Overview
If this is your first roster with this system, click Create a New Roster. Complete each of the panels and then save as the final step.
You can add shifts by clicking the corresponding cell and filling in the short form; or by clicking and dragging an existing shift. Switch between Staff view and Role view to obtain a better idea of coverage, and how hard you are working your staff. Keep an eye open for yellow and red-bordered shifts. These indicate a potential problem, and placing the mouse cursor over these shifts will reveal the problem and possible solutions.
When you have finished building your roster, click Check & Publish. This will perform a final check of your roster and send each of the staff featured on it, a summary of their upcoming shifts (depending on your permission setting). Each change you make to a published roster will require your confirmation, and some special menu items, like shift-swap management, and a fill-in finder. Nothing can replace the roster print out, so when you are ready, click Print & Export.
Creating a roster
To create a new roster, click the Create a new roster link found to the right of the black menu bar. The create form features the following fields:
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
| From scratch or previous | To save time you may wish to create a roster based on one you have already made in the system. To do this, select ‘Based on a previous roster’. All of the shifts, notes and settings, will be copied across, and warnings re-calculated. |
| Start date | This is the day you want the new roster to start. This should be the day after your last roster finished. If you selected ‘based on a previous roster’ in the previous step, this date will have been filled in automatically. |
| End date | This is the day you want the new roster to end. Generally this is 7 days after it starts but you may want to create a longer or shorter roster. Ensure the date is greater than the start date. |
| Name | A short name you have given the roster to help you identify it in drop down lists. This is particularly important if you have multiple rosters (for different areas) running over the same time period. |
| Budget | Your budgeted cost for the roster. If the budget has passed the roster total, found in the top corner of your roster, it will show red. You will also be given a warning when you go to publish your roster. |
| Areas | This refers to the areas the new roster will cover. These areas will show in role view and can be expanded or contracted by clicking the grey plus and minus symbols. If you have a lot of staff you may wish to consider building separate rosters for each area. |
| Work on roster now? | If you want to start working on the roster now. |
Adding shifts
The most common way of adding a shift is by clicking on the cell you wish to add it to, then selecting Add shift from the menu. Due to the alignment of the Add shift option, you can simply double click an empty area in a cell to bring up the Add shift popup. The Add (and edit) shift popup consists of the following fields:
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
| Role | This refers to the role that will be performed during the shift. Changes to this drop down will filter the options in the staff drop down, to those who have been assigned the role. Selecting a role for shifts helps you check correct coverage in role view and gives you a clearer idea about where your labour budget is being spent. |
| Staff | This refers to the staff that will be performing the shift. Changes to this drop down will filter the options in the role dropdown. Staff are ordered by star rating, then alphabetically. You can assign a new staff to a role by clicking the option at the bottom of the dropdown - Assign another staff to role. |
| Shift | This is the actual name of the shift, as you want it to appear on your roster. If you have used the shift name before, the system will retrieve the start time, end time and break details automatically. If it is the first time you have used this name for a shift, the system will attempt to guess the start time, end time and break details; then prompt you to check it. |
| Break length | This is the amount of unpaid time the shift includes. The most popular selections are shown at the top of the dropdown. |
| Shift start | This is the actual start time of the shift. If the shift does not have a start time, consider adding it as a note instead. |
| Shift end | This is the actual end time of the shift. If the end time is lower than start time it is assumed the shift runs into the next day. |
| Break start | The actual start time of the break. This is important for working out which pay loading bracket the break falls in. |
Another way to add a shift is by taking a copy of an existing one. To do this, click the name of the shift you wish to copy and select Copy shift. Click the cell you wish to put it in, and select Paste shift. If the shift belongs to a role that the staff has not been assigned to (or a staff the role has not been a ssigned to, depending on the view you are in); it will be assigned. You can paste the same shift multiple times or remove it from your ‘Clipboard’ by scrolling to the bottom of your roster and clicking Clear clipboard.
The fastest way to copy a shift from one place in the roster to another is by holding the CTRL key on your keyboard, clicking down on the shift you wish to copy, and dragging it into the cell you wish to add it to.
Deleting shifts
To delete a shift, click on it and select Delete shift from the menu. Alternatively, you can click and drag this shift into the small bin found in the bottom corner of the roster.
Editing shifts
To edit a shift, click on it and select Edit shift from the menu. Alternatively, click and drag it to the staff or role you want to change it to; depending on the view you are in.
Shift warnings
A major advantage of the roster builder is that potential problems with your roster are calculated in real-time (as you add shifts). If the border of a recently added shift goes red or yellow there could be a problem. To find out more about the warning, hover your mouse over the shift. Here is a summary of the warnings:
| Warning name | Caused by |
|---|---|
| Time-off clash | Found if a shift falls in the time range of an approved time-off for a staff. Give this shift to another staff or remove the time-off request. |
| Shift overlap | Used if the end time of one shift is later than the start time of another shift for the same staff. Give the shift to another staff or change the start / end time. |
| Maximum hours per roster exceeded | This warning shows if the total billable hours during the roster period you are viewing, exceed the limit set on the company settings page (or individually on the staff record). Shifts on other rosters during the time period are also factored in. Shorten some of their shifts, assign one of their shifts to someone else, or increase the max hour limit. |
| Maximum consecutive days exceeded | Found if the number of days the staff has worked in a row exceed the limit set on the company settings page (or individually on the staff record). Shifts on other rosters (before, after and during) are factored in. Assign a shift to someone else, or increase the max consecutive shift limit. |
| Minimum between shifts exceeded | Found if the time between the end of one shift, and the start of the next one, is less than the limit which is set on the company settings page (or individually on the staff record). Shifts on other rosters (before, after and during) are factored in. Give the shift to another staff, change the start / end time, or lower the minimum hours between shift limit. |
Adding a note
Notes can be used to communicate non-shift information, to staff on your roster. Notes can be added to any cell, or day heading, by clicking where you want it added, then selecting Add note. The Add note popup has the following fields:
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
| Role | This refers to the role the note relates to. If no role is selected, it will be added, under the day heading, in role view. |
| Staff | This is the staff the note relates to. If no staff are selected, it will be added under the day heading in staff view. |
| Note | Here are the contents of the note which you want to add to the roster. We recommend keeping this as short as possible so that it does not interrupt with the layout, when it comes to printing. |
| Visibility | This defines who you want to be able to see the note. If ‘Anyone’ is selected; any staff that has access to view full rosters will see the note. If ‘Managers’ is selected, only you and other managers can view the note. |
Editing and deleting notes
Editing and deleting notes on your roster can be done in a similar fashion to editing and deleting shifts; as explained above.
Roster publishing
When you have finished building your roster you should ‘publish’ it. Publishing a roster does a final check for problems and sends each of your staff a summary of their shifts (as per your settings). The checks preformed during the publishing of your roster are:
| Warning name | Description |
|---|---|
| Shift warnings | A summary of the remaining shift warnings (see above) on your roster. |
| Over budget | This shows if the total cost of the billable hours on your roster exceeds the amount you specified when you created the roster. The value and percentage your roster is over budget by will be indicated. |
| Distribution problem | This will be seen if the total SMS credits you need to send roster summaries exceeds the amount of credit you have remaining. If you proceed to publish the roster some staff will not receive summaries. You can always resend the failed messages via your Message and Notification History page. |
Once you have published your roster some of the functionality will change. For more information about working on a Published roster, click here.
Other features
Statistics – Most of the values on your roster can be moused-over for additional information and historical data.
Printing your roster – You can print or export your roster by clicking the Print & Export button. For a detailed guide on printing your roster, click here.
Changing the roster in view – To change the roster in view, click the View another roster link found to the right of the black menu bar. Select the roster you wish to work on, and then click Go and View.
Re-ordering staff or roles – You can re-order the values, down the vertical access of your roster in staff and role view. This is useful if you want to move the senior members of your business, to the top of the roster in staff view; or perhaps the supervisor type roles, to the top of their areas in role view.
To move a row, hover your mouse over the small space next to its label, on the far left edge of the roster. When the arrows appear, click on them and drag the row into its new position.
Minimising areas you are not working on – While working in role view, you might wish to hide the areas you are not adding shifts to. This can speed up the interface and allow you to focus on the needs of each area individually, without building separate rosters.
Moving popups – You can move popups by clicking and dragging their edges.
Adding time-off – Time-off records can be created on the roster building interface directly. For information on the time-off form, go to the Manage time-off page of the user manual.
Roster notes – Notes added in the box will be shown at the bottom of printed rosters, and to your staff if they have the full roster viewing preference set as ‘yes’. Changes to the contents of this box are saved automatically.