Before you start building a schedule in Expressway Scheduling, it's important to review certain settings and employee information to ensure the application meets the needs of your store and staff.
Review Settings
Navigate to the Settings module to configure your schedule. Here's an overview of the key settings:
General Settings
1. Alerts
Alerts warn you about potential issues while building a schedule but don't prevent publishing.
Weekly hour limit: Enter the number of hours to trigger an "over the weekly limit" alert.
Check "Notify when an employee hits weekly limit" to send an email to the store manager.
Hours before weekly limit alert: Set how many hours before the weekly limit to trigger an "Approaching weekly hour limit" warning.
Check "Notify when an employee approaches weekly limit" for email notifications.
Daily hour limit: Set the maximum daily hours before an alert is triggered.
Minimum hours between shifts: Enter the minimum required time between shifts to avoid alerts.
2. View Options
Choose which day the week starts on
Set the default shift length
Define work hours start and end times
3. Schedule Approval
Enable supervisor approval workflow by checking "Require schedule approval".
Set submit by and approve by dates/times for reminder emails
4. Time Off Settings
Limit daily time off requests
Set required advance notice for time off requests
Labor Model Settings
Choose between two labor target options:
Labor percent
Sales per labor hour
Enter your target number and add non-service hours if needed.
Click the radio button for your desired target option
Enter the target number
For "Sales per labor hour" option:
Add non-service hours to increase hourly labor allotment without impacting your target
Click "Add non-service hours" button to select time and number of non-service hours
Repeat for each hour you want to add non-service hours
Trades and Covers Settings
Enable "Restrict trades/covers to same job" to limit shift trades to employees with the same job role.
Remember to save any changes made to the settings before exiting.
Review Employee Details
Navigate to the Staff module to ensure employee data is accurate. The process differs depending on whether Expressway is integrated with your POS system or not.
If Expressway is integrated with your POS and polling employee information:
In the Staff module, you'll see a table containing all your employees.
Click on an employee to review their information.
Verify the employee's name, job, job rate, and email address are correct.
An email address is needed for the employee to receive emails about scheduled shifts.
If any information is missing or incorrect, make changes within your POS employee portal. Updates will automatically sync with Expressway Schedule the following day.
Review the Allocated hours card:
Check the "Exclude from allocated hours" option. When turned on, the staff member's hours won't count against the "Available hours" in the scheduler.
This is typically used for store managers to exclude their hours and cost from allocated target hours.
Review the User account section:
Staff need a user account to access their schedule and send requests via Expressway web or mobile apps.
Click "Add user account" to send an email invite for account creation.
For existing accounts, you'll see a green "An account has been created for this user" status.
Use buttons to send reset password requests or resend user invites if needed.
Check the Availability section:
Click "Edit" to modify availability.
Choose from: Available all day (default), unavailable all day, or unavailable for a time range.
For time range unavailability, set start and end times.
Add multiple time ranges for the same day using "Add another unavailable time".
Unavailability will be shown on the schedule, and you'll receive conflict alerts for shifts during these times.
Save any changes made to the employee information before exiting.
By thoroughly reviewing these settings and employee details, you'll ensure Expressway Scheduling functions optimally for your store and staff needs. Remember to review and update this information regularly as your business requirements change.