This article is going to show you how to create your first rota, and familiarise you with the basic functions and buttons you'll see for rota-building and rota-editing on the Scheduler page.
If you haven't already, you might want to start by reading an overview of the page itself, in our article Scheduler overview, filters and tools.
Adding Shifts:
To create a brand new schedule, your Scheduler will be blank. My schedule above runs from Sunday-Saturday but yours will be to your companies week start day. Days run along the top with employees down the side.
Each box then represents what the person is going to be scheduled to do that day. If you hover over an empty cell, you will see a + box in the bottom right hand corner.
This will open up a modal where you can specify the details you want for the shift.
The location of the shift. If you have access to other or read-only locations you can choose which location your employee is going to work in.
Every shift needs a start and end time
Depending on your company settings you may also be able to define "Tasks" within the shift
Break Length and whether it is paid or unpaid)for this length of shift will typically 'auto-fill' based on your company's rules, but can be edited if needed.
You can (you don't have to) give your shift a name which will show on the mobile app to all employees if team view is turned on; or add a comment which is solely for the employee you're adding this too.
You can add all these details from scratch or you can use a previously created a custom shift. If you want to make custom shifts, follow this link to the relevant article.
Annual Leave that has been approved in advance for the week you're viewing will appear in the Scheduler automatically. You can interact with it (update/delete it) from here too, if you need to, unless your company does not manage leave through Rotageek.
Editing Shifts:
Click on the shift you want to edit, and the modal box will re-open which allows you to edit all the same details that you could set when creating a new shift.
If you hover over a shift, you also can copy the shift to other employees, move the shift or delete the shift. If you choose to copy or move, you can only move to employees who are available and have the right skill set if your company uses skills.
You can also move the shifts to the gaps row here.
Approving the Scheduler:
When you add a shift or edit a shift in the Scheduler, it will be in draft mode. This means your employee will not be able to see it on the web app or mobile app. Any changes you make to this shift will not update the employee so you can make as many changes as you need.
Once you've built your schedule, you need to approve it to finalise the rota.
To do this, click the green approve button in the top right corner. The number in the bubble tells you 'how many' shifts are in draft awaiting Approval. Pressing Approve will send a notification to any employees for whom there are new shifts / any changes, letting them know that their schedule has been updated.
By default, the approve button will approve all shifts on this location for this week, but the cogwheel allows you to choose a longer or shorter date range and specific employee(s).
More advanced options
If you're editing a shift, there are a couple of additional options at the bottom of the dialogue-box. You can move the shifts to gap, or mark it as leave if your company manages leave on Rotageek, or both.
This will be used when you need to update the Schedule when you learn an employee is Sick and you may need to find cover via the gaps row. We have articles on both leave and gaps within our help centre to explain how these features work.
When adding a new shift, you will also see there is a 'leave' and 'availability' section.
As mentioned above, any approved leave will automatiycally show on the scheduler. However, if your company manages leave on Rotageek, you can also add any requestable or requestable leave on the scheduler directly. If these have balances, they will be deducted.
You can also edit or add new availability for an employee on a specific day.