Requiring confirmation is an option when you publish your shifts. When you publish a shift with confirmation required, the team member assigned to the shift will be sent an email and SMS, and must either accept or decline the shift within a defined time period.

This time period may be customised by Location Managers and System Administrators in Location Settings.

If a team member does not confirm the shift by the defined time period, the shift will automatically become an Open Shift.

If the shift is confirmed, the employee will remain assigned to it, which will appear the same as a normal published shift.

If they decline the shift, you will be notified and the shift will appear as "DECLINED" on the roster.

If a team member has a phone number attached to their Deputy account, they will be sent an SMS message to confirm their shifts, as well as an email. If they do not have a phone number then they will only be sent an email. 

Note: When SMSs are sent from your account for shift confirmation additional costs apply.

How do I implement shift confirmation?

1. Schedule your team members as you usually would on the Schedule page and then click on Publish Shifts.

2. Select whether you will publish updated shifts only or all shifts displayed then select your areas.

3. On the next step Notify Staff, select the top option Notify (SMS) and ask for confirmation and click Publish.

On the schedule, you will now see that any shifts requiring confirmation have a CONFIRMING on the shift to differentiate them from regular shifts.

If they decline the shift, the schedule will change to an EMPTY shift with a warning flag.

If you click on the shift then you can see it has been declined. If you need further information then you can also click on Shift Action > View Shift History.

There are several different ways team members can confirm their shifts when requested:

If you have push notifications switched on on your phone you will see the Deputy app will let you know you have shifts to confirm:

The instructions below show screenshots from an iOS phone, however, the steps are the same for Android phones.

1. Log in to the Deputy app and tap on Upcoming Shifts on the Home screen.

2. Shifts that your manager requires you to confirm have been marked in red with Confirm Shift. You can tap on Confirm all to confirm all shifts listed or scroll down the list to inspect and confirm them individually by tapping on a shift.

3. When the shift is open you can see Confirmation is Required. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap on Confirm Shift or Decline Shift as desired. If Decline is selected then you will need to provide a reason in the text box.

1. Log into Deputy on your web browser.

2. On the Me tab, click on Upcoming Shifts. You can see in the example below that the Upcoming Shifts button has a red 1 to indicate that one shift needs confirmation.

3. You may need to scroll down to see them all if they are in the future. Next to shifts requiring confirmation, you will see a tick and a cross next to the shift.

4. Click the tick to confirm, or the cross to decline.

Note: if you decline the shift you cannot confirm it afterwards.

1. From your Inbox, open the email containing the shifts. If the notification of your scheduled shifts contains any shifts that your manager has asked you to confirm then you will need to click on the button that says Click here to confirm or Decline your shifts.

2. When you click on the link in the email, a web browser will open to display another page where you can confirm or decline the shifts.

3. Click the tick icon to confirm the shift or the cross icon to decline it. If Decline is selected then the you to provide a reason in the text box.

Note: If you decline the shift you cannot later confirm it.

If your phone number is entered into Deputy, you may also be notified of shifts to confirm via SMS.