Shiftpup guide ·
How to add your work roster to your calendar
Find your line on the roster, then add each shift as an event with a start and an end, reading dates day first (04/11 is 4 November) and using the time zone where you work. Shiftpup for iPhone reads a photo or screenshot of the roster on your phone, asks who you are, lets you check each shift and adds them to Apple Calendar. Without an iPhone, the web version turns a week of your shifts into a calendar file.
Before you start
- Fortnightly rosters. Many rosters cover two weeks. Check each week on its own, and make sure the second Monday is the date you think it is.
- Your line. Find your name and follow it across. On a big roster, a ruler helps more than squinting.
- Your workplace's time zone. For most people it's where they live. For FIFO workers and anyone working across a state border, it isn't. More on that below.
With Shiftpup for iPhone
- Snap the roster or choose a screenshot from the rostering app or a group chat. Pip reads it on your iPhone, and the photo is never uploaded.
- Who are you? Tap your name, or type it.
- Check each shift against the roster: the start, the finish, and the date a night shift finishes. Pip asks when a time could be am or pm.
- Add to Calendar with one tap.
Each job in Shiftpup has its own time zone, so a site roster can stay in site time while the rest of your life stays in home time. A roster that won't fit in one photo? Shiftpup Pro reads up to 8 photos at once, and keeps a second job's roster alongside the first.
With the web version
No iPhone? The web version reads one person's shifts for one week from a photo or screenshot. For a fortnightly roster, do it twice: once with the first Monday as the first day of the week shown, then again with the second Monday. Check that the work time zone is the one where you work (it starts as your browser's own), check every shift and download the calendar file. The photo goes through our server to OpenAI once you agree; see the privacy details.
By hand
In Calendar, tap +, add a title, the start and finish, and an alert. For a run of identical shifts, make the first one repeat Every Day and set End Repeat to the last shift of the run, then delete any day off in the middle with Delete This Event Only.
Things that trip people up
- Daylight saving depends on the state. NSW, Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania and South Australia move their clocks; Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia don't. This season it started on Sunday 4 October 2026 and ends on Sunday 4 April 2027.
- Border towns. In summer, Tweed Heads in NSW is an hour ahead of Coolangatta in Queensland, right next door. Broken Hill, in NSW, keeps South Australian time. If your workplace is over a line, use its time zone, not your phone's.
- FIFO rosters. A Perth site is two hours behind Brisbane all year, and three hours behind Sydney in summer. Shifts saved in site time show in home time while your phone is at home, so a 06:00 start in Perth reads 08:00 in Brisbane. Calendar's Time Zone Override can show everything in one fixed zone if that's easier (Apple's time zone guide).
- Travel days. Fly-in and fly-out days are often on the roster but aren't shifts. Add them as their own events so the flight doesn't hide in a gap.
- Day-first dates. 04/11 is 4 November. Shiftpup reads dates like that the way your iPhone's region writes them, and you check each one.
- Public holidays. They differ between states, and rosters around them change often. Check you have the latest version.
- Night shifts. A 22:00–06:00 shift on Friday ends on Saturday. See overnight shifts.
Common questions
Roster, rota, schedule: is there a difference?
Not really. Australia says roster, the UK says rota and the US says schedule. If your roster comes from a UK employer, the rota guide covers w/c weeks and British clock changes.
Can Shiftpup add my whole FIFO swing pattern for the year?
It adds the dates on the roster you photograph. When the next roster comes out, snap that one too.
What if the roster changes after I've added it?
Snap the new one. Shiftpup remembers what it added, so unchanged shifts aren't added twice, and Pro's What changed shows exactly what moved. The changed-schedule checklist covers doing it by hand.