Schedule: who works when
Schedule is where you say when you are open and, if you want it, who works when. Visitors then see who is in and who is away, and an appointment with a named person is offered only on the days that person works.
Who sees Schedule
| Person | What they see |
|---|---|
| Owner | Everything, at every location. Only the owner can turn staff scheduling on or off. |
| Manager | Schedule for the locations they manage. They see the Hours tab to change opening hours. Once staff scheduling is on, they also see Rules, Shifts, Rosters, Staff and Leave — as long as the owner has left their Manage the schedule permission on. See Who can manage the schedule. |
| Staff | No Schedule page. While staff scheduling is on they have My calendar instead, which shows only their own days and appointments. |
The tabs
The tabs run in the order of the work. Each one has its own page in this help centre.
| Tab | What it is for | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Rules | A handful of switches for the whole location — what the schedule checks, what happens at leave, what visitors may do, and the counter rule. | Schedule: Rules |
| Hours | When the location and each line is open, special days, and copying hours to other locations. Every business has this tab. | Schedule: Hours |
| Shifts | The named blocks of hours people work, like “Morning” or “Full day”. | Schedule: Shifts |
| Rosters | A week of shifts that repeats. You build it once and give it to people. | Schedule: Rosters |
| Staff | The week for everyone, a Today view, and Assign to give people their roster. | Schedule: the week and Assign |
| Leave | Who is away, who covers, and what happens to their visitors. | Schedule: Leave and cover |
Above the tabs, the Schedule checks panel tells you about gaps and clashes before a visitor meets them — see Schedule checks.
The five set-up steps
While anything is left to do, each tab wears a number, and the next one carries a small Do this now label. A tick means done. A step that does not apply to you reads “not needed” — for example Shifts and Rosters when everyone simply works your opening hours. Nothing is locked: you can open any tab at any time.
- Rules. Read the usual choices, change what you like, then press Save rules. They are already switched on in the usual way, so saving is quick. Saving finishes step 1 and offers Go to Hours.
- Hours. Set when you are open. Step 2 is done once the location has opening hours.
- Shifts. Add the blocks of hours people work, or make them from your opening hours.
- Rosters. Build a week of shifts and let it repeat.
- Staff. Press Assign to put people on a roster.
When all five are done or not needed, the numbers disappear and the tabs are plain words.
Turning staff scheduling on
Until the owner turns it on, the Staff tab shows Set who works when with three ways to start. Each one turns staff scheduling on and takes you to the right place.
| Choice | What it does |
|---|---|
| Just record who is away | Turns scheduling on and opens Leave. Pick the person and the dates — nothing else to set up. Everyone else keeps working whenever the line is open. |
| Everyone works our opening hours | Turns scheduling on and ticks “Works whenever we are open” for everyone. You then change only the odd days. It follows the open windows exactly: a day with three or more windows gets one shift per window, so the person is away between them and in for every open window. At an always-open location nobody gets a shift. |
| We work in shifts | Turns scheduling on and starts at Rules, then Hours, Shifts and Rosters. |
After you turn it on, the page tells you which lines now follow the schedule. A line that does not follow the schedule ignores it.
Turning it off again
The switch Staff scheduling is on is at the bottom of Rules, and only the owner sees it. Turning it off asks you to confirm.
- Visitors, at every location, stop seeing who is in, who is away and when a person is back, and can pick any person on a line again.
- Appointments with a named person are offered on any day the line is open.
- Nothing is deleted. Your shifts, rosters and leave are kept. Turn it back on and everything returns.
Common questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| A person has no timetable. Can visitors still pick them? | Yes. A person with no shift, roster or leave works whenever the line is open, exactly as before the schedule existed. |
| Does it change what a visitor sees today? | Only on lines that follow the schedule. Each line has a Follows the schedule switch — see the Staff tab. |
| Where do my opening hours go? | On the Hours tab. Hours work for every business, with or without staff scheduling. |
| I changed something in the past by mistake. | A change to a day that has already happened corrects the record and the report. It does not change what visitors saw that day. |
| Who is told when a shift changes? | The person gets a bell notice, “Your shift has changed”. That covers a change made with Set a shift for many, a manager editing their own week, copying a person's week or a day, saving a roster's weeks, and a named cover on leave. Undoing a change to many people tells them again. |
| What does a visitor see when someone is away? | “Not in today · back …”. If the person is back within six days it names the day; if later, it shows a short date such as “back Nov 11”. |
| Which day does a new location's week start on? | It follows the location's time zone: Sunday for the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, the Philippines and Israel, Saturday for the Gulf and Egypt, Monday elsewhere. Existing locations are not changed, and you can change it any time under Hours, Week starts on. |
| Someone works through midnight. Which day is it? | After midnight, Today still lists a person on last night's shift in that shift's column, and measures “late” from that shift's start. |
Related: Schedule: Rules · Schedule: Hours · My calendar · How the schedule reaches the counter and the reports