How to Create Shift Templates for Shift-Based Availability

Shift Templates are an important part of setting up a Shift-Based position in SubItUp. The templates you create determine the specific shifts employees can enter availability for and can be used when automatically generating or manually creating schedules.

Create a Shift Template

From the left navigation menu, select Schedule.
Select Configurations.
Select Shift Templates.
Make sure the correct Position is selected.
Select Add New Shift.
Select the Position where the Shift Template should be created.
Choose whether the Shift Template should be Active.
Enter a Shift Name.
Select a Color for the shift.
Enter the Start Time and End Time.
Enter a Shift Note, if needed.
Choose whether the shift should be created as a Task, if applicable.
Select a GL Code, if applicable.
Configure a Rate Adjustment, if applicable.
Enter the number of employees needed under Daily Occurrence for each applicable day.
Make each applicable day Active.
Click Save.

Choosing a Shift Name

Use a Shift Name that makes it easy for employees and managers to understand what the shift represents.

If employees in the same position work at multiple locations, consider including the location in the Shift Name.

For example:

Morning Shift | Smith Hall

If the position only works at one location, including the location in every Shift Name may not be necessary.

Choosing Your Shift Times

How you build your Shift Templates depends on how your organization schedules employees.

Set Shift Times

If employees always work predetermined shifts, create templates that match those exact times.

For example:

7:00 AM to 10:00 AM

10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Employees can then enter their availability for those specific shifts.

Smaller Shift Blocks

If your shift lengths change depending on employee availability, you can create smaller blocks of time, such as one-hour Shift Templates.

When Auto Generate is used, SubItUp will try to group those smaller blocks together into back-to-back shifts when possible. However, an employee could still be scheduled for only one individual block.

Important: Do not create a Shift Template shorter than the minimum amount of time you would actually want an employee to work.

For example, if employees should never work for less than one hour, your individual Shift Templates should not be shorter than one hour.

Shift Notes

You can add a Shift Note to a template.

Whenever that Shift Template is used, the note will be available for the employee to see.

Creating a Template as a Task

A Shift Template can also be configured as a Task.

Tasks are intended for responsibilities or activities that can overlap an employee's regular scheduled shift.

For example, an employee scheduled from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM could also have a meeting Task at 3:00 PM.

Important: A Task is not a regular shift. Tasks cannot be used with the Time Clock and do not appear in Payroll or Time Clock reports.

GL Codes

If your organization uses GL Codes in SubItUp, you can assign a GL Code to a specific Shift Template.

When that template is used, the selected GL Code will be associated with the shift.

Rate Adjustments

You can use Rate Adjustment when employees should receive different pay for a particular shift.

Available adjustment options include:

Dollar amount
Percentage
Multiplier
Flat rate

For example, a manager could apply a 1.5x multiplier to a shift that receives time-and-a-half pay.

Daily Occurrence

Under Daily Occurrence, enter the number of employees needed for the shift on each day of the week.

Make sure each applicable day is also marked Active.

If a day is not Active, SubItUp will not recognize that employees are needed for that Shift Template on that day.

Availability for New Shift Templates

When creating a new Shift Template, you may initially see that there is not enough employee availability for the shift.

This can be normal when employees have not yet entered their Shift-Based Availability for the new template.

Employees can select:

Available
Unavailable
No Preference

Shift-Based Availability saves as employees make their selections. Employees do not need to submit or lock their availability after making these changes.

If employees need to enter or update their availability and availability is currently Closed, a manager will need to reopen availability first.

General Availability and New Shift Templates

General Availability can also affect a newly created Shift Template.

If the entire Shift Template falls within an employee's Available General Availability timeframe, SubItUp can update the employee's availability for that template.

If any portion of the Shift Template overlaps with a General Availability timeframe marked Unavailable, the entire Shift Template can be marked Unavailable.

If availability is Closed, changes to General Availability will not update the employee's Shift Template availability. Reopen availability before making changes that need to update the Shift Templates.

Active and Inactive Shift Templates

After saving, the Shift Templates page displays whether each template is Active.

An Active template is available for use in the current Shift-Based scheduling setup.

Inactive templates can be useful when working with seasonal schedules or different sets of shifts throughout the year.

Inactive Shift Templates are not used when automatically generating the schedule.

Duplicate a Shift Template

If you need to create another similar shift, you can duplicate an existing Shift Template instead of starting over.

When duplicating a template, you can:

Select the Duplicate option.
Choose the position where the new template should be created.
Update the Shift Name as needed.
Choose whether associated availability should be copied.
Choose whether the new template should be created as a Task.
Select Duplicate.
Edit the new template to make any necessary changes.

You can also duplicate a Shift Template into a different position.

Important: Rate Adjustments are not copied when duplicating a Shift Template. If the duplicated template needs a Rate Adjustment, you must add it manually.

Editing an Existing Shift Template

When you edit a Shift Template that already has shifts scheduled in the future, SubItUp will ask how you want to handle those existing shifts.

You can choose:

Leave Them As Is

Existing scheduled shifts will not be changed.

Update Future Shifts

Existing future shifts associated with the template will be updated to reflect the changes made to the Shift Template.

Review this selection carefully before saving changes to a Shift Template that is already being used on your schedule.

What Employees Will See

The Shift Templates you create determine the shift options employees see when entering their Shift-Based Availability.

Employees can indicate whether they are Available, Unavailable, or have No Preference for the specific shifts you've created.

This makes your Shift Template setup the foundation for collecting Shift-Based Availability and building your schedule.

Important Notes

Shift Templates are used with Shift-Based Availability.
Employees enter availability for the Shift Templates created by their manager.
Shift-Based Availability saves as employees make changes. Employees do not submit or lock their availability.
Managers control whether availability is Open or Closed.
Templates can be used with Auto Generate or when manually creating shifts.
General Availability and Shift-Based Availability work together but are not the same type of availability.
Smaller shift blocks can provide additional scheduling flexibility, but employees may be scheduled for an individual block.
Daily Occurrences determine how many employees are needed for the template on each active day.
Tasks are different from regular shifts and are not included in Time Clock or Payroll reporting.
Rate Adjustments do not carry over when a Shift Template is duplicated.
Editing an existing Shift Template may give you the option to update future scheduled shifts.

Need Additional Help?

If you have questions about creating Shift Templates for a Shift-Based position or need assistance with Shift-Based Availability, contact SubItUp Support HERE and we can review your situation.