Shifts and time off

Every person’s hours repeat weekly, and for most crews that is all there is. When it is not — somebody works every other Saturday, covers Thursday for a colleague, or starts early for a week — Shifts & time off says so, and everything that schedules reads the day as it really is. It also keeps the rota of who is on call, gets work that arrives after hours to them, and lets the crew ask for time off in the app instead of in a text thread.

Add the tool

Add Shifts & time off from the Tools page. It is on every plan and needs Workers. Until you add it, each person works the same week every week, exactly as before.

It builds on each person’s hours and time away, which every business keeps on the person’s page — see Set each person’s hours and time away.

Give somebody a second week

On a person’s page, open Schedule. Under Every other week, press Alternate with a second week.

Their usual hours are week A. Set week B the same way — each day off, or one stretch, or two for a split day — and say whether This week is week A or week B. Weeks run Monday to Sunday, and every other week from then on is week B.

Stop alternating makes every week their usual one again.

Change a day or a week

Under Changed days, press Change days. Choose the First day and the Last day — one day, a run of days, or The whole week — and give each day its own hours, or untick it for a day off. A Note is for the office and the person, never anybody else.

A change replaces the day: 7:00 to 11:00 means 7:00 to 11:00 and nothing else. A day changed to off is not time away — nobody was due to work it. Change a day again to replace it, or Remove the change to give them their usual day back. A day that has passed is the record of what was worked, and stays listed for a year.

Keep a rota of who is on call

Open Who is on call from the Day Board, or the On call tab of Shifts & time off on the Tools page, and press Add. Choose Who, the day and time they go on call and the day and time they come off — Friday 5:00 PM to Monday 8:00 AM — and a note if you like. Repeat puts them on every week or every other week, as many times as you say, up to 26; each repeat is its own, so you can change one week without touching the others. Two people can be on call at once.

On call is not working time. Online booking never offers it, and nobody’s hours change. But work timed inside the stretch is theirs to be sent: drag an evening call onto their lane and the board does not ask, and with Scheduling & dispatch, Who should do this lists them for it, on call among the reasons. Time away wins — somebody away for part of their stretch is not on call then, and the rota says so.

The rota says when somebody won’t be told on their phone: they do not sign in, or have not allowed notifications. Each person’s page shows their own stretches on its Schedule tab, and archiving somebody takes them off the rota ahead.

Get after-hours work to whoever is on call

When work comes in outside your Hours of Operation while somebody is on call, it reaches them at once instead of waiting for the office to open:

• a lead from your public page, a client’s referral link, the directory, or a door you connected — a form, your inbound lead address, a lead partner;
• a call your assistant answered and took a request from;
• a visit booked online.

Each person on call finds it at the top of For you — After hours: new lead, Tom Bradshaw — with a notification on their phone if they allow them. The item carries what a call back needs: the name, Call with the number, where, and what they asked for or booked. Opening the lead itself stays with whoever may see leads. Calls are not forwarded: your assistant still tells a caller somebody will call back, and this is how somebody does.

Press Handled when it is dealt with. It leaves every on-call person’s queue, and the lead, the booked job or the call says Came in after hours — handled by whoever it was, and when. It also leaves on its own once the office acts on the lead, the call or the booking, or when your hours open again — from then it is the office’s, as any lead is.

Nothing changes for the office: the lead, call or booking arrives where it always has. With nobody on call, or during your hours, nobody new is told; a business that keeps no Hours of Operation has no after hours.

Let the crew ask for time off

Anybody who signs in as somebody on your roster finds Ask for time off on My Day and on their profile, under Your hours and time away. They choose a day, a run of days or Part of one day, and can add a note. With Timesheets added they also choose the Kind of time off — Vacation, Sick or Unpaid, starting as Unpaid — and see the hours each day would count, worked out from their day. A holiday is yours to give everybody, so it is recorded by the office rather than asked for. A subcontractor’s time off is only ever unpaid.

What they asked for is listed under Asked for, with where it stands — Waiting for the office, Approved, or Declined with your reason — and Withdraw while it waits. Their profile keeps the year’s.

Some things are refused in words, and the form keeps what they typed:

• time already recorded as time away, or already asked for;
• time they do not work, such as a Saturday they are off;
• days already past, unless they are in this pay period or the one before and their timesheet for them is not yet approved — a sick day yesterday, say. Anything earlier is the office’s to record.

The Owner records their own time away on their Schedule tab, so they have nothing to ask.

Let the crew ask for time off is on the Settings tab of Shifts & time off on the Tools page, and is on when you add the tool. Turn it off if you would rather take requests by phone and record them yourself: Ask for time off goes, and anything already waiting stays for you to decide.

Decide a request

A request reaches everybody who may set hours, except the person who asked, in For you — Time off asked for: Dana Whitfield, with the days, the kind and hours, the note, and what is already booked for them then, each visit opening its job — and as a notification if they allow them. A Manager’s own request goes to the Owner and the other Managers.

Decide it opens the person’s Schedule tab, where Time off asked for lists what waits:

• Approve records it as time away, by you, asked for by them. With Timesheets the kind and hours are shown as asked, and you can change them before Approve time off. Then you are shown what they already have booked in that time, each with a link, as recording time away does — nothing is moved for you.
• Decline asks Why. They read it.

Either way they are told, by notification and by email, and see the answer on My Day and their profile. The email names the days and, for a decline, your reason — never the kind or their note.

Until it is decided, a request changes nothing that books. Online booking still offers the time. The Day Board marks it on their lane — Asked for time off 1:00 PM–3:00 PM — and asks before you give them work then: Dana Whitfield has asked for time off 1:00 PM–3:00 PM. Assign it to them anyway? The calendar shows it, under Time off asked for. With Scheduling & dispatch, Who should do this still lists them, says has asked for time off then, and puts them after everybody who has not.

Approving a timesheet says first when the period still holds a request — 1 time-off request waiting — with a way to open it. How time off counts on the timesheet is on Count time off.

What booking and the Day Board read

A changed day, or a week B, is what online booking offers, what the Day Board shows on the person’s lane, and what Find a time and the suggestions read. Time away still comes off the top of it.

Nothing already booked is moved. When a change or a second week takes away time somebody has work in, you are shown each visit, with a link to open it, and you decide.

What the crew sees

A field worker sees their own week on My Day and their profile — week B, and each changed day with its note. A changed day on My Day reads Your hours: 9:00 AM–1:00 PM · changed with the note.

The top of My Day says when they are on call that day or night — You’re on call from 5:00 PM — who else is, and their next stretch. Their profile lists the stretches ahead. Everybody can see who is on call; the rota carries no reason. The Day Board marks the lane of whoever is on call, and the calendar shows each stretch on its person.

My Day also has Ask for time off, and the answers to what they asked for that are still ahead. Nobody else on the crew sees what they asked for, its kind or their note.

Remove the tool

Removing Shifts & time off deletes nothing. Booking and the Day Board go back to each person’s usual week, the rota stops showing, after-hours work stops reaching anybody, and the crew can no longer ask for time off. Requests already waiting stay undecided until you add it again, when every second week, changed day, stretch on call and request reads as it did. Time away you approved is time away, and stays.