Evenly Distribute  "Special Shifts" - Selective AutoFill 

 

Sometimes you may want to make sure, for example, that all Employees work at least one night shift per week. Or you may want to be sure your "less popular" shifts are evenly distributed among the Employees over the week. 

 

This can be accomplished by setting these special shifts to be in a Category and then AutoFilling that Category first before AutoFilling the rest of the schedule.

The first time you use Categories it takes longer because you need to set it up but in future weeks the categories and shifts will already be set and all you will have to do is AutoFill. This first AutoFill of the one category will distribute those shifts evenly among employees if possible.
 

Example: I want to be sure my less popular shifts are evenly distributed between employees. 

 

Create a new Category 

From any Schedule View 

In the Category dropdown choose Add/Edit Categories to open the Add/Edit Categories window (1.)

Enter a Category Name and Abbreviation (Ex. Less Popular Shifts and LP) 

Click Add Now (2.)

The window will remain open for you to add more Categories - close the window when done to go back to your schedule 

Reload/Refresh the schedule page

 

Define any Existing Shifts as belonging in that Category 

From any Schedule View 

In the Schedule View dropdown choose Multi-Shift Edit (1.)

Click the Week Tab if is it not already chosen 

(Optional) Click any column heading to sort the shifts by that column

(Optional) Filter the view to only show a certain Position

Choose a shift and in the Category dropdown choose the Category (Ex. LP) (2.)  

Change all shifts on the page that you want to be in that Category (each changed row will appear green) 

Click the Save Changes button (3.)

 

AutoFill the One Category 

From any Schedule View 

In the Category dropdown choose your Category (ex. LP) (1.)

Click AutoFill (2.)

Click the radio button next to: Fill these categories: Less Popular (3.)

Click YES AutoFill this Schedule (4.)

 

Then AutoFill the Remaining Shifts 

In the Category dropdown choose All Categories  (1.) to show all shifts

Click AutoFill  (2.)

Be sure it is set to: Leave AutoFilled shifts alone, fill the empty shifts   (3.)

Click YES AutoFill this Schedule  (4.)

 

Note: When you Import into new weeks be sure to import the week where you have set shifts to be in categories (or you can save and name the week as a named template). This way the shifts are already set to the proper category when they are imported.