Bloom & Co cut rostering time by 82% across 40 stores
How a 40-store Australian retail group migrated off manual rosters and Deputy in 48 hours — reclaiming 15 manager hours a week per store and eliminating payroll errors entirely.
Emma Richardson
Head of Operations, Bloom & Co Retail Group
Results at a glance
-82%
Rostering time
Drop in weekly roster admin
$54,000
Overtime saved
Recovered across 40 stores
48 hrs
Migration window
Full Deputy data migration
0
Payroll errors
Since go-live
“Switching from manual rosters and Deputy to Rostey saved our store managers over 15 hours every week. Automated award calculation eliminated payroll errors completely.”
The challenge
Bloom & Co was running 40 franchised stores on a mix of spreadsheets, group chat approvals and a legacy Deputy account that had drifted out of alignment with the General Retail Industry Award. Each store manager was spending a full working day building the weekly roster, then a second day a fortnight reconciling timesheets against Saturday, Sunday and public holiday penalty rates. Payroll corrections had become a monthly ritual, and head office had no reliable way to see scheduled labour cost until after wages had already been paid.
The Rostey solution
Rostey's implementation team imported seven years of Bloom & Co employee records, availability windows and award classifications in a single 48-hour cutover, running both systems in parallel for one pay cycle before the legacy account was retired.
Every store now builds its weekly roster from a GRIA pre-configured template that automatically applies weekday, weekend and public holiday loadings as shifts are dropped onto the board. Store managers can copy a proven trading-week template, then adjust for local events, school holidays or a stocktake in a couple of clicks.
- General Retail Industry Award (MA000004) rules pre-loaded with level-based pay rates
- Shift templates per store format so managers start from a proven trading week
- GPS-verified mobile clock-in for casuals across all 40 locations
- One-tap timesheet approval straight into Xero payroll
- Live wage cost versus budget tracking for head office
The results
Within one quarter, rostering admin dropped by 82% and Bloom & Co recovered more than $54,000 in previously unmanaged overtime. Payroll corrections stopped entirely because approved timesheets now leave the platform already weighted with the correct loadings. Head office finally has a single dashboard showing live wage cost by store, by week, before the roster is published rather than after the pay run.
- 15+ manager hours reclaimed per store, per week
- Weekly wage cost visible before publishing the roster
- Payroll errors reduced to zero — no manual corrections since go-live
- Consistent award compliance across 40 independently managed sites
What's next for Bloom & Co Retail Group
Bloom & Co has since rolled Rostey's Forms & Checklists add-on across all stores to digitise opening and closing procedures, and is piloting open shift broadcasting for its busiest CBD flagships.
