What we understand, and how it becomes the product

You build every rota by hand, and you want it automated, then editable.

It builds the first draft from your shift patterns and the children you expect, and your manager adjusts from there. The graft is done before they sit down.

A rota that breaks ratio must not be able to go out.

It checks every rota against the rules as it is built, and a broken one cannot be published. Sally can approve a logged exception when real life needs it.

Your ratios and your own rules have to hold every time.

The ratios, and your rules on top (someone in charge, half the staff qualified, a Level 3 in every room, a first aider on site), are built into the engine and checked automatically.

You mix ages down to save a member of staff.

It works out where an older child can sit in a younger room at the tighter ratio to save a wage. Every room, every day, never the other way.

Certificates expire, and people should stop counting when they do.

It holds every certificate with its dates and stops counting someone the moment one lapses, so an out of date first aider never makes a room look legal.

Staff move between sites, and their hours must land in the right cost pot.

You drag someone to another site and their hours follow to that site's pot, tied through to payroll, so cover is never paid from the wrong place.

You run to a 55 per cent staffing cost target.

It costs the rota as you build it, shows the staffing cost against your target, and exports the hours to BrightPay.

Your staff and child data already live in Famly.

It pulls the children you expect per room per day, and your staff and qualification data, straight from Famly. No re-keying.

You need to show safeguarding and SENCO cover, and how much agency is in.

A designated tick shows your safeguarding and SENCO cover for the day, even when they are not in the building, and the rota shows how many agency staff are in on a given day.

Each manager runs their own site and competes on cost.

Managers edit their own rota, everyone gets a profile, and each site's cost stays private so they keep competing on it. Reports cover hours, absence, cost and how full each room is.

It has to be an app, not a messaged file, on laptop and phone.

A web app, nothing to install. Managers on laptop and phone, everyone else on their phone to pick up shifts.

Everyone needs a profile to pick up their rota, request holiday and swap shifts.

A profile each. They request holiday, and swap shifts like for like, qualification aware, so you cannot swap a manager for an apprentice, with a manager's approval. Their booked leave feeds the builder so it never rosters someone who is off.

You want help spotting unused allowance and stopping over-approval.

It flags anyone who has not taken their quarterly allowance, and warns when the maximum are already off, so no one approves four days when the limit is two.