Use Shift Templates

Scheduling standardised staff shifts is quicker and easier with the help of predefined shift templates. You can use shift templates to plan and organise an entire day of staff schedules, including overnight shifts.

Create a Shift Template

Shift templates use shift types which must first be created in the clinic location settings.

Note that shift templates are specific to the active clinic location, meaning that templates created under one clinic location are not be available for use in other clinic locations.

You can create shift templates in the template settings:

Go to Settings > Lists & Templates > Templates > Shift Templates.
Select Add.
Fill in the required the information:
1. Add a Name for the shift template. For example, a name such as 'Morning MWF' could be used for a template for a morning shift on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
2. Optionally, you can add an identifying Code which the staff can use to easily recognise and search for the template.
3. Select Active to make the template available for scheduling.
4. If the shift duration spans more than a single calendar day, select Two day template. For more information, see Create a Two-Day Shift Template.
Select Add block to open a section for creating the shifts.
- You can create multiple time blocks, for example, if you want the shift template to include a morning time block and an afternoon time block.
- The time must be added in the '00:00 am/pm' format when the US 12-hour clock is in use. The 24-hour clock format is available for other locales.
Click and drag in the calendar to create a shift.
Fill in the required information:
1. Select the Shift type. The available options depend on the shift types created in the settings.
2. Select a Ward and a Team if needed. The available options depend on the wards and teams created in the settings. If you do not use wards and/or teams, leave these empty.
3. You can adjust the Start and End times if needed.
4. The Show in web booking option is available if the shift type has been defined as available for online booking. Select this checkbox if you want the shift to be available for online booking.
5. You can add additional information in the Note field.
Select Save.

To edit an existing shift block, select it to open the edit dialogue.

Create all necessary shift type blocks following the steps above. Note that shift blocks cannot overlap in time.

Create a Two-Day Shift Template

Two-day shift templates are used when a shift time block spans from one calendar day to the next, for example, a night shift starting in the evening and ending the next day.

To create a two-day shift template:

Go to Shift Templates > Templates > Lists & Templates > Settings.
Select Add.
Select the Two-day template option and fill in other information as in Step 3.
Select Add block to define the shift time duration blocks. You need to create two time blocks to separate the calendar days. The first one must end at 11.59 pm or 23.59 and the second one must start at 12.00 am or 00.00.
Continue from Step 5.

Schedule Staff Shifts Using Shift Templates

Go to Calendar > Shifts > Shift templates.
Select the user or resource you want to schedule a shift for and make sure that the same user or resource is selected in the left-side filters. When scheduling night or evening shifts outside of the standard day view, deselect the Use day view option (if the option is in use).
Find and select the shift template you want to use.
Select the Duration of a slot option if you want to split the shift into individual time slots. Scheduling individual time blocks is recommended if the shift is available for online booking. You can delete individual shift time blocks and keep only some.
Adjust the calendar view if needed using the calendar filters on the left,
Click on a calendar day to schedule the selected shift template. You will see a green confirmation message when the scheduling was successful or a red message if there were any errors.