Best Cafe Rostering Software in Australia for Split Shifts: Deputy vs Tanda vs Shiftly (2026)

For most Australian cafes with 8 to 25 staff, Deputy Lite is the safest buy: award costing is in the cheapest plan and the split-shift allowance shows on the roster before payroll. Choose Tanda if you also want payroll and HR from one vendor, and try Shiftly first if you are a small east-coast cafe and want award costing for A$0.

How we compared them

We read each vendor’s public pricing page and the Fair Work Commission award texts on 4 November 2026. We have not run a paid roster in any of the three for this article, so there are no timed tests or screen-tap counts here. Feature claims are from vendor pages and are marked as such. Treat the trial period as your own test: build next week’s roster with one split shift and check the allowance line.

Get the award right first

Most cafe operators assume the Hospitality Award. The FWO’s MA000119 summary says the Restaurant Industry Award generally covers businesses that mainly serve food and drink on the premises, which includes most sit-down cafes. The split-shift rules differ:

Rule (from 1 July 2026)	Restaurant Award MA000119	Hospitality Award MA000009
Who gets the allowance	Full-time and part-time	Full-time and part-time
Amount	A$5.60 per work period ≥2h	A$3.69/day (2–3h gap), A$5.60/day (>3h gap)
Clause	21.3(b)	26.14(b)
Maximum spread	12 hours (cl. 15.1(g))	See award clause 15

A breakfast-and-dinner day, priced

A part-time barista works 6:30am–10:30am, then 4:00pm–8:00pm. Under MA000119 that is two work periods of 2 hours or more, so the allowance is 2 × A$5.60 = A$11.20 for the day. The spread is 6:30am to 8:00pm, which is 13.5 hours: over the 12-hour cap. Your software should flag that roster, not just cost it. Under MA000009 the same gap (5.5 hours) is A$5.60 for the day.

Small numbers, but over 3 split-shift staff, 5 days, 52 weeks under MA000119: 3 × 5 × 52 × A$11.20 = A$8,736 a year in allowances that a spreadsheet roster can forget.

Price for a 12-person cafe

Option	Per user (ex GST)	12 staff / month	Includes payroll?
Deputy Lite	A$6.75	A$81.00	No (add-on)
Deputy Core	A$8.75	A$105.00	No (add-on)
Tanda All-in-One	A$12.80	A$153.60	Yes (with HR)
Shiftly	A$0	A$0	Xero integration

Deputy’s Lite and Core figures are from its Australian pricing page; Deputy also counts every non-archived user, so archive leavers. Tanda prints only the bundle price; its individual modules are “request pricing”.

Deputy

Award interpretation is in Lite, the cheapest plan, through Deputy’s Pay Rate Library. When you set up, confirm that the library entry matches your actual award (Restaurant vs Hospitality); a cafe set up on the wrong award will cost split shifts at the wrong rate with no error. Exports award pay items to Xero. Full breakdown in our Deputy vs 7shifts award comparison.

Check Deputy’s current AU pricing

Tanda

Tanda’s Australian site sells rostering, time and attendance, payroll and HR, with a public bundle price of A$12.80 + GST per user per month. If you are paying separately for payroll now, compare the bundle against Deputy Lite plus your current payroll bill, not Deputy alone. Ask the sales team to quote Workforce Management on its own; it is not priced publicly.

Request Tanda pricing

Shiftly

Shiftly’s pricing page says every feature is free for unlimited staff and locations, including award interpretation, shift cost calculations, timesheets and Xero integration. It makes money from Shiftly On-Demand: 8% + GST service fee plus A$1 super processing per filled temp shift. It lists east-coast availability. It is a newer company than Deputy or Tanda, so ask how award updates are pushed each July.

See Shiftly

Who should buy which

• Deputy if you want award-costed rosters now, keep your existing payroll, and run Xero.
• Tanda if you want one vendor for roster-to-pay-run and can wait for a sales quote.
• Shiftly if you are a small cafe on the east coast, cost matters most, and you will check its award output against the FWO pay guide in the first month.

Price your own week in the penalty rate calculator above. US operator? See 7shifts vs Homebase tip pooling.

Sources

• Fair Work Commission, Restaurant Industry Award 2020 (MA000119), consolidated to 1 July 2026, clauses 15.1(g) and 21.3; read 4 Nov 2026.
• Fair Work Commission, Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009), clause 26.14; read 4 Nov 2026.
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Restaurant Award summary.
• Deputy, Australian pricing, read 4 Nov 2026.
• Tanda, Pricing, read 4 Nov 2026.
• Shiftly, Pricing, read 4 Nov 2026.

General information, not payroll or legal advice. Confirm your award coverage with the Fair Work Ombudsman.