Deputy users with an access level of Supervisor, Location Manager and System Administrator can all create schedules although Supervisors will not be able to see any details in relation to team member costs when scheduling.

Before you start to create your first schedule you need to ensure you have completed the following tasks in Deputy which can only be completed by users with an access level of Location Manager, System Administrator or Advisor.

You will first need to:

• create your work locations and scheduling areas
• add your team members including pay rates, leave types and unavailability entered
• create your training modules and assign them to relevant team members

When working with the Schedule tab, Deputy works on a "what you see is what you get" basis.

Put simply, any action you enact on the schedule applies ONLY to the shifts displayed on your screen.

This rule applies to functions such as deleting shifts, bulk updating shifts, publishing shifts or printing shifts. Only those displayed in your current schedule view will have the action applied to them.

Therefore it is important to use the location, date, and view selector to ensure you are viewing the correct set of shifts you wish to action.

Read more tips about how to see the schedule you need in Schedule filtering and management.

To access your schedule, log in to Deputy and click Schedule.

The Location and Area selector on the top left of the Schedule tab is used to select the location or the area that you want to schedule for. You can display the schedule for All locations, just one location, just for one area or multiple locations and areas of your choosing depending on what you select here. 

Quick select mode

When you click on the location selector you can quickly click on a Location or Area name in the list to display it on the Schedule. If you know the name of the Location or Area you want to display you can type its name in the search bar.

The Schedule defaults to display the current day, however the Date Selector allows you move the view forward or back in time to select other scheduling periods as well. The period of time displayed in the Date Selector is dependent on what has been selected in the View Selector.

The View Selector will display your schedule over various time periods on a single page by either Area or by Team members depending on what option is selected.

You will find that the various Schedule Views will fulfil different purposes when scheduling depending on whether you are looking for scheduling gaps in a particular area or time period, or focussing on the schedule of a particular team member.

Here is an example of a Schedule displayed in Week by Area view:

Here is an example of a Schedule displayed in Week by Team member view:

If you or other users have changed any data or since you loaded the Schedule page you can select the Refresh button to load the most current data.

Auto scheduling is a powerful tool that uses metrics and AI learning to create an entire schedule with a single click.

The Auto-Schedule button combines the two key functions that make up Auto-Scheduling, Auto Build Shift Structure (creating optimal empty shift structures) and Auto Fill Empty Shifts (filling your empty schedule with the right people for every shift).

You can also access each of the functions individually by clicking the drop-down menu.

Alternatively, if you have team members who have an agreement to work regular scheduled shifts you can use Auto-schedule regular working hours to automatically build their schedule.

The Copy Schedule button allows you to fill your schedule based on previous data by copying single shifts, days or weeks.

The Save Template and Load Template option in the drop-down menu allows you to copy a pre-existing schedule as a template and load it into a selected date to fill the schedule faster.

Note: the Copy shift functionality is NOT available for the monthly schedule view so the button will not be shown in this view.

Click Insights to be taken to the Business Insights summary page.

If you open the Insights drop-down menu you can:

• give feedback on Business Insights
• enable a simple coverage planner on the schedule
• enable the status panel to display a projection of the selected period's total staff wages vs. expected sales.

Click Edit graph to further select which business metrics to display.

You can print your schedule from Deputy.

You can also sync the schedule to your personal electronic calendar.

There are a number of other actions available in this Options dropdown including:

• Remove all team members will remove every team member assigned to a shift and leave a blank shift in your current view. This will not remove team members in days or weeks that are not currently on-screen.
• Remove Empty Shifts will delete all empty shifts.
• Mark all empty shifts as Open will make each empty shift Open to offer it to your team members.
• Delete All Shifts will remove every shift in your current view. Please note that this option is irreversible
• Bulk update will allow you to make bulk updates to all the displayed shifts.
• Edit Location and Areas will take you to the Location Settings page.
• Enter Sales will take you to Business Insights, allowing you to enter sales data and make wages vs. sales projections.

The Publish Shifts Button shows you how many shifts are yet to be published.

Clicking on the date in the schedule allows you to view and add information that may assist with scheduling.

• forecast weather
• assign public holiday
• block off time requests
• notes to assist with scheduling

You can see team members with time off for the day by reviewing the Time off Area.

Click on the arrows near each Area name to collapse or expand areas as required.

1. Open the Schedule tab and select your desired location and date then either click the "+" symbol or double-click the work area you want to create the shift in.

2. Enter the shift details in the pop-up including:

• Who is working the shift
• In which area they are working (will default to the area you click in on the Schedule to create the shift)
• Start and finish time (will default to the settings set here) but you can edit
• Break duration (will default to the settings set here) but you can edit
• Any shift notes for the team member completing the shift (this information will be sent to the team member when the shift is published)

3. Once you enter your required shift details you can click Save.

Tip: System administrators are able to change what the unpaid meal break and the paid breaks are called in Deputy.

For more information about scheduling breaks please read Break planning.

Read more about these features in Creating shifts on your schedule:

• creating a shift for a team member
• creating open shifts that team members can claim
• offering a shift to a specific group of team members
• creating repeating shifts
• cloning shifts
• copying shifts
• bulk updating shifts

Once you have created your shifts and your Schedule is ready for your team members to see it, you need to publish your shifts. You can choose how your team members are notified of the new shifts.

Your team members can review their schedule on their Deputy mobile app, however, sometimes you may wish to print or export your schedule, or sync the schedule to your own electronic calendar.

You may also notice a LOCKED shift. This means that the timesheet has been submitted for this scheduled shift so you can no longer edit the shift.

Colour area coding allows you to easily distinguish between areas when viewing your schedule.

1. Click ... next to the area you would like to assign a colour to.

2. Click the Color drop-down box.

3. Select one of the preset colours, or you can enter in a colour hexcode.

Remember to click Done and Save to confirm your changes.

You will be able to see this in a number of places:

• Schedule Page in Area and Team Member Views
• Excel export of Schedule. Please note that colour coding will NOT appear in the CSV file export.

There are a number of keyboard shortcuts available to speed up the scheduling process.