Manage schedules: set your team's working pattern
What this guide covers
Manage schedules is where a manager sets when the people they manage are expected to work - the recurring weekly pattern, one-off exceptions for specific dates, and extra shifts. It is the screen that defines the hours the Manage hours screen later measures against, so the two go hand in hand.
It's one of the Managers screens (People ? Managers), alongside Manage hours, Organigram and the Leave report.
Who can open it: you must be a manager of at least one department (or an HR administrator). You only ever see - and can only edit - the people inside your management chain (your department and its sub-departments). Picking someone outside your scope is refused.
The three building blocks
Everything on this screen is one of three things. They differ in who has to agree and when the change applies:
Definitions
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Base Schedule (policy) | The rules attached to a person: break length, which clocking terminal counts, and whether overtime is allowed. HR-only - managers see it but cannot change it, because it controls pay policy across the department. |
| User Schedule | The employee's recurring weekly working pattern: which days are working days and the start/end times. It can be a single repeating week or a multi-week rotation. This is what sets the weekly contracted (ordinary) hours. |
| Rotation Weeks | How many weeks the pattern cycles over. 1 = the same week every week; 2+ = alternating weeks (e.g. week A / week B). The Reference Date is the Monday week 1 started from. |
| Time at work / Working hours | The weekly totals derived from the day grid - "Time at work" is clock-in to clock-out; "Working hours" subtracts the unpaid break. |
| Schedule Override | A change to specific dates only - different hours for a day, a date range, or marking a day a rest day. Scope is Once, Range or Permanent. Applied immediately. |
| Assign Shift | A one-off extra shift on a chosen date. A future date is pre-approved; a past date needs overtime approval for that day. Sent to the employee to approve. |
How it connects to Manage hours
The User Schedule is the baseline for everything on the Manage hours screen:
- The day grid's weekly total is the Expected (ordinary) hours a person is measured against each week.
- Work above that weekly total can become overtime; falling below it is a shortfall that's deducted.
- So if someone's expected hours look wrong on Manage hours, the fix usually lives here - their User Schedule, an override, or a missing assigned shift.
Using the screen
Pick an employee from the Team Hierarchy tree on the left (search by name or department). Their schedule opens on the right, in three tabs.
Tab 1 - Attendance & Shifts (the recurring schedule)
This is the main tab. It shows:
- Base Schedule - read-only context (the policy/OT rules HR set).
- User Schedule - the rotation settings (Rotation Weeks + Reference Date) and the day grid: a Working-Day switch and start/end times for each day. The weekly totals update as you edit. If a person has no schedule yet, a Create User Schedule button seeds a Mon-Fri 08:00-17:00 default.
- Propose Edit - once you've adjusted the grid, this sends the change to the employee (see the flow below).
- Propose Template Change - instead of editing day-by-day, swap the whole pattern to a shared rotation template from the library. Also requires the employee's acceptance.
Tab 2 - Assign Shift
Give the employee a one-off shift on a specific date: pick the date, start and end time, and an optional note. The screen tells you whether it will be pre-approved (future date) or require OT approval (past date). It's then sent to the employee for approval.
Tab 3 - Assigned Shifts
The shifts you've assigned to this person - active ones (Pending / Approved / Cancel-pending) and a History section. You can cancel a shift here:
- A shift that isn't approved yet is withdrawn immediately.
- An approved shift asks the employee to acknowledge the cancellation before the overtime is removed from their day.
The two-party rule for recurring changes
Changing someone's recurring schedule is effectively changing their working agreement, so it is never a silent, one-sided edit. You propose; the employee accepts:
While a change is pending, an orange banner appears and the day grid is locked so it can't be edited again until the employee decides. After they accept, a blue "upcoming change" banner shows the date it will take effect - it then goes live automatically from the next working day (today's schedule keeps running until then). If they reject it, or you cancel the proposal, nothing changes and you can propose again.
Overrides and assigned shifts are different. A Schedule Override applies the moment you save it - no acceptance, because it's a one-date exception, not the contract. An Assigned Shift still goes to the employee to approve, and is managed from the Assigned Shifts tab.
Good to know
- You can't edit the Base Schedule. Break, clocking terminal and OT policy are HR-managed. Ask HR if those need to change.
- Overrides need a clear reason. They show in the employee's schedule and on the attendance record - keep the reason meaningful (e.g. "early finish for stock-take").
- A pending change blocks further edits. If the grid is locked, there's an outstanding proposal - wait for the employee, or cancel it first.
- Rotations need the Reference Date right. For a 2+ week rotation, the Reference Date (the Monday week 1 began) is what keeps "week A / week B" aligned to the calendar.
Related guides
- Manage hours: authorise and decline your team's time - the screen that measures worked hours against the schedule you set here.
- My Schedule - what the employee sees, including accepting or rejecting your proposed changes.
- Manage your team's leave - approve and reject leave for the same team.
- Attendance status field definitions - what each attendance badge means.