FIFO Roster Calculator
The FIFO Roster Calculator builds any repeating fly-in fly-out roster — a simple 8/6, an alternating 7/7 days-then-nights, or an uneven supercycle like 8/6, 8/6, 4/3 — then generates the actual calendar from a start date you choose. It answers the two questions an averages calculator cannot: exactly how many days and hours you work in each real calendar year, and whether you are on site, on nights or at home on a specific date years from now. Everything runs in your browser, and you can export the roster as a PDF, Excel workbook, Word document, calendar file or CSV.
1. Build your roster pattern
Add a block for each part of your cycle. When the last block finishes, the pattern repeats.
Common rosters
A starting point, not a lock — every value stays editable.
2. Start date and how far ahead
Ends Wed 15 Oct 2031. Start and end dates are both included.
Travel days (advanced)
Travel days are marked on top of the roster. They do not change your work or R&R totals.
Keep this roster for next time
Saved in this browser only — no account, and nothing is uploaded. Clearing your browser data removes it, so export a file if it matters.
Your repeating pattern
Your pattern repeats every 14 days: 8 day shifts, 6 days R&R, then it starts again.
Long-run average based on a 365-day year: 208.6 work days, 156.4 R&R days and 2,503 rostered hours. Exact totals for real calendar years appear below once you calculate.
How to use this calculator
- Pick a common roster from the preset buttons — 8/6, 7/7, 2/1, 2/2 and more — or build your own. Every preset is a starting point and stays fully editable.
- Add a block for each part of your cycle. A block is a stretch of work followed by its R&R: days on, days off, hours per shift, and whether it is a Day, Night or Other shift. When the last block finishes, the pattern repeats.
- Set 'Days off' to 0 when one stretch runs straight into the next — that is how you build seven days followed by seven nights without leaving site, and it keeps the fortnight as one swing rather than two.
- Enter your roster start date. This is read as the first work day of Block 1, so everything else is aligned to it.
- Choose how far ahead to generate — six months to ten years — or set an exact end date, then press Calculate & create roster.
- Use 'Check any date' for a single answer, the Calendar tab for a month view, Swings for the swing-by-swing schedule, and Years for exact calendar-year totals.
How it works
Your blocks are expanded into one repeating template of days — a supercycle — whose length is the total of every block's days on and days off. The start date is laid against position one of that template, and every later date is found by counting calendar days from it and wrapping around the template. That is why a lookup years ahead is instant: it is one division, not a walk through thousands of days.
All the date arithmetic works in whole calendar days rather than clock time, so daylight saving never adds or loses a day, and leap years contain their real 366 days. A swing is defined as a run of adjacent work days, whatever block they came from — which is why a seven-day stretch followed by seven nights with no break between them is reported as one 14-day swing made of two segments, rather than two separate swings with an imaginary trip home in the middle.
Two different kinds of figure are shown, and they are labelled separately because confusing them is the easiest way to be misled. The annualised average uses a nominal 365-day year and describes the pattern in the abstract — an 8/6 works about 208.57 days a year — which is useful for comparing one roster against another. The exact totals count the real dates generated between your start and end dates, so they are whole numbers and they differ from year to year depending on where the cycle falls.
Worked example
Worked example: seven days, then seven nights, then home. Build two blocks: 7 days on / 0 days off / Day, then 7 days on / 7 days off / Night. The supercycle is 21 days — 14 worked and 7 at home — with 7 day shifts and 7 night shifts in every cycle and 168 rostered hours, averaging 56 hours a week. Because the first block has no R&R, the schedule shows a single 14-day swing described as '7 × Day shift + 7 × Night shift', with one fly-in at the start and one fly-out at the end rather than a false trip home after day seven. Starting on 2 September 2026, that first swing runs to 15 September and R&R covers 16–22 September.
Common mistakes
- Reading the annualised average as a real year. 208.57 work days is a long-run figure on a nominal 365-day year; the Years tab gives the whole numbers for each actual calendar year, and they vary — a leap year genuinely contains an extra day.
- Forcing a day off between a day block and a night block. If you change shift without leaving site, set days off to 0 on the first block, or the tool will insert an R&R period you never had and split one swing into two.
- Setting the start date to the day you fly in rather than your first day on site. The start date is read as the first work day of Block 1; a fly-in is added separately by the travel setting, and it can legitimately fall before your start date.
- Treating travel markers as flights. They are planning dates calculated from the offsets you choose, they do not change your work or R&R totals, and they know nothing about your actual roster of flights.
- Expecting pay. This tool counts days and hours only — no rates, allowances, penalties, tax or entitlements.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate my FIFO roster?
Add one block for each repeating part of your cycle — days on, days off, hours per shift and whether it is a day or night stretch — then set the date of your first day on site. The tool joins your blocks into a single repeating pattern, lays it against the calendar from that date, and generates every day, swing and yearly total from it.
Can I create an 8/6/7/7 roster?
Yes. Use two blocks: 8 on / 6 off, then 7 on / 7 off, and set the shift type on each. The pattern repeats as a 28-day supercycle. There is no low limit on blocks, so genuinely uneven rosters like 8/6, 8/6, 4/3 work the same way.
Can I make a 2/1 roster with one week of days and one week of nights?
Yes, and this is the case a simple calculator gets wrong. Use 7 on / 0 off / Day followed by 7 on / 7 off / Night. The zero is what matters: it runs the night block straight on from the day block, so the schedule reports one continuous 14-day swing with two segments instead of two separate swings.
How many days a year do I work on an 8/6 roster?
About 208.57 days as a long-run average on a 365-day year, from a 14-day cycle with 8 days on. Any particular calendar year differs, because where the cycle falls against 1 January and whether the year is a leap year both change the count — the Years tab shows the exact whole number for each year of your range.
Can I see whether I am home on a date years away?
Yes. Generate the roster, then use Check any date. It reports whether that date is a work day or R&R, which shift and which day of the block, for any date in the range. If a date falls before your start date, the tool says so rather than guessing — you can enable backward projection if the pattern really did run unchanged before then.
Can I export my FIFO roster to PDF or Excel?
Yes — PDF, Excel (.xlsx), Word (.docx), a calendar file (.ics) for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook, and CSV. Every file is built in your browser and saved straight to your downloads. The PDF and Word documents repeat the column headings on every page, and the spreadsheet repeats them in its print header.
Does Zerdly upload my roster?
No. Your roster dates are processed on your device and are not sent to a Zerdly database, and the export files are generated in the browser rather than on a server. Saving a roster stores it in this browser only, with no account — which also means clearing your browser data removes it, so export a setup file if it matters.
Does the calculator include my flight times or pay?
No. Fly-in and fly-out are planning markers based on the offsets you set, not real flights, and they never change your work or R&R totals. Pay, allowances and entitlements are separate — see the FIFO salary and site allowance calculators.
Related tools
- Shift Length Calculator
- Night Shift Recovery Calculator
- Hourly Rate to Annual FIFO Salary Calculator
- Site Allowance Calculator
- Fatigue Break Calculator
- FIFO Pack Weight Calculator
Explore more in Time, Date, Roster & FIFO.
Cite this tool
Zerdly. (2026). FIFO Roster Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.zerdly.com/tools/fifo-roster-calculator/
Tip: Enter any known values to calculate the remaining results.
Designed to run locally in your browser. Tool inputs are not intentionally stored by Zerdly unless stated otherwise.