A quick walkthrough for firefighters. From entering your crew to printing a finished rotation — most stations are up and running in under 10 minutes.
Start with your station name and the apparatus your crew staffs — Engine, Truck, Rescue, Squad, or a custom name. Each unit gets a type and a list of positions (Captain, Engineer, Firefighter). Add as many units as your station runs.
Select the shift schedule your department uses — 5/6, 3/4, 48/96, 24/48, or a custom period. This tells the generator how many shifts are in a cycle and how days off fall between them.
Enter each person's name, rank (Captain, Engineer, Firefighter), and any certifications such as Paramedic or Hazmat. Certifications are used to ensure cert-required units are always covered. You can also add a vacant slot as a placeholder for an open position.
If a crew member always works a specific unit — for example, a new medic firefighter who stays on the Rescue — mark them as a fixed assignment. They will appear on that unit every shift, every cycle, no matter what. The rotation adjusts around them.
Choose a rotation pattern — or use ✨ Find Best Pattern to automatically score all options and recommend the one with the fewest cert coverage adjustments. Set a start date and the number of cycles to display, then press ⚡ Generate.
Not sure which rotation pattern to use? Click ✨ Find Best Pattern and the app scores every valid pattern for your schedule, ranking them by how few times a member needs to be moved to cover cert requirements. The top result is automatically recommended.
Pin any crew member to a specific unit permanently. A medic FF who always rides the Rescue, an engineer who never leaves the Engine — fixed assignments are honored on every shift and never overridden by cert coverage logic.
When the natural rotation leaves a cert-required unit without a qualified member, the app makes a coverage adjustment. These shifts are highlighted in amber so you can see at a glance where the rotation departs from the selected rotation pattern. Toggle Show Cert Adjustments to show or hide the highlights.
An advanced option that changes who absorbs the adjustment burden when cert coverage needs correcting. In standard mode the cert holder is moved. With this option on, cert holders are never displaced — a non-cert member absorbs the burden instead, keeping cert holders on a clean, predictable rotation.
After generating, click ✏️ Edit Rotation to manually swap any two equally-ranked members on the same shift. The app checks cert coverage before locking in your changes. Edited cells are marked with a ✎ symbol and all tabs show (Edited) so nothing gets confused with the original.
The Equalization tab shows cumulative unit tallies across all cycles — how many times each person has been assigned to each unit. This makes it easy to verify that the rotation is genuinely fair over time and to see how many cycles it takes to fully equalize.
Click Export → to print or save your rotation as a PDF. You can export the full rotation by cycle, by member, or both. The print view is formatted to fit neatly on a standard page and respects all your current display settings including cert highlights and last-names-only mode.
Start with 3 cycles. Three cycles gives you enough to spot patterns and review cert adjustments without being overwhelming. The equalization tab will tell you how many cycles are needed for full equalization if you want to run it longer.
Use fixed assignments for medic engineers on rescue units. If your station has an ALS engineer who is always assigned to the Rescue, a fixed assignment is the right tool. It prevents the cert coverage logic from unnecessarily moving them and produces a cleaner, more predictable rotation for the rest of the crew.
Cert Holder Priority mode works best on stations with tight cert coverage. If your station has just enough paramedics to staff the cert-required units, cert priority mode will produce the smoothest result — cert holders rotate naturally and the burden of coverage adjustments stays with non-cert members.
Amber cells are informational, not errors. A shift highlighted in amber means a cert coverage adjustment was made — a member was moved to ensure a cert-required unit was covered. It is not a problem with the rotation; it is the app doing its job. The equalization tab shows how many of these adjustments each member absorbs over the full run.
Use ✨ Find Best Pattern — it runs all valid patterns and ranks them automatically. For most 5/6 stations the Daily Rotation (1/1/1/1/1) produces the most variety and the most equitable distribution over time, but the best pattern depends on your specific crew and cert distribution.
Equalization means every crew member has spent roughly the same number of shifts on each unit over the full rotation. A fully equalized rotation is fair — no one is stuck on the Rescue every time. The equalization tab shows a running count and flags when full equalization is achieved.
Enter them as rank Engineer and add Paramedic as a certification. ALS engineers are fully supported — they rotate in the engineer pool and their cert is tracked for coverage purposes on whichever unit they land on.
Yes. The app is designed to work on mobile browsers. Setup works best on a larger screen, but viewing and sharing a finished rotation works well on a phone.
Most stations are set up and generating in under 10 minutes.
⚡ Open StationRotation