This article provides a demonstration of the key functions to ensure you get the best out of your employee scheduling within the Schedule Xpress database.

This article will cover the following topics around Employee Scheduling in Schedule Xpress:

The majority of the day-to-day activities of the scheduler are in the Schedule module. It is the first page that you will land on when you log in to Schedule Xpress. You can click the refresh button to view your Schedule.

Note: Dependent on which features you have enabled, the icons and their positions on the left edge of the page may be slightly different for you.

The Schedule will be comprised of different filters you can select to ensure you present your data exactly as you'd like. Let's look at some of the filters you can use.

You can use layout filters to display shifts by employee, customer, site and many more.

We encourage you to read more on the setup of layout filters.

Advanced filters are customizable filters that allow you to set the parameters of what you'd like to see in your Schedule. These are an essential tools for those who seek to find specific information.

You can click on any of the dropdowns to set select specific criteria such as employees, customers, sites or services. It can also be used to select specific shift activities and statuses.

Once your specific criteria is chosen, you can save the filter for future use.

Once saved, you can access these filters in the top left corner. These will change the way you view your Schedule.

Note: Any filters created in the Visual Scheduler section of eTime Xpress will also display here.

You can read more on customizing your advanced filters.

These filters can be used for shifts that have been created/updated but have not been saved to the database. The options to choose are:

So, for example's sake, if we update a new shift without saving it, then it will display under the Updated shifts selection. As the image shows, 1 update requires saving.

You can use the Shift Tools button to access features that allow you to create your schedule.

You can add a shift by clicking Add shift. This will bring up the Add shift form which will allow you to customize your parameters.

Alternatively, you can right click any empty space in the Schedule grid, and click Add to add a new shift.

Or, if your Schedule doesn't contain any shifts, you can press Create a new shift.

Update shift works the same as Add shift, in that once you highlight a shift to update, it brings up the shift form and allows you to customize your parameters.

Once you select a shift, you can press Delete shift to remove a shift from your Schedule.

You'll be prompted to Confirm delete and then you'll have to click the save disk to fully complete the change.

You can customize the way the Add shift form is displayed by visiting the Shift form setup.

You can copy an existing shift by right clicking on it and pressing Copy.

To paste, right click over an empty space in the Schedule, and click Paste.

You also have the options to Cut shifts. However, this will remove the shift from it's original position in the schedule.

Repeat shift can either be achieved through the Add shift form, or by right clicking over a shift that is already in your schedule.

Repeat shift allows you to customize parameters when deciding when you'd like a shift to be repeated in your future schedules.

You can choose to paste copies using either the same employee, or setting these shifts to open.

You can also choose to Repeat the shift either the same day, every "#" days, or on particular days of the week. You can choose how many times per these options that the shift is scheduled too.

These options are important when making updates to your schedule:

Note: These will be greyed out if there is no update required for the respective feature.

A shift template allows users to save time by saving a schedule of shifts that can be recalled and reused over a different period of time.

When creating a template, the first thing you'll need to ensure is that you're displaying all of the shifts you want to use as a shift template are in front of you. That includes selecting the correct date range and using any filters to display your data, as mentioned previously.

The next step will be to select these shifts. If you want to select all shifts, you can simply click select all shifts in the top left corner of your Schedule.

You'll now see all shifts are selected and will be highlighted with a checkmark in the bottom right corner of each.

You can unselect all shifts by unticking the check box in the top left corner.

You can use the 3 dots under a header to Select all shifts in row or to Unselect all shifts in row.

Or, you can choose the 3 dots by the shift date(s) to Select all shifts which overlap this date or Unselect all shifts which overlap this date.

Alternatively, you can press and drag across all shifts to select them. Or, simply click each check box in the bottom right corner to select a shift.

When you've selected your desired shifts, you can then look at creating a shift template. So, head to your Shift Tools and press Create shift template.

You'll then be prompted to create a name and description.

Once you've created a shift template, you can make amendments at any time by going to Settings > Branch features > Shift templates.

Here, you can select the template you want to modify, and click Modify template to either add a shift, update a shift or delete a shift.

You also have options to Create a template, Clone a template or Delete a template.

To apply a shift template, you can click Shift Tools and Apply shift template. Or alternatively, if your schedule doesn't contain any shifts, you can click Apply shift template on screen. See images below.

From here, you can select your template of choice and press Apply. Also, you have the option to Apply & Repeat.

Apply & Repeat allows works the same as Repeat shift. But this time, rather than a singular shift, it allows you to customize parameters when deciding when you'd like a a template to be repeated in your future schedules.

So, back to applying a shift template just once.

Once you've pressed apply, the template will still require saving for it to be applied to your schedule.

This provides a great opportunity for you to make any one-off changes to the template for the given period. This is also useful if you're receiving warnings and errors when trying to save. You can add, update or delete any shifts within the template before saving.

Note: These will not save to the template. You will have to modify the shift template in order to make these changes permanent.

Schedule Tools is a vital cog to your schedule. This tool allows for a range of updates to your Schedule:

For any of the linked features above, you can click them to access the dedicated page or header.

Replace employee is a tool that can be used to directly switch a shift from one employee to another.

That will remove the old shift from the original employee, and create a new shift for the replacement employee. This can then be save.

For more information on employee scheduling, please Contact Support now!