Shift Swaps in Zoho Shifts | Request and Approve Shift Exchanges

Shift swaps

You can allow employees to swap shifts in your organization and configure rules for exchanging shifts. This article explains what shift swapping is, how to configure shift swapping for your organization, when employees are eligible to swap shifts, and how to approve shift swap requests.

How shift swap works

When an employee can't make it to a scheduled shift, they can exchange it with another employee's future shift who shares the same schedule and position.

You can also configure scheduling preferences for swapping shifts in your organization. To configure shift swap settings for your organization, you'll need the Administrator access level or the Manage account and other settings permission.
  1. Navigate to the Settings menu in the top-right corner.
  2. Select Preferences under Schedule.
  3. In the Shift Swap section, enable or disable these settings based on your requirements:
    1. Allow employees to swap shifts: This enables employees to swap shifts across the organization.
    2. Shift swaps require manager approval: If enabled, all swap requests created in this organization must be approved by a manager before shifts can be exchanged between employees. If this setting is disabled, shifts are swapped instantly once the employee accepts the swap request.
    3. Restrict swaps when employees' schedule constraints are exceeded: Limit shift swaps that exceed scheduling rules based on each employee's schedule constraints. 
  4. Click Save. 

Eligibility conditions for shift swaps

When an employee tries to swap shifts with other employees, the shifts are listed based on the following eligibility criteria: 
  1. Matching schedule and position: Employees can swap shifts only if both are assigned to the schedule and position required for the shift. If this condition isn’t met, the shifts are not listed for swapping.
  2. No overlapping shifts: A shift can be swapped only if it does not overlap with another published shift. If swapping would create a scheduling overlap, those shifts are not listed.

Approve swap requests

When your organization has enabled manager approval for shift swaps, the request must be approved for shift exchanges between employees. To approve a swap request, you'll need the Administrator access level or the Approve swap, offer, drop, and open shift requests permission.
On web
On mobile
On web
  1. Go to Schedule > Requests.
  2. Click the Swap tab, then select the request that requires your approval.
  3. Enter your Comment (Optional).
  4. Select Approve or Deny based on your preference.
On mobile
  1. Open the Zoho Shifts mobile app.
  2. Tap Requests at the bottom of the screen.
  3. Select the Swap tab from the request page at the top.
  4. Tap on the request that requires your approval.
  5. Enter your Comments (optional).
  6. Select Accept or Decline based on your preference.

 If accepted, shifts are exchanged among employees. If declined, the employees retain the shifts originally assigned to them.