Rota to Google Calendar
Get your shifts into Google Calendar, and keep them there.
Google Calendar will happily take your hospital shifts. The catch is that it gives you two different ways to put them there, they look equally sensible on screen, and only one of them still works next month.
Both are below, so you can pick knowing what you're picking.
Two ways in, and only one of them keeps working
Import a file
You upload a file and Google copies the events in. It's a one-time copy. Nothing links back to your rota, so those events sit there unchanged forever, whatever happens to the spreadsheet they came from.
Add a calendar from a web address
You give Google a link and it keeps checking that link by itself. When the rota behind it changes, your calendar follows. This is the one you want, and it's the one people miss, because it's filed under a different menu.
Whatever your calendar app calls it, pick the option that adds a calendar from a web address, not the one that imports a file.
The manual way: import a one-off copy
If you just want this month's shifts on your phone and you don't mind redoing it when the rota moves, this is the free route and it works.
- 1Turn your rota into a list first. Google can't read a rota grid. You need a spreadsheet with one row per shift and the right column headings, saved as a CSV. That reshaping is the real work, and it's set out in full on our Excel rota guide (which also covers why handing the job to a chatbot tends to go wrong).
- 2Make an empty calendar to import into. In Google Calendar on a computer, find Other calendars on the left, click the plus, and choose Create new calendar. Call it Rota. This step is optional and you'll be glad you did it: an import can't be undone in one go, so keeping the shifts somewhere separate means you can delete them all at once.
- 3Open the import screen. Click the gear icon, then Settings, then Import and export in the left-hand list.
- 4Choose your file and your calendar. Select your CSV, pick the calendar you made in step 2 from the dropdown, then click Import. Google tells you how many events it added.
- 5Check a night shift. Find one that runs past midnight and make sure it ends the following morning rather than the same one. And if the dates look a month out, your file was written day first when it needed to be month first.
The better way: add a calendar from a web address
If you've got a calendar link, from RotaSync or anywhere else, this takes about twenty seconds and never needs doing again.
- 1Open Google Calendar on a computer. This screen doesn't exist in the mobile app. Add it once on a computer and it turns up on your phone by itself.
- 2Find Other calendars on the left and click the plus beside it.
- 3Choose From URL. Not Import, which sits on the same menu and is the one-time copy above.
- 4Paste the link and click Add calendar. Your shifts show up as their own calendar, which you can rename, recolour, hide or remove in one click.
Why Google Calendar can be slow to notice a change
Here's the part most guides leave out. Once you've subscribed by URL, Google decides when to look at that link again, and it takes its time: often several hours, sometimes closer to a day.
There's no refresh button and no setting to speed it up. It isn't something the publisher of a calendar can change either, and it applies to every subscribed calendar in Google, not just ours. Apple Calendar lets you choose an interval as short as fifteen minutes when you add it, and Outlook usually checks every few hours. Google is the slow one.
For a rota that mostly changes weeks ahead, that's fine. For a swap tomorrow, it really isn't.
Getting changes through in minutes instead
So we added a way round it. Rather than waiting for Google to come and collect your shifts, RotaSync can push them straight in. Connect Google Calendar from your dashboard and updates usually land within minutes.
What RotaSync can and can't see
It makes one separate calendar for your shifts, and it can only touch calendars it created itself. It can't see, read or change your existing calendars, your events, or anything else in your Google account. Remove that one calendar and every shift goes with it.
The rest works the way you'd hope. Point RotaSync at the rota you already have, whether that's a Google Sheet, an Office 365 or SharePoint link, or an Excel file you upload. Pick your name off the sheet. Your shifts arrive with the right times on them, and swaps, approved leave and reissued rotas follow on their own.
We don't keep your rota
A linked rota is read fresh each time your calendar asks. Files pass through a short-lived processing cache for up to 30 minutes while you finish setting up, and are then deleted. What we keep is your own list of shifts. Your rota is never sent to an AI model. The privacy policy has the detail.
What we can't read
Worth saying up front, so you don't waste time trying. None of these are fixable at our end.
- A PDF, a photo or a screenshot of a rota. We need the spreadsheet itself.
- Shifts marked only by cell colour. We read text, not formatting.
- A rolling template with no real dates on it. Generic week numbers can't be pinned to an actual calendar week.
- A Google Sheet with downloading and copying turned off. That restriction applies to you as much as to us.
Your rota doesn't have to be public, though. If it's been shared privately with you, we'll offer to open that one file using your own access, so nobody has to publish anything to the internet. And to be straight with you: we're reading a document a person wrote for other people, so we can get things wrong. Your official rota is always the source of truth.
Common questions
What's the difference between importing and adding a calendar from a URL?
Importing uploads a file and copies the events in once. Nothing links back to where they came from, so those events never change again. Adding from a URL subscribes to a web address that Google re-checks by itself, so when the source changes your calendar follows it. If you want your rota to stay right, you want the URL option.
Where is the option to add a calendar by web address in Google Calendar?
On a computer, open Google Calendar, look down the left-hand side for Other calendars, click the plus, then choose From URL. Paste the address and click Add calendar. It's a computer-only screen: the Google Calendar mobile app can't add a subscribed calendar, though once you've added it on a computer it shows up on your phone by itself.
Why is Google Calendar so slow to show a change to my rota?
Because Google decides when to re-check a subscribed calendar, and it's often several hours, sometimes closer to a day. There's no refresh button and no setting to make it check more often. That's how Google treats every subscribed calendar, not something the calendar's publisher can change, which is why RotaSync also offers to push shifts directly into Google Calendar instead.
Can I get my shifts into Google Calendar faster than that?
Yes. Connect Google Calendar from your RotaSync dashboard and shifts get pushed straight in rather than waiting to be collected, which usually lands within minutes. RotaSync makes one separate calendar for your shifts and can only touch calendars it created itself, so it can't see or change anything else in your Google account.
How do I remove my shifts from Google Calendar again?
If you subscribed by URL, or connected RotaSync directly, your shifts live in their own separate calendar: unsubscribe or remove that calendar and every shift goes with it in one action. If you imported a file into your main calendar, there's no single undo and you'd have to delete the events one by one. That's the main practical reason not to import into your main calendar.
Add it once, and stop thinking about it
Point RotaSync at the rota you already have, and your shifts land in Google Calendar and stay right when the rota changes. Free for 30 days, no card needed.