Publish the roster

Who can do this?

To	Needs	Default roles
Choose when staff see roster changes	role	Admin only. A Manager sees the setting but cannot change it
Publish or discard drafts	shifts.create or shifts.assign.employee	Admin, Manager, Control

How do I choose when staff see changes?

Open Settings → Organisation and find When staff see roster changes. Choose one and press Save.

Choice	What happens to a new shift
Straight away (the default)	Staff see it as soon as it is saved, and are told then
Drafts, except short notice	It stays a draft until you publish it. A shift starting soon goes to staff straight away. Short notice means starting within sets how soon: 12, 24, 48 or 72 hours, or 7 days. The default is 48 hours
Drafts for everything	It stays a draft until you publish it, even if it starts soon

Each change is recorded in the audit trail with the old and new values.

What becomes a draft?

On a drafts setting, these make drafts: adding a shift, Fill gaps, Copy Week → Next, Copy week to…, saving a day or a month, and rolling out a rotation.

These never make drafts:

• A shift that has started. That includes a past shift an Admin adds as history.
• A shift already published. Editing it reaches staff at once, and saving its day again keeps it published.
• Agency cover. Linking a shift to an agency request publishes it, because the agency is now relying on it.

Can I choose for one shift?

Yes, when you assign a shift from the Assign dialog. Next to Assign Shift there is one extra button, and it does the opposite of your setting:

Your setting would	The button	What it does
Send the shift to staff	Save as draft	Holds this shift until you publish it
Hold the shift as a draft	Assign and publish	Sends this shift to staff now, and tells them

On a drafts setting the dialog says This stays a draft until you publish it. so you know what Assign Shift will do.

Neither button appears for a shift that has started, which can only be published, or when you are putting someone on a shift that already exists, which stays as it is. Fill gaps, Copy Week and the quick picker on a cell always follow your setting.

What does a draft do?

Who or what	Draft
Staff	Cannot see it on their schedule, in the app, or in a schedule e-mail, and cannot book on to it
Managers	See it on the roster, week or month, marked Draft with faint stripes
Conflict checks and Working Time	Count it, so a draft still stops a double-booking
Reminders, missed-call alerts and escalations	Ignore it
Arbitration, pay and reports	Ignore it
Shift-triggered forms	Not sent
Client portal	Not shown or counted
Broadcasts	Cannot be broadcast

Approved leave still takes the person off a draft. The seat stays a draft, so the cover is for you to arrange before you publish.

How do I publish?

1. Open Scheduling → Roster and choose the site or sites, and the week or month. Publish acts on exactly what is on screen.
2. Press Publish N at the top of the page. It only appears when there are drafts to publish, and N is the number it will release.
3. Check the list. It shows who will be told and how many shifts each person has. Open shifts are counted separately, because nobody needs telling about them.
4. Press Publish N.

Staff see the shifts at once, and each person gets one message however many shifts they have. The roster then says Published 5 shifts to 2 people.

If two managers press Publish at the same moment, nobody is told twice.

What if a draft's start has passed?

A draft nobody published before it started was never seen by anyone. Publish will not release it, because that would look like a shift that happened.

The cell shows Start passed, the top of the roster counts them as 2 drafts past their start, and Publish tells you how many it left. Reassign the seat by adding a new shift, or press More → Discard drafts….

If somebody did work it, confirm the shift and mark it in progress, then completed. That publishes it, so it reaches arbitration and pay. You cannot mark a no-show on a draft, because nobody was told about the shift.

How do I discard drafts?

Press More → Discard drafts… and confirm. This removes every draft in the sites and period on screen, including any past their start. Published shifts are not touched.

To remove one draft, use Delete shift on it. A draft can be deleted with somebody on it until its day has passed, because they were never told.

Nobody is told, because nobody was told about the drafts in the first place. This cannot be undone.

If it goes wrong

What you see	What it means
No Publish button	There are no drafts to publish here, or your role cannot publish. Check you are on the right week or month
Only an Admin can change this.	A Manager can see the setting but not change it
Fewer shifts published than you expected	Some had passed their start, or a colleague published them first. The message says how many were left
Publish is refused	Your subscription may have lapsed, or the period is longer than the roster can show

Publishing and discarding are recorded in the audit trail under Roster publish: who did it, when, and how many shifts. It never records names.

Related

• Use the roster
• Rotations
• Notifications and your preferences
• Email staff their schedule
• Arbitrate shifts for payroll