Shift templates

Shift templates are very useful for those who expect to have static schedules each week/month that require minimal change.This tool allows you to save a selection of shifts which can be pasted and repeated in the future for any period within the future.

In this article, we're going explore the following for Shift Templates in Schedule Xpress:

Create a best-fit schedule

Creating your Shift template

Selecting your Shift template

Applying your Shift template

Shift templates in Settings

If you're looking to create a Shift template, then your first step is to create a schedule that best fits the needs of your company and its employees.

Although we'd recommend doing this by the week as it gives you a more focused view, you can create a template for up to a month.

Once your best-fit schedule has been created, you can look at creating a template.

Now that your schedule is in place, let's look at the steps to creating your Shift template.

First, you'll need to highlight all the shifts that you want to be associated with the Shift template.

You can use the Select all shifts to highlight all the shifts that can be seen in your Schedule, or use the 3 dots selector to highlight specific columns or rows. Alternatively, you can check the shifts one by one or drag to select a range of shifts.

Once the shifts are highlighted, click Shift Tools > Create shift template.

There are two ways that a template can be created.

The first option is the simplest. From the Schedule, you can click Shift Tools > Create shift template.

Alternatively, you can go to your Settings > Branch features > Shift templates > Create template.

Note: This is a second option to create a Shift template. Rather than creating shift in your Schedule and highlighting them to create a template, you'll add shifts to build this Shift template.

So, let's look at how you can use the first option to create a template straight from your Schedule.

The next step is to Name your template and give it a Description.

For the Description, we recommend writing the start day. For example, Sunday start. This is to ensure you click the correct Apply template from when pasting the template.

Before applying a Shift template, you should locate the date range you're looking to paste the template in to.

Note: If there's no shifts, you can press the Apply shift template in the center of the screen. It's also important to note that even if there are shifts, you can still paste the template.

For example, if your template runs from Sunday through to Saturday, you'll need to ensure that the Apply template from is set to the date of Sunday.

Important: If you don't choose the correct day to start the template on, it will be default paste into the first day in your date range.

If you know the name of your Shift template, you can type it in the search bar.

Alternatively, you can scroll to find it in the list.

Before applying the Shift template, ensure you checkmark it.

You can use the Show more and Show less options to expand and collapse the Shift template data. When expanded, the data will show:

Now let's look at Applying your Shift template.

Once you press Apply, you'll noticed that your Schedule is pasted in. The next step is to Save your template. But before you save, you'll need to know more about Apply template from, and how you can make temporary or permanent changes to your templates.

The Apply template from is fundamental in the placement of your schedule in the given date period.

Note: It will always default to the starting date of the current date range shown on your screen. For example, if you're showing the week from Sunday 3rd September - Saturday 9th September, then the default day to paste your template will be the first day of your work week (Sunday).

However, if your template Description is listed as anything other than your week start day, you'll need to choose the relevant day of the week in the Apply template from. For a Monday start, you'd choose 09/04/2023.

If you want to make temporary changes in your schedule, you can add, update, or delete the shifts once you've pasted them in.

If you want to make permanent changes to a template, you can either modify your template in Shift templates in Settings, or, make adjustment to shifts in your Schedule, highlight them, and rewrite over the existing template.

Once highlighted, you can go to Create shift template, and name it the exact same as the previous. It will offer you the option to save over the existing template.

Press on the Save disk to paste your template. The template will then be pasted in.

If your template contains a lot of shifts, it's likely that you'll receive warnings and errors.

We recommend that you use your Dynamic Filters as the best way to handle them.

You also have the option to Apply & Repeat.

The Paste copies section allows you to paste copies for shifts using the employee or setting the shifts to Open.

The Repeat section allows you to repeat shifts in the template the same day or every number of days, based on the parameters you set.

You'll now see that your Shift template has been pasted.

Let's now look at how you can edit that template.

You can view and edit Shift templates by going to Settings > Branch features > Shift templates.

Inside the Shift templates module, you can Modify, Create, Clone and Delete a Shift template.

Once you've created a Shift template, you can make amendments at any time through modifying your template. 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.

You can create a template by adding shifts to build it. You can also Clone or Delete an existing template.

For more information on shift templates, please Contact Support now!