Shift Management
Shifts in Zoho FSM let you define and manage the working hours of your field resources in a structured and consistent manner. By creating shifts and assigning users to them for specific date ranges, you can accurately represent resource availability, avoid scheduling conflicts, and plan jobs more effectively. Shifts also integrate seamlessly with the Dispatch Console, where they provide clear visibility into when each resource is available to take up work. This ensures better coordination between dispatchers and field teams while maintaining control over workforce scheduling.
Create Shifts
To create a shift:
- Navigate to Setup > Workforce > Shifts and click Create Shift.
- Enter the following details and click Save:
- A Shift Name.
Each shift must have a unique name. Duplicate names are not permitted. The term General will be used to indicate that a user is not assigned to a shift. As such, it cannot be used as a custom name for your shifts. - A Description for the shift.
- A Time Zone for the shift.
The Zoho FSM Org timezone will be will be prefilled by default. - The Shift Time.
You can either select Same hours every day or Different hours everyday. If you choose Different hours everyday, then in the Shift days field you have to enter hours for each day of the shift. - Select the Shift days.
Assign Resources to a Shift
To assign a resource to a shift:
- Click on the shift to which you want to assign the resource.
- In the Shifts overlay, click Add Resource.
- In the Add Resource popup, enter the following details and click Add:
- The User you want to assign to the shift.
- The Start Date from which the shift assignment begins.
- The End Date until which the shift assignment remains valid.
If the shift dates you enter overlap with an existing shift assignment, an error will be shown. Edit the existing assignment dates to accommodate the new shift.
To update the shift dates assigned to a user, click the relevant shift. In the Shifts overlay, navigate to the Resources tab and hover over the shift assignment you want to modify. Click the Edit [
] icon, make the required changes in the Edit Resource popup, and then click Save.
Under the Resources tab, select Inactive Users to view shift assignments from the past.
Manage Shifts
Hover over a shift to view the Edit [
] and Delete/Deactivate [
] options.
Deactivate Shifts
When you deactivate a shift, the current date is automatically applied as the End Date for all users assigned to that shift, ending their assignment. These users are then moved to Inactive Users under the Resources tab.
If updating a user's End Date to the current date creates a conflict with another existing shift assignment, the shift cannot be deactivated and an error message will be displayed.
To view shifts that have been deactivated, select Inactive Shifts from the dropdown menu.
View a User’s Shift Details
To view the shifts assigned to a user:
- From the Workforce menu, select Users.
- Click the required user.
- In the left pane, scroll to the Shift Details section and click Manage Shifts.
You will be redirected to the Shifts section under the Related List tab, where all shift assignments for the user are displayed. If no shifts are assigned to the user, the option Add Shifts will be shown instead.
Under the Shifts section, you can use the + Create option to assign shifts to the user and the Edit [
] option to modify the existing shift assignments.
Shifts in the Attendance Module
In the Attendance module, the shifts will be indicated.
Under the Team Data tab, the shift details will be displayed next to the user's name. The shift information will be included in the details shown on hover of an entry in the Week view.
Under the My Data tab, the shift details will be displayed in the following places:
- Gantt/Timeline layout of the Week view
- Calendar layout of the Month view
Shifts Filter for Service Appointments
When creating service appointments, you can apply the Exclude Service Resources Outside Shift Hours filter to refine service resource availability based on shift assignment.
This filter is disabled by default. When enabled, any service resources whose shift hours do not cover the selected Scheduled Start Time and Scheduled End Time will be excluded from the results.
Shifts in Dispatch Console
The shift hours will be displayed in the Gantt, Grid and Calendar views of the Dispatch Console.
Gantt View
The Enable shifts for all resources setting is disabled by default. This works well when only some resources in your organization are assigned to shifts. In this case, shift hours are shown only for those resources, while business hours are used as availability for others.
When this setting is enabled, Zoho FSM assumes that all resources work in shifts. As a result, if a resource is not assigned to any shift, their availability will appear greyed out in the Gantt view.
Only users with the Shifts (View) permission can enable this setting.
Grid View
If a resource is assigned to a shift, the shift will be indicated in the corresponding day cells for the entire duration of the shift.
Calendar view
In the Calendar view, the shift details will be displayed only when a single resource is selected in the Service Resources filter. It will be shown in the Day and Week views.