Auto-scheduler (Beta)
Auto-scheduler uses machine learning and your past sales and scheduling data to draft a weekly schedule for one department in 7shifts. You can run it on a blank week on the Schedule, then edit the draft and publish when it looks right.
Note: Auto-scheduler is currently in beta and rolling out gradually to selected 7shifts accounts. If you don't see Auto-schedule in the copy menu on the Schedule, your company isn't part of this early phase yet. Follow along with our What's New section for updates on when Auto-scheduler will be available to all accounts!
Requirements to use Auto-scheduler
Important: Managers and Assistant Managers require the permission "Can manage schedules" to use this feature.
Auto-scheduler needs enough history to build a reliable draft. Your location must have all of the following:
- Six weeks of sales data, entered manually or synced from your point of sale (POS) integration.
- At least 35 days within those six weeks that each have $100 or more in sales and 50 or more receipts.
- Six weeks of scheduling history.
Sales from roles created in the last six weeks don't count toward these requirements. Days that fall far outside your average sales, such as holidays, are left out of the calculation.
Check your settings before you use Auto-scheduler
Your overtime limits and scheduling hours affect the schedule Auto-scheduler drafts, so review these settings before you generate a schedule in 7shifts.
Review your overtime limits:
- Go to Settings > Company Settings > Labor & Compliance.
- Under Overtime, review your overtime limits. The Auto-scheduler keeps employees within these limits whenever possible.
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If changes are made, select Save at the bottom of the page.
Review your scheduling hours:
- Go to Settings > Locations, Departments, & Roles > Locations and select the location.
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Under Scheduling Hours, select the pencil (Edit) icon to enter the first and last minutes of the day your team is in the building. The Auto-scheduler uses these times to start and end open and close shifts at the right times.
- Select Apply.
Generate a schedule with Auto-scheduler
You can use Auto-scheduler for the current week or for a week further out, as long as the schedule for that week is blank.
- Go to the Schedule and select the week you want to schedule.
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Select the copy icon with the sparkle, then select Auto-schedule.
- Under Scheduling for, select the department. Auto-scheduler builds one department at a time.
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Review the weather, events, Labor % Target, and Projected Sales for each day. A blue number under a day shows how many events are scheduled that day.
The Full Week column shows your average labor percentage and total projected sales.
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Select any cell to edit it if the value looks off. You can use either of these options:
- Enter a Labor % Target or Projected Sales amount for each day.
- Enter a weekly amount under Full Week, and 7shifts spreads it across the days of the week.
- Select Looks right — continue.
- Move the slider to Labor target, Balanced, or Full coverage. The Balanced setting stays close to your labor target and only adds hours where coverage would otherwise break.
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Under Shift assignment, select Assign shifts to employees or Leave shifts as unassigned.
- Select Generate schedule.
The Drafting your schedule screen shows progress as 7shifts creates shifts, checks team availability, assigns shifts to employees, checks labor rules, and saves your draft.
Review your Auto-scheduler draft
Auto-scheduler saves a draft for the week you selected. Shifts that can't be assigned to an employee appear as unassigned shifts on the Schedule, similar to template shifts that aren't filled.
Running Auto-scheduler again with the same sales and time off data produces the same schedule.
Note: Auto-scheduler doesn't support hourly sales adjustments at this time.