This article highlights key features of the Celayix platform designed to enhance employee scheduling efficiency within the Schedule Xpress database.
This article will cover the following topics around Employee Scheduling in Schedule Xpress:
Your Schedule
Filters
Shift Tools
Collapsible shift grouping
Schedule Tools
Your Schedule
Most of the scheduler's daily activities are carried out in the Schedule module, which is the default page you’ll land on when you log into Schedule Xpress. To view your schedule, simply click the refresh button.
Note: Depending on the features you have enabled, the icons and their positions on the left side of the page may vary slightly.
Filters
The Schedule includes various filters that allow you to customize the display of your data to meet your specific needs. Here are some of the filters you can use.
Layout filters
Layout filters enable you to view shifts by employee, customer, site, and more.
You can learn how to setup your layout filters by reading our Layout manager article.
Advanced filters
Advanced filters are customizable tools that let you define specific parameters for what you want to see in your Schedule. They are essential for users looking to pinpoint particular information quickly and efficiently.
You can click on any of the dropdown menus to select specific criteria, such as employees, customers, sites, or services. Additionally, these filters allow you to narrow down results based on shift activities and statuses.
Once you've selected your desired criteria, you can save the filter for easy access in the future.
Once saved, you can access these filters from the top left corner of the screen. They will adjust the way your Schedule is displayed.
Note: Any filters created in the Visual Scheduler section of eTime Xpress will also appear here.
You can learn more about customizing your advanced filters in our detailed guide.
Dynamic filters
These filters can be applied to shifts that have been created or updated but have not yet been saved to the database. The available options are:
New shifts.
Updated shifts.
Shifts with warnings.
Shifts with errors.
Shifts modified by another user.
For example, if you update a shift without saving it, it will appear under the "Updated Shifts" filter. As shown in the image, one update requires saving before it is finalized.
Shift Tools
You can use the Shift Tools button to access features that help you create and manage your schedule.
Add shift
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
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.
Delete shift
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.
Shift form
You can customize the way the Add shift form is displayed by visiting the Shift form setup.
Copy and pasting an existing shift
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
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.
Save, Undo, Redo, Refresh
These options are important when making updates to your schedule:
Saving any changes (red). The icon shows the number of shifts or changes to be saved. You're better off saving often.
Undoing any changes (green)
Redoing any changes (purple)
Refreshing the schedule (yellow). Use this to see the latest view of the schedule, including changes that your colleagues may be making.
Note: These will be greyed out if there is no update required for the respective feature.
Create shift template
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.
Selecting shifts
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.
Select all shifts
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.
3 dots selector
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.
Modifying a shift template
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.
Apply shift 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
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.
Collapsible shift grouping
Collapsible shift grouping ensures you can collapse shifts based on your table header grouping and row header grouping configurations.
This improved layout is designed to minimize the number of shifts you need to scroll through on screen.
Note: This is only for timeline view.
Navigate to your Selected layout display options to turn the Collapse shifts in rows to expandable groups on by checkmarking the box.
Once the feature is turned on, we'd recommend you click inside your layout filter to determine how your table header and row header grouping is set. See below images.
Once you've determined your groupings, you'll understand the way the schedule groups the shifts.
See the example below. The shifts are grouped by employee.
You can click on any collapsed shift block to expand it.
If you want to adjust a single shift under a shift grouping, you can double-tap the shift and edit it in the shift panel on the right side.
If you want to adjust ALL of the shifts under a shift grouping, you can click the 3 dots in the top right corner of the shift block and choose between:
Edit
Cut
Copy
Delete
Repeat
This will allow you to bulk update the shifts in the highlighted shift group.
If at least one shift is currently in edit mode, a hashed background will be shown at group level to indicate the presence of unsaved shifts in the group.
Schedule Tools
Schedule Tools is a vital cog to your schedule. This tool allows for a range of updates to your Schedule:
Suggest employee
Verify schedule
Test alerts
For any of the linked features above, you can click them to access the dedicated page or header.
Replace employee
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!