Working With Shifts

Once you have a Scheduler set up, this is where you'll spend most of your time. The Scheduler's planning view is a rich calendar interface for creating, editing, copying, and publishing shifts.

This article covers the day-to-day workflow of a shift planner.

Opening a Scheduler

There are several ways to reach the planning view:

1. From the flair Scheduler tab — open the App Launcher, search for flair Scheduler, then pick a Scheduler from the list.
2. From the Schedulers list view — open the Schedulers tab, click a Scheduler record, and the planning view loads on its record page.
3. From a target record (Location, Department, Project, etc.) — if your admin has configured a Scheduler button on that object's page layout, click it to jump directly to the relevant Scheduler.

The planning view loads with the current week by default.

Switching the view

The Scheduler ships with four preset planning horizons, plus a Custom range picker for anything longer. Use the view switcher in the top toolbar to change how much time is on screen.

View	When to use it
1 week	Day-to-day shift planning
2 weeks	Confirming the upcoming fortnight
4 weeks	Reviewing the next month at a glance
1 month	Calendar-month view
Custom range	Any longer horizon — pick a start and end date for quarterly, half-year, or long-range planning

Navigation buttons let you move forward and backward in time without losing your selected view.

Pick the right zoom level

Shorter views (1–2 weeks) show shift details clearly, while longer Custom ranges are best for spotting gaps and patterns rather than reading individual times.

Filtering the view

Each Scheduler can be filtered to focus on a subset of employees. Filters live in the toolbar at the top of the planning view.

Available filters include:

• Employees — pick specific people.
• Departments — show only employees in selected departments.
• Skills — show only employees who have certain skills/certifications.
• Custom filter (raw query) — for advanced cases, an admin can configure a raw filter at the Scheduler level (e.g. only employees whose contract is active and whose location matches the parent location).

Filters apply instantly and only affect your view — they don't change the Scheduler configuration.

Creating shifts

There are two ways to create shifts in the Scheduler: one at a time, or as a recurring series.

Single shift

1. Click an empty time slot on the day and row where the shift should go.
2. The Edit Shift dialog opens.
3. Fill in the Start time, End time, and (optionally) Break, Notes, or Predefined Shift template.
4. Click Save.

Use a Predefined Shift

If your Scheduler has predefined shifts configured (see Managing Schedulers), you don't need to type the times every time.

1. Click an empty time slot.
2. In the dialog, pick a Predefined Shift from the dropdown.
3. The start and end time fill in automatically — adjust if needed.
4. Save.

Recurring shifts

For repetitive planning (e.g. "this employee works Mon, Wed, and Fri from 09:00–17:00 for the next two months"), turn a single shift into a recurring shift.

1. Create or open a shift.
2. Switch to the Recurrence tab.
3. Tick Repeat this shift.
4. Choose the frequency (daily, weekly, or a custom pattern — e.g. specific weekdays), and the end date (or leave it open).
5. Save.

The Scheduler creates one occurrence per matching day. When editing or deleting a recurring shift you'll be asked whether the change applies to this occurrence only or to this and all future occurrences. Past occurrences are never touched.

Absences and holidays

Recurring and copy-from-previous-period shifts are placed on every matching day, including days where the employee has an absence or a public holiday. These days are highlighted in the view so you can spot them, but the Scheduler does not skip them automatically. Always do a quick review pass after a bulk action.

Editing shifts

Click any shift in the view to open the Edit Shift dialog. You can change:

• Start and end times
• Assigned employee (reassign to another person)
• Break duration
• Notes (visible to managers; configurable to be visible to employees)
• Recurrence rules
• Open Shift status (see Open Shifts)

Click Delete to remove a shift. Confirmations protect you from removing recurring shifts by accident.

Copying shifts from a previous period

For schedules that repeat (e.g. the same rotation every two weeks), you don't need to rebuild the plan from scratch.

1. Navigate to the period you want to copy into.
2. Click Copy from previous period in the toolbar.
3. Choose the source period — any past period of any length.
4. Decide which assignments to copy (e.g. include or exclude open shifts).
5. Confirm.

The Scheduler clones the shifts into the new period. They are created as drafts so you can review and adjust before publishing.

Borrowing employees from elsewhere

Sometimes you need to plan a shift for someone who isn't normally part of this Scheduler — for example, a colleague helping out from another location for a week.

1. In the planning view, click Add Employee (or Borrow Employee).
2. Search for the employee by name.
3. They appear as a new row in the planning view.
4. Create shifts for them as usual.

Borrowed employees stay visible while they have shifts in the current view. As soon as you navigate to a period where they have no shifts, they automatically disappear from the view — keeping the Scheduler focused on people who are actually working.

Borrowed employees don't change the Scheduler config

Borrowing only adds the employee to your current view. They are not added to the Scheduler's permanent resource list. If you want them on this Scheduler permanently, edit the Resources Filter Raw Query on the Scheduler record instead — see Managing Schedulers.

The side panel

The Scheduler includes a side panel that gives you context on what you're planning without leaving the view:

• For a Project-based Scheduler, the side panel shows the project overview — milestones, total planned hours, etc.
• For other parent objects (Location, Department), the side panel shows relevant summary information.
• Clicking an employee row also opens a quick profile on the side.

The side panel can be collapsed when you need more horizontal space for the calendar.

Publishing shifts

Shifts you create in the planning view start as drafts. Drafts are visible to other managers but not to employees. Once a schedule is final, you need to publish it to make it visible in the Employee Hub.

How to publish

1. Click the Publish button in the top toolbar.
2. Choose the period to publish (e.g. this week, next two weeks).
3. Optionally choose to only publish changes since the last publish (so employees are only notified of what's new).
4. Confirm.

Employees who have published shifts assigned to them will see the shifts in the Hub the next time they refresh.

Sync vs. async publishing

Publishing runs synchronously for small batches and switches to asynchronous background processing when the batch is large. When it runs async:

• You start the publish, and it runs in the background.
• You can keep working in the Scheduler while it processes.
• You get a notification when the publish is complete.
• If something goes wrong (e.g. a validation rule blocks a shift), you'll see the error and which shifts were affected.

Publish early, publish often

Employees appreciate having their schedule as early as possible. A good practice is to publish in weekly cycles — e.g. always publish next week's schedule by Thursday.

Printing and exporting

The toolbar includes a Print action that opens a clean, print-ready version of the current view. Use it for posting schedules in a break room or sharing as PDF.

Next steps

• Learn how to create unassigned shifts that employees can pick up themselves — Open Shifts.
• Let employees transfer shifts among themselves — Shift Transfer.
• See what employees experience in the Hub — Scheduler on the Hub.