Free on-call schedule maker
Type your team's names in the order they take call, choose how often the phone changes hands, and print a month calendar of who's on call each day. It's free, there's nothing to sign up for, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
- Free, no signup
- Nothing leaves your browser
- Prints one month per page
Add names to fill in the calendar, or .
Common on-call rotations for care agencies
There is no single right answer. The best fit depends on how many people share the phone, how busy nights and weekends usually are, and how much notice your team wants.
Weekly
One person carries the phone for seven days and hands off on the same weekday each week. It's easy to remember and easy to plan a life around. The tradeoff is a long stretch: a hard week lands on one person, so it suits teams of four or more who each take a turn every month or so.
7 on, 7 off
Two people, or two groups, trade full weeks. Everyone knows months ahead which weeks are theirs, and there are few handoffs to manage. The cost is that each person is on call half the year. In this maker it's simply a weekly rotation with two names.
Daily or every few days
The phone moves every day, or every two or three days, so a rough night is followed by a handoff soon after. Shorter turns spread the load more evenly. They also mean more handoffs, so each one has to be quick and clear, and people need the calendar to know which days are theirs.
Split weekday and weekend
One group covers weeknights and another covers weekends, often changing over on Friday evening and Monday morning. It lets people choose what fits their lives and keeps weekends from piling onto one person. It takes two separate lists with clearly stated changeover times. This maker builds one repeating list, so it can't produce a split on its own.
Whatever the pattern, put the handoff time on the schedule. Pick a time when both people are awake and easy to reach, like the start or end of the office day. Most confusion about who is on call happens in the hours around a handoff, which is why the calendar above names both people on those days.
On-call schedules, answered
How do I make an on-call schedule with this tool?
Type the names of everyone in the rotation, one per line, in the order they take call. Choose how often the phone changes hands, the day the first person starts, and the handoff time. The calendar fills in as you type. When it looks right, choose Print or save as PDF to get one month per page.
Who is on call on a handoff day?
Both people, at different times. The person finishing a turn is on call until the handoff time, and the next person takes over at that time. The calendar shows both names on those days, each with their time, so nobody has to guess who answers the phone that morning.
Can I make an after-hours only schedule?
Yes. Choose Specific hours each day and set the window, for example 5 PM to 8 AM. Then mark the days the office never opens, such as Saturday and Sunday, and whoever is on call covers those days in full. The phone changes hands when the window opens on the handoff day.
How do I handle a holiday or a shift swap?
A printed schedule can't change itself, so the usual fix is to write the swap on the printout and tell the team. If the change is lasting, reorder the names or move the start date here and print a fresh copy.
Is anything I type saved or sent anywhere?
No names or settings are uploaded, sent, or stored on our servers. Your browser works out the schedule on its own. To save you retyping, this browser remembers your last entries on this device, and Clear all removes them.
Let the rotation run itself
Care Roster keeps your rotation going on its own, shows who's on call right now with one tap to call them, and handles holiday swaps without a new printout. Free 45-day trial, no credit card.