Few things reveal the limits of a spreadsheet faster than trying to manage rosters across several departments at once. The warehouse runs two shifts, the office keeps standard hours, the field team works flexibly, and everyone needs a clear picture of what is expected. Tikkit lets you build a separate schedule for each department, either as fixed time-based shifts or as a target number of hours to work within a defined window. Each team keeps its own rhythm while you retain a single point of oversight.
Time-based rosters: fixed shift blocks
Time-based scheduling is the right choice when employees need to be on-site at specific hours. You define a shift with a start time, an end time and a break period. Tikkit calculates net working time automatically and checks it against Belgian legal limits: a standard maximum of 9 hours per day within the 38-hour week, extendable to 11 hours where a collective agreement or internal compensation arrangement permits.
For each department you build a shift library. A typical set might look like this:
- Early shift: 06:00 to 14:30, 30-minute break
- Late shift: 14:30 to 23:00, 30-minute break
- Office day: 08:30 to 17:00, 45-minute break
You assign shifts to individual employees or to an entire group. If something changes temporarily, you update the assignment without rewriting the underlying template. Tikkit stores every version, which is useful when you need to reconstruct a historical schedule during an inspection or audit. For context on why that audit trail matters, see our overview of Belgium's mandatory working-time registration requirements coming in 2027.
Hours-based rosters: flexibility within a daily credit
Not every department works in rigid blocks. For field staff, project-based roles or functions with genuinely flexible hours, an hours-based roster makes more sense. You specify how many hours an employee must work per day or per week, and within a defined presence window they choose when they clock in and out.
In Tikkit you set a daily credit (for example 7.6 hours) and, optionally, a presence window such as 07:00 to 19:00. Flexibility and accountability coexist: the employee controls the timing, but the platform flags any shortfall or excess automatically. Overtime is captured correctly from the outset rather than discovered at month end, which matters more and more as Belgian rules around working-time records tighten.
Managing multiple departments from one place
The practical power of Tikkit lies in the central overview. An HR manager or planner logs in and sees active rosters per department, planned shifts for the coming week and any deviations from the standard pattern. Filters by department, location or employment type make navigation straightforward even in larger organisations.
A few habits that make roster management easier in practice:
- Name shifts clearly: combine the department and the block in the name, for example
PROD-EARLYorADMIN-DAY. It saves time when you are searching across a large team. - Copy weeks forward: a roster that works this week copies to next week in one click, with public holidays already accounted for.
- Connect to clock-in: employees record their time through the Tikkit app or a QR kiosk on the shop floor. Recorded times are matched against the planned roster immediately, so gaps show up in real time rather than after the fact.
- Absence integration: approved leave requests fill the roster automatically. You can see at a glance which shifts are at risk of being understaffed before the week begins.
From roster to payroll
A roster is not an end in itself. It is the foundation for accurate pay. Tikkit exports worked hours per employee, broken down by shift, department and overtime code. Most Belgian social secretariats accept this export directly. Differences between planned and actual hours are preserved in the audit log, which can prove invaluable if a social inspection ever requires you to reconstruct past periods.
Good scheduling is also about clarity and trust. Employees know what is expected of them; managers see in real time whether staffing levels match the plan. Whether your organisation runs ten people across two shifts or a hundred people across five departments, that transparency is worth building from the start.