How the schedule reaches the counter and the reports

A schedule is only useful if it changes something. This page lists every place the schedule reaches, so you know what to expect when you turn it on.

On a line that follows the schedule, and where the line asks Who would you like?, each person is shown the way they really are today.

• If a visitor had picked someone who turns out not to be in today, the page sets them to First available and says so.
• Appointments with a named person are offered only on the days and hours that person works.
• A line that does not follow the schedule shows none of this — visitors can pick anyone.

• Above the Call next tiles for each person, a person who is not at a counter is no longer a plain warning. If their shift has not begun it says “Ben starts 14:00”. If the schedule says they are away, finished or off today it says “Maya is away — anyone serving this line can call them” with how many are waiting, so nobody waits for someone who is not there. The rule “If their person is away, anyone on that line can call them” controls this. Off: only that person’s own counter can call them.
• Change who they asked for moves a visitor to the cover, to First available or to a named person. They keep their place in the line, it is written to the Activity record with your name, and it is not a transfer. Staff serving the line, managers and the owner can do it.
• When a leave moves waiting visitors and appointments to a cover, the visitors keep their place. See Schedule: Leave and cover.

Only if you switch on Staff can take a counter only around their shift in Rules, a person with a schedule can take a counter from 30 minutes before a shift starts until 30 minutes after it ends. It applies at the moment of taking a counter or taking one over. It never signs anyone out and never stops someone with a visitor. Owners and the manager of the location are never refused. See Schedule: Rules.

• A line with nobody on it — “Nobody is scheduled on Saturday 09:00–13:00. The line may have no one to serve it.” Shown up to a week ahead, on lines that follow the schedule, never for a closed day. It appears as a Warning (the amber Warnings badge and Needs attention on the Dashboard), with an Open schedule button.
• Someone is not in — only when you switch on “Warn me when someone is not in”. “Maya is scheduled but isn’t in. Visitors waiting for them can’t be called.” It clears itself when she arrives or goes on leave.
• No timetable — “Daniel has no timetable. The schedule can’t plan around them.”
• These go to the owner and to managers of that location who have Manage the schedule. Like other floor warnings they stay quiet outside opening hours, and you can snooze them until closing. The bell does not carry them; the only schedule item in the bell is “Your shift has changed”, for the person whose shifts were changed.
• See Dashboard: every Needs attention message.

Reports → Hours and work by person. With staff scheduling on, this report becomes a plan-against-reality table. Choose Each person or By group. It shows the scheduled hours, the hours at work, the difference, late starts, days missed and unusual sign-ins. Press a person’s name to see their days, with first and last seen and a note for each day.

• It counts time signed in, at a counter or serving — not breaks, training or work away from the floor. So it is a planning check, not a pay record.
• A late start is a first sign more than the “not in” minutes after the shift began. A day missed is a scheduled day with no sign of the person and no leave. An unusual sign-in is on a device the person has not used before, or while on leave. It is something to look at, not proof of anything.
• A person who never signs in is listed as “Does not sign in — not counted”.
• The download carries scheduled hours only.

Analytics → Roster (only shown while staff scheduling is on) answers Was the plan right? For each hour it compares the people on the roster, the people really there and the people who came, and marks hours with too few staff or more than needed. It also lists the times a line was open with nobody scheduled, the days of leave and how the usual wait compared on those days, the last-minute changes to shifts, and the visits served on each shift. Late starts and missed days are in the Hours and work by person report: the tab links to it with Open the report.

• A person with no timetable works whenever the line is open, exactly as before.
• Opening hours are separate from the schedule. They say when the line is open.
• Nobody is ever blocked from serving a visitor they are with.
• If the schedule cannot be read, everything behaves as if there were no schedule. It can never lock your business out.

Related: Schedule: who works when · Reports & exports · Analytics