Auto-schedule shifts
Auto-scheduling in Zoho Shifts helps you quickly fill open shifts based on your staffing needs, employee availability, and schedule constraints. This article walks you through how auto-scheduling works, what you need to set up before using it, and how to run it, so you can build accurate, faster work schedules with fewer steps.
Before you start
To run auto-schedule for your open shifts, you’ll need the Administrator access level or the Publish shifts permission. You can only auto-schedule shifts for the assigned schedules.
How auto-schedule works
Auto-scheduling uses the unpublished open shifts to create a schedule. When you run it, you choose how shifts should be optimized and distributed, along with the conditions to consider. Zoho Shifts then creates a read-only draft schedule that you can review, apply, or discard.
Employees are considered eligible only if:
- They are assigned to the open shift's schedule and position.
- Shift times do not overlap with approved time off or existing assigned shifts.
- When the new shifts do not violate the schedule constraints set in their employee profile.
In addition to eligibility, you can control how shifts are assigned by setting optimization priorities, such as fair distribution, lower labor costs, employee availability, and employee schedule constraints, as explained below. Shifts are assigned to employees only when all eligibility rules and selected conditions are met.
To auto-schedule shifts
- Navigate to Schedule > Schedule Editor.
- Select a Schedule using the schedule dropdown filter for which you need to create an auto-schedule.
- Navigate to Tools and select Auto Schedule.
- In the Auto-schedule window, select Optimization Priority.
- To assign shifts fairly for every employee, select Fair distribution of scheduled hours.
- To minimize labor costs, select Low labor cost. This assigns shifts to employees with lower hourly rates first. For example, if Employee A’s labor cost is 20, Employee B’s is 30, and Employee C’s is 15, and you create an auto-schedule with 2 shifts, A and C will be assigned because they have lower costs than B.
- Select the Don’t schedule employees when unavailable checkbox to consider employee availability while scheduling. By default, this option is enabled. When you uncheck, employees may be scheduled even during time slots they’ve marked as unavailable.
- Select and enter the additional schedule constraint for the maximum number of days an employee can be scheduled repetitively.
- Click Auto-schedule.
Zoho Shifts typically takes a few minutes to generate an auto-schedule. Once it’s ready, you can view the preview from the notification bell in the top-right corner or from Tools > Auto-schedule in the Schedule Editor.
- If the preview meets your requirements, click Save Shifts to apply.
- If some shifts remain unassigned, it means no employees met the auto-scheduling conditions. You can assign those shifts manually.
To remove the auto-schedule without applying it, click Discard from the preview.
Access your files securely from anywhere
Zoho CRM Training Programs
Learn how to use the best tools for sales force automation and better customer engagement from Zoho's implementation specialists.
Zoho DataPrep Personalized Demo
If you'd like a personalized walk-through of our data preparation tool, please request a demo and we'll be happy to show you how to get the best out of Zoho DataPrep.
- Zoho Workerly Home
- Forums
- Connect With Us:
- Zoho Recruit Home
- Forums
- Connect With Us:
Centralize Knowledge. Transform Learning.
All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.
New to Zoho Writer?
Create. Review. Publish.
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
You are currently viewing the help pages of Qntrl’s earlier version. Click here to view our latest version—Qntrl 3.0's help articles.
New to Zoho Survey?
Zoho Sheet Resources
Zoho Forms Resources
New to Zoho Sign?
Zoho Sign Resources
Sign, Paperless!
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
New to Zoho ZeptoMail?
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
New to Zoho Workerly?
New to Zoho Recruit?
New to Zoho CRM?
New to Zoho Projects?
New to Zoho Sprints?
New to Zoho Assist?
New to Bigin?
Related Articles
Auto clock out
Clock out time is essential to validate the worked hours of employees in timesheet. In Zoho Shifts, admins or managers will be able to approve the time entry only when the clock out time is available. To ensure proper time entry and avoid manual ...Auto-deduct breaks
Based on your organization's policy, you can mandate the scheduled breaks and deduct the same from the employee's timesheet automatically, if not availed using the auto-deduct breaks setting. Before you start Ensure that the auto-detect breaks are ...Clear Shifts
Remove shifts from your schedule all at once, instead of deleting them one by one, with the Clear Shifts option available in Zoho Shifts. Clearing shifts from the scheduled is ideal when you have published shifts by accident or want a fresh start ...Publishing shifts
Publishing shifts ensures that every employee with access to Zoho Shifts is notified of their schedule and can view and take action on shifts only when they are published. This article explains how to publish shifts and communicate changes. Before ...Open shifts
Create shifts that employees can claim based on their availability, rather than assigning them directly. This article will guide you on how open shifts work and how to create them in Zoho Shifts. How open shifts work Open shifts are created without ...
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources