Release Notes

Version 1.6.0

16 August 2026

A correctness and security release. Every organisation now gets its own randomly generated first-run password instead of a shared default, admin-only actions are enforced on the server rather than merely hidden in the app, and a long list of quiet failures — settings that looked saved but never reached the server, warnings that never appeared, imports that dropped people without saying so — now either work or tell you plainly that they didn’t.

Accounts and security

• New organisations are seeded with a unique, randomly generated administrator password, delivered to you on setup, rather than a shared default one.
• Administrator-only operations are now enforced server-side, so hiding a button is no longer the only thing standing between a standard account and an admin action.
• Deleting an organisation now removes its data completely and server-side, instead of leaving records behind.
• The public demo can no longer start a real checkout or send real notifications.

Rota, hours and pay

• Shift breaks can now be entered, so Working Time averages are calculated against real worked hours rather than treating every break as zero.
• Live-in and 24-hour shifts are no longer priced at £0.00 and no longer count as zero hours toward hours limits.
• Day counts, rest periods and consecutive-day limits stay correct across the March and October clock changes.
• A suspended team member can no longer be rostered.
• Assigning and amending shift cover is available again.

Saving, syncing and imports

• Pay, contract and leave details now reach the server from every screen that edits them — including bulk import and staff creation, not just the edit screen.
• Team Leader assignments, site details and date ranges are no longer silently dropped or overwritten when an unrelated field is edited.
• “Delete All” no longer stops at the first record it can’t remove and leave half a roster behind.
• Bulk imports report the people they couldn’t add instead of skipping them quietly, and a failed save now names the real reason.

Compliance and alerts

• A publish that recorded no compliance evidence is now distinguishable from one that did, and checklist evidence and no-shows are surfaced rather than recorded and never read.
• The 48-hour Working Time banner is reachable again, and care-note alerts and leave balances no longer drop people silently.
• Geofence settings survive an organisation-wide staff resolve.

Other fixes

• The AI summary dialogs can no longer trap you behind a modal that never closes — they now report the failure and offer a way out.
• Plan and staff-limit gates behave consistently across every screen that checks them.
• List rows render their tap and selection highlights correctly again.

Version 1.5.0

13 August 2026

The compliance release. A dedicated Compliance Centre, a CQC Inspection Report you can export, care-specific scheduling, handover notes, and timesheets and pay — plus the evidence trail behind all of it.

Compliance Centre

• Cancel, shorten or move a published shift from the rota, with the notice given recorded for you in a cancellation register.
• Shift-offer notice tracking, guaranteed-hours assessments, a Working Time 48-hour average, and a 48-hour opt-out register you can record against and withdraw from.
• Inspection pack: export every evidence record for a date range as CSV.
• Publishing a rota now runs short-notice and 48-hour checks first, and tells you what it found — including any site it could not check — before anything goes out.
• CQC Inspection Report: export an inspection-ready report for any date range, covering DBS and training expiry, staffing coverage built from approved timesheets, your notice and cancellation records, and handover-note activity, framed against Regulation 12 and Regulation 18. This is not a CQC-accredited product; it organises your own records for you to check.

Care-specific scheduling

• Key Worker: name a key worker for each client, and automatic rota generation will prefer that person for the client’s shifts, ranked above general continuity.
• Set how many staff each shift type needs for each client.

Open shifts & requests

• Offer an unfilled published shift to your team straight from the rota, and let carers claim it in Rota Sync on a first-come basis.
• The Notification Centre and bell badge now show shift-swap and availability requests alongside leave, instead of leave only.

Handover notes

• Log handovers against a client with photos, follow-up actions and a full edit history, so nothing is silently changed.
• Optional AI summaries of a period, or of a single shift — off until an administrator turns them on. Note content is sent to Google’s Gemini API, and every summary is labelled as AI-generated.

Timesheets, pay & leave

• Timesheets & Pay: scheduled against actual hours for each pay period, with approval, and pay records built from what you approve.
• Dual holiday pay: see annual leave valued both by the Harpur Trust 52-week average and by contracted hours, and record which one you applied.

Attendance & checklists

• See when staff checked in and out from the Rota Sync app, whether they were on site, and (optional) whether it was within your on-time tolerance window.
• Build task lists for your shift types, optionally per client, for carers to complete in Rota Sync.

Everyday improvements

• Printed rotas, leave, availability and staff lists now carry your organisation’s logo, name and contact details.
• Calendar (ICS) export from Custom Rota, and a reachable Shift Patterns screen.
• More reliable automatic rota generation, including overnight shifts and rest periods across the window edge.
• A new colour palette, app icon and launch screen throughout.
• New here? Use “Try the Demo Account” on the sign-in screen to explore a fully set-up organisation — no sign-up, no card.

Version 1.4.0

25 July 2026

A refinement release focused on shift swaps, more flexible leave handling, and smarter availability — keeping your rota, your team and the Rota Sync companion app in step.

Shift swaps

• Offer a shift to several eligible team members at once and approve the first suitable taker — no more one-at-a-time back and forth.
• Approve, reject or amend swap requests in one place, with the rota updated automatically.

Leave & requests

• Amend or cancel leave you’ve already approved, with balances and the scheduler kept in sync.
• Staff can view their request history and cancel or amend a standing request from Rota Sync.

Availability

• Dynamic availability that follows your organisation’s own shift patterns, so staff set when they can work against the shifts you actually run.
• Exact-date monthly availability — staff mark the specific calendar dates they can work, not just a recurring weekly pattern.

Pay & currency

• Set a pay rate and an overtime rate for each employee, kept private to your organisation.
• Choose your organisation’s currency once and see it applied consistently across pay, reports and the Rota Sync companion app.

Reporting

• Multi-employer reporting with an employer selector, so staff who work for more than one organisation get the right figures per employer.
• Export reports to PDF and CSV, including pay and overtime totals in your chosen currency.

Version 1.3.0

25 July 2026 · first Windows release

Manage staff leave without the spreadsheets — this release brings full holiday & sick-leave management, a team leave calendar, and richer notifications, alongside the Windows edition.

Holiday & sick leave

• Set each staff member's holiday entitlement (in days or hours) and track balances automatically.
• Approve, decline or amend holiday and sick-leave requests, with paid-day tracking and running balances.
• Approved leave automatically blocks the scheduler and shows in the Availability view.
• Annual holiday-year rollover with optional carry-over of unused days.

Scheduling

• Team leave calendar with coverage warnings, so you can see who's off before over-approving a day.
• Re-generate a live rota for only the conflicted days — your good shifts stay put.

Reporting & notifications

• Leave-balance and hours-worked reports with CSV export.
• A notification centre plus alerts for new requests and shift swaps.
• Shift Swaps: staff request to swap or give away a shift; approve, reject or amend in one place.

Connect your team

• Link staff to the free companion app, Rota Sync, so they can see their shifts and send you leave, availability and swap requests.