How to Automate Staff Rostering Reminders and Shift Confirmations

Most no-shows happen because someone forgot. Not because they didn’t care, not because something went wrong: they just didn’t check the roster, didn’t see the update, or assumed someone else had the shift covered. For small businesses running on tight margins, one absent staff member can mean a cancelled booking, a short-staffed floor, or a manager scrambling to fill a gap at 6am.

The fix isn’t hiring an admin assistant to send reminder texts. It’s setting up automated reminders that go out at the right time, every time, without anyone having to remember to send them.

What this workflow does

Here’s what happens automatically once you’ve set this up:

1. When a shift is published in your rostering tool, staff get an immediate notification with their start time, location, and any notes
2. 24 hours before each shift, every scheduled employee gets a reminder via SMS or email
3. Staff can confirm with a single reply: and their response updates your roster automatically
4. If someone hasn’t confirmed by a set time, you get an alert so you can follow up before it becomes a problem

You still manage the roster. The automation handles the communication loop between publishing a shift and having someone show up for it.

What you need

• Deputy or Tanda, for rostering. Both are built for Australian SMBs and handle award interpretation, timesheets, and shift scheduling. Deputy starts at $4.50 per user/month; Tanda at $3 per user/month. If you’re already using one, stick with it.
• Zapier, to connect your rostering tool to SMS and email. Free plan handles up to 100 tasks/month; Starter (US$20/month) covers most small teams.
• Twilio or ClickSend, for SMS reminders. Twilio is cheaper at scale (around $0.09 per SMS to Australian numbers); ClickSend is easier to set up and has a simple web interface. Both have Zapier integrations.
• Gmail or Outlook, if you’d rather send reminders by email. Free to use, already integrated with Zapier.

Step 1, Make sure your roster data is clean

Before you build anything in Zapier, your rostering tool needs accurate contact details for every staff member. Phone number for SMS reminders, email for backup. This sounds obvious, but it’s the most common reason these setups fail: the automation is working perfectly, the SMS goes to a disconnected number.

In Deputy: go to Team → select each employee → confirm their mobile number is in their profile.
In Tanda: go to Staff → select each employee → check their contact details under the Personal tab.

Also check that your shift data includes start times, not just dates. The reminder needs to reference a specific time or it’s useless.

Step 2, Build the shift-published notification in Zapier

This Zap fires every time you publish a new shift. It sends staff an immediate heads-up rather than making them check the app.

In Zapier, create a new Zap. Set the trigger to Deputy (or Tanda) and choose “New Shift” or “Shift Published” as the event. Connect your account and test it. Zapier will pull in a sample shift so you can see what data is available.

Add an action: if you’re using SMS, select Twilio or ClickSend and choose “Send SMS.” Map the fields: recipient phone number to the employee’s mobile, message body to something like:

“Hi [First Name], you’re rostered on [Day] at [Start Time] at [Location]. Reply CONFIRM to lock it in.”

Test the Zap with a real shift. Check your phone. If the SMS arrives and the details are right, turn it on.

Step 3, Set up the 24-hour reminder

This is the one that prevents no-shows. It fires automatically for every upcoming shift, one day before start time.

Create a second Zap. The trigger is “New Shift” again: but this time, add a delay. In Zapier, insert a “Delay Until” step between the trigger and the action. Set it to fire 24 hours before the shift start time.

Zapier will calculate the exact send time based on the shift data. So if someone is rostered for 9am Thursday, the reminder goes out at 9am Wednesday. You set it once, it runs for every shift.

The message for this one should be direct:

“Hi [First Name], reminder: you’re on tomorrow at [Start Time] at [Location]. Reply CONFIRM or call [Manager Name] on [Phone] if you can’t make it.”

Including the manager’s number matters. If someone can’t make it, you want them to tell you: not just not show up.

Step 4, Capture confirmations

This step depends on your SMS provider. Both Twilio and ClickSend can receive inbound messages and pass them to Zapier.

In Zapier, create a third Zap with an inbound SMS trigger. When a staff member replies “CONFIRM” (or any keyword you set), the Zap fires. You can use it to:

• Send them a confirmation reply (“Got it, see you tomorrow”)
• Update a Google Sheet with their name, shift, and confirmation status
• Log the response in Deputy or Tanda if your plan supports it

A Google Sheet works well here as a simple dashboard. One row per shift, one column per employee, a green cell when they confirm. Before each day, you can see at a glance who’s confirmed and who hasn’t.

Step 5, Get alerted when someone hasn’t confirmed

This is optional but worth setting up if you have more than five or six staff. Create a fourth Zap (or use a Google Sheets formula) that checks for unconfirmed shifts at a set time: say, 6pm the night before: and sends you a text or email with a list of names.

In Google Sheets, a simple formula can flag rows where the confirmation column is still blank after a certain time. Pair that with Zapier’s “Scheduled” trigger (set to 6pm daily) and a Gmail action, and you get a nightly summary of who still needs a follow-up call.

It’s not fancy. But getting a list of unconfirmed shifts at 6pm beats finding out at 7am when someone doesn’t show.

What this costs to run

If you have 10 staff on rotating shifts:

• Deputy or Tanda: around $30–$45/month for 10 users
• Zapier Starter: US$20/month (roughly A$31)
• SMS via ClickSend: approximately $9/month for 100 messages (two reminders per shift, five shifts per week)

Total: around $70–$85/month. Compare that to the cost of one missed shift: in most hospitality or retail businesses, a no-show during a busy period costs far more than that in lost revenue or penalty rates for a last-minute replacement.

A few things to watch

The delay step in Zapier only works if shifts are published at least 24 hours in advance. If you roster at the last minute, the reminder will fire after the shift has already started (or not at all). Build the habit of publishing rosters at least 48 hours out: the automation reinforces good scheduling practice, but it can’t fix a roster that goes out the night before.

Also test every Zap with real data before you rely on it. Send yourself an SMS, check the confirmation flow, verify the Google Sheet updates. These setups take about two to three hours to build properly. Getting the details right upfront saves a lot of troubleshooting later.

Deputy vs Tanda: which one to use

Both tools do the job. The main differences come down to what else you need:

Deputy is better if you need time and attendance tracking, a staff app with shift swapping, and deeper integration with payroll systems like Xero or MYOB. The mobile app is polished and staff find it easy to use.

Tanda is better if award interpretation and payroll compliance are the priority. It has stronger built-in rules for Australian awards, which matters if you’re managing casual staff across multiple roles. It’s also generally cheaper per user.

Either one connects to Zapier. Pick whichever fits your existing setup: or start a trial of both and see which your team actually uses.

Sources

• Deputy AU Pricing
• Tanda Pricing
• Deputy + Zapier Integration
• Tanda + Zapier Integration
• Twilio SMS Pricing Australia
• ClickSend SMS Pricing

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More step-by-step guides: How-To Guides for Australian Small Business — practical guides organised by the problem you’re trying to solve.

This guide is part of the SmallBizAI.au Automation Hub — practical automation guides for Australian small business.