ShiftPlanning News Feed

Upcoming Scheduled Maintenance: Monday May 27th at 1am PST, 4am EST

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:46:01 EDT

ShiftPlanning has been enjoying record growth over the last year ,with thousands of new potential clients trialling our software each month. In fact, we have almost seen a three-fold increase in companies trying us out since last December and almost 50% increase in the last two-month period alone. With this kind of growth our engineers and programmers need to continue to upgrade our hardware and software code to ensure our application processing times remain as fast as possible so we need to advise you of some upcoming maintenance work.

ShiftPlanning will be offline for up to 1 hour, next Monday May 27th starting at 4am EST/1AM PST for some upgrades to our database application servers.

Will any of my data be affected?
Rest assured that all of your data is safe.

Who can I contact for more information?
Feel free to contact our team at info@shiftplanning.com at any time if you have any questions on the maintenance or the release in general.

We apologize for any inconvenience this temporary outage may cause. Your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated during this process!

Happy Scheduling!

New Password Expiration Feature Further Enhances ShiftPlanning App Security

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:14:54 EDT

Privacy and security of user data being top priority at ShiftPlanning, we continuously enhance ShiftPlanning app security. Keeping the login information confidential is very important as it can be a direct gateway to one’s personal as well as other important information.In order to provide enhanced security to your login information, recently we released a new password expiration feature.

You can access this feature going to your Admin Panel and clicking on Account Settings.

Scroll down until you see ‘Login Options’ and the ‘Password Expiration’ feature will be listed next to the *new indicator.

If you don’t want to use this just leave the option on ‘never’.

How does this password expiration feature work?

when a user tries to login, the app checks the expiration of password as per the option you have selected. If it is valid, user will be logged in successfully.

If the password has expired then user will be asked to reset the password.

If user chooses the same password it will give an error.

After successful reset of password user will be logged in the app.

It is always recommended to change your password frequently. May be once a year or after few months or even everyday, depending on your businesses’ privacy and security policies. We hope this new password expiration feature will help you keep your login information and user data safe and secure. Feel free to add your thoughts/comments below. If you have any questions you can email us at info@shiftplanning.com, or tweet us @ShiftPlanning

Happy Secured Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning's Improved Break Button In Time Clock System Gives More Visibility Into Employee Breaks

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:58:36 EDT

Employee break rules is one of the most important features in ShiftPlanning’s time clock system. It gives managers/administrators flexibility to set break rules according to various shift patterns. Exact calculation of employee breaks is important as it is directly related to their payroll calculations and that is why break button feature is present from the beginning in our time clock system.

We wanted to give more visibility to both managers and employees into employee breaks so we extended break button feature to show the break time on time clock terminals.

Where can you find this feature and how it works?

Once user/employee clocks in through time clock terminal, he/she can see ‘break button’ left to the ‘Clock out button’ as seen in image below.

Employee breaks can be easily taken just by clicking on ‘break button’. Once the break is over they can click on ‘Continue Shift’.

One can see break start/end time at the bottom.

Important Note : This break will be unpaid by default, unless managers/administrators have set paid break rules. You can find more information related to setting break rules here.

This improved visibility in employee breaks will surely help avoiding timesheet conflicts as well as help you improve productivity. As usual, feel free to add your thoughts/comments below. You can also send your questions to info@shiftplanning.com or tweet us @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

May be you will find these posts helpful too
New Addition to ShiftPlanning's Online Time Clock Function: Clock In/Out Within X Amount of Time Before/After Shift
Check Out ShiftPlanning's Break Options For Staff Scheduling Plus Position Report

Improved Visual of Overnight Shifts in Schedules

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:36:21 EDT

ShiftPlanning allows for shifts to be scheduled for any day and time as needed, including shift times that go overnight and rollover to the next morning. We recently improved how these overnight shifts visually appear on the schedules. Prior to this update, overnight shift timestamps were paired with visual blocks of shifts that cut off at midnight. Now, overnight shifts are indicated better visually. Enable this feature in your ‘Admin’ tab settings and have a look!

Click on the ‘Admin’ tab at the very top and click on ‘Account Settings’ on the left sidebar, as seen here:

Scroll to ‘Scheduling Settings’ and check off ‘Display overnight shifts in Scheduler’ to enable a better visual of scheduled overnight shifts. (Be sure to save and refresh!)

Once enabled, overnight shifts are indicated with brackets on the right of the shift, as seen here:

In ‘Employee’ and ‘Position’ schedule view, overnight shifts will expand when hovered over:

In ‘Visual’ schedule view, you can see the complete time block off of the overnight shift:

Being able to visually create a schedule with a drag and drop interface can help with your ability to quickly schedule your employees without any conflicts. With this improved visual of overnight shifts in the schedule, we hope that you can start scheduling easier and more accurately. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to comment below, email us at info@shiftplanning.com or tweet us @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

Ask The Wizard: What do these settings for Employee Vacation Management and Staff Availability actually mean?

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:03:40 EDT

ShiftPlanning has a lot of features to offer and we are aware that employee vacation management and staff availability are two features that you value. Vacation and availability are two of the challenges that a scheduler must face to create a functional work schedule. Now, I’ll explain each Vacation/Availability Setting in the ShiftPlanning application.

Under the ‘Admin’ tab, click on ‘Account Settings’ on the left sidebar and scroll down to ‘Vacation/Availability Settings’. This will be what you see:

Employees can set weekly availability
If this option is checked, it allows your employees to have the option to set their 'Weekly Availability' times. By default, this feature is enabled.

Deduct weekends from vacations count
This option allows you to select certain days to noted as a “weekend” and not count towards employee vacation day count. For example, if your business does not count Sundays and Saturdays toward employee vacation time, select these two days in this field.

If an employee requested vacation time from Thursday to Monday, their vacation count will only be counted as 3 days.

Employees can set future availability
If this option is selected, it will enable your employees to set 'Future Availability'. It allows them to set staff availability for future one-time events and meetings that prevent work that day. By default, this feature is enabled.

NOTE: If this event is a recurring event, we recommend you use ‘Weekly Availability’ instead. The scheduling feature defaults to what is set for the weekly staff availability and then allows the ‘Future Availability’ option to override those settings for each individual day.

Availability must be approved by management
If this option is checked, it requires managerial approval before employees can finalize changes made to their ‘Weekly Availability’ and ‘Future Availability’. By default, this feature is disabled.

Employees can book vacations
If this option is selected, employees will be able to request vacation time through the system. By default, this feature is enabled.

Vacations must be booked X in advance
This option requires employees to request vacation time in advance. It varies from anytime to 3 months prior to vacation. By default, it is set at 1 week prior to vacation day.

Max number of staff that can be booked off at once
This will only allow X number of employees to be on vacation at the same time. At default, it is set to allow 10 employees to have vacations at the same time. This value can go from 1 staff member to 100 staff members.

Max number of vacation days per year that a staff member is allowed
This option sets the maximum number of vacation days per year that an employee is allowed to take. At default, this field is set at 12 vacation days per year.

The individual employee setting 'Max number of vacation days per year' will override this ‘Store Default’ setting. (This individual employee setting is under the 'Staff' tab, select a staff member, click on ‘Edit Details’ and scroll down to ‘Max number of vacation days per year’. At default, this is set at ‘Store default’.)

Availability Change Requests are effective
Here you can set the effective date for when your staff availability changes will become effective. At default, this is set at immediately.

Hope this is helpful for your future scheduling needs with ShiftPlanning! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment below, email us at info@shiftplanning.com, or tweet us at @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

Madness Indeed: Scheduling Chaos for Both College Basketball Players and Referees

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:01:54 EDT

March Madness is my favorite time of year: The David vs Goliath matchups, the Florida Gulf Coasts of the world and the buzzer beaters that deliver the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. Chaos defined as far as I’m concerned. The emotions are high and the stress is palpable.

Speaking of which, anyone that is involved or invested, whether emotionally or physically, in NCAA March Madness knows that it can be a cardiac bomb! Jimmy V and the Cardiac Kids anyone?

To be perfectly honest though, the referees take the brunt of it. Rabid fans, angry coaches, angry bloggers, flagrant 1’s and 2’s, charges and blocking fouls are just the tip of the iceberg. The truth of the matter is that the chaos starts long before the opening tip. According to a recent Yahoo article, scheduling these referees is a logistical nightmare and the refs end up working much too hard, and for not a whole lot [source].

These zebras have to stretch their necks for every morsel they can get their hooves on.

The NCAA tournament refs (whom we assume should be the best) actually make less during March Madness than they do during the regular season, all on top of no health benefits nor pensions. With the average workload of 52 games per year, you can imagine this might be particularly draining, all the while working in an environment where people hate you.

The only rule to keep these guys sane is a 24 hour rule. The NCAA does not allow a referee to work within 24 hours of their most recent game. Well, ShiftPlanning can help you with that:

I just wish CBS would rehire Gus Johnson. We’ll do a shift trade with Reggie Miller. Need convincing?

Happy Spring! Are You Ready for Some Spring Cleaning?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:09:43 EDT

Happy first day of spring! The sun shines for longer, flowers will begin to bloom and ladybugs are going to start appearing out of nowhere. All for spring–the season of ‘Out with the Old, In with the New” and you know what that means... Spring cleaning!

Did you know the whole idea of ‘spring cleaning’ came about before vacuums existed? March was the ideal month of the year to dust the house simply because it was warm enough to leave doors and windows open but not warm enough for insects to be a problem [source]. Surprise, surprise! You learn something new everyday.

In modern times, any kind of heavy duty cleaning or organizing is considered ‘spring cleaning.’ Places with colder winters get into ‘spring cleaning’ mode during actual spring season. But even though that may be the case, a lot of us still get in the ‘Out with the Old, In with the New’ mindset come spring.

So hop to! Get your spring cleaning in whether by wiping every quirky miniature figurine spotless at home or clearing out that wrinkly paper schedule clutter at work. We’re here to help you with the latter (:

Happy Spring Cleaning!

Young At Art Museum Successfully Tackles Scheduling Employees Across Multiple Departments with ShiftPlanning

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:08:40 EDT

Founded in 1989, Young At Art Museum (YAA) is a hands-on nonprofit museum in South Florida dedicated to improving arts education in the community. What started as a “museum without walls” turned into one of only six nationally recognized children’s museums with accreditation from the American Association of Museums.

Esther and Mindy Shrago created this “museum without walls” in 1986 and in just a few years, Young At Art Museum became a 3,200 square-foot location in the city of Plantation, Florida. With studio art classes taught by professional artists and a nationally awarded after school art program for homeless children called ArtREACH in addition to the art exhibits existing at YAA, it was time to expand their space. In 2006, Young At Art and Broward County formally agreed to construct a new museum and library educational building in South Florida. Today, the new 55,000 square-foot, Gold LEED-certified Young At Art Museum and Broward County Library is now open for the public.

With the massive growth in its programs and building space, the amount of employees also increased throughout the years. When Young At Art started in 1989, there were only 10 employees; now there are 65 employees! Imagine the time consuming task of scheduling along with YAA’s multi-faceted system of programs and events across several departments. As their Development Assistant Brittany Dodd mentions, “The majority of our staff are hourly and are cross-trained to work in multiple departments. Keeping them from overlapping shifts, being scheduled when unavailable, or going overtime is a challenge.”

With the difficulty of scheduling their employees with the complexity of YAA’s scheduling needs, they decided to stop using Excel spreadsheets and switched to ShiftPlanning. Now with our application, they are very glad that schedules are available to employees online. Since their switch in August, they were able to resolve the difficulty of scheduling employees across several departments without overlapping shifts or scheduling them when unavailable.

As said by Brittany Dodd, Development at Young At Art Museum:

ShiftPlanning’s online integrated system allowed us to schedule for all departments and track these scheduled hours. I would recommend ShiftPlanning. They are helpful, accommodating and are quick to respond to problems.

For more case studies, click here.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Free Webinar Training: March 11th to 22nd

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:23:37 EST

ShiftPlanning is hosting free, public webinar training sessions that are held to help our valued users take advantage of all the features and functions our application has to offer. We will be holding a webinar training session every weekday. It will introduce the ShiftPlanning application, briefly run-through the various tabs and settings, and help you get started with adding staff and schedule setup. The introductory class will be approximately 60 minutes long.

SHIFTPLANNING UNIVERSITY: ORIENTATION [Register Here]
Mon, March 11: 11am PDT*
Tues, March 12: 9am PDT*
Wed, March 13: 11am PDT*
Thurs, March 14: 9am PDT*
Fri, March 15: 11am PDT*
Mon, March 18: 9am PDT*
Tues, March 19: 11am PDT*
Wed, March 20: 9am PDT*
Thurs, March 21: 11am PDT*
Fri, March 22: 9am PDT*

The Orientation class will cover the following topics:
- Dashboard; Brief Overview
- Admin Settings: Set Up Locations/Positions, Account Settings
- Staff: Add Staff, Assign Positions, Staff Profiles
- Schedule: Brief Overview
- Schedule: Different Views, Create Shifts, Assign Staff
- Time Clock: Brief Overview
- Invite Staff: Activation Email
- Account Settings

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at info@shiftplanning.com, comment below, or tweet us @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

* PDT = Pacific Daylight Time, read more here

The Bay Lights Project on San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge – That’s A Lot of Staff to Schedule!

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:09:06 EST

The Bay Lights Grand Lighting occurred last night on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, making this project the world’s largest LED light sculpture measuring 1.8 miles long and 500 feet high. Illuminating the local community with 25,000 LED lights between nightfall and until 2:00 am every night for the next two years, the Bay Lights Project (inspired by the Bay Bridge’s 75th Anniversary) surpasses the scale of the Eiffel Tower’s 100th Anniversary lighting [source]. As a privately funded gift to the Bay Area, $6 million was raised to date with the goal of $8 million for the Bay Lights Project to stay intact through 2015 [source].

With such a large scale project, just imagine the amount of planning and the amount of people involved in this stunning light art installation on an iconic San Francisco landmark. Having teams with a variety of experience and expertise that range from engineering to project management to productions and development, there must have been a significant amount of time spent scheduling to accurately configure shift times for all teams or specific departments to meet to bring the Bay Lights Project to life.

Ben Davis, Board Chair of non-profit Illuminate the Arts, first conceived the Bay Lights Project and invited artist Leo Villareal to be part of it. Not unfamiliar to installing light art pieces in public spaces, the New Yorker combined “technology, art, [and] light in this monumental piece of art” to showcase to Bay Area locals and visitors.

The beginning processes of the Bay Lights started in September 2012 where fiber and power lines were installed and 25,000 LEDs and 48,000 bridge clips were in production. In October 2012, electricians worked on installing the LED light system from Monday to Friday, 8 pm to 5 am (how crazy!). It wasn’t until mid-December 2012 when testing of the lights started and the grand lighting three months later [source. Can you imagine how many people were involved being scheduled to gather materials, properly install it, and to constantly test and tweak it?

The Bay Lights Project involved members from multiple art and technology studios, communication providers, installation crew, traffic control, general safety/labor/electricians, and media/PR. It takes quite a bit of time to schedule every individual from so many different departments and teams. ShiftPlanning makes it easy to schedule everyone with our group platform and/or our general account’s multiple location feature. Since a majority of the project members will be working remotely, our GPS location tracker feature for clocking in and out is a perfect tool for keeping track of employee attendance. For more features, see here.

As San Franciscans, the ShiftPlanning management team can’t be any more proud of our city’s Bay Bridge ‘Bay Lights’ Project.

Happy Scheduling!

Ask The Wizard: How Do I Publish Schedules Online for Staff Viewing?

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:20:36 EST

The idea behind publishing schedules is to allow managers to create shifts without having their staff view it before the schedule is finalized. Once a schedule is created and is ready for employees to view, hitting the ‘Publish’ button will notify employees and allow them to view it.

This ‘Publish’ schedule setting is enabled by default. If you want to disable this feature, go to the ‘Admin’ tab, click on ‘Settings’ from the left sidebar and under ‘Schedule Settings’, uncheck the ‘Use the Draft/Publish schedule method’.

When this feature is disabled (unchecked), schedules are always visible to your staff. Any newly created shift will be live for staff viewing immediately. When enabled (checked), you will need to manually ‘Publish’ schedules to save new shifts for staff viewing.

After clicking the ‘Publish’ button, you will be prompted to either: (1) not notify employees, (2) notify employees, or (3) notify employees and managers. It also gives an option to include a custom message in the notification itself.

Once a schedule is published, any changes made to existing shifts will automatically update so staff members will be able to immediately view these changes on their schedules. When you ‘Republish’ the schedule, it will then notify staff of the shift changes. This is the same when another person is added to an already published shift. It will also automatically update their schedule but will not notify them until the schedule is republished.

However, if you add new shifts to an already published schedule, it will not be available for staff viewing. You will need to ‘Publish’ the schedule again to save these new shifts and notify staff members of these shifts.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to comment below, email us at info@shiftplanning.com, or tweet us @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning San Francisco Takes On Harlem Shake (ShiftPlanning Wizard's Fire Escape Edition)

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:18:42 EST

Happy Friday and Happy first day of March! Now relax and enjoy a short video of the San Francisco ShiftPlanning team dancing to Harlem Shake on the fire escape of our office. Yes, it is Harlem Shake (ShiftPlanning Wizard’s Fire Escape Edition)!

Can you guess which one is our CEO? Comment below or tweet us @ShiftPlanning.

New Auto Logout Feature to Enhance ShiftPlanning App Security

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:03:21 EST

At ShiftPlanning, we understand and value your business privacy and confidentiality policies. We are also very aware that many of our users forget to log out! (It’s okay, we’re guilty of it too.) To help keep our users’ account information safe and secure, we now have the auto logoff feature.

In order to utilize app security in your ShiftPlanning account, login and click on ‘Admin’ at the very top and click on ‘Account Settings’ on the left sidebar.

Scroll down until you see ‘Login Options’ and the ‘Auto logout’ feature will be listed next to the *new indicator. If you do not want to enable auto logout, just leave this option on ‘never’ as shown below.

If you wish to utilize this auto logout feature to enhance app security, simply click on the option field and choose the time frame of inactivity before the user is automatically logged out of their account.

SP PRO TIP
Keep in mind that if a short time limit is selected for this auto logout feature, users may be logged out before they save changes to their account.

We hope your admin and employees are able to take advantage of this extra line of app security with the auto logout feature. As always, we love to have your feedback. Feel free to comment below, send us an email at info@shiftplanning.com, or tweet us @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Public Webinar Training Schedule for February 19th to March 8th

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:53:05 EST

ShiftPlanning is conducting public webinar training for the next three weeks. These webinar training sessions are completely free and are held to help our valued customers take advantage of all the features and functions our application has to offer. Starting Tuesday of next week, we will be holding a webinar training session everyday. It will introduce the ShiftPlanning application, briefly run-through the various tabs and settings, and help you get started with adding staff and schedule setup. The introductory class will be approximately 60 minutes.

SHIFTPLANNING UNIVERSITY: ORIENTATION [Register Here]
Tues, February 19: 9am PST
Wed, February 20: 11am PST
Thurs, February 21: 9am PST
Fri, February 22: 11am PST
Mon, February 25: 11am PST
Tues, February 26: 9am PST
Wed, February 27: 11am PST
Thurs, February 28: 9am PST
Fri, March 1: 11am PST
Mon, March 4: 11am PST
Tues, March 5: 9am PST
Wed, March 6: 11am PST
Thurs, March 7: 9am PST
Fri, March 8: 11am PST

The Orientation class will cover the following topics:
- Dashboard: Brief Overview
- Admin Settings: Set Up Locations/Positions, Account Settings
- Staff: Add Staff, Assign Positions, Staff Profiles
- Schedule: Brief Overview
- Schedule: Different Views, Create Shifts, Assign Staff
- Time Clock: Brief Overview
- Invite Staff: Activation Email
- Account Settings

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at info@shiftplanning.com, comment below, or tweet us @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

Happy Let's-Celebrate-Food-Not-Just-Valentine's Day!

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:25:51 EST

It’s that love-hate day of the year again–Valentine’s day. Some of you may be celebrating it with a sweetheart. Some of you may be hating the guts out of every pair of lovebirds. But if you’re like me, it’s just another good excuse to eat some delicious food! And that’s exactly what Team ShiftPlanning did here in San Francisco!

We had an amazing potluck lunch with carnita tacos, chole, stuffed artichokes, slow-cooked meatballs, rotisserie chicken, sausages, pizza, fancy cheese dip, and a whole ‘lotta chips and salsa! Not to mention fudge-covered cheesecake bites and home-made red velvet cupcakes. Can you say YUM? We sure know how to eat, don’cha think?

So whether you love celebrating Valentine’s Day or loathe the idea in its entirety, delicious food has a special place in our hearts. And in San Francisco, you can’t really go wrong! Happy Valentine’s Day!

On-Call Scheduling Feature Now Available for More Scheduling Flexibility

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:48:23 EST

At ShiftPlanning, we do our best to listen to our clients and their needs. With that, we are releasing our on-call scheduling feature for our application on Tuesday (tomorrow). We hope your business can fully take advantage of our new on-call scheduling feature.

The new on-call scheduling feature allows managers to assign their on-call employees to shifts. Their on-call status is temporary and is not reported in ‘Reports’ nor scheduled unless their status has changed from on-call to on-shift.

To enable this on-call feature, click on the ‘Admin’ tab then ‘Account Settings’ from the left sidebar, as seen in the image below:

Scroll down to ‘Schedule Settings’ and check ‘OnCall Management’ to enable this new feature.

Managers and schedulers can place their employees on-call by clicking on the phone icon located next to the employee’s name in the shift edit window. If the phone icon is green, the employee’s status is noted as ‘On-Call’. If the phone icon is grey, the employee’s status is noted as ‘Not On-Call’.

On-call staff members see the on-call shift (indicated by the green dashed border) in their schedules. They will also receive notifications when placed on-call, removed from on-call, or scheduled from on-call.

We are aware that your business may have flexible shifts and work schedules so we hope you and your employees benefit from our new on-call scheduling feature! We appreciate any feedback so please feel free to email us at info@shiftplanning.com, comment below, or tweet us @ShiftPlanning

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning's Mobile Scheduling App for iOS Is Officially Available in the Apple Store!

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:32:56 EST

It’s here! The official ShiftPlanning’s mobile scheduling app for iOS is now approved and available for download on Apple devices (such as iPhones). Alongside the Android app, the Apple iOS app is also completely free for all ShiftPlanning users. It offers the same great functionality as our mobile site without the need to access your phone’s internet browser.

Here’s just a quick preview of what our iOS app has:

We hope you are just as happy and excited as we are that ShiftPlanning now has an official iOS app for download! Let us know what you think of our iOS app by commenting below, emailing us at info@shiftplanning.com or tweet us @ShiftPlanning. We are always happy to hear from you.

Happy Scheduling!

Get Ready for ShiftPlanning’s iPhone App – Add Shortcut to iPhone Home Screen
Convenient and Efficient Shift Trading Processed On Our Mobile Scheduling App
Ask The Wizard: How Do I View Open Shifts on the Mobile Scheduling App?

ShiftPlanning Public Webinar Training Starts Next Week!

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:19:58 EST

ShiftPlanning is proud to introduce our public webinar training! These will be completely free of charge and are held to help our valued customers take advantage of all the features and functions our application has to offer. Starting Monday of next week, we will be holding two webinar training topics: (1) Orientation, which introduces the application and (2) Scheduling, which guides you through the basics of creating a schedule. The Orientation class will be approximately 20-35 minutes and the Scheduling class will be approximately 30-45 minutes. Just click on the link for each corresponding class to register.

SHIFTPLANNING UNIVERSITY: ORIENTATION [Register Here]
Monday, February 4th - 9am PST
Monday, February 4th - 11am PST
Tuesday, February 5th - 9:30am PST
Thursday, February 7th - 9am PST
Thursday, February 7th - 11am PST
Friday, February 8th - 9am PST
Monday, February 11th - 9am PST
Monday, February 11th - 11am PST
Tuesday, February 12th - 9am PST
Thursday, February 14th 9am PST
Thursday, February 14th - 11am PST
Friday, February 15th - 9am PST

SHIFTPLANNING UNIVERSITY: SCHEDULING [Register Here]
Tuesday, February 5th - 11am PST
Wednesday, February 6th - 9am PST
Wednesday, February 6th - 11am PST
Friday, February 8th - 11am PST
Tuesday, February 12th - 11am PST
Wednesday, February 13th - 9am PST
Wednesday, February 13th - 11am PST
Friday, February 15th - 11am PST

Not sure which class to register for? We recommend attending the Orientation class then the Scheduling class (think of it as a step 1 and step 2 kind-of-thing after creating an account).

The Orientation class will cover these topics:
- Dashboard: brief overview
- Admin Settings: set-up locations/positions, Account Settings
- Staff: add staff, assign positions, staff profiles
- Schedule: brief overview

The Scheduling class will cover these topics:
- Schedule: different views, create shifts, assign staff
- Time Clock: brief overview
- Invite Staff: activation email
- Account Settings

Happy Scheduling!

Get Ready for ShiftPlanning's iPhone App – Add Shortcut to iPhone Home Screen

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:25:10 EST

Hello fellow ShiftPlanners! We appreciate the patience you have with us as we await for our official iOS mobile app to be available for free download in the Apple Store. It has been a lengthy process but we are excitedly waiting for approval! Don’t you sweat it – as soon as the ShiftPlanning iOS app is approved, we’ll be sure you’re the first to know.

In the meantime, you can add shortcut to iPhone home screen for ShiftPlanning’s mobile website app. Here’s how:

1. Open ShiftPlanning.com/app on your Safari browser

2. Tap on the middle icon at the bottom of the Safari browser and this will pop up:

Look for our ShiftPlanning wizard icon with the text “Add to Home Screen”. Swipe to the right to view the second page of icons or until you see this icon, then tap on it.

3. Name the icon and tap ‘Add’ on the upper right hand corner.

4. And voilà! You now have a shortcut icon to ShiftPlanning on your iPhone.

...at least until we have our iOS app available in the Apple Store. We are just as excited as you are!

We hope this quick little tutorial helps you take advantage of the mobility of our workforce management application. If you have any feedback, questions or comment, please do not hesitate to email us at info@shiftplanning.com, comment below, or tweet us @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

Improved Functionality of Our Print Schedule Option

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:20:37 EST

As we continue to embrace our ability to view schedules online, we still believe in the good ol’ print button. We understand that your business still values printed schedules just as much as accessible, up-to-date schedules. This is why we extended the print schedule functionality to include the filters that can be viewed on the application virtually.

When a schedule is printed from the ‘Schedule’ tab, it will look as similar to the application view as possible. It will match the style, format, and information as closely as possible. The print option will also stay true to selected schedule filters so you can now print schedules according to these different views:

(1) Position

(2) Employee

(3) Month

(4) Visual

(5) List

The ‘Print Preview’ will also show the location of a shift when viewed by week.

We hope this additional schedule print functionality helps make it easier to keep up with your business needs online and off. If you have any feedback, questions or concerns, comment below, email us at info@shiftplanning.com, or tweet us @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

Easily and Accurately Manage Employee Vacation Scheduling with ShiftPlanning's New 'Deduct Weekends' Feature

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:21:53 EST

Employee vacation times are an essential factor in a manager’s preparation and creation of a schedule that works for all staff. ShiftPlanning streamlines the scheduling process by allowing employees to set their availability times, submit vacation requests and have it approved (or rejected) by management. With this new feature release, our application has a more sophisticated understanding of employee vacation scheduling, allowing certain days to be set as “weekends” and be deducted from the count.

Under the ‘Admin’ tab, click on ‘Account Settings’ on the left sidebar and scroll down to ‘Vacation/Availability Settings’.

Deduct weekends from vacations count - *NEW*
With this new feature, managers are able to select certain days to be marked as “weekends”. Once these days are selected, it will be deducted from the weekly employee vacation count. For example, if your business does not count weekends toward employee vacation time, select 'Sunday' and 'Saturday' in this field. If an employee requested vacation time from Thursday to Monday, their vacation count will only be counted as 3 days.

We hope this new feature benefits you and your staff to make employee vacation scheduling effective, allowing you to set and separate business “weekend” days from employee vacation days. Please feel free to let us know of any feedback, questions or concerns in the comments below or by emailing info@shiftplanning.com. Keep updated with our new feature releases by following us on Twitter, @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

Ask The Wizard: How Does Leave Management Work in ShiftPlanning?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:46:46 EST

One of the many things in consideration when compiling a schedule is employee leave management. Unlike employee availability, which usually stays the same over a long period of time, vacation days are blocks of time that employees choose to take off every so often. When the process for vacation requests is done through email, it can be very difficult for management to differentiate which employee requested what days off and can be very time consuming to eliminate conflicts in the schedule. With ShiftPlanning, employee availability, vacation days, and other scheduling aspects are all in one location. This application alerts you of existing schedule conflicts, if any, and prevents further conflicts by only allowing available employees to be selected to work a specific shift.

Under the tab ‘Requests’, there is a ‘Vacation’ button on the left sidebar. After selecting the ‘Vacation’ section, the page will display ‘Vacation Management, ‘Awaiting Approval’, ‘Upcoming time off’, and an option to ‘Schedule time off’.

Vacation Management
This section will display any pending vacation requests that needs approval. To approve or reject an employee’s vacation request, click the appropriate ‘Approve’ or ‘Reject’ link next to the request. Click ‘Show Details’ below to view any comments the employee may have included with the vacation request.

Once the vacation request time is approved or denied, the employee will receive a notification email regarding the status of the vacation request.

Awaiting Approval
Here, there will be a list of any vacation time that you have requested but still needs approval.

Upcoming Time Off
Here is a list of any upcoming vacation time that was requested and has been approved by management.

Schedule Time Off
This section allows an employee to request their vacation time by choosing the days and the option of adding comments. Now, with our new ‘Vacation Days Left’ feature, the amount of days an employee have available for vacation for the remainder of the year will show in parenthesis next to their name. The total amount of vacation days is set under the Vacation/Availability Settings ‘Max number of vacation days per year that a staff member is allowed’.

At ShiftPlanning, we understand that employee leave management is a major factor when creating a schedule that works for your employees. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below, email us at info@shiftplanning.com, or tweet us @ShiftPlanning with hash tag #AskTheWizard.

Happy Scheduling!

Online File Sharing Option with Our Workforce Management Software

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:57:16 EST

It is imperative for businesses to have an easy-to-use system for online file sharing between individual staff members. Emailing updated files back and forth and saving them on your computer is repetitive and can lead to chaos and confusion. It becomes increasingly complicated when working with multiple individuals who may not have the most recent version of a document. Sometimes, files are too large to send over the Internet and it is a hassle to use external hard drives or USB devices. Whether you are collaborating on PowerPoint presentations, business spreadsheets, images and logos, or general word documents, our online file sharing feature, which is part of our cloud-based workforce management software, is simple and allows you to securely share important files with your staff.

Example of files that you can upload could be for ‘Human Resources’, ‘Training’, ‘Events’ or any other need you might have.

Go to the tab ‘Admin’ -> ‘Files’ -> ‘List Files’

Upload a New File
Here, you can upload a new file. You can now add tags to each document by typing it in the field under ‘Select tags for file’ and then pressing enter for each one.

Another addition to our workforce management software’s online file sharing feature is file permissions. Under ‘Who can access this file’, you can set the file access permission by the ‘Position’, ‘Group’, ‘User’ or by the ‘Skill’ and all users who apply will have access. To upload a new file, click ‘Choose File’.

The maximum file size is 10MB and the file types that we currently accept are:

.swf, .jpg, .gif, .bmp, .png, .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf, .txt, .xml, .xsl, .css, .zip, .rar, .avi, .mpeg, .wmv, .mpg, .mov, .mp3, .wav, .psd, .docx, *.xlsx, *.pptx, *.sxw, *.sxc, *.sxi

Your files will then be displayed in a list with additional information, such as the file size, date uploaded and the number of downloads. You can download files from our workforce management software by clicking ‘Download File’ and you can delete a file by clicking the ‘X’ button to the right of the file. Under ‘Filter by tag’, you can then filter the list by your added tags by selecting the tag in the drop down menu. You can add more tags to each file in the tag field in the same manner as mentioned above. To remove the tags, click the small ‘x’.

For more information about the file permissions and tags function, watch ShiftPlanning’s video tutorial for sharing documents here:

Happy Scheduling!

Now Access Online Employee Training Modules On Your Tablet: Training Becomes More Flexible and Accessible for Managers and Employees

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:40:27 EST

Our online employee training gives managers the ability to share the most up-to-date tutorials and training modules with employees. The ‘Training' module allows employees to easily see what topics have been completed, while allowing managers to concurrently keep tabs on training progress. The ‘Training' module is an easy way to share content with staff, which streamlines the staff training process and saves time and effort over traditional methods.

On your tablet, simply tap on the ‘Training’ tab in the upper right hand corner.

Within the ‘Training' module, there are two primary units: 'Sections' and 'Topics'. 'Topics' lie within 'Sections', which act as folders to keep your training topics organized. When you first tap on ‘Training’, you will see a full list of all existing 'Sections' and 'Topics' on the left hand side. Right above this list is a status bar that indicates your progress in required training topics.

At default, this online employee training module feature is turned off since it is in beta mode. To enable it, go on the ShiftPlanning application on your desktop, click the ‘Admin’ tab. On the left sidebar, under the heading ‘Account’, click on ‘Account Settings’ and scroll to ‘Staff Settings’. Check the box next to ‘Staff Training Module Enabled’ to turn this training module feature on.

'Sections' are used to organize training 'Topics' into separate folders. The image below is a list of different ‘Sections’.

‘Topics' are the main units of the 'Training' module. 'Topics' contain training content in text and interactive forms.

For each training ‘Topic’, employees have to sign, comment and mark them as finished.

When staff members complete training 'Topic' modules, green check marks will appear beside training topic titles for each individual employee. When the manager clicks on a specific training 'Topic', an image library of staff members appears with a green check mark beside those who have completed the ‘Topic’ or a red ‘X’ beside those who have not.

We hope this online employee training module, now available on tablets, benefits both employees and management staff by making it even easier to keep up with business needs from anywhere, at anytime! Please feel free to let us know of any feedback, questions or concerns in the comments below or by emailing info@shiftplanning.com.

Happy Scheduling!

Convenient and Efficient Shift Trading Processed On Our Mobile Scheduling App

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:09:01 EST

Remember fumbling through seemingly endless email threads and constantly being on your phone in attempt to hunt down any coworker who was available to trade a shift with you? It was not the easiest nor convenient way to do so. With ShiftPlanning, there is a shift trading option built in the scheduling feature of the mobile scheduling app. Employees are able to select which shifts they want to trade and it will be visible to coworkers who are available to pick up that particular shift, according to their availability times. Now, to simplify that process even more, managers and employees are able to manage, view, and pick up shift trades through our mobile scheduling app on their smartphone or tablet.

Under the ‘Requests’ tab and the ‘Shift Trades’ section, you can review and manage all shift trade requests, including shifts available to pick-up, shifts available to swap, and shifts you’re offering to trade.

Manage Shift Trades
Any shift trades that require managerial approval will appear under the highlighted shift trade icon. Tap the arrow to the right of a shift for more details.

Once you view more details about a shift trade, you can: (1) approve or reject a shift trade by tapping the thumbs up or thumbs down icon, (2) remove the shift request by tapping the red ‘X’ icon, and (3) view ‘Potential Acceptors’ of that shift.

Shifts Available to Pick Up
Once you approve the shift trade request, it will appear here for any available staff member to view and pick up.

Shifts Available to Swap
If there are shifts that are available to swap, it will be listed here. If more than one shift is available, then you will need to select a shift to swap. For shifts to show as a swap, both the first shift and the shift to potentially swap with must be released and approved.

Tap on the arrow to the right of a shift that is available to swap for more details. There is a thumbs up and a thumbs down icon to accept or reject the shift swap.

Shifts I’m Trading
If you have any pending trade requests that are awaiting approval, it will appear here. Staff will be able to view their pending shift trade requests here. Tap the arrow to the right of the shift for more details.

With this shift trading feature on our mobile scheduling app, managers and employees alike are able to experience a cleaner and more efficient way to manage shift trades in their schedules without having an endless thread of emails.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning's Employee Location Tracking with GPS Tracker – Perfect for Contractors

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:31:12 EST

At ShiftPlanning, we do our best to develop features that will benefit you and your business. This new GPS location feature is perfect for businesses that have employees working at various remote sites, such as contractors. In our application, we already have a web-based time clock terminals feature that can be set up at specific stations in static locations. With this new employee location tracking feature linked to the time clock, employees are able to clock in and out from dynamic locations and still allow managers to track exactly where the employees are actually clocking in from their mobile devices.

Under the ‘Admin’ tab, there is a ‘Require GPS data when clock in & out’ option. If enabled, the time clock will grab the user’s browser GPS location upon check in and out and will display the corresponding map along with the time sheet information.

Hover over the green clock in time or the red clock out time when managing time sheets to view the location pinpoint on Google Maps.

This new employee location tracking with GPS hover is also available in the ‘Time Clock’ Overview section as well as when editing a time sheet.

We hope this new employee location tracking with GPS feature integrated with our time clock system allows contracting businesses to worry less about employees showing up for work at remote locations and focus more on providing their services.

Happy Scheduling!

Our ShiftPlanning Wizard Stays Festive and Dresses Up for the Occasion

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:21:12 EST

In 2012, our ShiftPlanning Wizard has gone through ten wardrobe changes and that is not including his outfits for support of the nine different Olympic sport games in London last year. We were able to dress up our Wizard for each event as we help schedule the many volunteers involved in the London Olympics.

Our Wizard changes with the seasons as he dresses up as a pilgrim in November, Santa Claus in December and is ready to let loose in party mode to welcome in the new year.

We have our professional ShiftPlanning banner putter uppers set up for the San Francisco office as we decorate our home page to warmly welcome all our users and visitors.

Our Wizard absolutely enjoys celebrating festivities with us--just have a look at what he’s dressed up for in the last three months of 2012!

Happy Scheduling!

Ask The Wizard: How Do I View Open Shifts on the Mobile Scheduling App?

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 14:21:07 EST

ShiftPlanning is constantly adding our many desktop functionalities to our mobile scheduling app. Open shifts available for pickup as well as shift requests waiting for approval are accessible in the ShiftPlanning’s mobile scheduling app. Employees will be able to view the available open shifts and its details before requesting to work that shift. Managers will view the open shifts that were picked up and will have the ability to accept or reject the shift pickup.

To view open shifts, select the three red bars icon on the top left corner to view the menu bar.

Tap on ‘Requests’ then ‘Open Shift’ and depending on if you are a manager or an employee, you will see the respective displays:

For the manager, open shifts requests will appear for approval if you have your desktop admin setting ‘Employee requests to pick-up open shifts are automatically approved’ unchecked.

After selecting a shift request, there are options to either ‘Accept’ or ‘Reject’ it.

For the employee, a list of all available open shifts will appear along with the shift date, position and time.

Tap the shift and it will bring you to this window. If you wish to work the open shift, tap ‘Request to work’ underneath that shift.

We hope this help both managers and employees in scheduling as ShiftPlanning becomes even more mobile-friendly. Keep an eye out on future development on our mobile scheduling app.

Happy Scheduling!

Employee Auto-Scheduler Saves Scheduling Time

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 14:49:07 EST

To add to the employee scheduling feature of our workforce management application, there is now an auto-scheduler that will automatically detect empty shifts or unfilled open slots and prompts you for action. You are given three options: (1) to ‘Fill these shifts’ by the auto-scheduler, (2) to ‘Create a new schedule’, or (3) to ‘Cancel’, which will leave the empty or open shifts unfilled.

If the first option to ‘Fill these shifts’ is selected, the scheduling wizard will ask if you want to include unfilled open shifts. If you only want to fill empty shifts and none of the open shifts, uncheck the ‘Fill shifts that have open slots’

If you want to fill the empty shifts with X number of employees and fill all available open slots, check both the ‘Fill shifts that have open slots’ option and the ‘Fill remaining X open slots on X shifts’ option.

If you want to fill the empty shifts with X number of employees and fill X number of open slots on each open shift, uncheck the ‘Fill remaining X open slots on X shifts’ option.

We hope our new employee auto-scheduler helps to prevent any problems you may have filling required shifts with an adequate amount of staff.

Happy Scheduling!

New Training Topic Quiz Feature Ensures Effective Human Resource Management

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:06:05 EST

With every organization, it is essential to have proper employee training and development. When new company rules or policies are put in place, every staff member should be notified and review it accordingly. Our application has a training feature that allows managers to create training topics for employees to review. To be more confident that your staff is thoroughly going through the training topics and to ensure effective human resource management, our application now offers a training quiz feature that can be required of each topic.

Under the ‘Dashboard’ Tab, click on ‘Training’ on the left sidebar.

The ‘Training’ window will come up with a list of various training ‘Topics’ and each topic’s content.

To edit the information text of a particular training topic, click on the ‘Edit This Topic’ link on the upper right corner.

When this link is clicked, you will be able to edit the training topic’s details. There are options to: (1) rename the ‘Title’ of the training topic, (2) turn on ‘Silent Edit’, which allows for editing the training topic without requiring users to go through it again, (3) upload ‘Attachments’, (4) type in or change ‘Content’ text, (5) assign training topic to staff members, separated by ‘Position’, ‘Group’, ‘Skill’, or ‘User’, and to (6) add a ‘Topic Quiz’ for this training topic.

Topic Quiz

With the option of creating a ‘Topic Quiz’ for each training topic, managers are assured that employees are reading the training content in order to complete the quiz. Just click ‘Add Question’ when editing a training topic to include a ‘Topic Quiz’.

Enter the text for the question and three answer options in the respective fields, identifying the correct answer by selecting it. There is no limit as to how many questions can be created but only three answer options are allowed for each question.

When an employee is going through certain training topics, it may require a digital signature submittal. If there is a ‘Topic Quiz’ created with a training topic, it will pop up after submitting their signature.

The questions will appear one at a time, with the three answer options available for bubbling in. The ‘Next question’ button will be greyed out until after an answer has been selected for that question. If answered incorrectly, a red ‘X’ will appear with a grey checkmark next to the correct answer. If answered correctly, a green checkmark will appear.

Show Advanced Options
Also included in the training feature of the application are these ‘Advanced Options’ that allows managers to better organize and utilize this feature.

Section
The ‘Section’ drop-down menu allows the manager to select which section to have the training topic listed under.

Child Edit
If you are using our multi-account platform, turning this option ‘On’ allows child accounts to have the ability to edit a particular training topic.

Digital Signature
Turning this option ‘On’ will require the employee to provide a digital signature of their correct ‘Full Name’, as set in their profile. This replaces the check box that is shown with ‘I’ve reviewed this’.

Download PDF
This option controls the ability for staff to download a training topic as a PDF file. In this option, PDF downloads can be set to ‘Store Default’, ‘Enable’ or ‘Disable’ for each individual training topic. If the ‘Store Default’ setting is to allow PDF downloads and a training topic is set to ‘Disable’, employees are not allowed to download the said training topic. If the ‘Store Default’ setting does not allow PDF downloads and a training topic is set to ‘Enable’, employees are able to download that training topic. If it is set as ‘Store Default’, that training topic PDF download will follow the general setting.

Comments
This option allows for feedback comments on the training topic. The default setting is on ‘Disable’ but if you set it on ‘Comments’, there is an option to allow only ‘Managers’ or “Managers/Employees’ to see and post comments for the training topic.

Homework
This option allows for tagged employees to send in homework. The ‘Homework’ option can also be set to allow only ‘Managers’ or ‘Managers/Employees’ to view.

Video
To include a video in the training topic, simply input the YouTube ID in the provided ‘Video’ field.

Once a video is added, it will appear in the body of the tutorial.

Tutorial
This ‘Tutorial’ drop-down menu will provide a list of ShiftPlanning tutorials that you can include (i.e. ‘Getting Started Guide’).

Once set, managers can view staff quiz percentage scores in the ‘Completed Status’ area. This allows managers the ability to track effectiveness of overall human resource management.

We hope our application’s training topic and topic quiz features make it easier for your staff to go through appropriate training on their individual time, minimizing training date postponement or employee absences caused by schedule conflicts, while improving overall human resource management.

Happy Scheduling!

Effective Communication in the Workplace for Large Organizations with New Notice Messages Feature

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:41:06 EST

For larger businesses with the desire to have independent entities for each department, ShiftPlanning offers a multi-account platform. Different from the multi-location feature available with each single ShiftPlanning account, multi-account platforms allow for corporate heads to have access to all accounts while only allowing department heads or store managers access to their own department or store. In an effort to improve communication in the workplace, a ‘Notice’ message feature is now available.

In the ‘Admin’ tab, found under ‘Group Accounts’ is a ‘Communication’ section.

There will be a list of all notices created and a link to ‘Create New Notice’.

Notices can be sent to all accounts and individuals can be selected for viewing permissions. There are options for when the notice will start and end. If no start time is selected, today’s date will be used. If no end time is specified, the notice will run forever. Each notice can be deleted and edited at any time.

Once a notice is sent, it will be visible on the ‘Dashboard’ tab, under the ‘Notices’ section. The name of the sender will be visible with the notice message if the ‘Let users know who sent the message’ is checked off.

Only managers can view the ‘Communication’ section. This is a form of communication that is available for all staff across all accounts for viewing through the ‘Notices’ section of the ‘Dashboard’. Managers can also select groups, sorted by ‘Employee’, ‘Supervisor’, ‘Scheduler’, and ‘Manager’. The sent notice message will be visible to all staff in the selected permission level in the main and sub accounts.

We hope this will help your business to improve communication in the workplace. If there are ever any features that you hope to see with ShiftPlanning, please let us know on our Road Map. Our main focus is you and we want to make sure you have everything you need with our application.

Happy Scheduling!

Ask The Wizard: How Do I Quickly Assign Employee Training and Development Topics To Staff?

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:03:12 EST

With every new employee that joins the team, there is a period of time when training is required for the staff member to go over necessary employee training and development. There are also cases when a new company rule or policy is implemented and all staff members need to review and fully understand it. With the training feature of our application, managers are able to keep track of the employee training and development process of each individual employee and also quickly assign training topics to employees by position, group, skill, or user.

Training topic assignment can be done in two ways: (1) when editing a training topic or (2) in the ‘Fast Assignment’ sub-section of the ‘Training’ section, found in the ‘Dashboard’ tab. The latter option will allow managers to quickly assign training topics to staff all in one convenient place.

Select a training section to view its training topics.

Then click on a training topic to view the assignment options on the right of the screen. There are options to assign the training topic by ‘Position’, ‘Group’, ‘Skill’, or by ‘User’. Select each option to view available ‘Positions’, ‘Group’, etc.

If you want to assign a large number of training topics to the same staff members, use the ‘Assign Multiple’ button on the top right corner.

Check off all training topics that will apply to the same staff members. Once finished, click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

After clicking the ‘Save Changes’ button, two options are presented and you can either (1) ‘Overwrite Existing Assignments’ or (2) ‘Append to Existing Assignments’.

If you select to ‘Overwrite Existing Assignments’, all training assignments will reset to what you have selected in the current screen. If you select to ‘Append to Existing Assignments’, the selected training assignments will add to the ones that are already in place.

We hope this Ask The Wizard tutorial was useful for your employee training and development needs! If you have any questions about how to use the application, please view our Ask The Wizard blog post tutorials or tweet us @ShiftPlanning with the hash tag #AskTheWizard.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning's Enhanced Time Clock System Gives More Flexibility to Employee Time Keeping

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:45:20 EST

Time clocking is one of the key features of ShiftPlanning’s online application. We have made various enhancements to this feature since our launch to make it easier and more flexible for our users to take advantage of our time clock system. While many users are starting to grow more familiar with clocking in and out through ShiftPlanning, there are instances when employees just simply forget to. With a new added feature to our time clock system, staff members have the ability to make changes to their shift timeline to include times where they have had breaks or had clocked out at a different time. After the staff member saves these timesheet edits, the manager will have all versions of that time sheet to look over and approve.

Staff can edit their ‘Time Sheet Events’ by going to the ‘Time Clock’ tab and clicking on the timeline icon as seen in the ‘My Timesheets’ area on the right.

After selecting the timeline icon, a pop-up window shows a complete timeline for that particular shift. To make edits to this shift, simply click ‘Edit Mode’

Now, employees can change the clock in and out times and dates by typing in the respective field boxes. To include a new ‘Position’ worked, click on the schedule icon. To include a break time, click on the coffee cup break icon and choose between the break options available. To remove an event in the shift timeline, just click on the ‘X’ to the right of each event, as seen here:

Once finished, add reasons for the timesheet change to submit for manager’s approval then click ‘Save & Close’ and the new time sheet will appear.

The updated time sheet will be listed at the top of the staff member’s ‘My Timesheets’ area.

An alert in the ShiftPlanning application prompts the manager about timesheets that need approval.

Select ‘Manage Timesheets’ below ‘Management’ and both time sheets will be available for the manager to approve or re-approve.

We hope this feature enhancement to our time clock system allows employee time keeping to be more flexible and less time consuming for managers. Employees can now make the actual changes and the managers just have to review and approve.

Happy Scheduling!

Employee Scheduling Is Now Easier with Monthly Staff Availability Feature

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:39:51 EST

Knowing when staff members are available to work is essential to successfully planning a schedule that keeps employees happy and your business well-managed. To make it easier to view staff availability in our workforce management software, we recently released a new ‘Monthly Staff Availability’ feature.

Now, you can view each individual staff member’s ‘Monthly Staff Availability’ simply by clicking the ‘Schedule’ tab, checking the box next to ‘Staff Availability’ and selecting a staff member’s name.

Not only will there will be in-line text marked ‘Available’ or ‘Unavailable’ for each day in the monthly schedule view, the staff member’s vacation status will also be included with ‘On vacation from’ and ‘On vacation till’ time frames.

Clicking on the text in a date will bring up the ‘Availability’ window, where you are allowed to ‘Edit availability for...’ the hours for that day. With this, you can easily edit monthly staff availability times.

We hope this makes it more efficient and convenient for staff members to change their monthly availability times as well as allow managers to easily create monthly schedules without the need to change to a different window.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning's Karaoke Night

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:34:20 EST

ShiftPlanning CEO and Founder Ryan Fyfe visited the team here in the San Francisco office last week so we went out for a night of karaoke and Japanese food at YamaSho Karaoke to welcome him to our beautiful city. We had an amazing time with all sorts of food to chow down on--various sushi rolls, teriyaki chicken skewers, never-ending bowls of edamame (at least that’s how it felt like!) and pitchers of dancing juice.

It seemed to have worked for Alex, one of our Account Executives, and Sam, our too-quick-for-the-camera Partnerships Manager. Is that chest hair or a black-haired dog that Alex has?

Though most of us weren’t dancing with furry animals down our shirts, we still had a blast chatting with each other.

And how can you possibly have a karaoke night without harmoniously singing “Wonderwall” together?

Easily Integrate Web Applications with ShiftPlanning

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:12:28 EST

ShiftPlanning now features the ability to integrate web applications with your workforce management software’s ‘Dashboard’ page, providing easy and effortless navigation to other applications that your business utilizes. These ‘Apps’ are linking to other online applications and websites, creating a shortcut right on the ‘Dashboard’ page.

To integrate web applications to your workforce management software, simply click on ‘Add Application’ under ‘Apps’ and it will bring you to an ‘Add App’ window. Type the application name in the ‘App Name’ field (i.e. Facebook) and provide the main access URL for the online application/website in the ‘App URL’ field (i.e. http://facebook.com), then hit the ‘Save App’ button.

After linking an application to ShiftPlanning, there are two options as to how the newly-linked application will appear: (1) within the ShiftPlanning window or (2) in a new window. To select the viewing settings for each linked application, click on the application name or URL to choose ‘Show Inline’ (opens within ShiftPlanning) or ‘Open in New Window’. To remove an application, click on the ‘X’ to the right of the given ‘App’.

Once you have saved a linked application, refresh the page and it will show under ‘Apps’.

The ‘Apps’ feature is currently in beta and we welcome any feedback, questions or concerns you may have. Within the ‘Apps’ area, there is a ‘share feedback’ link that will allow comments to be addressed in the ‘Apps’ forum.

We hope you enjoy this new feature to integrate web applications and that it makes it easier and more efficient for your scheduling needs! As always, please feel free to provide us with any feedback by emailing us at info@shiftplanning.com or tweet us @ShiftPlanning.

Happy Scheduling!

Ask The Wizard: How Do I Exclude Empty Shifts in Custom Employee Schedule Reports?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:22:52 EST

Managers value the ability to have custom employee schedule reports to better understand and evaluate their business’s current workforce management. With ShiftPlanning, there are standard report options that provide a clear and concise table for various aspects under schedules, timesheets, employees, and payroll. There is also an option for custom employee schedule reports, where the manager can select or create multiple other variables to review.

At default, reports created through ShiftPlanning includes all shifts, even the shifts that were not assigned or filled by an employee. To exclude these empty shifts, just click on the ‘Options’ drop-down menu, select ‘Exclude Empty Shifts’ and all empty and open shifts will be removed from the report.

Here, the empty shifts are greyed out and has a faded, lighter color:

This report uses the default settings and includes all shifts:

Whereas this custom employee schedule report has the ‘Exclude Empty Shifts’ option selected and only shows shifts that have been filled:

We hope this Ask The Wizard tutorial was useful! If you have any questions about how to use the application, please feel free to visit our other Ask The Wizard blog posts or tweet us @ShiftPlanning with the hash tag #AskTheWizard if you have any questions.

Happy Scheduling!

Seniority Based Tracking & Scheduling Now Available in ShiftPlanning

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 13:39:52 EST

Team ShiftPlanning is ecstatic to introduce the seniority based tracking and scheduling feature to our workforce management system! Many businesses have employees join and stay with the company over a period of time, gaining seniority as time passes. Managers use seniority to gauge those who are knowledgeable about the business as well as when an appropriate time is for individual promotions. ShiftPlanning’s seniority based tracking and scheduling feature allows each staff member to have a box to add ‘start date’ to. ShiftPlanning uses this ‘start date’ process to calculate an employee’s seniority.

Under the ‘Staff’ tab, each employee now has a new field titled ‘Start Date’, which is filled with the date the individual started to work with that company.

This new ‘Start Date’ feature is used as a sorting tool in ‘Vacation Requests’, ‘Shift Edits’, ‘Availability Report’, as well as the ‘Unavailability Report’, allowing managers to easily grant vacation requests and edit shifts by seniority.

We hope you find this seniority based tracking and scheduling feature as a great addition to our workforce management system as we are extremely excited to include this highly-requested feature!

Happy Scheduling!

Easily Manage Your Multiple Location and Multiple Position Business with ShiftPlanning

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:29:23 EST

There are many businesses that have multiple locations and positions that are involved to successfully function. Some examples of these businesses are retail stores, restaurants, and hotels. In ShiftPlanning, individual work schedules are labeled by ‘Positions’ that are grouped by ‘Locations’. However, depending on the nature of your business, there may be:

- Schedules, such as Night and Day
- ‘Positions’, such as Cook and Cashier
- Jobs, such as McDonald’s 1 and McDonald’s 2
- Events, such as a Board Meeting
- Holidays, such as Christmas
- Addresses, such as McDonald’s 1st Street and McDonald’s White Ln (i.e., if you only have one job type in your business)
- Or anything else you need them to be

To assign positions and locations, go under the tab ‘Admin’ -> ‘Locations & Positions’:

At the top, you can add new ‘Locations’ by naming the location and providing the address, then clicking ‘Save’. Using the provided Google map, you can also zoom in and drag the pin to set a location. Below, you can see the list of current ‘Locations’.

In each ‘Location’, there are ‘Positions’ under that ‘Location’. To see them, click ‘Manage Positions’ on the right.

Here, you can manage your current ‘Positions’ in this ‘Location’ by:

- Turning the notifications on or off
- Creating ‘Break Rules’ or deactivate the position by clicking the ‘X’ to the right
- Editing the ‘Position’ name by clicking on the name
- Adding a new ‘Position’ by clicking ‘Add New Position’

Once you are done with managing the ‘Positions’ in this ‘Location’, just click ‘FInished’ to see the other ‘Locations’ again.

The ‘Visible’ checkbox dictates whether or not the ‘Position’ is visible to assign to a shift. If unchecked, this means it will not appear in the ‘Shift Edit’ window when you select this ‘Position’ from the list. To see the ‘Assign Position’ area in the ‘Shift Edit’ window, remember to click the red ‘Position’ name at the top left.

ShiftPlanning’s workforce scheduling solution gives schedulers the option to color-code the ‘Positions’ to easily visualize where different shifts are organized. While ShiftPlanning assigns different colors to each ‘Position’ by default, managers are given the flexibility to choose their own color assignments. To do so, just click on the color of the shift and the ‘Color Selection’ window will appear.

Click ‘Finished’ and it will take you back to the ‘Location and Positions’ page.

Here, you can also click ‘Move Positions’ where you can click and drag ‘Positions’ as needed. There is also the option to restore ‘Deleted Positions’. Once restored, any shifts that were associated with that ‘Position’ will also return to the schedule. Once you are finished, click ‘Finished’.

The ‘Expand Locations’ will show all ‘Positions’ under all ‘Locations’.

To learn more about the ‘Positions and Locations’ function, here is ShiftPlanning’s video tutorial for Positions and Locations:

Happy Scheduling!

Online Restaurant Scheduling & Communication Software Is Perfect for Updating Restaurant Staff

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:56:19 EST

“One half of all adults have worked in the restaurant industry at some point in their lives,” according to the National Restaurant Association. This means a significant amount of people have experienced the chaos that comes with knowing your work schedule: what time your shift is, who you’re working with during your scheduled shift, where the paper schedule spreadsheet is posted, when you are finally satisfied with your shift trade, etc. With ShiftPlanning, restaurant scheduling and communication with staff about any updates are efficient and a lot easier!

Having a robust restaurant scheduling and communication software to is crucial for a restaurant to run smoothly and successfully. With the nature of the restaurant industry, busy hours such as “lunch rush” and quiet hours that are dubbed “happy hour” to attract customers exist on a near-daily basis. The amount of staff a restaurant needs can vary dramatically in a single business day; it all depends on the amount of customers during a certain time frame. Employee scheduling is a time-consuming task and with paper schedules and excel spreadsheets, how can you be confident that your restaurant has a good employee-to-customer ratio and staff who knows exactly when they are scheduled to work a shift?

ShiftPlanning provides an intuitive restaurant scheduling and communication software solution that allows for easy online access to employee schedules on any computer browser and mobile device. Since our employee scheduling software is cloud-based, both managers and employees have the ability to view the most updated schedule just by opening the online application. Any changes to the employee schedule will send an email and/or text message so staff members are immediately notified, regardless of where they are, and without the need to come in and hunt for the excel spreadsheet.

Happy Scheduling!

New Addition to ShiftPlanning's Online Time Clock Function: Clock In/Out Within X Amount of Time Before/After Shift

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:12:20 EST

Managers are now able to choose an X amount of time for staff to clock in and out before or after their shift starts and ends. This exciting new addition to ShiftPlanning’s time clock feature allows for more flexibility of when employees are allowed to clock in and out.

ShiftPlanning’s online time clock compliments very well with our employee scheduling and workforce management software. We offer location-specific time clock ‘Terminals’ as well as an online, in-app ‘Time Clock’. Our employee scheduling system also allows for uploading existing time sheets to help with a smooth transition to our online time clock software. Within the ‘Time Clock Settings’, managers can activate and deactivate the ‘Time Clock’ module, control multiple aspects of the virtual ‘Time Clock’ and choose to allow imported timesheets.

To find the 'Time Clock Settings', go to the tab ‘Admin’ and under ‘Account Settings’.

Scroll down and you will find ‘Time Clock Settings’

For more information about ShiftPlanning’s online time clock settings feature, watch our video tutorial here:

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Wizard Dresses Up in Celebration With Us!

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:18:33 EST

Exciting new looks for our ShiftPlanning Wizard are coming! Did you notice our little Wizard dressing up as a pilgrim to celebrate Thanksgiving with us? It is one of the many transformations he goes through while reflecting our holiday spirits.

ShiftPlannning is as enthusiastic as you are for these special occasions. Just have a look at all his recent wardrobe changes! Don’t forget our unwavering support for the the London Summer Olympic games this past summer! Have a look at how our Wizard prepared his gear here.

And how can we resist showing off our Wizard’s holiday makeover? Keep an eye on our office as it changes with the seasons!

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Can Help Calm Your Retail Business Chaos This Thanksgiving Weekend

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:40:21 EST

Thanksgiving is coming and what happens after is more than just food coma from that big turkey you had for dinner! Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are buzzing all over the internet (and via snail mail very soon). Just imagine the chaotic sea of people the stores offering these deals are about to face! Now, there is another day to add to your post-Thanksgiving deal-scooping shopping and that is the third annual Small Business Saturday, founded by American Express.

34% of small business owners say it is “the most important shopping day of the holiday season” compared to 24% for Black Friday and 14% for Cyber Monday (37% said all days were equally important) [source].

With customers speed-walking between aisles to make sure they have their hands on the best products, store associates, cashiers, and managers are kept busy providing service and assistance to each and every customer and with barely any time to breathe in between. With holiday shoppers in mind, 28% of small businesses plan to have more employees working on Small Business Saturday than any other normal work day [source].

With the increased number of customers and in-store staff during the post-Thanksgiving weekend, don’t let workforce scheduling be part of the chaos! With ShiftPlanning’s intuitive staff scheduling software, it is easy to use and great for multi-location retail businesses. Is your staff ready to tackle Thanksgiving weekend? We hope so!

Happy Scheduling!

Upcoming Scheduled Maintenance: 12am - 2am PST, Tuesday November 20, 2012

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:21:16 EST

ShiftPlanning’s technical team has been hard at work over the past few weeks to improve upon the performance and accuracy of our staff availability system. In order to have this new version in place, the availability data needs to be locked in for a period of time to allow the conversion from the old system to the new.

How long will ShiftPlanning be down for?
12am - 2am PST, Tuesday November 20, 2012

Will any of my data be affected?
Rest assured that all of your data is safe.

What will be inaccessible on ShiftPlanning?
This maintenance window will ONLY affect the ability to update the availability in the application. All other functionalities on ShiftPlanning will remain workable. During this period, staff availability will be ‘locked in’ the state that they are prior to midnight tonight. All reporting and conflict checks will still continue to function normally.

Who can I contact for more information?
Feel free to contact our team at info@shiftplanning.com at any time if you have any questions on the maintenance or the release in general.

We apologize for any inconvenience this temporary outage may cause but we are confident that the new improved reliability and performance across the availability functionalities will be of great benefit to our users. Your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated during this process!

Time for our Wizard to work his magic!

Happy Scheduling!

The George Foreman Grill of Scheduling: ShiftPlanning Melts Away the Excessive Time Spent Creating Schedules

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:56:02 EST

Excel tastes great, but it’s not quite right for this party!

My first job out of college was a pretty high-volume pizza place in California. We were continuously understaffed, constantly on the phone trying to find replacements, and always rushing to do so. I was 23 years old, working with other college students, recent graduates, and perpetual “shift traders” who showed up late and missed shifts based on schedule “confusions”. We used excel spreadsheets for scheduling employees and pinned it on the back wall of our break room.

After consistent use, we start to learn the limitations of great products. When I was a child, I was convinced that my scissors in art class were Excalibur’s sword. I distinctly remember trying to take my Scotch brand scissors and attempting to cut a half inch thick rope with no success. In utter dismay, I abandoned my endeavor and sought after the teacher’s pair – what I dub today as the Stuff-Cutter 3000.

My Scotch brand scissors were still a great tool but they just couldn’t cut the mustard when it came to something more complex.

Excel is an amazing product for a great deal of things, but there is a better and still VERY cost-effective method for time and absence management. Restaurant owners are some of the busiest people I know and for those who are doubling as chefs, they simply do not have the time to handle these day-to-day employee management tasks.

We can help you boost your productivity! Imagine viewing schedules in real-time, easily accessed from a smartphone or a laptop with an internet connection. Or what about having automatic alerts sent out when a shift becomes available? Imagine a world without the questions, “Hey, has the schedule been posted yet?” and, “Yo, can you see what time I work tomorrow?” What if you could be like Ron Popeil and “Set It and Forget It!”

An advanced workforce management software can be your Showtime Rotisserie of time and attendance – the George Foreman Grill of scheduling where all the excess fat just melts away.

A restaurant productivity solution that gets rid of the excessive time you spend doing redundant and annoying tasks so you can engage with your customers and focus on the goals that are most important to you. Do some research, check out some shift scheduling software and really give it a try. We welcome you to sign up for a free trial with ShiftPlanning, rated #1 for the best employee schedule software.

Happy Scheduling!

– Sam Betty

ShiftPlanning at International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:47:20 EST

On November 10th to the 13th, Team ShiftPlanning participated as an exhibitor at this year’s 97th Annual International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show (IHMRS) in New York City’s Javits Center. Team ShiftPlanning had a great time meeting trade show attendees and had a lot of fun demonstrating our web based staff scheduling software.

Our booth was happily shared with our new partner, Frontdesk Anywhere, an online provider of hotel management software.

As ShiftPlanning’s online staff scheduling software is constantly growing and improving, the trade show reinforced a few upcoming features that will soon be included in our workforce management application. Keep updated with our new feature releases by tuning in to our blog.

Team ShiftPlanning is happy to be a leading provider of diverse staff scheduling tools for businesses in various industries.

Happy Scheduling!

Birthday Wishes Added to ShiftPlanning's Notification Reminders

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:45:13 EST

There is an additional feature to the notification settings and this is the ability to send birthday cards and notifications to your employees. With this new release added to ShiftPlanning’s staff scheduler software, the user will be greeted with a birthday surprise from our Wizard! Enabling these features will not only remind you of employee birthdays but maybe there will be cake for everyone to enjoy!

Just click on the ‘Admin’ tab at the very top then look under ‘Account’ from the left sidebar. Click on ‘Account Settings’ and the new birthday features will appear under ‘Notification Settings’.

Birthday Notifications
When enabled, you will receive a notification detailing when and who has an upcoming birthday.

Birthday Card
When enabled, a birthday card will be sent to the lucky staff member.

Team ShiftPlanning hopes this new addition makes workforce scheduling more fun and easy!

Happy Scheduling!

Ask The Wizard: How Can I Approve All Shift Requests?

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:23:13 EST

Fumbling through multiple shift requests from all your employees? With ShiftPlanning’s innovative worker scheduling software, shift approvals just became a lot easier to manage.

Just log into the ShiftPlanning workforce management application, select the ‘Requests’ tab from the top bar and go to ‘Shift Approvals’ from the left sidebar.

The shifts waiting for approval will be listed along with a checkbox to the right of each shift. Clicking on these checkboxes will save and approve each shift individually.

On the very right hand side, there is a sidebar that allows for a few more options, such as a filter by ‘Position’ or by ‘Employee’ as well as an ‘Approve All Shifts’ option. When the ‘Approve All Shifts’ checkbox is clicked, each shift request is saved and approved without the need to manually approve every shift requests one-by-one.

WIth ShiftPlanning, each shift request is automatically organized by date and can be easily reorganized by position or by employee. With the click of a button, each shift can be approved individually or all at once.

Team ShiftPlanning hopes this helps unclutter your staff scheduler!

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Adds More Flexibilities To Overtime Scheduling Features

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:58:47 EST

ShiftPlanning has two exciting new features that will make overtime scheduling more flexible for you! This great new overtime approval feature will help in managing and avoiding schedule conflicts between staff members in restaurants, hospitals, and retail stores.

Just head over to the ‘Admin’ tab, look below ‘Account’ and click on the link for ‘Settings’ as seen below:

Scroll down until you see ‘Payroll Settings’

Managers are now able to apply overtime rules based on positions and to approve overtime hours on a daily basis.

Apply Overtime Rules Based on Position
Selecting this option will have ‘Daily’ and ‘Monthly’ overtime settings applied based on the total hours by the ‘Position’. When this rule is violated, a schedule conflict will show for a daily or monthly overtime violation. If this option is turned off (unchecked), the overtime hours setting will add 2 or more different positions together. If this option is turned on (checked), the overtime settings will have the total hours for each position separately.

Approve Overtime
Selecting this option allows the manager to approve overtime hours by each shift. It can be used when scheduling as well as trading and releasing shifts. With open shifts, it will allow for the manager to approve daily or weekly overtime hours in accordance to the overtime settings.

For example, if a shift is being created with more hours than the daily overtime limit, it will show as a schedule conflict on ShiftPlanning. The conflict is indicated with a red dotted border around the shift hours.

To view the shift waiting for overtime approval, go in the ‘Edit Shift’ window. If the hours are more than the daily overtime hours (either normal overtime or by ‘Position’), the manager will see an ‘Approve’ link next to the name of the person who is scheduled for the overtime shift.

Hover over the employee’s name and the reason for the schedule conflict will show:

Once the ‘Approve’ link is clicked, the hours for that shift is approved. The hours will be scheduled and there will no longer be a conflict for that day. The red border will disappear and the schedule conflict will be removed.

This overtime shift approval is only used for one shift at a time. If there are two shifts waiting for overtime approval, the manager will need to approve both shifts to remove any weekly overtime schedule conflicts.

Team ShiftPlanning hopes this helps make your workforce management more flexible!

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Is The Best Employee Scheduling Software

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:30:28 EST

ShiftPlanning is rated #1 for 2013 Best Employee Scheduling Software Comparisons on TopTenReviews.com

TopTenReviews.com’s motto is “We Do the Research So You Don’t Have To”. Focusing on providing information on products/services, TopTenReviews.com guides the consumer to a smart decision through reviews of the product’s functions and capabilities. TopTenReviews.com writes recommendations of the best products in each category then compares these products in a side-by-side comparison chart.

ShiftPlanning is given the #1 slot for 2013’s Best Employee Scheduling Software on TopTenReviews.com

On a scale of 1 to 10, ShiftPlanning is rated an overall 9.83, with scheduling capabilities, reporting, ease of use, and help & support among the abilities and characteristics in consideration. Have a look at the comparison chart of reviews for more details.

Team ShiftPlanning is happy to be a provider of a great employee management software!

Happy Scheduling!