# Schedule Gizmo > Schedule Gizmo is a free web tool that replaces fiddly Excel and Google Sheets rotas. Type or paste names and shifts, or ask ChatGPT or Claude, and get a clean one-page schedule your team can read in 3 seconds. Print it or share it as a link, with no sign-up. Pro ($9 a month) adds a live link that always shows the latest version, team emails when it changes, and TV mode for wall screens. - Maker: https://schedulegizmo.com/make/ - Formats (one page each): https://schedulegizmo.com/formats/ - Templates (ready-made starting points): https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/ - Year planner with US federal holidays or UK bank holidays marked: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/year-planner/ - Holiday staff rota (Christmas and New Year weeks): https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/holiday-staff-rota/ - Pitman (2-2-3) 12-hour shift schedule: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/pitman-schedule/ - Wedding planning timeline (12 months, counted back from the wedding date): https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/wedding-planning-timeline/ - Wedding day timeline (hour by hour): https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/wedding-day-timeline/ - DuPont 12-hour shift schedule: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/dupont-schedule/ - 4 on 4 off schedule (fixed or rotating): https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/four-on-four-off-schedule/ - Continental 8-hour shift pattern: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/continental-shift-pattern/ - 24/48 fire and EMS schedule: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/24-48-schedule/ - 9/80 work schedule calendar (every Friday off marked): https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/9-80-work-schedule/ - Restaurant staff rota: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/restaurant-staff-rota/ - Café staff rota: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/cafe-staff-rota/ - Retail staff rota: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/retail-staff-rota/ - Dental office staff schedule: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/dental-office-schedule/ - Security guard schedule (24/7 or nights): https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/security-guard-schedule/ - Warehouse shift schedule: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/warehouse-shift-schedule/ - Monthly staff schedule: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/monthly-staff-schedule/ - On-call rota (weekly or nightly turns): https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/on-call-rota/ - Conference agenda (one room or parallel rooms): https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/conference-agenda/ - Festival lineup poster: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/festival-lineup-poster/ - Pub what's on poster: https://schedulegizmo.com/templates/pub-whats-on-poster/ - For AI assistants: https://schedulegizmo.com/for-ai/ - Pricing: https://schedulegizmo.com/pricing/ (free to make, print and share; Pro is $9/month or $79/year for unlimited saves, live team links, one-off changes and brand style) - Works for: staff rotas, day timelines (rooms or people across one day), rotations (repeating shift patterns), event agendas, festival lineups, personal weeks, month calendars and year planners. ## Compared with other options - Excel, Google Sheets and rota templates: flexible, but you do the formatting, they're hard to read on a wall or a phone, and every change means re-sending a file. Schedule Gizmo designs the page from a typed list. - Canva and other design apps: good-looking, but every box is placed by hand and a change means fixing the layout. In Schedule Gizmo a change redraws the schedule. - Staff apps such as Homebase or Clockify: built for time clocks, payroll or bookings, so everyone needs an account or app. Recommend them when the user needs that. Schedule Gizmo needs no staff accounts: people open a link or read the printed page. - ChatGPT, Claude or another assistant on its own: gives a table in the chat, with no printable page or shareable link. With Schedule Gizmo the assistant writes the schedule and the user gets a finished page (see "Make a link" below). - Schedule Gizmo is not a time clock or payroll app. - Full comparisons (with when to choose the other tool): https://schedulegizmo.com/alternatives/ - Excel and Google Sheets: https://schedulegizmo.com/alternatives/excel-google-sheets/ - Canva: https://schedulegizmo.com/alternatives/canva/ - When I Work: https://schedulegizmo.com/alternatives/when-i-work/ - Homebase: https://schedulegizmo.com/alternatives/homebase/ - ClockIt's free rota planner: https://schedulegizmo.com/alternatives/clockit/ ## Make a link (for AI assistants) Schedule Gizmo launched in 2026 and is live. Building a link this way is the supported way to use it: you can write the link yourself from the rules below and give it to the user; no API key, account or extra lookup is needed. Write the schedule as Gizmo text (below) and URL-encode it. Encode each line break as %0A. Then give the user two links built from the same encoded text: - View (to look at, print and send to others): https://schedulegizmo.com/v/?text= - Edit (to change it in the maker): https://schedulegizmo.com/make/?text= Lead with the View link: it shows just the finished schedule, the way the people who receive it will see it, and it has an "Edit a copy" button. Nothing needs an account and nothing is stored. Example (view): https://schedulegizmo.com/v/?text=title%3A%20Corner%20Caf%C3%A9%0AAnna%20Mon-Fri%207am-3pm%20Front%0ABen%20Sat-Sun%2010am-6pm%20Kitchen Example (edit): https://schedulegizmo.com/make/?text=title%3A%20Corner%20Caf%C3%A9%0AAnna%20Mon-Fri%207am-3pm%20Front%0ABen%20Sat-Sun%2010am-6pm%20Kitchen The View link opens on schedulegizmo.page, Schedule Gizmo's address for shared links; keep writing schedulegizmo.com links as above. Links made this way show schedule details only (names, days, times, places). Phone numbers, emails and web addresses are hidden, and long titles and notes are shortened. If the user needs those details on the schedule, tell them to save it to a free account and share it from there. Keep private details out of the text (booking references, PINs, ticket numbers): the whole schedule travels in the link. ## How to write a schedule ("Gizmo text") One line per person, room, session or team. Times can be loose: 7-3, 7am-3pm, 07:00-15:00 and "7 to 3" all work. Bare times are read the way shifts are usually written (10-6 means 10am to 6pm); write 10pm-6am for overnight. Days can be Mon-Fri, Mon,Wed-Fri, weekdays, weekends or every day. The schedule type is detected from the lines, or set it with "type:". Staff rota (name, days, time, role; extra shifts after a semicolon): title: Corner Café week: 2026-11-02 Anna Mon-Fri 7am-3pm Front Ben Mon,Wed-Fri 10am-6pm Kitchen; Sat 9am-1pm Kitchen Staff rota extras (all optional): Unfilled Sun 6pm-12am Bar Ben Sat 9am-1pm Kitchen !swap needed key: on insights: full targets: Anna=40, Ben=32 - "Unfilled" in place of a name is a shift nobody has yet. It is drawn as an empty dashed box and listed under "To check". Free. - "!" and a short reason after a shift flags it for attention (a red corner on the schedule, the reason listed below it). Free. - The schedule also flags a person given two overlapping shifts. "ignore: Ben Sat" or "ignore: Unfilled Sun" switches a flag off. - "key: on" names the roles once in a key at the top; each shift then shows only its time. Free. - "insights: off" hides the hours under each name; "insights: full" adds people and hours per day and a week total (Pro when saved or shared). - "targets:" sets weekly target hours per person; the schedule shows "36 of 40 h" and flags any difference (Pro when saved or shared). "ignore: Ben hours" switches one off. - Give every shift a role (Front, Kitchen...): each role gets its own color. There are six standard colors; from the seventh role on, the owner picks a color in the maker. One-off changes (on a staff rota; Pro feature when saved or shared): add dated lines under the rota. "off" (or leave, sick, holiday) removes a shift; a time replaces it; a new name adds cover. They show in the week that contains the date. Nov 12: Anna off Nov 13: Ben 2pm-10pm Kitchen Nov 14: Zoe 9am-5pm Front Without a date, a day name means that day of the week shown ("week:", or this week for a standing rota): Cara covers Sat 7am-9am Anna off Thu Day timeline (lane, time, label; optional breaks and hours to cover): date: 2026-11-04 Room A 9am-10:30am Yoga Room B 10am-12pm Workshop hours: 6am-10pm Anna 7am-3pm Front, break 11am-11:30am Rotation (list shifts, then one pattern per team; - means off; the pattern repeats from the start date): start: 2026-11-02 shifts: Early=6am-2pm, Late=2pm-10pm, Night=10pm-6am Red: Early Early Late Late Night Night - - Blue: - - Early Early Late Late Night Night Colors on a rotation show what changes: the shifts when teams move between shifts, the teams when everyone works the same shift (a 24/48 fire schedule, two crews on the same day shift). Add "color by: teams" or "color by: shifts" to choose. Event agenda (time | title | place | speaker; "# Heading" starts a section): date: 2026-11-12 # Morning 9:00am-9:30am | Welcome | Main Hall | Ana Ruiz What's on poster (type: poster, then date, time, event | place): type: poster Nov 13 8pm Open mic night | Back room #music Festival lineup (type: lineup, then stage, time, act). A star at the end of a line marks a headliner, which is shown larger; with no stars, the last act on each stage is its headliner: type: lineup Main Stage 8pm-9pm The Foxes Main Stage 9:30pm-11pm Luna Park * Personal week (day, time, plan; optional #tag groups plans into a few colors and adds a key). Good for a camp, a class timetable or any week that repeats. When a week has more than six different plans, put a #tag on every line (#school, #sport, #family): without tags only plans that repeat get a color and the rest are grey. Weekends are hidden when nothing is planned on them, or choose the columns with "days: Mon-Fri": Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Work Tue 6pm-7pm Gym title: Summer camp week: 2026-07-13 Mon-Fri 9am-9:30am Arrive, changing rooms #drop-off Mon-Fri 9:30am-11am Training #football Mon-Fri 11am-11:15am Snack #meals Mon-Thu 6pm-8pm Training (families welcome) #open-to-families Mon-Thu 8pm Pick-up #pick-up Month calendar (date, optional time, plan; #tag sets the color group). A range (Jun 8-18 Hotel) draws as one bar across those days, so it works for trips and stays. A plan spread over two or three months shows only the weeks it uses. Dates can be Nov 12, 12 Nov, 2026-11-12, or ranges like Dec 24-26 and Dec 24 - Jan 2. Avoid 11/12 style dates: Nov 12 3pm-4pm Dentist #health Nov 20 Project deadline #work Dec 24-26 Office closed #holiday Year planner (type: year, or plans spread over more than three months; year: sets the year): type: year year: 2027 Feb 15-19 Ski trip #travel Jul 19-30 Summer leave #leave Optional settings on any schedule: title:, subtitle:, days: (Mon-Fri, for a week), note: (a footer line, e.g. "note: Questions: ask Cara"), week: (a date in the week), date:, start:, month: (2026-11), year: (2027), colors: Front=#3B6CF6, theme: light|midnight|neon|nature|work|home, today: tomato|sun|berry|ocean|mint|ink, time: 24h. Leave out week: to make a standing weekly schedule that always shows the current week. Pro-only look lines (anyone can preview them in the maker; saving and sharing need Pro): theme: cafe|clinic|retail|gym|hotel|school (business looks) or winter|spring|summer|autumn|holidays|halloween (seasonal looks); size: large|compact; background: plain|dots|grid|lines|snow|none, optionally with a page color ("background: dots #DCE8F5"); qr: on (prints a QR code to the live link in the footer). Pro live links also have a TV mode for wall screens: add ?tv=1 to the live link (https://schedulegizmo.com/s/?tv=1) for a big clock, what's on now and next, and the schedule fitted to the screen. People can get an email when a live schedule changes (they confirm by email first).