Availability & Open Shifts

Open shifts allow managers to plan their staffing needs before assigning specific people. Instead of scheduling a shift directly for an employee, a manager can define a shift that needs to be filled and make smarter scheduling decisions.

An open shift defines staffing requirements. For example, an open shift might specify "3 cashiers needed in this location from 9 AM to 5 PM".

These open shifts appear in the schedule just like regular shifts but without an assigned person. Employees can then view these open shifts if they match the conditions, express their interest, and submit their preferences for the upcoming week.

Open shifts row

Creating open shifts

Managers create open shifts with a defined time range, role, location, and how many employees are needed. They can also specify whether claiming the shift requires approval or not.

Open shift creation. The shift is not assigned to a specific employee.

These shifts become visible to all employees who have the right role and access to the selected location. Open shifts behave much like regular shifts on the calendar and can be moved around and assigned to different employees.

Some businesses publish open shifts on a fixed day each week, for example, every Friday. Employees then have a day or two to respond with their availability before final schedules are created and published.

Employee preferences and availability

Employees can see which open shifts are relevant to them based on their role and location. For each shift, they can submit their preference - whether they are available, prefer to work, or are unavailable. This helps managers make better scheduling decisions, especially when there are more available employees than needed.

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Manager approval flow for open shifts

Employees can also set availability across several weeks. For example, a manager might publish open shifts for multiple weeks ahead while an employee can mark their preferences for multiple weeks in the future.

Approval flows

In some cases, employees can claim open shifts directly if they meet the role and location criteria. In other cases, preferences go into a review state, and the manager chooses who gets the shift. This depends on how the shift was configured.

Manager approval flow for open shifts

When approval is required, the shift remains unfilled until the manager confirms who should take it. Once approved, it turns into a regular scheduled shift assigned to the selected employee.

Scheduling based on submissions

Once employees have the chance to submit their preferences, managers return to the schedule to assign the shifts. Instead of guessing who is available, they have a clear view of who submitted interest in each shift.
This makes it easier to avoid conflicts and balance workloads.

Open shift submissions on the calendar

When the schedule is ready, it can be published as usual. All employees are notified about their confirmed shifts, and any remaining open shifts can stay visible for late signups or last-minute changes.

Supporting different workflows

Different businesses use open shifts in different ways. Some prefer employees claim eligible shifts with no approval, others use manager assignment after preferences are submitted. Some publish shifts every week at the same time, others handle it on a rolling basis.

The scheduling component is flexible enough to support these variations. Managers can choose the model that fits their business best.

The schedules window also supports a bulk copy action that allows you to re-use open shift settings from previous weeks when planning future weeks. Read more in the scheduling overview article

Read more about specific scheduling features:

Handling Time Off in Scheduling

Publishing Schedules

Multi-Location Scheduling

Calendar Sync (Google / iCal)

Technical Reference: Weekly Schedule

Creating open shifts#

Employee preferences and availability#

Approval flows#

Scheduling based on submissions#

Supporting different workflows#

Creating open shifts

Employee preferences and availability

Approval flows

Scheduling based on submissions

Supporting different workflows