Build and publish a schedule - Getting Started for Managers
Creating a schedule in 7shifts is built for speed. Shifts land in their pockets, notifications go out automatically, and the spreadsheet stays closed. Until a schedule is published, no one on your team can see their shifts.
Phase 2 - Run your first schedule
- Build and publish a schedule (you are here!)
- Manage availability and time-off requests
- Add a new employee and send their invite
Things to know
- Schedules in 7shifts are organized by location and department. You'll build a separate schedule for each department you manage.
- Draft shifts appear in light yellow on the Schedule page and are not visible to employees until the schedule is published.
- Published shifts appear in white and are immediately visible to employees based on their notification preferences.
- You can only schedule employees who are assigned to the department you're building the schedule for. If an employee is missing from your roster, their department assignment may need to be updated by your Admin.
Build a schedule
Here’s a quick overview of how to publish a schedule. To further optimize your scheduling process and explore the available viewing options, check out 7shifts 101: How to navigate the Schedule. Before you know it, you'll be a scheduling pro in no time!
- In the left navigation bar, click Schedule.
- Use the location and department filters at the top of the page to select the department you're scheduling.
- Navigate to the week you want to schedule using the date controls at the top of the page.
- Your Employees are listed in the leftmost column. Click the + icon on any employee's row for the day you want to add a shift.
- Right click on a shift (or, hold the shift key, and drag it) to duplicate and paste it.
- Set the shift start time, end time, and role in the shift modal. Add a break if your location requires it.
- Click Save. The shift appears in draft (light yellow) on the Schedule page.
- Repeat for each employee and day until the week is fully scheduled.
- Review the completed schedule. Shifts flagged with a warning indicator signal issues like overtime risk, availability conflict, or a labor compliance exception. Click any warning to see the specific issue and the resolution options available. Resolve any flagged warnings before publishing.
Tip: Use the Copy Schedule option to duplicate a previous week's schedule as a starting point. Find it in the schedule copy icon menu at the top right of the Schedule page. After publishing your first schedule, you can reuse it each week or save it as a Scheduling Templates to avoid rebuilding from scratch.
An on-call shift means the employee is expected to be available and reachable, but only comes in if the restaurant needs them. For example, if it's unexpectedly busy on a Friday night or another team member calls out sick. 7shifts handles on-call scheduling by treating "On Call" as a role that you create and assign like any other position.
To set up on-call scheduling, create the role first, then assign employees to it, then schedule as normal:
- In the left navigation bar, go to Settings > Locations / Departments / Roles.
- Select the Roles tab and click + Add Role.
- Name the role On Call and click Save. You can use any name -"On Call" is the recommended convention so the role is immediately recognizable to managers building the schedule.
- Assign the relevant employees to the On Call role. Go to Team, open each employee's profile, select the Assignments tab, and check the box next to the On Call role.
- Return to the Schedule page and schedule employees for On Call shifts the same way you would any other shift - select the employee row, set the shift time, and choose the On Call role.
Publish the schedule
- Review the draft schedule and confirm shifts are correct for all employees in the department:
- Click Publish Schedule at the top right of the Schedule page.
- Choose your notification preference:
- Notify everyone: all scheduled employees receive an SMS, push notification, and email with their shifts immediately.
- Notify only those with changes: available after the first publish. Only employees whose shifts changed receive a notification.
- Don't notify anyone: shifts go live without any employee notification.
- Click Publish Now. Shifts turn white on the Schedule page, confirming the schedule is live.
- To print the schedule, click the tool icon
and select Print. You can filter by location, department, role, or individual employee, and download a PDF if you prefer a digital copy.
Note: Each employee sets their own notification preferences in their profile. Choosing Notify everyone at publish triggers a notification, but employees who have turned on a specific notification type will receive the alert.
Delete a shift from the schedule
Remove a shift that was added in error or is no longer needed. Deleted shifts are removed from the schedule immediately, but your team won't know until you republish. Always publish after making changes so your staff see the updated floor coverage.
- Log in to the web app as an Admin or Manager with permissions.
- In the left navigation bar, go to Schedule.
- Use the filters at the top of the page to select the correct location, department, and date range.
- Click the shift you want to remove to expand its details.
- Click Delete.
- Click Publish Changes to update the schedule for your team.
Tip: Use Notify only those with changes when republishing after a deletion. This sends a notification only to the employee whose shift was removed, rather than alerting the entire floor.
Troubleshooting
An employee doesn't appear in the scheduling roster
The employee is either not assigned to this department or their profile is inactive. Check their profile under Team to confirm their department assignment. If the assignment is missing, update it or ask your Admin to do so.
You can see the schedule but the Publish button isn't available
Your permission level may not include schedule publishing for this location or department. Contact your Admin to confirm your publishing permissions.
What's next
Congrats! Your first schedule is live 🎉 and your team has their shifts. Below is a 7shifts Product Overview video so that you can further familiarize with the various areas in 7shifts:
Your next step is to manage availability and time-off requests. Learn how to handle the incoming requests that will start arriving once your team is active in the app.