Rotas

Introduction

The rotas feature in the ChurchDesk Calendar is a powerful tool for organising duties in the parish. It helps you keep track of everything and simplifies communication with everyone involved.

Benefits of Rotas

• Create rotas for different areas of ministry.
• Keep an eye on the status of your staffing.
• Share the link with the relevant people.
• See at a glance which duties are still vacant.

3 ways to assign people to a duty

• Self-assignment: Users can assign themselves to duties within their groups. (More on this here)
• Planning: Authorised users can add other people to duties. (More on this here)
• Series: Using bulk assignment, people can be entered for all future dates in a series. (More on this here)

Roles & Permissions

• Access: All users with access to the Calendar can access rotas and sign up for their duties.
• Planning: Users with the permission to book and plan can create rotas and assign duties.
• Multi-parish: In multi-parish setups, users see only the duties of their own parish by default and can only sign up there. However, if a rota contains events from multiple parishes (e.g. A and B), administrators or individuals with booking and planning permissions in Parishes A and B can still assign users from Parish A to duties in Parish B. This is possible because groups are designed for collaboration across parish boundaries, while individual roles targetedly restrict the view of parish-specific information.

Setup

Creating a new duty

Duties are managed via the Groups module. Create a new group for the desired duty.

1. In the creation window, activate the option "This group has a duty".
2. Enter the name of the duty as it should appear in the rota.
3. Add the relevant people to the group.

Adding a duty to an existing group

1. Ensure that you are listed as a group leader (Admins can adjust this themselves under "Members" > "Actions").
2. Open the group and select "More" > "Settings" at the top right to activate the duty retrospectively.

Creating a new rota

Where can I find "My Rotas" and "Rotas"?

Go to the Calendar module. Click on the dropdown menu in the black sidebar on the left. There you can choose between "Rota schemes" and "My Rotas".

How to create a new rota:

1. Navigate to "Rota schemes".
2. Select the appropriate categories and duties that you want to have displayed in your new rota.
3. Click "Actions" at the top right and then select "Save as new rota".
4. Give the new rota a name.
5. After saving, you can find the rota again in the top bar to the right of the title "Rotas".
6. Via "Actions" and then under "Settings", you can subsequently adjust the name and further details.

Adding duties to calendar events

When you create or edit an event in the Calendar, there is a "Duty" tab under "More options". There you can create duties for the appointment or the series.

• When creating a duty via the event, you set a minimum number of group members for the duty.
• More people can be entered than the minimum number, but the duty is only considered "open" if this minimum is not reached.
• The minimum number can be changed at any time for a single duty or an entire series of duties.

Assigning people

Assigning members to duties

For recurring events, individual events can be edited separately.

1. Click on the series > on Duties > on the duty of the date you wish to edit.

You can:

• Change the number of required helpers.
• Assign helpers.
• Select "Externals will cover the entire duty" (e.g. an external choir or an external preacher).
• Add notes. These can be seen by the group and everyone who has "Book and plan" permissions.
• Delete the duty for a specific date.

Bulk assignments in recurring events

The bulk assignment feature automates duty assignment within a series: open duties are filled based on calendar availability and a set priority. Manual bookings remain protected. Additional people as a buffer increase the staffing rate.

Access to bulk assignment:

1. Click on the event and on the "Rota" tab.
2. Click on the arrow next to the duty and the "Bulk assignment" will open.

How bulk assignment works:

The system checks the calendar to see if the selected people are available.

• Automatically assign:
• Available → Person is entered.
• Not available → The next person from the group moves up.
• No one available → The duty remains open.
• Order: People are checked in the order in which they were selected during bulk assignment. Whoever was selected first is checked first.

TIP
If you want all duties to be filled, select more people than are actually required (e.g. suggest 5 people to fill 2 slots).

Limitations:

• Only open duties: Only duties that are not yet filled will be entered.
• Manual changes: Duties already assigned or changed manually will not be overwritten.
• People pool: The logic only considers the people who were initially selected for this pool.

My Rotas: Accept, Decline & Subscribe

Accepting or declining duties yourself

Users can sign up for available rota slots or cancel already assigned duties under "My Rotas". In the reminder email, there is a "Decline" button to cancel the duty.

Subscribing to "My Rotas"

You have the option to add or subscribe to the duties assigned to you in your private calendar via Calendar > "My Rotas".

Customising the rota

Show only open duties

Display only open rotas to quickly see where rotas are still unstaffed. To do this, click on the "rotas" filter and activate the tick box.

Sorting duties

Under "Actions" and then "Order rotas", you can display your duties in the desired order. You can determine the order of duties via drag & drop.

Display options

Determine under "Display options" which information should be displayed to improve the overview in the plan.

Editing an event from the rota

Events can be edited directly from the rota. Click on the event and then on the pencil icon to edit. You will be automatically redirected to the Calendar module.

Sharing, printing & exporting

Sharing a public link to the rota

Share the rota with the responsible rota groups by copying and sharing the link. You can find this function under "Actions".

Printing & Exporting

Entire rota:

• Go to "Rotas", select the plan and click "Print".
• To determine the order of the duties in your view, use "Actions" and then "Sort rota".
• To share, use "Actions" and then "Get public link to rota".

Only your duties:

• Go to "My rotas" and click "Print overview".

Export formats for both:

• Save and print as Word (.docx) or PDF.

IMPORTANT
An Excel export is not possible in order to avoid inconsistencies.

Rota duties in the mobile app

Via the mobile app, you can assign duties or accept your own duties.

• Go to an event and scroll down until "Duties" are displayed.
• If you click on the "arrow", you can assign a duty to group members.
• You can also mark a duty as "covered externally" if it is taken over by a person who is not registered in the system.
• You can also leave a note.
• Via the bottom "Respond Bar", you can quickly accept or decline duties.

Notifications

3 days before the duty begins, the assigned persons receive a reminder email.

Search terms: Rotas, My rotas, duties, calendar, bulk assignment, schedule, print, export

Updated on: 01/05/2026