Before you start: the key ideas

A few concepts make everything else easier to follow.

Staff member – the person. One person can have more than one contract at the same time.
Contract – a set of employment terms for that person: their pay rate, contracted hours, worker type, the roles they do and the locations they cover, plus their leave and any pay uplifts.
Pay rate code – the pay "template" set up for your company. Each pay rate needs its own contract. Roles that are paid the same rate can share one contract; a role on a different rate needs a separate contract.
Contract period – a dated "version" of a contract. Every time you edit a contract from a date onwards, Florence keeps the old terms as history and starts a new period. This means you always have an accurate record of what the terms were on any given day (important for payroll and leave).
Contracted hours – the hours per week the person is expected to work on that contract. If they have other contracts, these hours are added on top — the number on each contract is not their grand total.
Worker type / tier – Permanent, Bank, or Agency. This affects how pay and leave are calculated.
Leave allowance – annual leave, sick leave, etc. Annual leave is pro-rata to contracted hours, so it recalculates when contracted hours change.
Pay entitlements (uplifts) – extras on top of the base rate, e.g. a fixed amount per hour, a multiplier (like 1.5×), or an override rate for certain conditions. E.g. when a worker exceeds a 40hr week they are paid at x1.5 rate.
Effective date – the date a change starts to apply. Most edits are applied from a date you choose onwards, rather than rewriting the past.
Primary (payroll) location – the one location a contract's pay is administered against, even if the person works across several locations.

Overview

This article covers how to add a new perm or bank staff member to Florence and how to update their personal and employment information after they've been added.

Adding a New Staff Member

Go to Staff › My Staff.
Click Add staff member (top right).
Fill in their personal details. Only three are required: first name, last name and mobile number (used for SMS notifications).
Click Save.

A new starter isn't set up until they have an active contract. Without one they can't be given roles or shifts, and can't be rostered. Florence prompts you to add one straight after saving.

Add Staff Contract

From Employment details › Contracts, choose Add contract:

Worker type — Permanent, Bank or Agency.
Hours and roles — contracted hours per week, the role(s) this contract covers, whether breaks are paid, and the contract start date. If they already have hours elsewhere, Florence shows the combined total: "already has 20 hrs/week on another contract – that'd make 37.5 hrs/week in total".
Locations — which locations the contract covers, and the primary (payroll) location.
Pay rate — the pay rate code and the gross hourly rate. One pay rate per contract.
Leave allowances — company defaults added automatically; remove any that don't apply or add more.
Pay entitlements — uplifts, also pre-filled from your defaults.
Review and confirm.

Adding another role or pay rate

Each pay rate lives on its own contract, so you add a rate by adding a contract (Add contract / Add role).

Contracted hours across contracts add together for their overall commitment. A person can only hold one worker type per location.

Situation	What to do
A carer picking up bank shifts at a higher rate	Second contract on the bank pay rate
Two roles at different rates	Two contracts
Someone working at two services	One contract can cover both locations, unless the rate differs
Two roles at the same rate	One contract — add both roles at the Hours and roles step

Editing a contract

Choose Edit contract, pick what you're changing — worker tier, contracted hours, roles, locations, leave allowance or pay entitlements — then:

Set an effective date. "When would you like to apply these updates from?" The change applies from that date onwards; everything before stays as it was.
Florence only shows the follow-on steps that apply — leave recalculation if you changed hours, shift resolution if you removed a role or location.
A Review edits screen summarises every change before you confirm: "Contracted hours updated from X to Y", "Role removed", "3 shifts moved to open".

What editing actually does

History is preserved. Florence closes off the current terms the day before your effective date and opens a new period. Past payroll and leave are unaffected.
You can't back-date past finalised payroll. The earliest date available is the day after the last shift that has been through a finalised payroll run.
Future shifts keep up. Changing worker type, roles or locations updates future approved shifts so pay calculates correctly, and re-matches them so the rota stays accurate.

Changing the leave allowance

Allowances are tied to the contract. Remove ones that no longer apply, or add from your company's set.
An allowance with leave already booked against it can't be removed until you've dealt with that booked leave.
Hours and allowances are linked, so Florence always shows the before/after and any overdrawn choice before you commit.

Removing a role or location

Shifts already scheduled under it would be left without cover, so Florence stops and asks you to resolve them:

Move to open — unassign the person; the shift returns to open shifts.
A different contract — reassign to another of their contracts.
Cancel the shifts — remove them from the rota.

You can't finish the edit until this is done, so nothing falls off the rota silently.

Acrion	Use it when	What happens
Terminate contract	They're dropping one role but staying employed	Record a reason (resignation, end of contract, redundancy), an optional note and the last working date, reassign scheduled shifts (cancel or move to open), and review the remaining leave balance. Allowances shared with other active contracts are unaffected.
Terminate employment (offboarding)	They're leaving altogether	Same steps applied across the board. They come off the rota and can no longer pick up shifts. Their final leave balance is calculated on their final day for their last payroll.
Delete contract	You created it by mistake	Removes it entirely. Cannot be undone, and only possible before a shift has been booked against it.

Once employment is terminated, archive the person to keep your active staff list clean — their history stays intact and they can be reactivated if they return.

Common questions

Can one person have several contracts?
Yes — permanent + bank, or different roles and rates. Their contracted hours add together.
Why won't it let me put two roles on one contract?
They're on different pay rates. Roles on the same rate can share a contract; different rates need separate ones.
Why is a location or role greyed out?
That location + role is already on another of their contracts. It can only live on one at a time.
Why can't I start my change earlier?
You can't back-date before the day after the last finalised-payroll shift — that pay is already settled.
I reduced someone's hours and Florence is warning about shifts.
Some booked shifts now exceed their new weekly hours. Adjust them on the rota — Florence won't remove them for you.
Did changing their hours change their holiday?
Yes — annual leave is pro-rata, so it recalculated. Check the before/after, and the overdrawn choice if one is shown.
What's the difference between deleting and terminating a contract?
Terminate ends it properly with a date and reason, and keeps the history. Delete removes it entirely — for mistakes only, and it can't be undone.
Someone has just joined and can't log in.
Check the mobile number and email address on their profile, and that their profile has been approved if you use the approval flow.

Rota - Adding a New Staff Member and their Contracts