Repeating Shifts

WorkRoster has a powerful and easy-to-use "Repeating Shift" feature. It allows you to set up automatically repeating shifts, for any shift pattern your business might have. The repeating pattern of a repeating shift is shown in the Shift Details box.

Repeating Shifts throughout WorkRoster are identified by a Clock Face icon with a double set of clock hands.

After a shift has been created, it can be set to automatically repeat by clicking on the "Repeat" link in the shift details box.

On mobile, you can use the Repeat Shift button.

A shift can be set to repeat automatically using different patterns.

I'll show you some now.

The most simple pattern is to repeat the Shift every day.

Or a Shift can be repeated every 2nd day. Or every 3rd day, et cetera.

A Shift can also be set to repeat weekly. For example, every Saturday.

Or Every Saturday and Monday.

Weekly shifts can be set to repeat every 2nd week. Or 3rd week, et cetera. Here is a Shift that will repeat every second Saturday.

A Shift can be set to repeat on the same day each month.

This Shift will repeat on the 2nd and 16th of every month.

Shifts can also be set to repeat by the week of the month. This Shift is set to repeat on the first Wednesday of every month.

Repeating shifts can be set to automatically repeat forever. Or, they can be set to repeat through until to a specified end date.

When repeating a shift that already has assignments, you can set it with the original assignments included.

Or, You can set a shift to repeat without the original assignments.

When assigning an Employee, Client, or Resource, to a Repeating Shift, you’ll be asked if you’d like to assign it to just that particular shift,

or, to all shifts in the series from that date,

or, to a specific date range.

When REMOVING an Employee, Client, or Resource, from a Repeating Shift, you’ll be asked if you’d like to remove it from just that particular shift,

or, from all shifts in the series from the selected shift onwards,

or, from all shifts, which is all shifts from today,

or, from a selected date range.

For Assignments on Repeating Shifts, the repeating pattern is displayed when you hover your mouse over the Activity icon on an assignment.

Because assignments are frequently added, removed, and changed, on Repeating Shifts, the pattern for a Repeating Assignment might differ from the Repeating Shift itself.

You can edit a Repeating Shift,

You can Edit the whole series, which is all planned shifts that are yet to occur.

Or, you can edit a Repeating Shift forward from the selected date. This action will effectively split the original series into two different repeating shifts.

Or, you can first exclude a shift from a Repeating Series, before making changes to just that Shift.

After a Repeating Shift has occurred, and it is in the past, it is automatically removed from the series. The system changes these completed repeating shifts back into regular stand-alone non-repeating shifts, and they are shown as such.

Let’s now look as some real examples of Repeating Shifts.

Example 1.

Let's say you have a roster shift pattern that is 2 days on and 2 days off. So, this is a shift pattern that will repeat every 4 days. First we create all of the individual shifts in the initial 4 day period.

Then we can then set each initial shift to automatically repeat every 4 days.

Now we can see the pattern of 2 days on and 2 days off is repeating as required.

Example 2.

Lisa is assigned to the 9am shift with client, Brian, everyday.

This Saturday, Lisa will be on Holiday.

So they can be removed from just the Saturday shift.

And Peter can be assigned in their place, just for that one shift.

Example 3.

Ben works every weekday from 10 am to 3 pm, but from the 21st, Lisa will take over this Shift.

Ben can be removed from the Shift on the 21st, using "From This Date Onwards".

And Lisa can be assigned to the Shift on the 21st, using "All Shifts from the selected date".

The changes have been made, and are clearly displayed on the roster.

Example 4.

The Afternoon Shift runs from midday to 5 pm. But from the 19th the shift will run from 12 to 6 and be called the New Afternoon Shift.

The Shift can be edited on the 12th. Using "Edit the series Forward from this shift".

You can see there is now two repeating shifts on the roster.

Example 5.

On the 18th, the Afternoon shift will run overtime due to a big booking.

Before we can make adjustments to this shift, it needs to be excluded from the regular repeating series.

Now that it is excluded, it is a normal shift, and we can make changes to the shift title and shift times without affecting the rest of the series.

Example 6.

Repeating shifts and regular shifts can be mixed together on a single Roster.

To help manage Repeating Shifts and irregular one-off stand alone shifts, some businesses might like to consider running multiple rosters.

One for the repeating shifts

And another for the stand-alone shifts.

Conclusion.

Repeating Shifts is a powerful and easy to use feature. If your business has a regular shift pattern then you can create a "Set-And-Forget" roster. Your shifts will be continuously and automatically planned 12 months in advance.

You can easily adjust the shifts or assignments to allow for public holidays, employee holidays, or other business reasons.

Thank You.