| Note: From October 1st, 2025, we introduced new plans that better reflect how our customers use Deputy: Lite, Core, and Pro. If you're an existing customer, look out for an email with all the details you’ll need. Learn more about the new plans and what this change means for you. |
| Note: Some features or functions mentioned in this article may not yet be visible in your account. These updates are being gradually rolled out and will be available on relevant plans soon. |
Bulk updating shifts in your schedule allows you to make a large number of changes with less effort than updating shifts individually. This action will update / edit shifts already on the schedule. If you want to bulk import/add new shifts to your schedule you should instead read Bulk import schedule and timesheets.
IMPORTANT: Deputy works on a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) basis, so using Bulk Updates means making changes to all shifts currently visible on your Schedule page—see Schedule filtering for more information.
Bulk update for multiple shifts
1. Firstly, use the date and schedule view selectors to ensure that the schedule is filtered and that all shifts you wish to apply the comment to are visible. In this example, the schedule has been filtered to show all shifts scheduled at location "Antigua Room" for the week of 20 Jul - 26 July.
2. To select the shifts, hold the Command key(macOS)/Control key(Windows) and select every shift you wish to add a shift note to.
Note: This method will replace any existing shift notes for all selected shifts. If you do not wish to change the notes for a specific shift, ensure it is not selected before continuing.
3. Click on the Edit menu and select Bulk update.
Bulk update for a specific day or week
How to display the desired set of shifts on your schedule to update
Before you can apply bulk updates to any shifts, you need to ensure only the shifts you wish to update are displayed on the Schedule page.
As shown in the example below, you can use the following selectors at the top of the Schedule page to filter the shifts that are displayed:
Location selector - you can use this to display All locations in your organisation, specific Locations or even specific Areas
Date Selector - use this to set the date period of shifts you wish to display
View Selector - select from Day, Week, Two week or Month View by Area or Team Member
View by area
When viewing the Schedule in View by Area, you can also hide specific areas on the schedule to further filter and only display the shifts you wish to update.
You can click on the arrow next to the Area name to collapse and expand the schedule.
In the example below a filter has been applied to display shifts for:
- Location: The Azure
- Time Period: week of 21st - 27th Feb
- Areas: Front Desk and Admin
- The filtered result displays 21 shifts on the schedule ready for bulk update.
View by Team member
When viewing the Schedule in View by Team Member you can also use the search bar at the top of the team member list on the Schedule to select specific team members' shifts to display.
In the example shown below, the 2 week by Team member view is displayed and then Akira's name is entered in the search bar to filter to show just Akira's shifts so the manager can bulk update them to be covered by Chris for those two weeks.
For more information on how to filter your Schedule effectively read Schedule Filtering and Management.
How to make bulk update to shifts
Once you have filtered the Schedule to only display shifts you wish to make updates to then:
Click on Options (sprocket icon)
Click on Bulk Update.
3. Select a field to apply the update to and click on Update.
What shift fields can I bulk update?
Team member
Team Member allows you to replace the current team member's shifts with another team member.
Utilize Bulk update for multiple shifts or the Team Member View and other selectors described above to ensure you are only displaying the shifts you wish to replace prevent accidentally assigning every shift on a schedule to a single team member.
Start time
This will update the shifts' start times to the time you specify in minute increments.
End time
This will update the shifts' end times to the time you specify in minute increments.
Area
This option will take the shifts and place them into an Area as specified by you.
Meal break length
This allows you to add a meal break to the shifts, in 5 minute increments from 5 to 240 minutes.
Rest break length
This allows you to add a rest break to the shifts, in 5 minute increments from 5 to 240 minutes.
Shift note
This option allows you to:
- Add or replace a shift note to the shifts.
- Remove notes from the shifts.
| Shift Note Options | Add or Replace Comment Field |
| (Click to expand) | (Click to expand) |
Publish status
Publish status will allow you to bulk update the shift's publish status. You can select one of the two following:
- Not Published
- Published
Other bulk action options on the schedule
When you open the Options menu in the Schedule you can see that in addition to Bulk Updates there are other bulk actions you can apply to your schedule including:
- Remove All Team Members
- Remove Empty Shifts
- Delete All Shifts
- Mark Empty Shifts as Open
Note: All of these options function in the same way as described for Bulk update for a specific day or week. That is, the action will only be applied to the shifts that are displayed on the Schedule.
In the example below, the manager wants to delete all shifts on the selected week from the Area, South Room.
1. The Areas other than "South Room" are hidden on the Schedule by clicking on the arrows. (You can also expand and collapse all areas at once by selecting Expland/Collapse all from the Options menu.
2. Click on Options (Sprocket icon)
3. Select Delete All Shifts from the menu.
4. Click Remove.
You can see that when the schedule is expanded out only the shifts from the Area South Room were deleted but the other shifts on the Schedule remain.