Configure Schedule Planner

A Schedule Planner allows you to create, edit, and track schedules for employees in the locations defined for the manager. You can create multiple Schedule Planners to contain different timeframes, different employees, different display options, or different types of data for the employees.

After you define a Schedule Planner, you assign it to a Schedule Planner Profile, which is then assigned to a Display Profile. Each employee and manager is assigned a Display Profile in the People Information component.

To create or edit a Schedule Planner:

  1. Navigate to Main Menu > Administration > Application Setup > Scheduler Setup > Schedule Planner.
  2. Click Create or select an existing Schedule Planner and click Edit .

    Note: To delete a Schedule Planner, select one from the list and click Delete .

  3. Enter or change the Name. If you are editing an existing Schedule Planner, select one of the following:
    • Save changes everywhere that the named entity is used. Entity Current Schedule — This option changes the selected Schedule Planner.
    • Save as a new named entity — This option creates a new Schedule Planner based on the selected one. If you select this option, you must provide a new name.
  4. (Optional) Provide further Page identification: type a Label to appear at the top of this Schedule Planner or a short Description describing the purpose or assignment of this Schedule Planner.

    Note: A Schedule Planner with no Label defined displays the Name instead.

Continue configuration by defining options for mandatory schedule configuration, secondary configuration, add-ons, and performance enhancers. When you are finished, click Save.

The following options must be defined for the Schedule Planner.

  1. In Schedule Planner Mode, select whether you want to use the Standard mode or the Daily Schedule mode. The default mode is Standard.

    2. In Daily Schedule mode, the schedule planner displays a simplified view showing a daily Gantt view of employees who are scheduled to work within a location on a given day. Managers can view employee schedules grouped by department or site, and they have access to a full set of schedule editing capabilities. A subset of the standard Schedule Planner items are available when configuring this mode.

    Note: You cannot change the Schedule Planner Mode when you edit an existing Schedule Planner.

  2. Available Views defines which views can be selected by the user - By Employee, By Group, By Employment Terms, or By Job.

    3. Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

  3. Select one of the following to define how the manager selects which employees to load:

    Note: These settings are not available for Daily Schedule mode.

    • HYPERFINDS to activate Hyperfind selection menu. Select the Hyperfinds that appear on the manager's Locations and Hyperfinds menu.
    • LOCATIONS to activate the location selection tools. To select the locations that appear on the manager's Locations and Hyperfinds menu, click Select Locations, then do the following:
    • Define an As of date for the default locations to take effect. You can type the date or select it with the date selection tool .
    • In the Select Locations glance, select or clear each check box to include or exclude the jobs assigned to that location and all associated sub-locations. You can also select to display the sub-locations within the selected location, displayed in the right column. For any locations or jobs listed in the right column, select the check box to include it.
    • Click Apply when finished.

      • Note: The Locations Selected drop-down at the top of the glance lists the locations selected. To cancel a location, click to the right of the location name.

    • NONE to have only All Home option available to the manager.
  4. Specify the following settings to define how the manager selects which employees to load:

    Note: These settings are only available for Daily Schedule mode.

    1. In Business Structure Location Type (Site), select a configured location type that defines the locations that will be available to select from in the Daily Schedule view of the Schedule Planner.
    2. In Business Structure Location Type (Department), select a configured location type that defines the grouping within the site in the Daily Schedule view of the Schedule Planner.

      3. The Department hierarchy order must be greater than the hierarchy order of the selected Site. For more information, see Jobs and Business Structure.

  5. For each of the following items, select a default setting to control how the schedule appears when you first open it. After the manager opens the Schedule Planner, the manager can modify any of these settings for the session.
    • Default View specifies the view that appears when the schedule is opened.

      • Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

      Note: You cannot select By Job as a default view when using a Hyperfind. You must specify a location instead.

    • Default Time Period defines the timeframe loaded when you open the Schedule Planner.

      • When the Schedule Planner Mode is set to Daily Schedule, you can only select from one of three values: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.

    • Default Interval defines how closely spaced the vertical lines defining time divisions are. Smaller values give more precision, but can make the schedule look cluttered.

      • When the Schedule Planner Mode is set to Daily Schedule, you can only select either 1 Hour or 15 Minutes. The default value is 1 Hour.

    • Default Shift Format specifies whether shifts are identified by labels or by start and end times.
    • Show Inactive Employees specifies whether or not to display inactive employees in the Schedule Planner.

      • This setting only applies:

      • to time frames where the employee is inactive for the entire time frame. Employees that are partially active for the time frame continue to show data for the inactive days.
      • when the Schedule Planner is loaded by Location.

      Select one of the following:

      • Always: Inactive employees are always shown in the schedule.

        • Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

      • Never: Inactive employees are not shown in the schedule.
      • When Shifts or Pay Codes are Assigned: Inactive employees display in the schedule only when they have shifts or pay codes assigned. This is the default setting for new Schedule Planners.

      Note: To ensure the totals match what is displayed in Dataviews, Schedule Totals displayed in the Schedule Planner always include shifts and pay codes assigned to inactive employees. The setting you select does not affect how Schedule Totals are shown, only how inactive employees are displayed in the Schedule Planner. The best practice is to select the When Shifts or Pay Codes are Assigned setting.

    • Default Paycode Format specifies whether paycodes are identified with their full name or with their short name. Full names are more descriptive, but may be partially cut off when space is restricted. In any case, a tooltip shows the full name.
  6. To improve performance, set a lower value for the following fields. For live access to more data, set a higher value.
    • Maximum number of weeks that can be viewed at one time

      • Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

    • Maximum number of violations to control the total number of displayed rule violations in the loaded period.
    • Maximum number of violations per employee to control the total number of displayed rule violations in the loaded period for each employee.
    • Maximum number of violations per job to control the total number of displayed rule violations in the loaded period for each job.
  7. When a posted schedule is changed, you can control how or if affected employees are notified by selecting one of the following from the Notify employees of changes to posted schedule option:
    • Automatic — Employees are automatically notified.
    • No action — Employees are not notified.
    • Prompt at save — The following warning displays when a manager changes a posted schedule:
    • This action can send notifications of this update to all employees whose posted schedule is affected. Do you want to continue?
    • The manager can then select from the following:
    • Save & Notify — Save the schedule changes and notify employees.
    • Save & Do Not Notify — Save the schedule changes, but do not notify employees.
    • Cancel — Do not save the schedule changes.
  8. Click Save.

Select (to display) or clear (to hide) any of the following schedule options:

  • Tabular View shows the tabular view by default.

    • Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

  • Allow Advanced Sort — Enables advanced sorting in the Schedule Planner. When this option is enabled, the Sort button displays in the Schedule Planner toolbar. Managers can click Sort to open the Sort panel, where they can select one of the Procedure Sets that have been configured with the Sort Employees context to sort the employees in the Schedule Planner.
  • Default Employee Sort (Optional) — Select the Procedure Set to use as the default for how employees are sorted when the Schedule Planner is opened.

    • When the Schedule Planner is opened, if the number of employees exceeds the maximum limit, the system cannot use the Default Employee Sort Procedure Set and the employees are sorted alphabetically. Managers can select a smaller location to apply the Default Employee Sort or use the Sort button on the toolbar. The maximum employee limit does not apply when sorting using the Sort functionality.

  • Schedule planner dataview — Select a configured dataview to make the included columns available to the manager. For details on dataview configuration, see Create a Dataview .
  • Show Break Start Time column — Select this option to display Break Start Time in the Select columns to view by default list. You can then select it to display the Break Start Time column in the Daily Schedule.

    • Note: This setting is only available for Daily Schedule mode.

  • Select columns to view by default — Specify which columns of the selected Schedule Planner dataview are visible when the manager opens the schedule. For Daily Schedule, if you selected the Show Break Start Time column option, Break Start Time is displayed at the top of the list, whether or not you have selected a Schedule Planner dataview. Current Assigned shows the list of the selected columns.

    • Note: When the Scheduled Weekly Hours column is configured, it displays the total scheduled hours for employees per week when the loaded symbolic time frame or date range in the Schedule Planner is a multi-week period.

    Total hours for each week appear separately in the column with a dash between them. For example, if you load a three-week period and the employee works 32 hours in the first week, 42 hours in the second week, and 40 hours in the third week, the Scheduled Weekly Hours column for that employee displays 32:00-42:00-40:00. If an employee has no scheduled hours for a specific week, the hours for that week display as 00:00.

    If the schedule is loaded using a symbolic time frame (such as Previous Schedule Period, Current Schedule Period, or Next Schedule Period), the week starts on the same day as the Schedule Period. If the schedule is loaded using a date range, the week starts on the day configured for First Day of Week in System Configuration > Locale Policy. For example, if you select a date range that starts on a Wednesday, and the first day of the week is set to Sunday, the weekly hours are calculated for that week for Wednesday through Saturday.

  •  Select any of the following options:
    • Maximum number of visible Dataview columns — This setting is used to limit the number of Dataview columns that a manager can view at one time in the Schedule Planner.

      • Specify the maximum number of Dataview columns to show. If the number of columns configured in Select columns to view by default is greater than the Maximum number of visible Dataview columns, managers can use the Previous and Next buttons to scroll through and view the columns one by one.

      The default number of visible columns is 5. You can specify an integer value from 1 to 10.

    • View transfer set employees includes the manager's transfer set employees in the schedule.

    • Adjust breaks automatically enables the system to automatically adjust break times — based on Automated Break Placement rules configured in employees' default work rules — whenever shifts are created, modified, or moved using the Shift Editor or in-line in the Schedule Planner. When this setting is selected, the Assign Breaks option in the Add Shift and Add Paycode sliders is selected by default.

    • Adjust breaks automatically for Quick Actions and glances enables the system to automatically adjust break times — based on Automated Break Placement rules configured in employees' default work rules — whenever shifts are created, modified, or moved using tasks in the Quick Actions and glances. When this setting is selected, the Assign Breaks option in the Insert Shift Template slider is selected by default.

    • Show quick actions includes the quick action toolbar in the schedule planner.
    • Go to control displays a control to access Go to options.
    • Show employee photo displays a photo next to the name of each employee in the schedule.
    • Show job coloring displays each job in the colors defined in Jobs.
    • Show dashed border for outside location jobs by default — Select this option to display a dashed border around shifts and shift segments scheduled for a location other than the locations currently loaded in the Schedule Planner. The dashed border displays around shifts and shift segments shown in the Schedule and in the shift glance.

      • When this option is selected, the Dashed border for outside location jobs option in the Show/Hide panel is selected by default.

      Dashed borders only display in the Employee view, and only for Location-based views, including All Home Locations.

    • Add to group action will remove employees from other groups by default — Select this option to have the Remove employees from other schedule inheritance groups for selected date range option selected by default in the Add to Group panel.

      • Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

    • Show transfer icon enables the transfer icon to display within the job.
    • Show request indicators on shifts — Select this option to:
      • Display the swap shift icon on shifts where shift swaps were made by employees. The swap shift icon and a message that the shift was swapped also display in the shift tooltip and glance.
      • Display self-scheduled shifts — shifts that are either a result of an open shift request, a request to cover, or a self-schedule request — with bold text and icons in the Schedule Planner. A message that describes how the shift was requested is also displayed in the shift tooltip and glance.

      Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

    • Enable selection of multiple open shifts in Call List — Select this option to allow managers to select more than one shift at a time when filling open shifts using the Call List. By default, the maximum number of open shifts that can be selected at one time is 3.
    • Schedule tag to apply during swap quick action — Select the schedule tag to apply to the schedule that will show the original positions of the shifts when a swap shift occurs using Quick Actions. This enables scheduling managers to identify when an employee's original shift was assigned after the shift has been swapped.

      • Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

      The selected tag is added to both shifts and pay code edits involved in the shift swap:

      • Shift to shift: Schedule tag is applied to both shifts
      • Shift to open shift: Schedule tag is applied to original shift location
      • Shift to pay code edit: Schedule tag is applied to both the shift and the pay code edit
      • Pay code edit to pay code edit: Schedule tag is applied to both pay code edits
    • Show hours of operation — Select an option for displaying the hours of operation in the Schedule Planner: 
      • No selection (Default) —Hides the View Hours of Operation option on the Tools menu and does not display the Override icon on the days of the week where overridden hours are present.
      • Display with override icon — Displays the View Hours of Operation option on the Tools menu, and displays the Override icon on the days of the week where overridden hours are present.
      • Display without override icon — Displays the View Hours of Operation option on the Tools menu, but does not display the Override icon on the days of the week where overridden hours are present.

      For information about configuring hours of operation, see Hours of Operation.

  • Select any of the following options to configure the display of forecasting data:

    • Note: These settings are only available for Daily Schedule mode.

    • Forecasted volume embedded with timescale — Select one of the available volume drivers to display as forecasted data in the Daily Schedule.
    • Volume driver for peak hours — Select one of the available volume drivers to use for calculating peak hours.
    • Number of daily peak hours — Specify the number of daily peak hours to display. Valid values are 0 to 8. The default value is 4. This option is not enabled if the Volume driver for peak hours has not been specified.
    • Number of weekly peak hours — Specify the number of weekly peak hours to display. Valid values are 0 to 32. The default value is 20. This option is not enabled if the Volume driver for peak hours has not been specified.

    For more information, see Volume Drivers.

  • Preferred schedule report — Select the report to specify as the preferred report when managers run reports using the Share functionality.

    • Note: You must also configure the Run reports within Schedule Planner function access control point to enable managers to run reports from the Schedule Planner. For more information, see ACPs for Scheduler functionality.

  • Default visible items in schedule — Select any of the following to display in the Schedule Planner (a check mark appears), or to hide it (the check mark disappears). Current Assigned shows the list of the entities selected.

    Note: For Daily Schedule mode, the only available selections are Open Shifts, Schedule Pay Codes, and Schedule Shifts.

    • Availability
    • Holiday
    • Hours of Operation
    • Open Shifts
    • Schedule Pay Codes
    • Schedule Tags
    • Schedule Shifts
    • Time-Off Requests
  • Metrics Indicators — Select any of the indicators to display in the Schedule Planner (a check mark appears), or to hide it (the check mark disappears). Current Assigned shows the list of the entities selected.

    • For Daily Schedule mode, you can select a maximum of 4 indicators. For Standard mode, you can select a maximum of 10 indicators.

  • Enable Employee Rule Violations Indicators (requires Rule Violations add-on) — When selected, employee rule violation indicators are displayed in the schedule.

    • Note: This setting is for Standard mode only.

  • Enable Rule Violations Indicators — When selected, employee and organizational rule violation indicators are displayed in the schedule.

    • Note: This setting is for Daily Schedule mode only.

  • Employee Rules — All configured employee schedule rules are shown in the list. Select the employee rules to display in the Schedule Planner (a check mark appears), or to hide it (the check mark disappears). Currently Assigned shows the resultant list of rules that appear.
  • Organizational Rules — All configured organizational rules for Skills, Certifications, Required Skills, and Required Certifications are shown in the list. Select the organizational rules to include validation for in the Schedule Planner (a check mark appears), or to exclude validation for in the Schedule Planner (the check mark disappears). Currently Assigned shows the resultant list of rules that appear.
  • Rule Severity defines the level of rule violations to show in the schedule. Select the severity levels to display in the Schedule Planner (a check mark appears), or to hide it (the check mark disappears). Currently Assigned shows the resultant list of levels selected.
    • Informational
    • No Save
    • No Save Minor Rule
    • Warning
  • Send notification after schedule is posted — Select the checkbox to enable notifications after posting.

    • Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

  • Click Save.

Select from the following Available Add-ons to display in the Schedule Planner. Assigned add-ons are highlighted and have a to the right of the name. Currently Assigned shows list of add-ons that you select.

Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

  • Indicators allows the manager to view configured KPIs for the loaded schedule location.
  • Comments allows the manager to see all the comments in the loaded schedule, or all the comments for selected employees in the loaded schedule.
  • Audit displays all changes to schedule entities and employee availability in the loaded time frame for any employee in the loaded location.
  • Coverage compares workload to scheduled planned and scheduled headcount. Managers can view the system adjusted labor forecast to see details of the headcount need in 15-minute intervals.
  • Daily Coverage shows the difference between the number of employees required and the number of employees who are scheduled for a job, for a selected time span
  • Rule Violations allows you to locate problem areas in the schedule and determine their severity.
  • Metrics provides access to a wide variety of system generated data. Managers can view the system adjusted labor forecast metrics to evaluate their schedule effectiveness.
  • Target Hours compares actual, projected, and target hours for employees whose work is based on employment terms.
  • Absence Calendar allows access to absence information in the schedule planner and the ability to take action on absences with the schedule planner.
  • Schedule Score displays the calculated schedule score values based on the configured categories in the specified schedule score definition.
  • Employee Preferences displays the preferences — for location, job, and work — that employees have specified on their Edit Profile page and that have been approved by the manager.

Select the types of coverage curves that the manager needs from the list. Coverage curves are only applicable to the Daily Coverage add-on or the Coverage add-on. Currently Assigned shows list of coverage curves selected.

Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

  • Coverage Variance — Difference between the staffing plan and the current schedule. A positive number indicates overcoverage. A negative number indicates undercoverage.
  • Open & Scheduled — Sum of the number of hours of open shifts, and the number of employees who are currently scheduled
  • Planned — Number of employees that the workload plan requires
  • Scheduled — Number of employees who are currently scheduled
  • Accounts for scheduled breaks that count towards coverage. Example: If three people are scheduled and one takes a 30-minute break, Scheduled shows 2 during the break.
  • System Adjusted — Number of employees who are currently scheduled in the system-adjusted labor forecast
  • Include System Generated Audits — Select this option to display audits generated by the system — for example, shift change audits due to business structure changes, primary job changes, or updates to labor category entry lists —on the Audit tab in the Schedule Planner. Clear this option to filter out system generated audits so managers can focus on schedule edits made by managers and employees.

    • For existing Schedule Planners, this option is selected by default. For new Schedule Planners, this option is cleared by default.

Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

To display Absence calendar counts in the Schedule Planner select one of the following:

Note: Absence Calendar counts may differ from employee counts displayed in the schedule planner if the employee is inactive. The Absence Calendar counts do not differentiate between active or inactive employees.

  • Number of incoming requests only
  • Number of incoming and approved requests (total counts)

To disable Absence Calendar Counts select No count.

Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

  • Schedule Score Definition — Select a configured Schedule Score Definition to use for the schedule score calculations that display on the Schedule Score add-on in the Schedule Planner.

    • For more information, refer to Configure Schedule Score Definition.

  • Show Quick Action Instruction above toolbar — Displays informational text in the Schedule when Quick Actions are selected.
  • Enable Calculate Totals — Select this option to have the Calculate Totals button display in the Schedule Planner. This enables you to manually update the schedule totals, instead of having them updated automatically, to prevent performance issues when there is a large number of Dataviews and employees in the Schedule.

    • When this option is not selected, the Schedule Planner automatically calculates schedule totals and the Calculate Totals button does not display. This is the default.

    Note: This setting is not available for Daily Schedule mode.

  • Number of employees to load simultaneously — When the Schedule Planner is initially loaded, this value specifies how many employees to load data for at once. For example, if the value is set to 100, the employee data for the first 100 employees is loaded when the Schedule Planner is loaded. Subsequent employees continue to be loaded in batches of 100.

    • This enables employee data to be loaded completely instead of having to be fetched when scrolling in the Schedule.

    Enter a value from 50 to 1000. The default value is 50.

Multicurrency is supported in the Schedule Planner in the following areas:

Note: A manager's preferred currency refers to their specified currency display preference. An employee's assigned currency refers to the currency assigned to them in the People Editor.

  • Indicators Add-on: Monetary indicators, such as Actual Cost, are displayed in the manager's preferred currency.
  • Metrics Add-on: Monetary indicators, such as Scheduled Cost, are displayed in the manager's preferred currency.

    • Note: The data in the Metrics Add-on is provided by day, but the conversion of the values is based on the exchange rate effective on the end date of the defined time period.

  • Scheduled Paycode Edits: Monetary paycodes, such as Bonus Discretionary, are entered and displayed in the selected employee's assigned currency. In My Calendar and in the My Schedule tile, the currency code for any scheduled paycode edits using a money-based paycode are displayed in the employee's assigned currency.
  • Schedule Planner Dataview: The Employee Glance and the Schedule Planner display all data columns configured in the Dataview that is used in a defined Schedule Planner. You can configure the Dataview to display monetary values in these data columns in either the employee assigned currency or the manager's preferred currency.

    • Note: The recommended best practice is to configure the Dataview to display monetary values in the employee's assigned currency. Administrators can include the Employee Assigned Currency data column in the Dataview, which enables the currency code for each employee to display in the Employee Glance and in the Schedule Planner.

  • Audit Add-on: The values in the Amount column are displayed in the employee’s assigned currency when the Amount represents a monetary value (Scheduled Paycode Edit with a monetary pay code).
  • Comments Add-on: When there is a Scheduled Paycode Edit with a comment, the record in the Comments Add-on includes the paycode name and the monetary amount of the paycode edit in the Shift/Paycode column. The monetary amount displays in the employee’s assigned currency.
  • Schedule Patterns: When a Schedule Pattern includes a scheduled paycode edit that uses a monetary paycode, the Amount value is entered in the employee’s assigned currency and the associated currency code is displayed.
  • Priority Scheduling Engine (PSE): If you define a PSE rule using the Sorting Employees context and sort by monetary data, such as Wage Rate, and if the employees being sorted have different assigned currencies, then when the PSE runs using that rule, the monetary values are converted to a single currency — the base currency defined for the tenant — and then sorted.