Schedules
What is scheduling?
The Schedules module plans who works when. Managers create shifts, assign them (or leave them open for anyone eligible to claim), and publish a schedule so employees can see it. Shift times are interpreted in the organization's timezone.
Anatomy of a shift
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | A label for the shift |
| Start / End time | Defines the shift window (org timezone) |
| Break duration | Unpaid break minutes, deducted from net hours |
| Assignee (optional) | The employee working it — no assignee = an OPEN shift anyone eligible can claim |
| Department (optional) | Ties the shift to a department |
| Type | A category for the shift |
| Recurrence | A recurrence rule for repeating shifts |
Shift statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Scheduled | Planned, not yet started |
| In progress | Currently underway |
| Completed | Finished |
| Cancelled | Called off |
| No-show | Assignee didn't show up |
Creating shifts
| Role | Can create |
|---|---|
| Administrator / Executive | Shifts for any employee |
| Department Head | Shifts only for users in their department |
| Employee | Cannot create (but can claim open shifts) |
Beyond creating one shift at a time, managers have:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Bulk create | Create many shifts at once |
| Bulk update | Edit many shifts at once |
| Copy week | Duplicate one week's shifts into another |
| Clear week | Remove a week's shifts |
Open shifts and claiming
A shift with no assignee is an open shift. Any eligible user can claim it.
- If the shift is tied to a department, the claimant must be in that department.
- Claiming uses an optimistic lock: if two people try to claim the same shift, the second one gets a 409 "already claimed".
Publishing a schedule
Employees see a schedule only once it's published. Until then, the week is hidden from regular employees.
| Action | Who | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Publish | Administrator / Executive only | Publish 1–4 weeks at a time; optionally email employees |
| Unpublish | Administrator / Executive | Hides a previously published week again |
Department-head review workflow
Department heads cannot publish. Instead, a department head can "Submit for review", which notifies Administrators/Executives to review and publish on their behalf.
Recurring shifts
Repeating shifts are defined by a recurrence rule on the shift, so a regular pattern (for example, the same weekday shift each week) is generated automatically rather than entered by hand.
Optional org default schedule
An organization can enable a default schedule with default start/end times and a break duration.
- When enabled, it auto-generates this week's business-day shifts for all active employees.
- When disabled, it removes those auto-generated shifts from this week onward.
This is a quick way to give a standard-hours workforce a baseline schedule without building each week manually.
The schedule interface
- Team matrix view — an employee × day grid for the selected week
- Open-shift cells that eligible employees can claim
- Publish / Unpublish controls (Admin/Exec)
- Copy week to roll a week forward
- An export page for the schedule
Visibility
Who can see a schedule is governed by the time-tracking visibility settings (see Overtime & Pay-Period Lockdown):
- Administrators and Executives always see everything.
- Department Heads always see their own department.
- Employees see schedules based on the "allow viewing department schedules" (default on) and "allow viewing all schedules" (default off) settings — and only weeks that have been published.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "Already claimed" (409) | Someone else claimed the open shift first | Pick another open shift |
| Can't claim a department shift | You're not in that department | Only members of the shift's department can claim it |
| Can't publish a schedule | You're a Department Head | Use Submit for review — Admin/Exec publishes |
| Can't see a schedule | The week isn't published yet, or visibility settings are off for your role | Wait for publishing or ask an admin to enable schedule visibility |
| Default-schedule shifts disappeared this week | The org default schedule was disabled | Auto-generated shifts are removed from this week onward when it's turned off |