Scheduling well

A weekly rhythm

1. Check the constraints first — open Availability and the approved Time Off for the target week before placing anything.
2. Lay the backbone — the recurring series and the people whose pattern never changes.
3. Fill the gaps — the variable days, using the stats band to watch hours and estimated wages as you go.
4. Offer what is left as Available shifts, if open shifts are enabled.
5. Walk the week once looking for overlap warnings, clopening warnings and unfilled stations.
6. Publish once.
7. Deploy the days that need station-level detail.

Things that cause pain later

• No position or location on a shift. It will publish, but wage estimates and deployment cannot use it.
• Ignoring the clopening warning. It exists because someone finishing at 01:00 and starting at 08:00 will be slow, unhappy, or absent.
• Scheduling over availability. The warning is not a block, so it is on you to read it. People who are scheduled when they said they could not work stop maintaining their availability.
• Publishing repeatedly. Every publish notifies. Treat publish as a commitment, not a save button.
• Editing a worked shift to fix hours. Fix the timesheet entry instead — the shift is the plan, the timesheet is the record.

Watching cost as you build

The stats band totals estimated wages and overtime hours for the visible week as you place shifts. Settings → Labor Cost sets the weekly budget and target labour %, so the numbers you are watching mean something. Turn Show employee wages on schedule off if you do not want per-shift cost visible to every manager.