Roster Roster Manual

Admin Manual admin

You set up the company. Stores, people, roles, pay periods, exports.

Important

You are the only role that can create stores, promote someone to manager, and close a pay period. Be careful with those actions — closing a period locks worked hours for everyone in it.

Contents

  1. Logging in
  2. First-time setup
  3. Managing stores
  4. Adding members (employees + managers)
  5. Self-registration code
  6. Engine Rules
  7. Building a roster
  8. Worked hours
  9. Reports
  10. Closing a pay period
  11. Exports
  12. Troubleshooting

1. Logging in

  1. Go to https://roster.astromedia.cl.
  2. Click Sign in (top right).
  3. Enter your admin username and password. The default username is admin.
  4. You should see admin: admin in the top-right header. The right-hand sidebar now shows Admin Tools.
Security

Change the admin password if you have not already. The initial password was set in the server's .env file and may still be the bootstrap value. Treat the admin account like the keys to the building.

2. First-time setup — in this order

Skipping a step makes the next one impossible. Do them in order.

  1. Create the stores first. Members are assigned to stores, so the stores have to exist first.
  2. Create the managers next. A manager can only edit rosters for the stores they are assigned to.
  3. Create the employees. Each employee is assigned to one or more stores. They will see only their own shifts.
  4. Confirm the registration code if you want employees to self-register instead of you creating them one by one. See section 5.
  5. Build the first roster for the upcoming fortnight. See section 7.

3. Managing stores

  1. Open the sidebar (top-left hamburger button) and click Manage Stores.
  2. Under Add New Store, type the store name and the maximum weekly hours for the team (e.g. 120). This is the budget Roster uses to warn you when you over-schedule.
  3. Click Add. The store appears below under Current Stores.
  4. To edit or delete a store later, use the icons next to its name.
Deleting a store

Deleting a store removes its shifts. If you only want to retire a store, leave it in place — empty rosters take no space.

4. Adding members

Everyone who logs into Roster (except the admin account) is a member. Members are either employees or managers.

  1. Open the sidebar and click Manage Members.
  2. Fill in Full Name, Phone, Email.
  3. Choose an Employment Type:
    • Casual / Full-Time / Cash — all are employees. The label is only used in reports.
    • Manager — promotes the member to manager of every store you tick below.
  4. Tick the stores the member belongs to. Managers manage these stores; employees only see shifts in these stores.
  5. Click Add Member.
Default password

Any member you create from the UI gets the temporary password password. Tell them to change it on first login.

Promoting / demoting

You can change the employment type of an existing member at any time. Be deliberate: switching someone to Manager gives them write access to every store they are assigned to.

5. Self-registration code

Employees can register themselves with a shared code instead of waiting for you to create them.

If the code leaks

If a non-employee tries to register, you can change the code. Ask the developer — it lives in the settings table under the key registration_code.

6. Engine Rules

Open the sidebar → Engine Rules. These settings control rounding, default rates, and the rules the schedule engine uses when it warns you about over-budget rosters. Defaults are sensible for an Australian retail team paid under a Modern Award. Only change a value if you understand exactly what it affects.

7. Building a roster

  1. Top of the screen: pick a Store and a Start Date. The grid jumps to that fortnight.
  2. On the left, open the Shift Editor, pick an Employee, and click cells on the calendar to paint their shifts.
  3. Set start and end times for each cell. The total hours under the editor updates live.
  4. Use Repeat for to copy the same pattern across the next N weeks.
  5. Switch the grid between Week and 14 Days view with the toggle.
Multi-store members

If someone works at more than one store, build their shifts inside each store separately. Roster sums their hours across stores in the worked-hours report.

8. Worked hours

Worked hours are what actually happened, recorded after the fact. They drive payroll, not the schedule.

  1. Sidebar → Worked Hours.
  2. Pick the store and the date.
  3. For each employee, enter ordinary / Saturday / Sunday / public holiday / annual leave / sick leave hours.
  4. Click Save.
Who can edit

Admins can always edit worked hours. Managers can edit only for their stores, and only while the period is still open. Once you close a period (section 10), nobody but the admin can touch it.

9. Reports

Sidebar → Reports. Pick a date range and a store, then download the matching Excel report. The numbers are computed live from worked hours.

10. Closing a pay period

Irreversible-ish

Closing a period locks worked hours for everyone in it. Managers and employees can no longer edit. Only you (admin) can re-open by editing the period record manually in the database.

  1. Sidebar → Close Period.
  2. Pick the Type (usually fortnightly), the Start Date, and the End Date of the pay period.
  3. Run any last reports you need before clicking close.
  4. Click Close Period and confirm.

11. Exports

ExportWho can run itWhat it contains
Export Roster (Excel)Admin + ManagerThe planned schedule for the current view.
Weekly reportAdmin + Manager (own store)Per-employee worked hours for one week.
Fortnightly reportAdmin onlyWorked hours across all stores for a fortnight. Payroll-ready.
Download PDFAnyone signed inPrintable copy of the schedule view they currently see.
Sync Calendar (iCal)Each employee gets their own feedSubscribable URL so shifts show up in Google / Apple Calendar.

12. Troubleshooting

A manager cannot edit a store

Open Manage Members, find them, confirm the store is ticked, and confirm their Employment Type is Manager.

An employee sees no shifts

Either they have no store assigned, or no shifts exist in their store(s) for the date range they are looking at. Open Manage Members and check store assignment first.

"Forbidden" error in the UI

Their session expired. Have them log out and log in again.

Worked-hours numbers don't match exports

If the discrepancy is across a closed period, the closed worked hours are frozen — the export shows the frozen values. New edits would not propagate to a closed period.

The whole site is down

This is a developer problem, not yours. Tell the developer: /api/health returns the server status — share that URL with them.