The development of a workload management system for use in the accident and emergency department is described. The system is capable of capturing the work all professional groups, allowing the user to roster staff according to anticipated workload, and gives accurate information on whether staffing requirements are sufficient to provide the desired standard of care.(7 Accid Emerg Med 1997;14:88-91) Keywords: workload management; accident and emergency department.The system has been in use for many years, and although it is capable of capturing workloads of all professional staff (medical, nursing, clerical physiotherapists, etc), its main use is as a tool for rostering nursing staffusing individual patient charts for patient care plans and completing them daily, it is possible to determine how many hours of nursing care will be required over the following 24 hours and roster appropriate numbers of staff.Over the last three years, we examined the possibility of adapting the system for use in accident and emergency (A&E). However, due to the nature of emergency work, it is impossible to predict the type of patients attending a department and the care they will require. A very different approach was necessary.