Why people look for an alternative
Tanda is built for shift-based workplaces: hospitality, retail, care. Its rostering, time clock and award rules are mature. The businesses that go looking for something else tend to be the ones whose work is organised around jobs rather than shifts:
- Hours have nowhere to go. A roster says who worked. It does not say which job they were on, so costing and billing happen somewhere else, by hand.
- Everyone is a paid user. A crew of twenty where fifteen only clock in still pays for twenty.
- Four tools for one workflow. Roster here, jobs in a spreadsheet, quotes in a document, invoices in Xero. Each handover is a chance to miss something.
- Documents live elsewhere. Inductions, licences and signed forms sit in a shared drive, not against the person.
What to compare
Write down what happens to a worked hour in your business, from clock-in to invoice. For most trades and field businesses it passes through four hands: the roster, the timesheet approver, whoever does payroll, and whoever does billing. Then ask of each option: how many of those handovers become automatic?
A dedicated roster tool makes the first step cleaner and leaves the rest alone. A connected system makes the hour one record that each step reads.
Tanda and RovrDS, side by side
| Need | Tanda | RovrDS |
|---|---|---|
| Rosters, availability, shift swaps | Yes, mature | Yes, in the base plan |
| Time clock and timesheets | Yes, including kiosk | Yes, phone or desk, free for every employee |
| Award interpretation | Yes, a core strength | Through Xero payroll settings via the Finance add-on |
| Jobs, quotes and job costing | No, needs another tool | Yes, Work in the base plan; Sales and Finance as add-ons |
| Hours flow to the invoice | Export or integration | Yes, Finance bills from logged hours |
| Onboarding, documents, signing | Onboarding yes; documents limited | HR and Documentation add-ons; signed items in each person's Personal area |
| Pricing model | Per user, per month check current plans | A$20 a seat, first 3 free, add-ons only for the people who run them |
| Data hosted in Australia | Check with vendor | Yes, Microsoft Azure in Sydney |
Tanda details are from their public product information at the time of writing. Verify current features and Australian pricing on their site before deciding.
Who should stay on Tanda
If your pay rules are complex, your workforce is large and shift-based, and nobody is costing jobs, Tanda's award engine is doing real work for you. Stay. The switch makes sense when the people on the roster are also the people on the jobs, and the hours they log need to end up on an invoice.
Moving across
- Export your people from Tanda and load them into RovrDS People. Set roles and permissions once.
- Confirm pay items in Xero cover the allowances and loadings Tanda was calculating.
- Rebuild your shift patterns in Scheduling, then run a pay cycle in parallel.
- Cut over on day one of a pay period, keeping the Tanda export for your records.
Questions people ask
Is RovrDS a Tanda replacement?
For rosters, availability, time cards and leave, yes. Those are in the RovrDS base plan. Where RovrDS goes further is that the hours a person logs are already on the job, so they feed job costing and billing without an export.
Does RovrDS handle awards and pay rules?
Payroll runs through the Finance add-on, connected to Xero, where your pay items and award settings already live. If award interpretation inside the rostering tool is the main reason you chose Tanda, check that your Xero setup covers it before switching.
What does it cost compared with Tanda?
RovrDS is A$20 a seat a month with the first three seats free, including GST. People who only clock in and read their shifts use the free Personal area and do not need a paid seat beyond the base plan. Check Tanda's current Australian pricing on their site.
Can I bring my people across?
Yes. Export your staff list from Tanda, load it into RovrDS People, and set roles and permissions once. Shift patterns are rebuilt in Scheduling, usually in an hour.
Try RovrDS
Rosters, time cards, jobs and billing in one system, with the first three seats free. Run a pay cycle alongside Tanda and compare the approved hours.