPhone and Android. There is no app store app.
Can staff see what everyone else is paid?
No. Staff never receive pay figures: rates, costs and totals are removed before anything is sent to them. They see the whole team's names and times for published weeks, and nothing from a draft.
What if someone on the team has no email address?
Staff are invited by email today. Logins for staff without an email address are planned for the pilot; get in touch if your team needs them.
Is our data kept apart from other venues'?
Yes. Each venue's data is kept in its own database schema, separate from every other venue's.
How much does it cost?
Luna Rota is in a pilot, with pilot pricing, and there is no price list yet. Get in touch and we will give you a straight answer.
Is it only for the UK?
For now, yes. The pilot runs on UK time, in pounds, with weeks starting on Monday.
Give your team a rota they can find.
Tell us about your pub or bar and we'll take it from there.