A clopening is a late close followed by an early open: someone locks up at 11pm and unlocks at 6am. The standard fix is a minimum rest gap between any two of a person's shifts. Owners worry that a rule like that leaves shifts empty or raises payroll. We measured it.
The roster builder's built-in invented example: a seven-person cafe, 32 shifts, 235 hours to cover, a 40-hour overtime line, and each person's own availability. Only the rest gap changed between runs; everything else is the tool's defaults.
| Minimum rest gap | Shifts left open | Hours covered | Payroll |
|---|---|---|---|
| None (0 h) | 2 | 219 of 235 | $3,671 |
| 8 h | 3 | 216 | $3,620 |
| 10 h | 3 | 216 | $3,622 |
| 12 h | 3 | 216 | $3,630 |
| 14 h | 4 | 218 | $3,662 |
For this cafe, a rest gap anywhere from 8 to 12 hours left one more shift open than no rule (3 against 2, three fewer hours covered) and cut payroll by roughly $40 to $50 because that last awkward shift went unstaffed rather than paid for. The search gave the other close-then-open pairs to different people. At 14 hours the rule starts to bite: two more shifts go open. So the question to ask of your own week is where your cliff is, not whether a rule is affordable in general. This is one invented example, not a benchmark, and your availability decides your numbers.
Find the cliff in your own week
List who works each closing shift, then check the next morning's opens for the same names.
Move either the close or the open to someone who is free and not already near their weekly limit. Do the people with the narrowest availability first.
Sunday night's close and Monday morning's open are the pair most often missed. The roster builder can read last week's roster CSV so the rule holds across Monday.
It means working a closing shift and then the opening shift the next morning, leaving little time to sleep. A minimum rest gap between shifts is the usual way to prevent it.
There is no single answer. Some employers use 8 to 12 hours as policy and some places regulate it for certain workers. Check the rules where you operate. The roster builder lets you set the gap and will not break it.