How to publish a schedule

Updated August 04, 2026 19:33

Once you've created your schedule in 7shifts, publish it so your team can view their shifts. The publish modal defaults to the week or day and departments you're currently viewing. You can publish as-is or choose specific departments, roles, days, or even an individual shift before confirming. The existing workflow hasn't changed, you just now have more control over exactly what gets published and when.

In this article
Frequently asked questions
Things to Know
Publish your schedule
Publish an individual shift
Publish status indicators

Frequently asked questions

How do I publish a schedule in 7shifts?

Click Publish Schedule at the top right of the Schedule page. The publish modal opens and defaults to the week or day and departments you're currently viewing. Review the pre-selected departments, roles, and days, choose your notification preference, and click Publish shift changes to confirm.

Why can't my manager publish a schedule?

Managers and Assistant Managers must have the "Can manage schedules" permission and be assigned to the relevant locations and departments to publish a schedule. If the Publish Schedule button isn't available, contact your Admin to confirm both the permission and assignments are set up correctly.

Can I publish just part of my schedule without publishing the whole department?

Yes. The publish modal lets you choose specific roles and days before confirming. You can also publish a single assigned shift by right-clicking it on web and selecting Publish shift, or from the three dot menu in the shift details screen on mobile.

What do Partial and Mixed indicators mean on my schedule?

Partial means one department was published but not all shifts within it were included — some shifts are still in draft. Mixed means departments across the schedule are in different publish states, with some fully published, some partially published, and some not published at all.

Things to Know

Important: Managers and Assistant Managers must have the "Can manage schedules" permission to publish a schedule and can only access the schedule for the Locations and Departments they are assigned.

Employees must receive and accept their invitation to join 7shifts to be notified about their schedule.
Admins must complete the account's Locations, Departments & Roles setup to ensure your team is accurately assigned and notified about their shifts.
Unassigned shifts can't be published individually. They appear in the publish modal under their department and can be checked or unchecked there, but the right-click publish option isn't available for them.
When a schedule is published for fewer than seven days, the notification lists each individual date rather than a date range.
Open and unassigned shifts appear under their department in the publish modal under 'No Role' and can be included or excluded like any other shift.
If no Departments exist for the Location, all roles will be pre-selected as default.
If a Department has no roles assigned, all shift changes will appear under the no 'No Role' selector.

Publish your schedule

When you click Publish schedule, an updated modal opens where you can confirm what you want to publish. By default, the modal pre-fills based on what you were viewing on the schedule when you clicked Publish.

In week view, all 7 days are pre-selected.
In day view, only that single day is pre-selected.
The departments and roles pre-selected in the modal match what you were viewing on the schedule. For example, if you were viewing the FOH and BOH departments, all roles within those departments will be pre-selected by default.

You can check or uncheck any combination of departments, roles and days before confirming. The modal shows a change count per department and a total shift change count so you can see exactly what will be published.

Use the tabs below to follow the steps for your platform:

Log in to the mobile app.
Tap the calendar icon on the bottom navigation bar.
Navigate to the week you'd like to publish.
Tap Publish (x shifts) at the bottom of your screen:
The publish modal opens. The week you're viewing appears at the top. Review the pre-selected days and departments. You can tap to check or uncheck specific roles and days before publishing.
A checkmark next to a department name means the entire department (all roles) is selected. A dash means only some roles within that department are selected.
Shifts changes to publish are listed in order of date and time (not grouped by Department). The Department name appears alongside each shift for reference.
Choose your notification preference: Only those with changes, Everyone, or No one.
Tap Publish shift changes to confirm.

Log in to the web app as an Admin or Manager with publishing permissions.
In the left navigation bar, go to Schedule and view the week or day schedule you'd like to publish.

You can navigate between week view/day view by using the toggle in the upper right corner of the schedule.
Shifts in draft mode appear in light yellow and aren't visible to employees:
Click Publish Schedule at the top right of the schedule.
The updated publish modal opens. The week you're viewing appears at the top. Review and adjust the pre-selected days and departments/roles as needed.

Note: By default, the system will select the Department(s) and all Roles within that Department that you are correctly viewing on the schedule.

The Departments will appear in the modal in this order:
- Selected departments with changes
- Selected departments without changes
- Unselected departments with changes
- Unselected departments without changes.
Departments are alphabetical within each group.

Note: If employees in the schedule haven't been invited yet, a yellow warning banner appears inside the modal. You can still publish — this is a warning, not a blocker. Click Invite employees in the banner to invite them.
A checkmark next to a department name means the entire department (all roles) is selected. A dash means only some roles within that department are selected.

Choose your notification preference from the dropdown. The table below outlines what each option does:

If	Then
You select Only those with changes	Only employees whose shifts were added or changed receive a notification (based on their personal notification settings).
You select Everyone	All staff immediately receive a notification (based on their personal notification settings), showing their weekly shifts.
You select No one	Shifts are published without notifying anyone.

Click Publish shift change to confirm.
Published shifts appear in white on the schedule. If you have chosen to notify the team about the schedule, they'll receive a notification on their preferred method.

⚠️ Important: If no days are selected, an error appears: "You must select at least one day." If no roles or departments are selected, an error appears: "You must select at least one role or department." The Publish button is disabled until both are resolved.

Publish an individual shift

You can publish a single assigned or open shift without republishing the full department. This is useful when one employee's shift changes last minute and you don't want to re-notify the rest of the team.

Click on the shift to open the shift details screen for the draft shift you'd like to publish.
Tap the three dot menu in the shift details screen.
Select Publish shift.
Choose your notification preference: Only [Employee First & Last Name] (the default), Everyone, or No one.
Tap Publish this shift to confirm.

Right-click a draft shift on the schedule.
Select Publish shift from the menu.
A submenu expands. Choose your notification preference: Only [Employee First & Last Name] (the default), Everyone, or No one.
Click Publish this shift to confirm.

Note: Unassigned shifts don't have a right-click publish option. To include unassigned shifts, use the publish modal instead.

Publish status indicators

On the web, the schedule header on the right hand side of the schedule page shows the current publish state for the week. There are three possible publish statuses: Published, Partial, and Mixed.