Copy shifts

Modified on Mon, 31 Oct, 2022 at 1:52 PM

Reduce time to plan by reusing and cloning from already planned weeks!

We understand that no one likes to spend time to do the same things repeatedly. What if our shift planning software allows us to copy what we have already planned and use what already works?

Thanks to our feature "copy shifts", you're able to copy shift configurations from past weeks and months and clone or replicate them to the future, saving you hours of planning work.

Where to find this feature: Navigate to Shiftplan > Schedules > Actions > Copy shift

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Copy shifts from one week to another

How does this work?

Once you have navigated to the copy shift dialog, you click on the calendar icon and select a week from which you want to copy the shift configuration from. Once you are ready with your decision, you can click one DONE to select a week. This week is now ready to be copied.
The copy shift summary section will show the number of shifts that can be copied from one week.
You can include open shifts and unpublished shifts by toggling ON these options in the same dialog

ℹ️ By default, only published shifts are included in the copy function. You can easily. Include unpublished shifts or open shifts in the copy function by using respective toggles.

After this, you can click on the copy to field to select a week that you want to copy the shifts to.
Once done, click on SAVE

After you have made your changes, you can then save the configuration, and you will see a confirmation that shifts have been created.

What happens after you save?

A few changes take place once you finished updating the shift details :

All the new shifts are created as unpublished shifts in the selected week
You are automatically taken to the week in which you copied the shifts to

ℹ️ Things to note about this functionality: 

- If there are no published shifts in the origin week, the system will alert you 
- Existing shifts in the target week are not replaced or deleted
- We currently do not allow copying from one week to the same week selected in copy from 
- If a location or employee is deactivated, their shifts are not copied

Copy shifts from One week to Many weeks

How does this work?

Once you have navigated to the copy shift dialog, you click on the calendar icon and select a week from which you want to copy the shift configuration from. Once you are ready with your decision, you can click one DONE to select a week. This week is now ready to be copied.
The copy shift summary section will show the number of shifts that can be copied from one week.
Then you can navigate to the copy to field and select many weeks one by one and click on done each time.
Once you are ready, you can click on save and one week from the copy from field will be copied to and duplicated to all the weeks that you selected in the copy to field.

What happens after you save?

A few changes take place once you finished updating the shift details :

All the new shifts are created as unpublished shifts in the selected week
You are automatically taken to the first of the multiple week in which you copied the shifts to

Copy shifts from Many weeks to Many weeks

How does this work?

Once you have navigated to the copy shift dialog, you click on the calendar icon and select a week from which you want to copy the shift configuration from. Once you are ready with your decision, you can click one DONE to select a week. This week is now ready to be copied.
The copy shift summary section will show the number of shifts that can be copied from one week.
Then you can navigate to the copy from field and select more weeks that you want to copy from
Then navigate to the copy to field and select any date on any week and the same number of weeks that were selected in copy from are selected automatically.
Once you are ready you can click on save and one week from the copy from field will be copied to and duplicated to all the weeks that you selected in copy to field.

ℹ️ It is only possible to select consecutive weeks while copying multiple weeks. 

The copy to field automatically selects the equal number of weeks as copy from field, it is not possible to remove weeks and customize it at this stage

What happens after you save?

A few changes take place once you finished updating the shift details :

All the new shifts are created as unpublished shifts in the selected week
You are automatically taken to the first of the multiple week in which you copied the shifts to

Copy shifts from one day to another day or many days

How does this work?

If you want to copy the configuration of a shift that you already created on a day and duplicate it across weeks, then Shiftplan offers you an easy way to do that

Simply switch to the day toggle in the copy shift dialog

In copy from field, select the day you want to copy from and click DONE
In the copy to field, select the days that you want to copy to and click done (You can select up to 30)
Once you are ready, you can include unpublished shifts and open shifts too by toggling on the switches
Once you are ready and click save, the shifts will be copied from one chosen day to many days.

Selectively copy shifts using the filters

We know that shift planners often do not plan for the entire team at one go. Also, often there is not just one shiftplanner, there could be multiple shiftplanners who are responsible for planning shifts for their own teams. To support this selective planning, Shiftplan allows you to apply filters, select specific people, roles, or locations to sort out the shift cards and then do the copy action.

How does this work?

Before you apply the copy function, navigate to the filters section on the top of Shiftplan schedule
Go to the location filter and select if you want to sort out shift cards from a particular location
Go to the employee list and select employees you want to be sorted out
Then, if you want to sort out any shift cards from a particular role, select some roles

Once you are confirmed with your intended set of filter data, click on the apply filter button
Then navigate to the Actions > Copy shifts button, and you will see that the shift cards summary only include the shifts that are filtered out

You can go ahead and use the copy shift function either to copy one week to one week, one week to many weeks or many weeks to many weeks or one day to many days.