Publishing Schedules

Publishing schedules refers to the action of turning a draft schedule into one that is visible to employees.

By default, before a schedule is published, any changes made by a manager remain private and do not affect what employees see.

This allows managers to work on the schedule across multiple days, make adjustments, and finalize staffing without triggering notifications or exposing partial plans.

Draft mode and schedule visibility

To turn on schedule publishing and drafting, set the draft_schedules feature to true (see feature flags).

While in draft mode, the schedule can be edited freely. Managers can assign shifts, edit hours, move staff between days, and adjust roles. Employees do not see any of these changes. This helps avoid confusion and prevents reacting to incomplete schedules.

draft shifts on the schedule

Shifts in draft have a dotted border and are visually distinct from published shifts on the schedule.

Open shifts also follow the same logic. They can be created in advance as part of the schedule, and only appear to staff once the schedule is published.

Publishing

Once the schedule is ready, clicking "Publish" makes it visible to employees. At that point, shifts appear in the staff’s mobile and web schedule views.

Publish schedules button

Draft shifts appear differently in the schedule view, reminding you that the schedule must be published for the changes to take effect.

Final review before publishing

Before publishing, managers can review summary data for the selected period. This includes:

Date range

Total hours scheduled per day

Number of shifts created

Total estimated labor costs for the week

Publish schedules confirmation screen

Notifications on publish

When a schedule is published, managers can choose how to notify employees:

Notify no one: the schedule updates silently in the background.

Notify only relevant workers: the default option, sends notifications only to staff whose shifts were updated.

Notify all workers: everyone receives a notification, even if their schedule was unchanged.

Notifications can be sent via multiple channels including SMS, email, push notifications, and WhatsApp. These preferences are configurable per organization. Learn more about embedded notifications.

Ongoing updates

It is possible to continue editing the schedule after publishing. Small changes, like adjusting a shift by an hour or assigning a last-minute replacement, don’t always require full notifications. Managers can choose whether to publish updates silently or with a new round of notifications.

Continue learning about other features in the scheduling system:

Open Shifts & Availability

Handling Time Off in Scheduling

Multi-Location Scheduling

Calendar Sync (Google / iCal)

Embedded Notifications

Draft mode and schedule visibility#

Publishing#

Final review before publishing#

Notifications on publish#

Ongoing updates#

Draft mode and schedule visibility

Publishing

Final review before publishing

Notifications on publish

Ongoing updates