Shifts & Scheduling

Publishing and Notifying

Publish a week of shifts so they become expected clock-ins, and see how workers are told about bookings, changes and cancellations by email or text.

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Before You Start Draft and Published Publish the Week How Workers Are Told Switch Messages On Changing Published Shifts Limits Troubleshooting Related Guides

Before You Start

Who can do this, and where.

Before you start

  • Agency console: the Coordinator preset, the Admin access level or a super admin.
  • Client dashboard: the Manager role (tenant_manager) or Admin role (tenant_admin).
  • Draft shifts on the board (from Repeat last week, Duplicate week, Duplicate this day, + Assign all at this site, + Add Shift, dragging onto the By Worker grid, or Generate Shifts). Workers assigned one by one in the picker are already published. See Building the Week on the Shifts Board.
  • Turning messages on for a client: Admin or super admin (agency console), or the Admin role (client dashboard).

Draft and Published

Two states.

State Meaning
Draft Only staff can see it. Nobody is told, and it never counts as a no-show or in attendance reports.
Published The booking is live: it is the worker's expected clock-in, it counts in attendance and exceptions, and the worker is told where messaging is set up.

Publish the Week

On the Shifts board.

Agency console: Schedule > Shifts. Client dashboard: Schedule > Shifts.

Choose the week and filters

Go to the week. Publishing covers the drafts that match the filters on screen. In the agency console, with no client or location chosen, it covers every client and site, and the message says so.

Publish

Click Publish All Drafts (it shows how many drafts there are). In the Publish week message, click Publish.

Check confirmations later

Published shifts the worker has not confirmed show UNCONF. on the board. Chase them the day before.

How Workers Are Told

Email, and texts with the SMS add-on.

New bookings from one publish (or quick assigns) are grouped into one message per worker, with a short code. The worker replies YES or NO with the code to confirm or decline. Replies in Polish, Romanian and Lithuanian work too. Each change of time or site, and each cancellation, is sent as its own message.
Messages are in the worker's own language: English, Polish, Romanian or Lithuanian.
Email goes only to workers with an email address who agreed to shift emails, when email is on for the client.
Texts go only to workers with a UK mobile who agreed to texts, when the client has the SMS add-on and texting is on.
Where the client has a reminder set, each worker also gets a reminder that many hours before their shift.
Workers using the worker app also see their shifts there.
Agency console: every message, and every worker skipped and why, is listed on Schedule > Messages sent. This page is not in the client dashboard.

Switch Messages On

Per client. Off by default.

Agency console: Clients > Clients, then Edit on the client, under Worker messages. Client dashboard: Setup > Settings.

Text workers about their shifts: needs the SMS add-on.
Email workers about their shifts: the same messages by email.
Reminder before each shift (hours): 0 turns reminders off. For example 12 sends one 12 hours before the start (UK time).
Important

If messages are off for a client, publishing still makes the shifts live but nobody is told. Tell workers another way, or switch messages on.

Changing Published Shifts

Workers are told about changes too.

You can edit, cancel or swap a published shift. The worker is told about a change of time or site, and about a cancellation, by the same channels. A shift the worker has already clocked into cannot be unassigned, swapped or covered. See Confirmations and Cover Offers to fill a gap.

Limits

Worth knowing.

A draft for a worker who can no longer be booked (inactive, pending approval or dormant) is not published. It is taken off its slot so you can fill it.
Messages are queued and sent in the background, usually within a minute or two.
Texts are charged under the SMS add-on.

Troubleshooting

Common problems.

Problem What to do
A worker says they were not told In the agency console, check Schedule > Messages sent for the reason they were skipped, for example no consent or no UK mobile.
Publish All Drafts is not showing There are no drafts in the week and filters on screen.
Some drafts did not publish Those workers can no longer be booked. Fill the open places and publish again.
A coordinator's day (agency console)
Getting started in the client dashboard
Building the Week on the Shifts Board
Confirmations and Cover Offers
SMS add-on
Previous Shift Templates and Patterns Next Absences and Holidays
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