Using schedule templates is a great way to save time and energy while working with the Job Scheduler. You can avoid creating schedules from scratch every time by simply loading your customized, pre-made templates where you need them. Templates can be created for individual shifts, a daily schedule, or for an entire week of shifts!
In this article we'll go over:
Types of Templates
Individual shift templates are useful when you have all the details you need for a shift but you still need to build your schedule differently every day and every week. Examples of shift templates are morning, afternoon, and evening shifts - you know the time and details will be the same but you want to have flexibility when building your schedule.
Day templates are useful when you need to plan a daily schedule but some special dates or events require a different set of shifts. You can build a template for weekday shifts and another for weekend shifts, or a template for holidays - when the demand may differ.
Week templates can come in handy when you know in advance how many shifts you need to assign to cover a full week at work. For example, if you work in a support team and you had a week where you calculated the right amount of people to cover the traffic, you can save it so that the next time around you have the same formula ready.
How to Create a Template
We offer a few different ways to save individual shifts, day templates, and week templates. We're covering it all, so let's get started!
How to Create Shift Templates
Open the Shift Templates tab on the right side of your screen. Click on 'Add Template' at the bottom of the tab. Fill in the relevant details and click on 'Save as template'.
Another way is to add a new shift or navigate to an existing shift, and click 'Save as template'. The existing shift can be a draft shift, a published shift, or a past or future shift.
How to Create Day Templates
On the Day View, click on Actions, and select 'Save day as template'. Give the template a name, and click 'Save template'.
Alternatively, if you're working on the Week View, hover over the date and click on the three dots that appear next to the date. Select 'Save day as template'. Give it a name, and click 'Save template'.
How to Create Week Templates
Once you create the perfect weekly schedule, click on Actions and select 'Save week as template'. Give it a name and click 'Save template'.
💡 Tip: If you want to save a template for specific shifts within a fuller schedule, such as a daily template with only morning shifts or a weekly schedule for part-time employees, use the schedule filter to view and save the shifts you need.
How to Load a Template
Now that you have created and saved your templates, let's load them onto your schedule and start putting the schedule together. You can view all your saved templates in the Shift Templates tab on the right-hand side of your schedule. If you already added shifts to your schedule, the system will let you choose to replace them or to add the new shifts to the existing shifts.
How to Load Shift Templates
You have a few different ways to load individual shift templates:
Open the Templates tab and simply drag and drop shifts to the desired slot on your schedule.
Add a new shift (either by clicking on the + button when hovering over a slot or by clicking on Add —> Add single shift) and choose a template from the Templates tab.
If you're working on the Week View, click on Actions and choose Add from shift templates.
How to Load Day or Week Templates
Like with shift templates, the first way to load a template is by clicking on the Shift Template tab, and navigating to the Shifts, Days, or Weeks template. Drag and drop a template into the schedule.
The second way is to load a template from the day or week view. Choose the desired view by clicking on the button at the top of the schedule, and switch to the day or week view. Once you're on the day or week view, click on Actions and click 'Load day template' if you're on the day view, or 'Load week template' if you're on the week view. Choose the template you want and click 'Load template'.
Don't forget to publish the shifts by clicking the 'Publish' button located on the top right of the scheduling page, so it will be distributed and visible to your team.
💡 Tip: You can load schedule templates in the Jobs or Layers view too! When dragging a template to one of these views, the shift details will change according to the dropped location. For example, if I'm on the Jobs view and I drag a shift template whose assigned job is 'Bartender' to a slot for 'Waiter', the shift details will update to 'Waiter'. Learn more about Viewing Options in the Job Scheduler.
How to Edit or Delete Templates
Open the Shift Templates tab, hover with your mouse on a shift, and click on the 3 dots icon to edit, delete, or duplicate a template. Individual shift templates offer the option to edit the shift details and the option the duplicate the shift. Day and Week templates offer the option to edit the template's title.
💡 Tip: To edit shifts in a day or week template, load the template, make the necessary changes, and then save it as a new template. Once you save this template, you can delete the old version.
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*Schedule templates are available on the Advanced Operations Hub plan and above.*
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