A shift pattern defines a sequence of days when a worker is due to be working or not working ("off pattern"). Consultants use shift patterns to plan out their workforce for a customer. Shift patterns can either be weekly (eg. Mon- Fri, Mon-Sun, Weds-Sun) or a sequence of between 3 and 14 days in length (eg 4 on 4 off, 3 on 3 off).

You can assign a shift pattern to any of your workers and this will inform the system which days they should and want to work. This will help guide you when you are planning their shifts.
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You assign a pattern to a worker from either the worker's profile or from the planning screen. You can either select from the patterns already set up or create a new one.

Go to the worker's profile from the Managed Workers tab. On the left you will see an option for 'Shift patterns'. You can then choose to "Create a new shift pattern", or "Assign a new shift pattern" if your organisation already has some.

When creating a new pattern, there are a few parameters you will be asked to define.

Name: Give your pattern an easy-to-recognise name if you are saving it to be re-used in your organisation.
​Pattern type: The pattern can apply in weekly cycles or in a sequence defined by yourself which can run for between 3 and 14 days.
​Working days: Select which days of the pattern are working days and which ones are off-pattern by clicking in the relevant boxes.
​Start time: You can specify the worker's preferred start time. This can be set to 'Undefined' (no start time set), 'Between' (a range of times), and 'Exactly" (a specific time) for each day within the shift pattern.

Once you've set all of these, hit 'Create' or 'Assign' to create the pattern.

With the pattern in place you can go ahead and assign it to any other worker's it relates to. You will need to select the pattern from the list and define the start and finish dates of the period you'd like it to apply. You can also select 'Until further notice' for the pattern to apply until you deactivate it.

Once the pattern is set, you will see which days the worker is "off pattern" in the shift allocation screen you are using (branch or on site).

Where you have specified an exact start time or a start time range, this will display in the "Preferred start time" column within the shift allocation screens. Both the "off pattern" days and the preferred start time act as extra information to help plan shifts when your workers prefer them. 

However, these settings do not prevent shifts from being created and allocated to workers outside of their preferences.

You can also edit the shift patterns from this screen:

1) Choose the relevant worker on the right side, and this will open a Worker's profile screen, including a shift pattern section.

2) Follow the same steps as above to create or assign a shift pattern if the worker currently does not have one - or click "Edit" if they do have a shift pattern already.