Where do the hourly rates come from?

From you. Every wage figure on this page is one you typed — leave the rate box blank and the tool stays in hours. Put your own number in and it multiplies out across the day, the week and the season.

Why do the weekly shifts times the weeks not equal the seasonal shifts?

The seasonal figure is worked out from the season’s own hours, so it never carries forward the rounding a weekly figure picks up first. In the clubhouse-and-gate example above, the weekly figure is 9.75 shifts and the season is 936 hours — 117 shifts, exactly. The working sheet on the tool shows the math line by line.

Why is the headcount higher than hours ÷ 40?

Because the schedule has to cover every position at the same time. If four zones need covering at once, that is four people at once, however short the week is. The tool takes whichever figure is larger, the one from your weekly cap or the one from people on duty, and tells you which one decided it.

Can I use it for something other than a pool?

Yes. A gatehouse, a clubhouse, a fitness room, an event weekend — anything with open hours and positions that have to be covered while they are open. Name the amenity at the top, and the math underneath stays exactly the same.

Where does what I type go?

The whole thing runs in your browser tab — the hours, the rate, the amenity name. They are saved on this device so you can come back to them, and clearing the worksheet wipes them.

What does VendoRFP do that this page does not?

This page tells you what a season costs in hours. Inside VendoRFP you post that work, vendors propose on it, and you compare the proposals and select one. After that the schedule, the invoices, and the service requests all run in one place. Every community on the account is free.

Our amenity is open all year. What do I put for the season?

Fifty-two weeks. The word season is there because most of the pools this gets used on close in September, but nothing in the math assumes an end date. A year-round gatehouse is a fifty-two-week season with seven operating days, and every figure below it reads the same way.

What does the break relief percentage add?

Paid hours that nobody is standing at a post for. A guard on a thirty-minute break still gets paid, and somebody has to be on the deck while they are gone, so those hours are real payroll that the on-duty math alone never counts. Set it to zero if your zone count already includes the person doing the covering — otherwise you would be paying for the same relief twice on paper.

What counts as a floater, and does one change the headcount?

A floater is cover that is not tied to a zone — a supervisor walking the deck, a gate check, a runner. Yes, it changes the headcount, because a floater is a body on site at the same time as everyone else. Add one and the people-on-duty figure goes up by one, and that figure is the floor the headcount can never drop below.

Can I enter half a person per zone?

Yes — the tool shows you both numbers. Two zones at 1.5 each rounds to a clean three. Three zones at 1.5 each is 4.5, which rounds up to five; the 4.5 stays visible, because that half a position is a real cost your ratio created.

A lifeguard seated at an elevated stand beside a community lap pool, swimmers in the lanes

Pool & amenity staffing calculator

How many staff hours does a pool season take?

Enter your open hours, positions and staffing ratio — get weekly hours, seasonal hours, shifts and headcount.

Questions answered

Open hours per day

Positions to cover

Nothing you type leaves your browser.

1. When is the amenity open?

Enter the hours you intend to staff. Setup and close-down are separate because they are real paid time that almost never appears in a posted schedule.

Amenity (optional)

Whatever you type here appears at the top of the working sheet below and the printout.

Open hours per day

Setup and close-down

Chemical checks, furniture, locking up — staffed time either side of opening.

Operating days per week

Season length

Use 52 for an amenity that runs all year.

2. How many people are on duty at once?

These are your figures. What your amenity is obliged to have comes from your state and county health rules, your insurer, and your own governing documents.

Stands or zones to cover

Each position that has to be covered at the same time — a stand, a gate, a deck.

Your target staff per zone

You set this: whatever ratio your board has decided on, or been told to meet.

Roving staff on duty

A supervisor, a gate check, a runner — anyone on duty but not tied to a zone.

Extra hours for breaks and relief

Leave at 0 if breaks are already covered inside the numbers above.

3. How do you want the hours divided?

Shift length

Your cap on hours per person per week

Put in the cap you schedule to. It comes from your own roster policy.

What that comes to

Staffed hours a week

73.5hours

Staffed hours a season

1,323hours

People needed

2people

About 36.8 hours each per week.

On duty at once

1people

Staffed hours a day

10.5hours

10.5 covered hours × 1 on duty.

Shifts a week

9.2shifts

166 across the season, rounding each part-shift up.

Optional: what it costs at your rate

Every rate here is yours. Put in what you pay, or what a proposal offers you, and this multiplies it out across the day, the week, and the season. Leave it blank and the sheet stays in hours.

Your hourly rate

Put in what you pay, or the rate on a vendor's proposal.

Your payroll add-on

Taxes, insurance, admin — whatever you load on top. Leave at 0 for the bare rate.

Enter an hourly rate above to see a cost. Nothing here assumes one.

How this was worked out

Every line uses the answer above it, so you can check the whole thing on a phone calculator from the top down. Figures here are exact to the nearest hundredth; the tiles above round hours to one decimal so a row of them stays readable.

Hours to cover each day
10 open + 30 minutes ÷ 60
10.5 hours
Setup and close-down are paid time, so they are inside the hours to be covered rather than outside the budget.
People on duty at the same time
1 zone × 1 per zone
1 person
This is your figure for how many positions have to be filled at once. What your amenity is obliged to have comes from your health code, your insurer and your own documents.
On-duty hours a day
10.5 hours × 1 on duty
10.5 hours
Staffed hours a day
10.5 hours × 1 on duty, with no relief uplift
10.5 hours
Staffed hours a week
10.5 × 7 operating days
73.5 hours
Staffed hours a season
73.5 × 18 weeks
1,323 hours
Shifts a week
73.5 ÷ 8-hour shifts
9.19 shifts
Not a whole number, because a week of cover rarely divides evenly into shifts. The remainder is a short shift, not a free one.
Shifts across the season
1,323 ÷ 8 = 165.38, rounded up
166 shifts
Worked out from the season’s own hours and rounded up, not by multiplying the weekly shift figure. It will not equal the line above times the number of weeks, and the season’s hours are the figure to trust.
People needed
73.5 ÷ 40-hour cap = 1.84, rounded up
2 people
Your weekly cap decides how many hours each person works. It cannot reduce how many people stand on the deck at the same time, so this never drops below that figure.
Hours each, per week
73.5 ÷ 2 people
36.75 hours
An even split. A real roster will not be even, and this is the average it has to hit.

What this takes for granted

Each one is an assumption the sheet had to make to reach a figure. If one of them is wrong for your community, the figure above is wrong too — and the inputs are right there to change.

Every operating day looks the same. A pool that is busier on Saturday needs more cover on Saturday, and this figure is a flat average across the week.
Cover runs for all 18 weeks you entered, with no closures for weather, repairs or a shoulder season at reduced hours.
No hours are added for breaks. That is right only if the people you counted above already cover each other. Otherwise a stand goes unattended at lunchtime.
Nobody is sick and nobody quits. A roster with no spare capacity becomes overtime the first week somebody cannot come in.
This is hours, not money. Put your own hourly rate in the box above and the same hours are multiplied out at it — the rate has to be yours, because it is the only one this page will ever use.

Your work

Everything you type stays in this browser. Nothing is uploaded and no account is created. A shareable link carries this whole worksheet inside the address, so send it only to people you want to see these numbers.

Staffing budgets

Three things a staffing budget usually misses

A seasonal number that misses them runs out in August.

Setup and close-down are real paid hours
A pool posted as open ten hours a day is rarely staffed for ten. Chemical checks before the gate opens, and furniture and locking up after it closes, are paid time. Across a seven-day season, half an hour a day is a three-figure block of hours nobody budgeted.
Breaks do not cover themselves
If one person is on one stand, the stand is unattended the moment they eat. Either the schedule carries a relief position or the hours have to stretch. Add relief as a percentage on top and the number stops pretending.
Hours divide into people, but people cannot divide
Twelve weekly hours across five zones does not mean one person. The weekly cap decides how many hours each person works. It cannot reduce how many bodies stand on the deck at the same time, so the headcount here never drops below the number on duty at once.

Worked example

Why a short week still needs four people

A clubhouse and a gate, open three days a week in the shoulder season. The hours are small. The headcount is not, and the reason is the part a spreadsheet gets wrong.

Example figures, not ours

6open hours a day
30 minsetup + close-down
3operating days
12weeks in season
4posts to cover
1staff per post
40hours cap each

Covered hours a day6 open + 30 min setup and close-down6.5 hrs
Posts covered at once4 zones × 1 each4
Staffed, a weekcovered hours × posts × 3 operating days78 hrs
People neededthe 40-hour cap allows fewer; four posts do not4

78 hours against a 40-hour cap is 2 people on paper. It is 4 in practice, because 4 posts have to be covered at the same moment. A cap limits the hours one person works. It cannot reduce how many people a post needs.

A made-up amenity. Every figure comes from the same math the calculator on this page runs. This example stops at hours; the wage is yours to enter, and the cost view opens once you do.

Questions

Questions worth answering

The ratio, the hours and the hourly rate are all yours. This tool only multiplies them out.

What sets the number of lifeguards — this tool, or my county and insurer?: It multiplies out the ratio you enter. What your amenity has to have comes from your state and county health rules, your insurer, and your governing documents — check those, or ask the people who wrote them.
Where do the hourly rates come from?: From you. Every wage figure on this page is one you typed — leave the rate box blank and the tool stays in hours. Put your own number in and it multiplies out across the day, the week and the season.
Why do the weekly shifts times the weeks not equal the seasonal shifts?: The seasonal figure is worked out from the season’s own hours, so it never carries forward the rounding a weekly figure picks up first. In the clubhouse-and-gate example above, the weekly figure is 9.75 shifts and the season is 936 hours — 117 shifts, exactly. The working sheet on the tool shows the math line by line.
Why is the headcount higher than hours ÷ 40?: Because the schedule has to cover every position at the same time. If four zones need covering at once, that is four people at once, however short the week is. The tool takes whichever figure is larger, the one from your weekly cap or the one from people on duty, and tells you which one decided it.
Can I use it for something other than a pool?: Yes. A gatehouse, a clubhouse, a fitness room, an event weekend — anything with open hours and positions that have to be covered while they are open. Name the amenity at the top, and the math underneath stays exactly the same.
Where does what I type go?: The whole thing runs in your browser tab — the hours, the rate, the amenity name. They are saved on this device so you can come back to them, and clearing the worksheet wipes them.
What does VendoRFP do that this page does not?: This page tells you what a season costs in hours. Inside VendoRFP you post that work, vendors propose on it, and you compare the proposals and select one. After that the schedule, the invoices, and the service requests all run in one place. Every community on the account is free.
Our amenity is open all year. What do I put for the season?: Fifty-two weeks. The word season is there because most of the pools this gets used on close in September, but nothing in the math assumes an end date. A year-round gatehouse is a fifty-two-week season with seven operating days, and every figure below it reads the same way.
What does the break relief percentage add?: Paid hours that nobody is standing at a post for. A guard on a thirty-minute break still gets paid, and somebody has to be on the deck while they are gone, so those hours are real payroll that the on-duty math alone never counts. Set it to zero if your zone count already includes the person doing the covering — otherwise you would be paying for the same relief twice on paper.
What counts as a floater, and does one change the headcount?: A floater is cover that is not tied to a zone — a supervisor walking the deck, a gate check, a runner. Yes, it changes the headcount, because a floater is a body on site at the same time as everyone else. Add one and the people-on-duty figure goes up by one, and that figure is the floor the headcount can never drop below.
Can I enter half a person per zone?: Yes — the tool shows you both numbers. Two zones at 1.5 each rounds to a clean three. Three zones at 1.5 each is 4.5, which rounds up to five; the 4.5 stays visible, because that half a position is a real cost your ratio created.

Cost-per-home calculator

Got a seasonal number? Divide it across your homes and see what it would add to dues.Open the tool

Board proposal vote templates

Four printable forms for the vote between the proposals this work brings back.Open the tool

Pool Check-in Early access

For the attendants who run a pool deck and the community managers they report to.

Keep reading

Before you post the shift

Counting the hours is the first half. Deciding who stands the post is the other, and these three come from the staffing and pool writing on the site rather than a list typed into this page.

Your amenity

You have the hours. The next question is what they cost.

The rate comes from the vendors who would work your season. Post the season you just worked out — the hours, the days, and the positions to cover — and vendors price that same scope and propose on it. You compare the proposals and select one, or select none. Everything after that runs in one place: the schedule, the service requests, and each vendor’s own invoices. VendoRFP charges nothing to ask for work, compare what comes back and award it, however many communities and however many people you put on the account.Posting the work takes an address and a few minutes, and costs nothing. Nothing you typed into the calculator above is sent anywhere — it stays in this tab, so if you post the work you will type those details in again.

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