Plan and publish shifts

Use the Shift Planner planning view to create, edit, copy, and publish shifts. You can adjust the planning horizon, filter employee rows, and add temporary employees without changing Shift Planner configuration.

Who can use this?

Managers with Flair Scheduler Admin or Flair Scheduler Manager in Salesforce. flair activates Shift Planner for your organization.

Before you begin

• Create a Shift Planner and configure its Resources and Target.

Open a Shift Planner

Choose one route to the planning view:

• In the App Launcher (⋮⋮ grid icon), open Shift Planner, then select a Shift Planner.
• On Shift Planners, select a Shift Planner record.
• From a Target record, such as a Location, Department, or Project, click the configured Shift Planner action when an Admin has added it to the page layout.

The planning view opens on the current week.

Change the planning horizon

In the toolbar view switcher, select a range:

View	Scope
1 week	One week with detailed shift information.
2 weeks	The upcoming two weeks.
4 weeks	Four weeks at a glance.
1 month	One calendar month.
6 Months	Six calendar months loaded progressively month by month.
Custom range	Any start and end date, with no upper limit.

In the 6 Months view, Shift Planner loads one month at a time and shows its progress, for example Loading month 1 of 6. The board appears once all six months have loaded.

Use the navigation actions to move forward or backward without changing the selected view.

Filter the planning view

Filters affect only your current view and do not change Shift Planner configuration.

Filter	Effect
Employees	Displays selected employees.
Departments	Displays employees in selected departments.
Skills	Displays employees with selected skills or certifications.
Custom raw query	Applies the advanced filter configured by an Admin on the Shift Planner.

Customize display options

Display options change how the employee rows appear on the board without changing the Shift Planner configuration. Shift Planner saves your choices per user and Shift Planner in your browser.

1. In the toolbar, click the Display options icon next to the filter icon. Display options opens.
2. Optional: To hide employees who are away for the whole displayed period, turn on Hide employees on approved absence. The popover shows how many employees are hidden.
3. Under Ordering, select Name to list employees alphabetically, or Scheduled first to show employees with a shift in the view first, then the others by name.
4. Optional: To restore the defaults, click Reset to default.

Each change applies to the board immediately. When an option differs from its default, the Display options icon shows a dot.

Hide employees on approved absence hides an employee only when approved full-day absences cover every working day shown, or every day shown when Shift Planner doesn't know the employee's working days. An employee stays visible if they have a shift in the view, if you added them with Add employees, or if their absences are pending, rejected, half-day, or hourly. The Display options icon appears only when the Shift Planner's rows are employees.

Group rows by an employee attribute

In a Shift Planner whose Resource is Employee, you can group the planning rows by an employee attribute, such as department, position, or gender. Each group row combines the shifts and absences of its employees.

1. In the toolbar, under SHOW, click Attributes. An attribute picker appears next to the button.
2. In the picker, select an attribute, or type to search the list. The planning view regroups the rows.

Department is selected by default when it is available. Employees without a value for the selected attribute appear under No Value. Switching attributes does not reload the shifts.

An Admin controls which attributes the picker offers in the Shift Planner's Resource Grouping Fields. When that field is blank, the picker offers every groupable field of the Resource object. See Configure Resources.

Check shifts against demands

When an Admin has defined demands for a Shift Planner, the planning view compares the scheduled shifts with the staff each demand requires. See Define staffing demands.

An employee counts toward a demand if they have every skill the demand requires. An employee who matches several demands counts toward the one with the most skills. Shifts count on the days and times the demand applies. Per day, a shift counts if it covers the demand's whole time window that day, from the start of its first time segment to the end of its last. For a demand without time segments, the window is the Target's business hours that day. Shorter shifts that together cover the window count as one. In the hourly view, a shift counts for each hour it fully covers.

Read the coverage in the employee view

With Employee selected under SHOW, a Demands column appears when demands exist. It lists the required skills of each demand, and the timeline header shows each demand's covered and required staff per day, or per hour in the hourly view:

Indicator	Meaning
Red, with a warning icon	Fewer staff are scheduled than the demand requires.
Green, with a check icon	The scheduled staff match the demand.
Yellow, with a bolt icon	More staff are scheduled than the demand requires.

• To see the demand name and the scheduled employees, hover over a count.

Plan by demand

1. In the toolbar, under SHOW, click Demands. The planning view shows one row per demand, with the shifts of the employees who count toward it.
2. Right-click an empty day cell on a demand row. The menu lists the employees who match the demand, or No employees matching this demand.
3. Select an employee, then select the shift to create.

Create a shift

1. Right-click an empty day cell on the relevant employee row. The menu lists your Predefined Shifts under Add Predefined Shift, followed by Add a shift.
2. Click Add a shift. A draft shift appears on that day.
3. To change the shift, click it. Edit shift opens.
4. Change the Start Datetime and End Datetime. Optional: Enter a Shift Title, Manager Notes, Employee Notes, an Assign Label, or a Cost Center, select Add breaks to this shift, or select Repeat this shift under Recurring Config.
5. Click Next. The shift stays a draft until you publish it.

If the menu doesn't offer Add a shift, an Admin selected Only Predefined Shifts on the Shift Planner. Use a Predefined Shift instead. See Allow only Predefined Shifts.

Create a shift from a Predefined Shift

1. Right-click an empty day cell on the employee row.
2. Optional: If more than 10 Predefined Shifts are listed, type in the Search predefined shifts... field under Add Predefined Shift to narrow the list.
3. Under Add Predefined Shift, select the Predefined Shift. A draft shift with its times appears in the planning view.
4. If needed, click the shift and adjust its times in Edit shift.

The menu sorts Predefined Shifts alphabetically by their button label and name, with numbers in numeric order. The search matches the button label, the name, or the Target name, and ignores case and accents, so "fruh" finds "Früh". If nothing matches, the menu shows No predefined shifts match your search. When the list mixes Predefined Shifts for all Targets with Target-specific ones, the ones for all Targets carry a suffix such as "(All Locations)". The search field is empty again each time you open the menu.

Create recurring shifts

1. Create a shift, then click it. Edit shift opens.
2. Under Recurring Config, select Repeat this shift.
3. In Repeat every, enter the number of weeks between occurrences.
4. Under Repeat on, select the weekdays.
5. Optional: Select a date in Repeat until (leave empty for unlimited). Leave it empty to repeat the shift without an end date.
6. Click Next. The Shift Planner creates one occurrence on each matching day.

When you edit a recurring shift, select Only edit this shift or Edit this and following shifts, then click Next. When you delete one, select Only delete this shift or Delete this and following shifts. Earlier occurrences remain unchanged.

warning

Recurring and copied shifts include matching days with an absence or public holiday. The planning view highlights these days, but Shift Planner does not skip them automatically. Review the results after a bulk action.

Edit or delete a shift

1. In the planning view, click a shift. Edit shift opens.
2. Change its start and end time, title, notes, label, cost center, breaks, or recurrence.
3. Click Next to keep the changes.

To delete a shift, right-click it and select Delete event. To give a shift to another employee, drag it to that employee's row.

Employee visibility for notes depends on the configured notes setting. Delete confirmations protect recurring shifts from unintended removal.

Delete shifts in a date range

Delete the shifts that start within a date range, optionally only on certain weekdays or for certain employees. Shift Planner shows a preview before it deletes anything.

1. In the toolbar, click the more actions icon (…), and click Delete shifts. Delete shifts opens with the displayed period filled in.
2. Under Shifts starting between, check or change the From and To dates.
3. If the planning view shows all Targets, select the Target in Where.
4. Optional: Under On these weekdays, select the weekdays to delete. If you select none, every day counts.
5. Optional: In Employees, add the employees whose shifts you want to delete. Leave it empty to include every employee you can see.
6. Optional: To delete published shifts as well as drafts, select Include published shifts. Employees aren't notified when their published shifts are deleted.
7. Click Preview. The preview shows how many shifts and employees are affected, and the shifts in a week grid.
8. Optional: To keep a shift, click it in the grid.
9. Click Delete n shifts. A message shows how many shifts were deleted. To change the settings instead, click Back.

A shift counts on the day it starts, also when it runs past midnight.

warning

Deleting a date range doesn't end a recurring series. If a series continues after the range, the preview says so, and the series keeps creating shifts. To end a series, right-click one of its shifts, select Delete event, and select Delete this and following shifts.

Copy and paste a single shift

Copy one shift and paste it onto another day or employee row. The copy is a draft with the original shift's duration, breaks, labels, and notes.

1. In the planning view, right-click the shift, and click Copy shift. The copied shift is marked on the board.
2. Right-click an empty day cell on the employee row where you want the copy.
3. Click Paste shift, where shift is the copied shift's name and times. A draft shift appears on that day.

In the week and month views, the copy keeps the original start time. In the hourly view, it starts at the time slot you right-clicked. Copy and paste is available when the Shift Planner's rows are employees.

Select, move, or delete multiple shifts

When the Shift Planner's rows are employees, you can select several shifts and act on them together.

1. Select the shifts in one of these ways:

   • Hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) and click each shift.
   • Point to a shift and click its checkbox. The checkbox isn't shown in the month views.
   • Drag across empty cells to draw a box around the shifts.

   The selection bar shows how many shifts are selected, such as 2 shifts selected. To select every shift shown, click Select all visible in the selection bar.

2. To move the shifts, drag one of them to another day or employee row. All selected shifts move together, up to 20 at a time.

3. To publish the selected drafts, click Publish in the selection bar.

4. To delete the shifts, click Delete in the selection bar, and click Confirm.

5. To clear the selection, press Esc or click Clear (Esc) in the selection bar.

Copy shifts

Copy the shifts of a previous period, or of any date range, to another start date, and repeat the copied block as often as you need. Shift Planner shows a review before it creates anything.

1. Navigate to the period you want to copy to.
2. In the toolbar, click the more actions icon (…), and point to Copy shifts from.
3. To copy one of the two periods before the displayed one, select it, such as Copy shifts from Week 39. To copy any other date range, click Custom range…. Copy shifts opens.
4. Under Copy from, check or change the From and To dates of the shifts to copy.
5. Under Paste to, check or change the Start date of the first copy.
6. In How many times, enter how many copies to create, up to 52. If you create more than one copy of a range that isn't exactly one week long, under Start each further copy, select Right after the previous copy (…) or One week after the previous copy.
7. Under What to copy, select Assigned shifts, Open shifts, or both. Optional: If a department field is shown, select departments to copy only their shifts. Leave it empty to copy every department shown in the planner.
8. Click Review. The review shows how many shifts, employees, and open shifts Shift Planner will create, a Day by day tab that maps each source date to its destination, and an Employees tab where you can clear employees, individual shifts, or open shifts.
9. Click Copy n shifts. Shift Planner creates drafts that you can review before publication, and a message shows how many shifts and open shifts it created. To change the settings instead, click Back.

The menu offers the two periods before the displayed one, matching the current view: previous days in the hourly view, previous weeks in a week view, previous months in the month view, and earlier ranges of the same length in a custom range. Selecting one fills in Copy from and Paste to for you.

Custom range… appears only when the Shift Planner's rows are employees. Open shifts appears in What to copy only when the planning view shows a single Target. Open shifts are copied without assignments or applications.

Shift Planner copies only the shifts of the employees and Targets the planning view shows, so your filters apply. It skips:

• Recurring shifts.
• Shifts that already exist on the destination dates with the same employee, Target, start, and end, and open shifts that already exist with the same Target, start, and end.
• Shifts of employees not shown in the planning view.
• Shifts filled from open shifts. They aren't copied as assigned shifts.

The review lists the skipped shifts. If nothing is left to copy, it shows There are no shifts to copy from this period. One copy can save up to 2,000 shifts, breaks, and labels. If the review reports more, clear some shifts or copy a shorter range or fewer copies.

Borrow an employee

1. In the toolbar, click the more actions icon (…), and click Add employees.
2. Search for the employee by name.
3. Select the employee. A temporary row appears in the current view.
4. Create shifts for the employee.

The row stays visible while the employee has shifts in the displayed period. It disappears in a period without their shifts.

note

Borrowing an employee does not add them to the permanent Resource list. To add them permanently, edit Resources Filter Raw Query on the Shift Planner record.

Use the side panel

The side panel displays context without leaving the planning view. For a Project Target, it can show milestones and total planned hours. Other Targets, such as Location or Department, show their relevant summary. Selecting an employee row opens a profile preview.

• To gain more calendar space, collapse the side panel.

Publish shifts

Draft shifts are visible to Managers but not employees.

1. In the toolbar, click Publish Shifts. The button shows the number of draft shifts, such as Publish Shifts (1). flair publishes all draft shifts and draft Open Shifts in the view.
2. If an Admin selected Confirm Shift Publish on the Shift Planner, confirm with Confirm. Employees see their assigned shifts after they refresh the Employee Hub.

Publications of fewer than 50 shifts run synchronously. Larger batches run in the background, so you can keep working. flair notifies you when processing finishes and identifies any shifts blocked by a validation rule or another error.

Publishing a shift also adds its scheduled minutes to that employee's workload for the day. Editing or deleting an already published shift updates the synced workload the same way, so the workload always reflects the current schedule.

This sync runs for Shift Planners whose target is a location, and for employees whose workload uses the Flexible workload model with Use Shift Planner enabled. Shift Planners targeting projects or departments do not sync shifts into workloads.

Mark a day as a working day

For employees whose workload uses the Flexible workload model with Use Shift Planner enabled, you can set a day's working status directly from the planning view, independent of any scheduled shift. Employees on a fixed workload model do not have this option.

1. In the planning view, right-click a day cell on an employee's row. The schedule menu opens.
2. Select Mark as working day or Mark as non-working day, depending on the day's current status.

flair updates the employee's workload for that day and refreshes the schedule. This option appears only for days that fall within a workload period synced to the shift planner.

Print the schedule

• Next to Publish Shifts, click the more actions icon (…), and click Print. A print-ready version of the current view opens for printing or saving as a PDF.

Related articles

• Create and manage Open Shifts
• Transfer a shift
• Use Shift Planner in the Employee Hub
• Create and configure Shift Planners