What are custom shift fields?

Custom shift fields are additional fields you can add to either shifts or timesheets for your own internal usage purposes.

Note:

As this is an advanced feature, custom shift fields need to be enabled for your Deputy account before System Administrators can set it up. Please reach out to your main Deputy contact or Deputy Support to get this enabled.
Custom shift fields are only supported on the Deputy website and are not compatible with the Deputy mobile apps, Deputy Kiosk for iPad, Deputy Time Clock for Android or Deputy Web Time Clocks.

How can custom shift fields be used?

Custom shift fields can be very custom to your business however here are a few common examples that may help you begin:

Mapping between other systems

If you integrate your Deputy shift data with other systems, you can use custom shift fields to either provide more context or use this as a common field to map that integration.

Saving additional information against a shift for your staff

If there is any additional information you’d like your scheduling manager to record, you can use a custom shift field to capture this information.

How to set up custom shift fields

Note: As this is an advanced feature, custom shift fields need to be enabled for your Deputy account before System Administrators can set it up. Please reach out to your main Deputy contact or Deputy Support to get this enabled.

1. System Administrators can select Business settings from the menu under their name when logged into the Deputy website.

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2. On the Schedule tab, click on Shift Custom Fields.

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3. Click on New Custom Field.

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4. For the Custom field type, select Schedule and toggle the Active/Inactive selection to ON.

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5. Complete the remaining fields (see table below for guidance) according to your business needs and click Save This Custom Field when finished.

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Field	Guidance
Custom field type	Schedule
Active/Inactive	set to ON to make this question active
Field name	Enter text to name the custom shift field you are creating
Type of field	Choose how you want the team member to fill out the custom shift field. Options are: Text Multi-select List boolean
Validation	Do you want to make the field mandatory to answer or not
Default value	If you have multiple default values, separate them with commas
Visible	Choose if this custom shift field is visible for a user in the add shift popup
Areas	Select the Location / Areas that the custom shift field will apply to. The way this logic works is: If you do not select a specific location (or it’s areas) with a tick then the custom shift field will NOT apply to any shifts in that location. If you tick a location, then by default all areas in that location will be ticked as well, and the field will be applied to all shifts in that location If you wish to only apply the custom shift field to selected areas in a location you must select those specific areas in the location with a tick individually.
Sort order	Control the sort order of field relative to other fields. Sorted lowest number to highest number.
API name	API Name is required to connect with 3rd party solutions with this field. This field is Pre-populated once you enter a Field Name.

6. Once the Custom shift field has been created it will appear in the add shift popup when the scheduling manager creates a new shift in any area the custom shift field has been applied to during configuration.

FAQs

How do custom shift fields differ from custom timesheet fields?

Custom shift fields are completed by the scheduling manager.

Custom Timesheets fields are used to create shift questions that are displayed when an employee clocks in, out or during a shift. This can be useful to capture information such as:

an employee’s current state of health
determine the reasoning behind an employee's hours being different than scheduled
track kilometres or miles travelled
capture tips earned during the shift

There is also an option to block employees from clocking into a shift and/or notify a manager based on an employee’s response. This enables Deputy businesses to take control of an employee clocking in if they are breaching policy (e.g fever, sick, etc).

Shift questions will appear when clocking into shifts on the Deputy website, Deputy mobile apps, Deputy Kiosk for iPad and Deputy Time Clock for Android.