This guide is for Admin and HR users.
Go to Rota, Time & Attendance in the left-hand menu. If you haven't set it up yet, you'll go straight to the setup.
Rota focuses on scheduling. It's ideal if you want to build rotas, assign jobs and set coverage.
Locations
Assign jobs to locations
People list
Coverage (optional)
Review
Bringing in your data from Core HR
When you first open the module, Breathe brings your records across automatically: locations, departments, jobs, employees, and leave & sickness.
To begin, choose Rota on the How would you like to start? screen.
💡 Good to know: started with Rota only? You can add Time & Attendance later in Settings > Account mode without losing anything.
Tracking your setup progress
A blue progress bar at the top shows your current step and how far through you are (for example, Step 1 of 5 | 20% complete).
Moving between steps: click < Back at the bottom left, or click any completed step in the left-hand menu. Click Continue to move on.
Pausing setup: you can leave at any time. When you come back to Rota, Time & Attendance, click Resume setup to carry on, or Start over to begin again.
💡 Good to know: the left-hand menu groups the steps into Structure & data (Locations, Assign jobs to locations, People list and Coverage) and Review.
Step 1: Locations
Choose which locations you'd like to use in your rota, then add their address (if desired) and operating hours.
Click a location from your Core HR list.
Turn on Enable for rota to show this location in the rota builder.
Enter the postcode, click Find address and choose your address from the list.
Set your Operating hours:
Daily: if your hours are the same on each open day.
Custom: if your opening and closing times change from day to day.
Repeat for each location, then click Continue.
💡 Good to know: you can still add shifts outside these hours. You'll just see a warning.
Adding a new location
If a location isn't in Core HR yet, you can add it here:
Click + Add location.
Enter the location name and click Create location.
It appears in your list, ready to set up. It's added to Core HR too.
💡 Please note: if Continue is greyed out, check the blue banner at the top. For example, "Add operating hours for all enabled locations to continue".
Step 2: Assign jobs to locations
Choose which jobs can be worked at each location.
💡 Good to know: jobs your people already have in Core HR are ticked for you and labelled Added automatically, so you may only need to check them.
Click the location you want to set up.
Click the jobs list (for example, 1 of 3 jobs) and tick the jobs that are worked there. Use Select all to tick them all.
You can also use the search bar to find a job.
Repeat for each location, then click Continue.
⚠️ Important: jobs that aren't assigned to a location won't appear in your rota. A location with no jobs won't appear in your rota either.
Step 3: People list
Check your team, using the location, department and job filters if you need to.
Fill in any missing locations, departments or jobs using the lists in each row.
If someone doesn't have a department, choose one from the Department list in their row. If the one you need doesn't exist yet, click + Create department, enter the name and click Create department.
To give someone an extra location or job, click Add assignment.
Once you're happy with the assignments, click Continue.
💡 Good to know: if anyone's still missing a location or job when you click Continue, you'll see Continue with unfinished setup? Click Go back to fill them in now, or Continue to carry on. You can add them later in Settings > People list.
💡 Please note: the location list only shows locations with jobs assigned. To add a new location, go back to Step 1. Extra assignments only apply in Rota, Time & Attendance, but new departments are added to Core HR.
Step 4: Coverage (optional)
This step is optional. You can click Continue and set coverage later in Settings > Coverage.
To set it now, first choose a location from the list at the top left. You can also choose a department from the list next to it to narrow things down.
Set how many people you need for each job at different times of day. For example, 1 barista from 06:30 to 13:00, and 2 from 13:00 to 19:00. These act as checks when you build and publish your rota.
For each job, choose how to set coverage:
Daily: if staffing is the same across several days. Click the day badges (Mon, Tue and so on) to choose which days it applies to.
Custom: if staffing changes from day to day. Set each day separately, and leave closed days blank.
Use the + and - buttons under People needed to set the headcount.
Enter the start and end times in the Time fields.
To add another time slot (like an evening shift), click the + circle at the end of the line. To remove one, click the - circle next to it.
Click Continue.
⚠️ Important: if you see a red banner saying "Job(s) require a valid start and end time", check that every chosen day has a start and end time.
Any empty time boxes are outlined in red.
Step 5: Review
Choose a location from the list at the top to check its jobs and coverage.
Click Edit next to any section to make changes.
Click Create rota.
You'll see Setup complete - you're ready to build your first rota. Click Go to rota grid to start adding shifts.
We're here to help
Any questions? Just send us a message using the chat at the bottom right of your screen.💬