Custom Rota Leave Optimiser
Create a repeating work/off cycle up to 42 days and find leave dates that create longer continuous breaks.
Your custom repeating rota
Calculated locallyYour optimised leave options
Planning resultBest single breaks
These show the longest qualifying continuous break found for each number of leave shifts up to your per-break limit.
Best break targets
Quick answers for common planning goals, ranked from the same rota search.
Use the whole leave budget efficiently
The optimiser selects non-overlapping breaks to maximise total calendar days away within the leave budget you entered.
Build the cycle your employer actually uses
Not every shift system has a standard name. Custom mode lets you describe the repeating calendar with W for work, D for a day shift, N for a night shift and O or R for a rostered-off day.
Examples
- WWWWOOOO — four work, four off;
- DDNNOOOO — two days, two nights, four off;
- WWOOWWWOOWWOOO — one common 2-2-3 work/off cycle.
The sequence is repeated forward and backward from the anchor date, so the first symbol must correspond to the cycle position on the anchor date you enter.
Keep exceptional duties outside the model
Training, overtime, swaps and one-off roster changes should be checked separately. This is a repeating-cycle planner, not a live workforce-management system.
Use the leave balance and rota dates supplied by your employer. Work Decisions UK only models the calendar pattern you enter and does not determine employment rights, leave deductions or approval.
Optimise your actual dates
The useful part is not a generic example calendar. Your position within the repeating cycle changes the best leave dates, so the optimiser asks for one date you know is day 1 of your cycle and generates the planning year from that anchor.
Example: an uneven ten-day custom pattern
Consider the custom cycle WWWOOWOOOO: three work days, two off days, one work day and four off days. This is deliberately different from the named presets and shows how custom mode handles separated work runs inside one cycle.
| Example input | Value used |
|---|---|
| Custom cycle | WWWOOWOOOO |
| Known cycle day 1 | 1 January 2027 |
| Leave shifts selected | 11–13 and 16 January |
| Continuous break produced | 7–20 January: 14 calendar days |
In the expanded cycle, 7–10 January are already off, 11–13 January are work, 14–15 January are off, 16 January is work and 17–20 January are off. Taking the four intervening work positions as leave connects those pieces into fourteen continuous days away.
How to encode your own cycle
- Use W for an undifferentiated work shift, or D and N when retaining day/night labels helps verification.
- Use O or R for rostered-off positions.
- Start the string at the exact cycle position represented by your anchor date.
- Exclude overtime, swaps and other one-off roster changes from the repeating pattern.
The calculator validates that a pattern contains both working and rostered-off positions and limits the cycle to 42 days. It does not infer a rota from its workplace name.
How repeating rota arithmetic works
See the calculation in a worked scenario, the assumptions to check and the point where contract or official guidance should take over.