Must have
9 featuresThe first version is not worth building without these. They are the rota itself, and the rules that keep it right.
The rota builder
Builds the first draft from your shift patterns and the children you expect, then your manager edits around it.
The ratio and rules engine
Your ratios, plus your own rules: someone in charge, half qualified, a Level 3 per room, a first aider on site. Checked on every rota.
The hard block, with override
A rota that breaks a rule cannot be published. Sally can approve a logged exception when real life needs it.
Downward age mixing
Works out where an older child can sit in a younger room at the tighter ratio to save a wage.
Qualification and certificate tracking
Holds every certificate with its dates and stops counting someone the moment one lapses.
Famly integration
Pulls the children you expect per room per day, and your staff and qualification data, straight from Famly.
Cross-site staffing
Share staff between the seven sites, with their hours following to the right cost pot.
Cost against target and payroll export
Costs the rota as you build it, shows it against your 55 per cent target, and exports the hours to BrightPay.
The app and permissions
A web app, nothing to install, on laptop and phone. Each manager edits their own site's rota, you and Sally see every site, and each site's cost stays private so they keep competing on it.
Nice to have
4 featuresReal value, but the product works without them on day one. They follow once the builder is earning its place.
The staff app
A profile each, holiday requests, and like for like shift swaps that are qualification aware, with a manager's approval.
Holiday management
Staff request holiday from their profile. It flags anyone who has not taken their quarterly allowance, and warns when the maximum are already off. Booked leave feeds the builder from day one so it never rosters someone who is off.
Safeguarding and agency visibility
A designated tick shows your safeguarding and SENCO cover for the day, even when they are not in the building, and the rota shows how many agency staff are in.
The full reporting suite
Deeper reports on hours, absence, cost and how full each room is against capacity, so you can see room for more children.
This split is our read of it, not a fixed line. If something in nice to have feels essential to you, or something in must have can wait, we move it. The point is to agree what the first version has to do before we build it.