Moving ATC planning beyond spreadsheets

Your spreadsheets contain the local rules and planning decisions built up by your team. Moving to a rostering platform starts by identifying which of those requirements need to be configured, checked or reviewed.

Follow the current process

Identify where demand, qualifications, availability, leave and working-time rules are held. Record which calculations are automated already, which checks rely on a planner and how approved changes are communicated.

Spreadsheets can contain formulas, automation and collaborative workflows. The evaluation should assess the current implementation rather than assume those capabilities are absent.

Find the repetition

Look for duplicate entry, manual reconciliations, version conflicts and checks that must be repeated after every change. Shift swaps are a useful example: the process includes finding a suitable exchange, checking its effects, obtaining approval and updating the roster.

Try a representative month

Set up the same demand, employees, qualifications and rules in the proposed platform. Review the resulting assignments and any violations before comparing outcomes.

Include a change after publication so the evaluation covers ongoing work as well as initial roster generation.

Compare the results

Measure preparation and revision time, coverage, overtime and duty distribution. Keep differences in staffing or demand separate from the effect of the tool itself.

SkyRoster uses constraint optimisation and shared staff workflows to support this process. Planners review coverage and rule violations before approving the result.

Explore strategic rostering and implementation considerations.