Shift templates and Generate
A template is a shift pattern: a role, the days, the times and how many shifts. Generate turns your templates into open shifts on the board.
Add a template
Open Work item templates and select New. Fill in:
- Name, and the Calendar of your board.
- Role: the shifts take this role.
- Days of week, Start and End. An End earlier than the Start ends the next day, for a night shift.
- How many: shifts to make on each of those days.
- Group and Subgroup: where the shifts sit on the board.
- Shift title: the title of each shift. Leave it empty to use the Name.
Only templates set to Active generate shifts.
A rotation
For a pattern that changes from week to week, add one template for each week. Set Cycle length to the number of weeks in the rotation and Cycle week to the template’s week. Week 1 starts on the site’s Period starts on. See Roster periods and publishing.
Shifts that follow demand
A template can also make more shifts when a number goes up, such as guests or orders. See Demand and coverage.
Generate
On the board, select Generate:
- With a roster period on the board, it fills that period.
- Without one, it asks for the dates: set From and To, then select Generate.
The new shifts are open, with the template’s role, group and subgroup. They keep their times when Auto Schedule runs: it changes only who works them.
Add one shift
On the board, select + New event, or draw on the grid. The Shift form opens in a side panel with the person, day, times and site filled in. Save it, and the shift shows on the board.
Breaks and split shifts
In a template’s Breaks grid, select New for each break: set Kind to Break, then Starts after and Length in minutes, a Label, and Paid. Generate gives each shift the template’s breaks.
A break longer than the template’s Split threshold makes a split shift: Generate makes one shift for each part, and the parts stay linked. An empty Split threshold is 60 minutes. Select Same person for both parts when one person must work both parts. Without it, Auto Schedule still tries to give both parts to one person.
On a shift’s form, Start and End show the site’s time, and your own time under them when it is different. The breaks are rows under the times. On a saved shift, a break longer than the Split threshold offers Split: the shift ends where the break starts, and a linked second part starts where it ends. A part of a split shift shows the other part.
Run it again
Generate again whenever your templates change. It adds the shifts that are missing and removes the extra shifts nobody has touched. A shift that you edited, assigned or pinned stays, with a note that the templates no longer need it.
Generate shows on the board when your calendar has active templates.