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Employee Scheduling - The Basics

A guideline to optimize your employee scheduling

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Written by Celayix Support
Updated over a month ago

This article highlights key features of the Celayix platform designed to enhance employee scheduling efficiency within the Schedule Xpress database.

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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.

The Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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.

Layout filters in Schedule Xpress

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.

Advanced filters in Schedule Xpress

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.

Advanced filters in Schedule Xpress

Once you've selected your desired criteria, you can save the filter for easy access in the future.

Save filter in Advanced filters in Schedule Xpress

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.

Advanced filter applied in Schedule Xpress

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.

Dynamic filters in Schedule Xpress

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.

Saving a shift in a Dynamic filter in Schedule Xpress

Shift Tools

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

Shift Tools in Schedule Xpress

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.

Add shift in Shift Tools in Schedule Xpress

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

Right click and Add shift in Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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

Create a new shift in Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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.

Update shift in Schedule Xpress

Delete shift

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

Delete shift in Schedule Xpress

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

Confirm delete in Delete shift in Schedule Xpress

Shift form

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

Shift form setup in Schedule Xpress
Shift form in Settings in Schedule Xpress

Copy and pasting an existing shift

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

Copy and pasting an existing shift in Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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

Right click and paste shift in Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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

Right click and cut shift in Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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 in Schedule Xpress
Right click and Repeat shift in Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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.

Repeat shift form in Schedule Xpress

Save, Undo, Redo, Refresh

These options are important when making updates to your schedule:

Save, Undo, Redo, Refresh in Schedule Xpress
  • 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.

Save, Undo, Redo, Refresh in Schedule Xpress

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.

Create shift template in Shift Tools in Schedule Xpress

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.

Selecting all shifts in Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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.

3 dots selector in Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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.

3 dots selector in Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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.

Create shift template in Shift Tools in Schedule Xpress

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

Create a name and description for shift template in Schedule Xpress

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.

Modifying a shift template in Settings in Shift templates in Schedule Xpress

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.

Modify template in Settings in Shift templates in Schedule Xpress

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

Create a template, Clone a template and Delete a template in Settings in Shift templates in Schedule Xpress

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.

Apply shift template in Shift Tools in Schedule Xpress

Apply & Repeat in Schedule Xpress

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

Cancel, Apply and Apply & Repeat in Shift template form in Schedule Xpress

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.

Apply & Repeat shift in Schedule Xpress

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.

Saving Apply & Repeat shifts in shift template to Schedule in Schedule Xpress

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.

Changes not made permanent in shift template without saving in Modify template in Schedule Xpress

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.

Shift grouping in Schedule Xpress

Navigate to your Selected layout display options to turn the Collapse shifts in rows to expandable groups on by checkmarking the box.

Navigate to your Selected layout display options to turn the Collapse shifts in rows to expandable groups on

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.

Check how your table header and row header groupings are set by clicking the settings cog next to your layout filter

Viewing the Table header and Row header groupings

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.

Open shifts and employee shift groupings

You can click on any collapsed shift block to expand it.

Expanding a shift grouping will show all the shifts below

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.

Editing a single shift in a shift grouping

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.

Bulk updating a shift grouping by clicking the 3 dots

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.

When a shift or group of shifts is in edit mode under a shift grouping, it will show as a hashed grey color

Schedule Tools

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.

Schedule Tools in Schedule Xpress

Replace employee

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

Replace employee in Schedule Tools in Schedule Xpress

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

Shift replaced using Replace employee in Schedule Tools in Schedule Xpress

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

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