Staff rota software that shows the labour cost while you build the week
Crewo is hospitality rota software for UK restaurants, pubs, cafes and hotels. Drag shifts onto a one-screen week, watch the wage bill and labour cost percentage move as you go, then export approved hours straight to payroll.
Every rota is a spending decision
Most staff rota software treats the wage bill as a report you run afterwards. That is the wrong end of the week. By the time the payroll export lands, the money is already spent and the only choice left is who to cut next week. Crewo puts the cost on the same screen as the shifts, so the decision and its price arrive together.
Place a shift and the week's total moves. Extend it by half an hour and you see the half hour, fully loaded with employer National Insurance, pension contributions and holiday accrual. Managers stop guessing at eighty per cent of the truth and start rostering against a real number.
Labour cost control, built in
Live wage bill as you drag
Every shift you place updates the week's total instantly, with employer NI, pension and holiday accrual baked in. No separate spreadsheet, no end-of-week surprise.
Labour cost percentage against sales
Enter forecast sales and Crewo shows labour as a percentage of turnover, by day and by week, so an over-rostered Saturday is obvious before it happens.
Overtime and premium visibility
Overtime bands, split shifts and premium rates are costed at the real rate, so the number on screen is the number that reaches your P&L.
Minimum wage guardrails
Age-band changes are flagged automatically, keeping you the right side of the National Minimum Wage without a manual audit each April.
If labour cost is the whole reason you are here, our wage bill software page goes deeper on how the on-costs are calculated, and the minimum wage compliance page covers the UK age bands in detail.
Payroll export without the retyping
The gap between the rota and the payslip is where hospitality loses hours. Somebody stayed late, somebody swapped, somebody's break was not taken. Crewo keeps rostered hours, clocked hours and approved hours in one place, so the export is a decision you have already made rather than a reconstruction.
Approve, then export
Clock-in times land next to rostered times. Approve or correct the difference, and the approved hours are what get exported. One source of truth for pay queries.
CSV that fits your payroll
Staff name, payroll reference, hours split by rate, overtime, holiday pay. Import into Xero, Sage, BrightPay or QuickBooks, or hand it to your accountant as-is.
An audit trail behind every hour
Every amendment records who changed what and when, so a disputed shift takes seconds to settle rather than a scroll through WhatsApp.
See the full list of formats and tools on the integrations page.
Built for hospitality shift patterns
Hospitality rota software has to cope with doubles, splits, trials, agency cover and a Saturday that looks nothing like a Tuesday. Crewo handles unpaid and paid breaks, split shifts, standby, overtime bands and role-based rates without a workaround. Prices, dates and pay periods are British by default because the product was built here.
Staff get the calm half of the app: their own week, availability, holiday requests and shift swaps from any phone. Publish once and the shared link updates for everyone, so nobody works from a screenshot taken on Thursday. If you run more than one venue, the same grid scales across sites on our multi-site plan, and the hospitality page shows how a typical venue sets it up.
How Crewo compares
Coming from a spreadsheet, RotaCloud, Deputy or Findmyshift? The comparison pages lay out the differences honestly, feature by feature and price by price. The short version: Crewo is cheaper at small headcounts, faster to publish, and the only one that shows the fully loaded cost of the week while you are still editing it.
FAQ
- What is staff rota software?
- Staff rota software replaces the spreadsheet you rebuild every week. You place shifts on a weekly grid, publish once, and everyone sees their own hours on their phone. Crewo adds a running wage bill so you know what the week costs before you publish it, not three weeks later on the payroll run.
- How does hospitality rota software help with labour cost?
- Hospitality lives or dies on labour cost percentage. Crewo totals every shift with employer National Insurance, pension and holiday accrual included, then compares it against your forecast sales for the week. If Saturday night is over target, you see it while you can still move a shift.
- Can I export hours to payroll?
- Yes. Approved hours export as a CSV with staff name, payroll reference, hours by pay rate, overtime and holiday pay, ready for Xero, Sage, BrightPay, QuickBooks or your accountant's own template.
- Does it handle National Minimum Wage bands?
- Yes. Crewo tracks the UK age bands and flags a staff member whose rate falls below the band they are about to move into, so a birthday does not turn into an underpayment.
- How much does it cost?
- Starter is free forever for up to 10 staff at one site. Pro is £39 a month, or £390 a year, with unlimited staff at one site and a 14-day free trial. Group is £99 a month and includes your first three sites.
- How long does setup take?
- Add your staff, their rates and their roles, and you can publish your first week the same afternoon. Most managers import last week's pattern, adjust it and publish in under fifteen minutes from then on.
Cost your next week before you publish it
Starter is free forever for up to 10 staff at one site. No card, no trial timer, no gotchas.