Make the rostering business case clear

Start with what you spend today: planner time, overtime and repeated administration. A useful business case shows which of those costs could change, and what it would take to change them.

An estimate should distinguish measured inputs from assumptions. Time released for other work is useful, but it is not automatically a cash saving.

Know the starting point

Relevant inputs include:

• Planner hours spent preparing, checking, publishing and revising rosters.
• Employee and planner costs per hour, using the organisation’s agreed costing method.
• Overtime hours and their applicable rates.
• Time spent handling requests, maintaining qualification records and preparing payroll data.
• Rework caused by incomplete records, conflicting versions or corrections.

Record why overtime occurs. A staffing shortage, increased demand and avoidable scheduling inefficiency are different causes and should not all be counted as savings available from software.

Count the cost of change

Account for licences, hosting, deployment, integration, training, data preparation, support and internal project time. Use the same evaluation period for costs and benefits, and distinguish one-off from recurring amounts.

Test the assumptions

Compare the existing roster with a proposed alternative using the same staff, demand and rules. Measure preparation and revision effort as well as coverage, violations and overtime.

If a scenario changes headcount, working hours or demand, report that separately. It is not a like-for-like measure of the effect of automation.

A simple return estimate compares net benefits with the investment cost over the chosen period. Present the underlying figures and sensitivity to assumptions so that reviewers can assess the result.

See pricing for the current commercial structure and case studies and sources for published examples and their scope.