Requirements

Employee Roster is entirely self-hosted and stores all data in your own WordPress database with no external API dependencies or SaaS connections. Before installing, verify your environment meets the following minimum versions.

Installation

Installation follows the standard WordPress plugin process. On first activation, the plugin automatically creates all database tables, registers the three custom roles, seeds default settings, and creates the five frontend portal pages with no manual setup required.

1. Upload the emp-roster folder to /wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate the plugin via Plugins > Installed Plugins.
3. On activation the plugin automatically:
   • Creates 7 custom database tables
   • Registers the emr_manager, emr_supervisor, and emr_employee WordPress roles
   • Seeds all default settings
   • Creates 5 WordPress pages pre-loaded with the frontend portal shortcodes
4. Navigate to EmpRoster > Settings to configure departments, locations, and other options.
5. Assign the Roster Manager role to your scheduling staff and Roster Employee to your workers.

Quick Start

Follow these five steps to go from a fresh install to a working roster. Each step takes only a few minutes once the plugin is activated.

1. Create departments: Go to EmpRoster > Settings > General and enter department names, one per line. The Free plan supports 1 department; Starter supports up to 5; Professional and Business are unlimited.

2. Create locations: In the same General settings panel, add location names and pick a colour for each. Limits follow the same per-plan tiers as departments.

3. Add staff: Go to EmpRoster > Staff > Add New Staff. Assign each person a role (Manager, Supervisor, or Employee), a job type (Full-time, Part-time, or Casual), and an hourly pay rate. A WordPress user account is created automatically.

4. Create a shift: Open EmpRoster > Dashboard and click + Add Shift. Fill in the title, date/time, location, department, and assignment type. Assign employees directly or leave it open for self-assignment.

5. Employees log in: Staff can use the WordPress admin or the frontend portal pages to view their roster, submit leave requests, clock in/out, and set their weekly availability.

Updating the Plugin

Plugin updates are delivered through the standard WordPress update mechanism. All data — staff accounts, shifts, attendance records, leave history, settings, and licence information — is fully preserved across updates.

Applying an update

When a new version of Employee Roster is available, a notification appears in WordPress Admin > Dashboard > Updates and on the Plugins screen. Click Update Now to apply it. No manual preparation is needed before updating.

Auto-deactivation during the update process

WordPress briefly deactivates the plugin during the file-replacement step of an update. This is standard WordPress behaviour and is handled transparently — no manual deactivation or reactivation is required before or after the update. The plugin reactivates automatically once the new files are in place.

When the updated plugin loads for the first time after a version change, it runs an internal upgrade routine that applies any required database schema migrations. This routine is safe to run on a live site: it is idempotent, runs only when a version increment is detected, and does not modify or delete existing data.

Seamless plan upgrades

Upgrading your licence plan (for example, from Starter to Professional) does not require a plugin update or any WordPress configuration change. Once the upgraded licence is verified, plan-gated features become available immediately on the next page load with no manual re-enabling needed.

If settings or data that were previously constrained by a lower plan already exist — for example, departments added during a higher-tier trial — they are restored automatically the moment the upgrade is applied. Downgrading to a lower plan does not delete data above the new limits; it only blocks the creation of new entries beyond the cap. See Staff Account Limits by Plan for the full breakdown.

Custom Roles Overview

Employee Roster registers three custom WordPress roles on activation. These roles determine what each user can see and do within the plugin, and they also control the WordPress admin experience; roster users see only the Employee Roster menu, not the full WordPress dashboard.

WP Administrators retain full access to all Employee Roster features in addition to their normal WordPress capabilities. Administrators are not included as roster staff by default. See Admin Inclusion Settings to change this.

Custom Capabilities

Each role is granted a specific set of WordPress capabilities that gate access to individual plugin features. These capabilities are checked throughout the plugin backend and frontend to determine what each user can see and do.

Capabilities are independent of plan gating. A Starter-plan Manager has emr_manage_settings capability granted, but plan-gated settings within the Settings page (such as Tax or Daily Budget) still display an upgrade prompt on lower plans.

Admin Inclusion Settings

EmpRoster provides two settings that control whether WordPress administrator accounts appear in the staff list: a per-administrator personal toggle and a global override that includes all administrators at once. For full details on how these settings interact and what happens when the global setting is disabled, see Admin Visibility (Per-Administrator Control).

Admin Visibility

Available to WordPress Administrators only. Roster Managers do not see this setting.

The Admin Visibility settings control whether WordPress administrator accounts appear in the EmpRoster staff list as Managers. Because administrators are not roster staff by default, these two settings let each administrator independently decide their own participation, with an optional global override to include all administrators at once.

Navigate to EmpRoster > Settings > Roles & Permissions to find the Admin Visibility section. These settings are visible only to WordPress Administrators — Roster Managers do not see this section.

The Two Settings

How Per-Administrator Inclusion Works

Each WordPress administrator controls their own roster participation independently via the Include Current Administrator in the staff list toggle.

When an administrator enables this setting and saves:

• Only that specific administrator account is added to the staff list
• They appear throughout EmpRoster with the Manager role — in the roster view, staff list, analytics, timesheets, dashboards, and all manager-based queries
• A confirmation message appears on the Settings page confirming the current administrator is now included as a Manager
• The setting state is stored per administrator account — it persists across sessions and is not affected by other administrators changing their own setting

When an administrator disables this setting and saves:

• Only that administrator is removed from the staff list
• All other administrators' inclusion settings remain unchanged
• Historical records (attendance, leave, shifts) for that administrator are preserved

Because this setting is per-account, two administrators on the same site can have different states — one included in the roster, one not — without any conflict.

How Global Inclusion Works

The Include All Administrators in the roster setting acts as a global override that affects every WordPress administrator account on the site simultaneously.

When the global setting is enabled:

1. All WordPress administrator accounts are immediately added to the EmpRoster staff list as Managers
2. In the background, each administrator's personal Include Current Administrator in the staff list setting is permanently synced to enabled — so every admin now has their individual setting turned on
3. On the Settings page, both toggles appear checked for every administrator who views the page, because all admins are globally included

When the global setting is later disabled:

Disabling the global setting does not remove administrators from the roster. Because each administrator's personal inclusion setting was already enabled during the global inclusion process, all administrators remain individually included as Managers.

After the global setting is turned off:

• Each administrator retains their personal Include Current Administrator in the staff list setting in the enabled state
• Administrators continue to appear in the roster as Managers
• Each administrator may independently disable their own personal setting if they wish to be removed from the roster
• No administrator is removed automatically — removal requires each admin to manually disable their own personal toggle

State Combinations Reference

Where Admin Inclusion Takes Effect

When an administrator is included in the roster, they appear as a Manager throughout EmpRoster:

• Staff list — shown in EmpRoster > Staff with the Manager role badge
• Roster views — appear as a staff row in weekly, day, and monthly views when shifts are assigned
• Shift assignment — available for selection when assigning shifts
• Analytics — included in timesheet summaries, payroll calculations, and labour cost totals
• Dashboard — counted in KPI cards and manager-scope queries
• Permissions — treated as a Roster Manager for all in-plugin permission checks

Important Considerations

• These settings only affect WordPress administrator accounts. Regular Roster Manager accounts (emr_manager role) are always included in the staff list and are unaffected by these settings.
• Enabling Admin Visibility does not change the administrator's WordPress role — they remain a WordPress Administrator. EmpRoster simply includes them in roster queries and treats them as a Manager within the plugin.
• If a WordPress administrator account is deleted, their EmpRoster records (shifts, leave, attendance) follow standard WordPress user deletion behaviour.
• The Admin Visibility section is not visible to Roster Managers — only WordPress Administrators can see and change these settings.

Hidden WordPress UI

When a Roster Manager, Supervisor, or Employee logs into the WordPress admin, the plugin hides all standard WordPress UI elements that are irrelevant to rostering. The user sees only the Employee Roster menu in the left admin sidebar.

What is hidden

• All WordPress admin menu items except Employee Roster
• The WordPress dashboard home page and all its widgets
• Plugin-originating admin notices (notices from other installed plugins)

Why this matters

Showing the full WordPress admin to roster users would expose information about other installed plugins, site settings, and WordPress internals that roster staff have no reason to see. Hiding this UI reduces confusion and prevents accidental disclosure of your site configuration.

Creating Shifts

Navigate to EmpRoster > Dashboard and click + Add Shift, or use the Shifts view. A shift modal opens where you fill in the details and assign employees before saving.

Assignment Types (Direct vs Open)

Each shift uses one of two assignment modes. The mode is selected in the shift modal at creation time and can be changed when editing a shift.

Direct Assignment

The manager selects specific employees from the staff list when creating or editing the shift. Assigned employees receive a shift assignment email immediately (if notifications are enabled). When multiple employees are assigned to a direct shift, each employee gets their own independent shift record; editing or deleting one employee's shift does not affect any other employee's record.

Open Shifts

The shift is published with a configurable slot limit. Eligible employees see it in their roster and can claim a slot themselves. Once claimed, managers can review and adjust the assignment from the shift modal. Open shifts require the Starter plan or above. On the Free plan, the Open Shifts row is always shown to managers so that unassigned direct shifts are never hidden, but self-assignment is not available to employees.

Admin/Manager: Creating an open shift with approval:

Employee: Claiming an open shift:

Employee: Requests for open shift:

Admin/Manager: Accepting a request for an open shift:

Roster Views (Weekly, Monthly, List)

Employee Roster provides three views for browsing and managing shifts, selectable from the roster toolbar at the top of the screen.

Weekly Roster View

Displays a grid of staff rows versus day columns for the selected week. Each cell shows the shift blocks assigned to that employee on that day, including the shift time, location, and colour. Available on all plans.

Staff visibility: Only staff members who have at least one shift assigned in the selected week are displayed; employees with no shifts in that window are automatically hidden to keep the view focused. Employees always see their own row regardless of this rule.

Unassigned shifts: Direct shifts with no assigned employees appear in the Open Shifts row for managers with an "Unassigned" badge. The Open Shifts row is always shown to managers so that no shift is ever silently hidden.

Monthly Calendar View

Monthly calendar view is available on all plans including Free. Each day cell shows shift summaries with colour-coded badges. Today's cell is highlighted.

List View

A tabular list of all upcoming shifts with their title, date/time, location, department, and assignment count. Useful for a quick overview without the visual calendar layout. Available on all plans.

Today Indicator

In both the weekly roster and monthly calendar views, the current day receives a distinct highlighted background. The day column header displays "Today" instead of the date string, and individual shift rows for today also display "Today" in their date column.

Editing & Deleting Shifts

Click any shift block in the weekly or monthly view, or any row in the list view, to open the shift modal. Managers can edit all shift fields, reassign employees, or delete the shift from within the same modal.

Editing a Shift

All fields set at creation (title, date/time, location, department, assignment type, break minutes, colour, slot limit, and notes) are fully editable after saving. Reassigning employees (adding or removing assignees) can also be done from the edit modal at any time.

Deleting a Shift

The delete button is available inside the shift modal. Deleting a shift permanently removes the shift record and all its assignment records. This action cannot be undone.

Active Shifts

An active shift is any shift whose date is today or in the future. Past shifts (start date before today) are not counted as active. The active-shift count determines how close you are to your plan's shift limit.

Why active shifts are counted

EmpRoster counts active shifts rather than total shifts so that historical records are never deleted just to make room. Once a shift's date passes it no longer occupies a slot in the limit, meaning the roster can grow indefinitely into the past without affecting how many upcoming shifts you can schedule.

Plan limits

Checking your active shift count

Navigate to EmpRoster > Dashboard. The summary bar at the top of the page shows the current active shift count.

Clocking In and Out

Clocking in and out requires the Starter plan or above. On the Free plan, the Attendance submenu and the frontend clock page (/emp-roster-attendance) are hidden entirely — no upgrade prompt is shown to employees. On Starter and above, employees navigate to EmpRoster > Attendance in the WP admin, or visit the frontend clock page, to start and end a clock session. Only one active clock-in session is permitted per user at a time; starting a new session while one is already open is blocked.

What the system records

Each attendance entry stores the following fields:

• Clock-in timestamp: recorded when the employee clicks Clock In
• Clock-out timestamp: recorded when the employee clicks Clock Out; null while the session is still open
• Break minutes: entered at clock-out; deducted from total hours worked in timesheets
• Optional notes: free-text field the employee can fill in at clock-out
• Associated shift: linked to a shift if the employee selects one at clock-in (optional)

Self-Clock Setting

The Allow self clock-in/out setting in EmpRoster > Settings > Roster & Attendance controls whether employees can record their own attendance. It is enabled by default.

When enabled

• The Attendance submenu is visible to employees and supervisors in the WP admin.
• The frontend clock widget on /emp-roster-attendance is active.
• Employees can clock in and out independently, entering break minutes and optional notes themselves.

When disabled

• The Attendance submenu is hidden from employee and supervisor accounts.
• The frontend clock widget is inactive for non-managers.
• Managers must manually create attendance records through Timesheets on behalf of employees.

Attendance Management (Managers)

Attendance management requires the Starter plan or above. On the Free plan, the Attendance feature is unavailable entirely. Managers access all attendance records from EmpRoster > Timesheets. This view covers every staff member's clock history with filter and inline-edit capabilities.

What managers can do

• View the full clock-in/out history for any employee
• Manually edit a clock-in time, clock-out time, or break minutes on any record
• Delete incorrect or duplicate records
• Filter the view by date range and by individual employee

Requests

The Requests page consolidates all staff request types into a single location. Access it from EmpRoster > Requests in the WordPress admin sidebar, or from the Requests link in the in-plugin navigation.

The page contains three independently paginated sections:

Each section shows 10 entries per page with its own Prev/Next pagination controls — navigating one section does not affect the others.

Pending count badge

The Requests nav item displays a live badge showing the total number of pending items across all three sections relevant to the current user's role. The badge updates whenever the dashboard or Requests page is loaded.

Plan availability

The Requests page requires the Starter plan or above. On the Free plan, the Requests menu item is hidden entirely for all roles including managers. Leave submission, open shift claiming, and shift swaps all require Starter plan or above.

Frontend access

Employees on Starter+ can submit leave requests from the frontend portal at /emp-roster-leave. The shortcode [emp_roster_leave] renders the leave submission form for authenticated employees.

Leave Requests

Submitting a Leave Request

Employees and supervisors navigate to EmpRoster > Requests and use the Leave Requests section, or use the frontend portal at /emp-roster-leave. Fields:

On submission:

• The request appears in the Leave Requests section of the Requests page with a Pending status
• An automatic email notification is sent to all active Roster Managers (and WP Administrators when Admin Include Self is enabled)
• The submitting employee receives a confirmation

Approval Workflow

Managers see all pending leave requests in the Leave Requests section of EmpRoster > Requests. Each request shows the employee name, leave type, dates, reason, and current status.

Managers can:

• Approve — request status changes to Approved; employee receives an email notification with the decision
• Decline — request status changes to Declined; employee receives an email notification with the decision

Leave Request Statuses

Open Shift Requests

Open Shift Requests appear when an employee or supervisor claims a slot on an open shift. Managers review these claims from the Open Shift Requests section of EmpRoster > Requests.

How Employees Claim Open Shifts

Eligible employees and supervisors see open shifts in the Open Shifts row of the roster view. Clicking a shift shows the available slots and a Claim button. On claiming:

• A pending open shift request is created
• An email notification is sent to all active Roster Managers
• The shift shows as Pending for the claiming employee until a manager reviews it

Manager Review

Managers see all pending open shift claims in the Open Shift Requests section. Each entry shows the shift title, date, time, and the claiming employee's name.

Managers can:

• Confirm — the employee is assigned to the shift; all remaining pending claims for the last available slot are automatically declined
• Decline — the employee's claim is rejected; the slot remains available for others to claim

Past Shifts

Past shifts are not shown to employees in the Open Shifts row or month calendar. Attempting to join a shift that has already started returns a clear error message.

Shift Swap Requests

Shift swap requests require the Professional plan or above. The feature lets employees formally request that a shift be reassigned to another employee, subject to manager approval. Employees cannot swap shifts directly without a manager approving the request.

Shift Swap Requests appear as the third section on the EmpRoster > Requests page, below Leave Requests and Open Shift Requests. Each section is independently paginated.

How to Submit a Swap Request

An employee navigates to the shift they want to give up and clicks Request Swap. In the request form they can:

• Optionally specify a target employee they have arranged to swap with
• Add an optional reason for the swap (visible to the reviewing manager)

If no target employee is specified, the request is open, meaning any eligible employee could potentially take the shift. The submitted request immediately appears in the Shift Swap Requests section with a Pending status.

Manager Review

Managers see all pending swap requests in the Shift Swap Requests section of the Requests page. Each entry shows the requesting employee, the shift they want to give up, and the target employee (if one was specified in the request).

Approving a swap

When a manager approves a swap, the plugin automatically reassigns the two shifts between the employees involved. No manual editing of shift assignments is needed; the handover is applied atomically on approval.

Declining a swap

When a manager declines a swap, the original assignments remain exactly as they were. The requesting employee's shift is unchanged.

Manager Actions on the Requests Page

Managers can also Edit or Delete swap requests directly from the Requests page:

• Edit — opens a modal to update the request status and reason
• Delete — removes the request after a confirmation prompt

Leave Balances

Leave balance tracking requires the Starter plan or above. When the Enable Leave Balance Tracking setting is turned on, each employee has annual and sick leave balances tracked per calendar year. Balances accrue based on configured hourly entitlements and are automatically reduced when leave is approved.

Default entitlements (hours per year)

Annual leave pro-rating for new accounts

Annual leave accrual starts from the employee's WordPress account creation date when the account was created during the current calendar year, rather than always accruing from January 1st. This pro-rates the entitlement so a new employee hired in July does not immediately receive a full year's allocation. Sick leave allocation is not pro-rated; casual employees receive no balance on either leave type.

Manager controls

Managers can manually trigger an accrual run, view the current balance for any employee, and apply manual adjustments (positive or negative) to correct discrepancies.

Setting Availability

Employees set their working availability via EmpRoster > Shifts > Availability in the WP admin, or through the frontend /emp-roster-availability page. Availability is weekly and recurring; it represents which days and times the employee is generally available each week, not availability for a specific date.

How the availability grid works

The grid shows all 7 days of the week. For each day the employee is available, they set a time range using start-time and end-time pickers. Days left empty or toggled off are treated as unavailable.

• An employee available Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm sets those ranges on each weekday row.
• A day with no time range set is recorded as "unavailable" for that day of the week.
• Availability data is re-used every week; there is no need to re-enter it each week unless the employee's availability changes.

When no availability is set

If an employee has not set any availability at all, the shift assignment modal shows their status as Not set. This is distinct from Unavailable, which means the employee has recorded availability but it does not cover the shift's day and time. See Availability Hints in Shift Modal for how this information is surfaced to managers.

Availability Hints in Shift Modal

When a manager opens the shift assignment modal to add or review employees, each employee row shows an availability indicator based on that employee's recurring weekly availability. This allows managers to spot scheduling conflicts at a glance without leaving the modal. Requires the Starter plan or above; hints are not shown on the Free plan.

Adding Staff

Managers navigate to EmpRoster > Staff > Add New Staff to create a new team member. The plugin creates a WordPress user account automatically and assigns the selected role. The new staff member is immediately available for shift assignments.

Editing Staff

Click any staff row in EmpRoster > Staff to open the staff edit modal. All fields set at creation (first name, last name, email, role, job type, and pay rate) are editable after the account has been created.

Role changes

Changing a staff member's role (for example, from Employee to Supervisor) immediately updates their WordPress capabilities. The change takes effect on their next page load with no re-login required.

Pay rate visibility for supervisors

Supervisors do not see pay rate fields in the staff list or shift modal by default. The Supervisors can see pay rates setting in Roles & Permissions (Professional+) enables this visibility when your organisational structure requires it.

Job type changes

Changing an employee's job type affects future leave accrual calculations and the weekly hour threshold used for overtime flagging. It does not retroactively alter existing leave balances or timesheet records.

Skill Tags

Skill Tags let managers label employees with relevant competencies — for example Barista, First Aid, Forklift Licence, or Opening Shift Lead. Tags appear on each employee's profile and in the shift assignment panel so managers can immediately identify the right person for a shift. Skill Tags require the Professional plan or above.

Plan availability

Adding skill tags to an employee

Open the Add Staff or Edit Staff modal in EmpRoster > Staff. A Skill Tags field is available on Professional and Business plans. Type to enter one or more tags for the employee and save. Tags are stored per employee and can be added, edited, or removed at any time.

Using skill tags when assigning shifts

When a manager opens the shift assignment modal to add employees to a shift, each eligible employee's skill tags are displayed as small chips alongside their name and availability indicator. This allows managers to identify qualified staff at a glance without leaving the modal.

Deactivating & Deleting Staff

Employee Roster provides a deactivation action that suspends a staff member's access and hides them from the roster while preserving all their historical data. If you need to permanently remove the WordPress user account itself, that is done separately by a WordPress Administrator through WordPress Admin > Users.

Deactivating a Staff Member

Open a staff record in EmpRoster > Staff and click Deactivate from the Edit modal. A confirmation prompt is shown before the change is applied. The action takes effect immediately.

Visibility after deactivation

• The employee is hidden from the active staff list. A collapsed Deactivated Employees section on the Staff page lists all inactive accounts.
• They are removed from shift assignment dropdowns — managers cannot assign new shifts to a deactivated employee.
• In the weekly and monthly roster views, the deactivated employee's row no longer appears.
• Pending leave requests and shift swap requests for the deactivated employee are cancelled automatically.
• All historical data is preserved and fully accessible to managers: past shift assignments, attendance records, leave requests, and timesheet totals continue to appear in the Timesheets view under the employee's name.

Access revocation

• The employee's active WordPress sessions are terminated immediately — they are logged out even if they were actively browsing at the time of deactivation.
• Subsequent login attempts are rejected with the message: "Your account has been deactivated. Please contact your manager."
• All frontend portal pages (shifts, leave, clock in/out, availability) become inaccessible to the deactivated user.

Email flow

No automated email is sent to the employee upon deactivation. Deactivation is an administrative action; whether to communicate it to the affected employee is left to the manager's discretion.

Reactivating a Staff Member

To reactivate a deactivated employee, open the Staff screen, expand the Deactivated Employees section to reveal their record, then click Reactivate.

• The employee reappears in the active staff list and shift assignment dropdowns immediately.
• All historical data is restored in full — nothing is removed during the deactivation period.
• The employee can log in again immediately after reactivation.
• A fresh password is generated, the deactivation flag is cleared, and a welcome email is sent to the employee.

Deleting a Staff Member

Permanent deletion of a WordPress user account must be done by a WordPress Administrator through WordPress Admin > Users, not through the Employee Roster interface. Deleting a user from the WordPress Users list removes their account entirely and also purges all associated plugin records.

What is deleted

• The WordPress user account
• All shift assignments for that employee
• All leave requests submitted by that employee
• All attendance (clock-in/out) records for that employee
• All availability records for that employee

Timesheet Views

Navigate to EmpRoster > Timesheets to access timesheet data. This screen is the central location for reviewing hours worked and payroll calculations across all staff, and is the starting point for payroll exports.

What the view shows

• Weekly summary per employee: total hours worked for the selected period
• Per-shift breakdown: individual clock-in/out times, break deductions, and net hours for each session
• Earnings: gross pay calculated from hours worked × pay rate (when payroll is enabled)
• Date range filter: narrow the view to any date range

Payroll Calculations

Payroll calculations require the Starter plan or above. When Enable payroll is turned on in EmpRoster > Settings > Payroll, the plugin computes gross earnings from hours worked and each employee's configured hourly pay rate. On the Free plan, all payroll fields are hidden with no upgrade prompt displayed.

Enabling payroll

Go to EmpRoster > Settings > Payroll and toggle Enable payroll on. Once enabled:

• Pay rate fields become visible in the Staff screen for each employee
• Earnings columns appear in the Timesheets view
• Daily labour costs appear in the roster week and month view column headers
• Saturday and Sunday penalty rate multipliers are applied automatically to shifts on those days

How earnings are calculated

The base formula for each shift session is:

• Net hours worked = (clock-out − clock-in) − break minutes
• Effective rate = pay rate × penalty multiplier (1.0× on weekdays; configurable on Saturday and Sunday)
• Gross earnings = net hours worked × effective rate
• Totals are shown per employee per date range in the Timesheets view

Weekend Penalty Rates (Starter+)

Configure Saturday and Sunday pay multipliers in EmpRoster > Settings > Payroll > Earnings & Rates. When a multiplier greater than 1.0 is set for a day, it is applied to all shift earnings that fall on that day — affecting timesheet session rows, grouped totals, daily labour cost chips, and CSV exports. Set either multiplier to 1.0 to effectively disable the penalty for that day. See Penalty Rates for full configuration details.

Penalty Rates

Penalty rates allow a multiplier to be applied to an employee's base pay rate for shifts that fall on Saturday or Sunday. This requires the Starter plan or above. Penalty rate multipliers are configured in EmpRoster > Settings > Payroll.

How penalty rates work

When a shift falls on Saturday or Sunday, the plugin multiplies the employee's base hourly pay rate by the configured day multiplier before computing earnings for that shift:

• Effective rate = base pay rate × day multiplier
• Gross earnings = net hours worked × effective rate

Shifts on weekdays (Monday–Friday) always use a multiplier of 1.0 with no penalty applied. Saturday and Sunday multipliers are configured independently of each other.

Default multipliers

Set either multiplier to 1.0 to disable the penalty for that day without needing to turn off payroll entirely.

Tax

Tax calculations require the Professional plan or above. Free and Starter plan users see a locked upgrade prompt in the Taxation row of the Payroll settings card.

How tax is applied

When Enable tax is turned on in EmpRoster > Settings > Payroll and a tax rate percentage is configured:

• The configured tax rate (%) is applied to each employee's gross earnings to produce a tax amount
• Net pay (gross earnings minus tax) is displayed alongside gross in the Timesheets payroll view
• The tax rate applies uniformly to all employees regardless of job type or hours worked

The tax rate is configured in EmpRoster > Settings > Payroll > Tax rate (%). Setting the rate to 0 effectively disables the tax deduction without needing to toggle the setting off.

Daily Budget

Daily budget tracking requires the Professional plan or above. Free and Starter plan users see a locked upgrade prompt in the Budgeting row of the Payroll settings card instead of the configuration fields.

How it works

When Enable daily budget is turned on and a daily budget target amount is configured:

• A compact Daily Cost row appears at the top of the roster table body in week and month views, showing the actual labour cost for each day column
• Days where actual cost exceeds the target are highlighted in red
• Days where actual cost is within the target are highlighted in green

The daily cost is calculated from all employees' shift earnings for that specific day. The target is a single site-wide value configured in EmpRoster > Settings > Payroll > Daily budget target ($).

Job Type Hour Limits

Weekly hour thresholds can be configured per job type to flag employees who are approaching or have exceeded their scheduled hours. This feature requires the Starter plan or above; flags are hidden on the Free plan.

Flags appear in the roster view against individual employee rows when their total scheduled hours for the displayed week approach or exceed the threshold for their job type. The thresholds are configurable in EmpRoster > Settings.

Print PDF

PDF roster export requires the Professional plan or above. Free and Starter plan users see an inline upgrade prompt in the roster toolbar instead of the Print PDF button.

How to export

Managers in the week or month view click Print PDF in the roster toolbar. A popup window opens with a self-contained, print-ready HTML layout containing:

• Company name and the selected period in the page header
• Colour-coded shift cards matching the roster colour scheme
• Inter font for clean print output

The browser's print dialog launches automatically. Choose Save as PDF in the print destination to generate a PDF file using the browser's built-in PDF printer. No additional software is needed.

Enabling Notifications

Email notifications are available on all plans including Free. Go to EmpRoster > Settings > Email Notifications and toggle Enable email notifications on to activate all automated emails. The emails sent depend on your plan:

• Free plan: Sends a simplified welcome email when a new staff account is created (employee name and notification of roster addition; no login credentials or dashboard link).
• Starter and above: Sends the full onboarding welcome email (login email, one-time password setup link, direct EmpRoster dashboard link) plus shift assignment emails, shift timing change emails, and leave decision emails.

Manager notification emails

In addition to employee-facing notifications, managers receive email alerts for key events:

• New leave request: When an employee submits a leave request, all Roster Managers receive an email notification so no request goes unnoticed.
• New shift swap request: When an employee submits a shift swap request (Professional+), Roster Managers are notified by email.

Manager notification emails use the same Enable email notifications toggle. They cannot be enabled or disabled independently of the employee notifications.

Technical details

• All emails are sent as plain text using WordPress's wp_mail() function
• The From name and From address follow the WordPress site settings with no plugin-specific From address
• Notifications are triggered server-side by manager actions and do not require the employee to be logged in when the event occurs

Welcome Email

The welcome email is sent automatically when a manager creates a new staff account through EmpRoster > Staff > Add New Staff, provided email notifications are enabled. The content of the email depends on your plan.

Free plan — Simplified welcome

On the Free plan, a simplified welcome notification is sent to the new employee containing:

• Employee's name
• Notification that they have been added to the roster

No login credentials or password setup link are included in the Free plan welcome email.

Starter and above — Full onboarding email

On Starter and above, the full onboarding welcome email is sent containing:

• Employee's name and login email address
• A one-time password setup link (the link expiry follows WordPress default settings)
• A direct link to the EmpRoster dashboard

Shift Assignment Email

A shift assignment email is sent to each employee the moment they are assigned to a shift by a manager. The email fires on save; employees are notified immediately when a direct assignment is created or when an open-shift claim is confirmed.

Email contents

• Shift title
• Date and time (formatted according to the WordPress site's date/time settings)
• Location and department
• Shift notes (if any notes were added to the shift)

Shift Timing Change Email

A timing change email is sent to all currently assigned employees whenever a manager changes a shift's start time or end time. This fires automatically on save with no separate notification step for the manager.

Email contents

• Shift title
• Updated date and time
• Location

Leave Decision Email

A leave decision email is sent to an employee the moment a manager approves or declines their leave request. The email fires at the point the manager saves the decision with no additional confirmation step needed.

Email contents

• Leave type (Annual Leave or Sick Leave)
• Leave dates (start and end)
• Decision: Approved or Declined

Shortcode Pages

Employee Roster automatically creates five WordPress pages pre-loaded with shortcodes when the plugin is first activated. These pages let employees manage their roster from the public-facing side of the WordPress site, without needing to navigate the WP Admin at all. Unauthenticated visitors who land on any of these pages see a login prompt; the roster content is never publicly exposed through these shortcodes.

The same JavaScript SPA that powers the WP Admin views also powers the frontend shortcode pages; only the rendered content differs based on the data-page attribute of the app container. If any of the auto-created pages are deleted, you can re-create them manually by placing the corresponding shortcode on any WordPress page.

Public Roster Shortcode

The public roster shortcode requires the Professional plan or above. Unlike the five frontend portal shortcodes, this shortcode renders a read-only roster view that does not require the visitor to be logged in.

Enabling the public roster

Go to EmpRoster > Settings > Roles & Permissions and toggle Public Roster Shortcode on. Once enabled, place the shortcode on any WordPress page:

[emp_roster_public]

Use cases

• Display the current week's schedule on a public-facing staff page
• Allow customers or walk-in staff to see shift availability without logging in
• Embed the roster on a break-room display or shared tablet

Settings: General

Navigate to EmpRoster > Settings > General to configure site-wide display and organisation options. Department and location limits are enforced per plan; the "Add" button is hidden once the limit is reached and an upgrade prompt appears.

Settings: Roster & Attendance

Navigate to EmpRoster > Settings > Roster & Attendance to configure clock-in/out behaviour. This section controls whether the attendance submenu and frontend clock widget are made available to employees.

See Self-Clock Setting for a full description of what changes when this setting is disabled.

Settings: Departments

Departments are managed in EmpRoster > Settings > General. Each department entered here becomes available as a selectable option in the shift creation form, allowing shifts to be organised by team or business function. The Add button is hidden once the plan limit is reached and an upgrade prompt appears below the list.

Settings: Locations

Locations are managed in EmpRoster > Settings > General. Each location has a name and a colour. The name appears in shift forms and the roster view; the colour visually distinguishes shifts assigned to that location in calendar views. The Add button is hidden once the plan limit is reached and an upgrade prompt appears below the list.

Settings: Leave & Accrual

Navigate to EmpRoster > Settings > Leave to configure leave management and annual entitlements. Leave balance tracking is a Starter+ feature; the relevant rows show an upgrade prompt on the Free plan.

Settings: Employment Type & Overtime

Weekly hour thresholds are configured in EmpRoster > Settings and require the Starter plan or above. Each threshold sets the expected maximum scheduled hours per week for that employment type. When a staff member's total scheduled hours in the displayed week approaches or exceeds their threshold, a flag is shown against their row in the roster view. On the Free plan the flags are hidden entirely.

Settings: Payroll

Navigate to EmpRoster > Settings > Payroll to configure earnings calculations, penalty rate multipliers, tax, and daily budget. Payroll and penalty rates require Starter+; the Tax and Budgeting sub-sections each require Professional+.

Settings: Roles & Permissions

Navigate to EmpRoster > Settings > Roles & Permissions to control which roles can access specific features and data within the plugin. Settings are organised into three groups — Access & Profile Mode, Supervisor Pay Rate, and Admin Visibility — each corresponding to a distinct card section in the admin dashboard.

Access & Profile Mode

Both toggles in this group require the Starter plan or above. On the Free plan the entire group shows an upgrade prompt and neither toggle can be changed.

See Profile Mode: Overview & Use Case for a full description of how Profile Mode works and when to use it.

Supervisor Pay Rate

Admin Visibility

These settings control whether WordPress Administrator accounts appear in roster staff lists alongside regular employees. This section is visible only to WP Administrators — Roster Manager accounts do not see it on the settings page and cannot modify these options.

Settings: Integrations & Public View

The Public View setting is located in EmpRoster > Settings > Roles & Permissions. It enables a read-only shortcode that exposes the current roster to visitors who are not logged in. This feature requires the Professional plan or above; sites on Free or Starter plans see an upgrade prompt in place of this toggle.

See Public Roster Shortcode in the Frontend Portal section for full usage details.

Settings: Email Notifications

Navigate to EmpRoster > Settings > Email Notifications to enable or disable all automated plugin emails. This entire settings card shows an upgrade prompt on the Free plan; email notifications require Starter or above.

Enabling this single toggle activates all four notification types simultaneously: Welcome Email, Shift Assignment Email, Shift Timing Change Email, and Leave Decision Email. Individual notification types cannot be enabled or disabled separately.

Settings: Job Sheet Attachments

Navigate to EmpRoster > Settings > Attachments to configure job sheet file attachments. This feature requires the Professional plan or above; the Attachments settings card shows an upgrade prompt on Free and Starter plans.

Enabling attachments

Toggle Enable job sheet attachments on to allow managers to upload files directly to individual shifts. Once enabled, an Attachments section appears inside the shift edit form where files can be uploaded and removed.

Supported file types and size limit

Uploads that exceed 2 MB or use an unsupported file type are rejected at the point of upload with an inline error. No partial upload is stored.

How attachments appear in shifts

Once a file is attached to a shift, it appears as a named link in the shift detail panel for both managers and assigned employees. Multiple files can be attached to a single shift. Managers can delete individual attachments from the shift edit form at any time.

Employee access

Employees assigned to a shift can view and download its attachments from:

• The shift detail panel in EmpRoster > Shifts in the WP Admin
• The frontend shift detail view (if the frontend portal shortcode is active)

Employees can only download attachments; they cannot upload or delete files. Unassigned employees and employees on other shifts do not have access to attachments they are not linked to.

Auto-delete policy

Set Auto-delete attachments after to automatically remove uploaded files after a shift's date has passed by the configured period. This keeps storage usage in check and removes files that are no longer operationally relevant.

What happens when files are automatically removed

When the auto-delete threshold is reached for a shift's attachments:

• The physical files are permanently deleted from the server — they cannot be recovered
• The attachment links are removed from the shift detail panel for both managers and employees
• No notification is sent to managers or employees when auto-deletion occurs
• The shift itself and all other shift data (hours, notes, assignments) are unaffected

Settings: Frontend Pages

Employee Roster automatically creates five WordPress pages with embedded shortcodes when the plugin is first activated. These pages give employees access to their roster, leave, attendance, and availability without needing to navigate the WordPress admin. Each page can be renamed, moved, or embedded in a custom template — the shortcode remains functional regardless of the page's title or URL.

Unauthenticated visitors see a login prompt on all frontend pages. The same application that powers the WordPress admin views also powers the frontend — only the rendered layout changes based on context. See Shortcode Pages in the Frontend Portal section for a full description of each page's functionality.

Profile Mode: Overview & Use Case

Profile Mode is an access control feature that prevents employees and supervisors from logging into WordPress while still allowing them to receive email notifications. It requires the Starter plan or above.

Use case

Businesses that manage schedules internally and only want employees to receive email updates, without granting them any WordPress access, can enable Profile Mode. This is common where the WP Admin should be restricted to managers and the IT team only. Managers and WP Administrators are never affected by Profile Mode.

Behaviour when enabled

• Any login attempt by a user with the emr_employee or emr_supervisor role is rejected with the message: "Employee login is currently disabled. You will continue to receive schedule updates by email."
• WP Administrators and Roster Managers can always log in regardless of this setting.
• All existing active WordPress sessions for employees and supervisors are immediately terminated the moment Profile Mode is switched on; affected users cannot continue browsing even if they were already logged in.
• Email notifications continue to fire normally; they are triggered server-side by manager actions and do not require employees to be logged in.

An amber warning banner is displayed on the Settings page while Profile Mode is active as a persistent visual reminder for admins and managers.

Plan downgrade behaviour

If a site with Profile Mode enabled downgrades from Starter to Free, Profile Mode is automatically disabled. Employees and supervisors regain the ability to log into WordPress immediately. No data is lost; the setting can be re-enabled if the site upgrades back to Starter or above.

Enabling Profile Mode

Profile Mode requires the Starter plan or above. Follow these steps to enable it:

1. Go to EmpRoster > Settings > Roles & Permissions.
2. Toggle Enable Profile Mode on.
3. Click Save Settings.

Disabling Profile Mode

Toggle Enable Profile Mode off and save. Employees and supervisors can log into WordPress normally again immediately. The amber warning banner on the Settings page disappears once the setting is saved in the off state.

Employee Login Logs

Employee Login Logs tracks authentication events for all roster user accounts. It requires the Professional plan or above. Once enabled, managers can access a filterable audit log showing successful logins, logouts, and failed login attempts for every emr_employee, emr_supervisor, and emr_manager account.

Enabling login logs

Go to EmpRoster > Settings > Access Control and toggle Enable employee login logs on. Logging begins immediately on save; no historical events prior to enabling are recorded.

Log columns

Filtering the log

Managers can filter the log by event type (login, logout, or failed), date range, and individual employee. Filters are applied in combination; narrowing by employee and date range together is supported.

Retention policy

A configurable auto-delete retention policy keeps the log size manageable. Set the retention period in EmpRoster > Settings > Access Control:

• 30 days
• 60 days
• 90 days
• 180 days
• 365 days
• Never — retain all records indefinitely

Records older than the configured period are automatically purged on a daily schedule. Changing the retention period to a shorter window immediately deletes any records that now fall outside the new limit.

Plan availability

Feature Availability by Plan

Employee Roster is sold in four tiers: Free, Starter ($99/year), Professional ($199/year), and Business ($599/year for 5 sites). Licences are annual and per-site unless noted. Free-plan users always see a fully functional UI; locked features display an upgrade prompt rather than a broken or missing control.

Staff Account Limits by Plan

The number of staff accounts you can create for each role is determined by your plan. Limits are enforced at the backend the moment a new account is created; the request is rejected with an HTTP 403 error if the plan limit would be exceeded.

* On the Starter plan, WordPress administrator accounts can be included in the roster as Managers via the Admin Visibility settings (Settings > Roles & Permissions). There is no cap on how many administrator accounts can be included this way. The emr_manager role account limit has been removed from the Starter plan — creating dedicated Roster Manager accounts via Add Staff is also unrestricted.