Adding Shifts on your Roster

Whilst it's not essential to follow along, this article assumes you have already read An Overview of the Roster and are familiar with the different roster views, filters, and concepts used within the roster screen. This article will cover how to add shifts, including the various settings on the shift modal. 

If you are editing a shift, there are some small changes to the shift modal, and we recommend reading - Editing a Shift.

Adding Shifts

When adding shifts, you click the plus button for the date and best row for the shift. Depending on your roster view, the row will represent a staff, position or site.

Once the shift modal opens, you can start adding your shift.

PICTURED: Add Shift Modal -The shift modal has some small variations based on whether you are adding a shift, editing a draft shift, editing a published shift or viewing a shift in the past.

The shift modal above has the following components:

Header - Includes the date and day for the shift.
Shift Metrics - The left column of data - Shift metrics require you to have selected a minimum of a site, position and staff member and will refresh as you change the shift.
Select Site - You can click and select your site or type and tab to the next field. This will be prefilled when viewing the roster by Site.
Select Position - You can click and select your position or type and tab to the next field. This will be prefilled when viewing the roster by Position.
Start and Finish Times - Click and type the time in a 24-hour format from 00:00 to 23:59. You don't need to type the ':'.
Select Staff - You can click and select your staff or type and tab to the next field. This will be prefilled when viewing the roster by Staff. To enable our perfect match system to help you roster available staff, you first need to have a site and position selected.
Mark as Open Shift Checkbox - If you tick the Mark as Open Shift checkbox, the Select Staff field will clear. Similarly, if you've ticked the checkbox and selected a staff, the checkbox will be unticked. If you publish the shift as an Open Shift, it will be sent to everyone who qualifies for the shift, provided that the shift is published outside of the cutoff time in the Roster Settings.
Custom Unpaid Break Toggle - Before using custom breaks, you can define standard unpaid breaks in the roster settings, which will automatically deduct the defined number of minutes from every shift you roster based on the length of the shift. However, if you need a custom break, toggle it on and add a label into the shift type field, then set a start time and duration. For a comparison of standard and custom breaks, click here.
Repeat this Shift Toggle - Repeating shifts allow you to add a shift for the selected days and duration. For example, the selected staff member might need to work at the same site and position every Monday and Thursday for the next three weeks. You can toggle on the setting, select the days and select the number of weeks to repeat.
Shift Notes - Shift notes allow you to provide details to the staff member assigned to the shift. It could be notes about the client they are visiting, a big event coming up that needs preparation or anything else they need to get done or be aware of for the shift.
Save as Draft - Saving as a draft is recommended whenever you add more than one shift in the same roster period or aren't ready to publish. For instance, when creating a new roster, making several changes to an existing roster or adding a shift that you aren't entirely sure you need yet. When saving as a draft, you can return and publish the shift or use the Publish Drafts option to publish shifts in one go at the end. Also note that each time you publish shift(s), the shift or shifts are communicated to the staff member via the selected choices in the Publish Shift(s) modal. So, you could be spamming them with communication. 
Publish Shift - Publishing a shift individually is commonly used when the roster is already published, and a new shift is required. It can also be used for urgent shifts that must be communicated immediately.