Auto-schedule a week

Let Atteny propose a week from the people each shift needs and your team's availability. You check the proposal before any shift is created.

For adminsFor managers
Updated October 10, 2026
Requires the Scheduling module to be turned on in Settings → Modules.

Auto Schedule proposes shifts for one week. For each shift of each day it takes the people needed, subtracts the shifts already on the schedule that cover the whole shift, and picks people who can work. No shift is created until you accept.

Admins can run it for every location. Managers need Allow managers to edit schedules (Settings, Manager permissions, off by default). Auto Schedule never proposes the manager who runs it: an admin or another manager schedules them. Shifts proposed for a location a manager is not assigned to are not created, so managers choose one of their own locations in the top bar first.

In Fixed Hours nothing can be applied.

  1. 1

    Pick the week and the location

    Open Schedules in the week view and move to the week. In the top bar, choose one location or all locations. The run covers the week on screen, from today onward.

  2. 2

    Select Auto Schedule

    Select Auto Schedule (Auto-schedule as drafts while the toolbar switch is on Draft).

  3. 3

    Check how many people each shift needs

    People per shift lists each shift of the week with its number of people. Change a number with the minus and plus buttons. It is saved to this week only; the location's default week is not changed.

    To change shift times, follow Edit this week's shifts. A day marked No default set has no opening hours saved at that location: Auto Schedule then staffs it as 09:00 to 17:00 for 1 person. See Opening hours and people needed.

    Step one of the Auto Schedule dialog, People per shift: each location with its shifts per day, each with a minus button, a number and a plus button, and the Continue button
  4. 4

    Read the proposal

    Select Continue. The second step, Schedule, shows the Rules, four counters and the proposal. Every proposed shift is listed under its day, with a line on why that person was picked. Regenerate makes a new proposal.

    Step two of the Auto Schedule dialog: the rules with their switches, the Always respected line, the four counters and the proposed shifts for each day, with the Back, Regenerate and Accept and Apply buttons
  5. 5

    Accept

    Select Accept & Apply. The shifts are live at once, each person gets one message for all their new shifts, and new open shifts are announced.

    With the toolbar switch on Draft, the button reads Accept & Stage as drafts. The shifts are then drafts: nobody is told, and open shifts among them cannot be claimed until you publish the week. See Drafts and publishing.

    Auto Schedule a week
    1. Auto Schedule drafts the whole week
    2. Accept, and the shifts appear as drafts

The rules#

Four rules are on until your company changes them. They are saved for the whole company when a run is accepted.

  • Prefer employees with fewer of their hours used.
  • Avoid weekly overtime: nobody is proposed a shift that takes their week past their weekly contracted hours. People with no employment type are not limited by it.
  • The rest rule: a proposed shift is at least 11 hours away from the person's other shifts.
  • The days rule: no proposal creates a run of more than 6 worked days in a row.

The rest rule and the days rule count inside the week being planned, plus shifts that started in the 24 hours before it. Check the join with the neighbouring weeks yourself.

Two choices are made per run and are never saved:

  • Skip specific people this week leaves the people you tick out of this run.
  • Allow proposing overtime beyond monthly contracted hours is off for every run. While it is off, nobody is proposed past the monthly hours of their employment type. Switched on, someone over their monthly hours can be proposed, but anyone who stays within theirs is chosen first.

Monthly hours are counted for the month the planned week starts in. In a week that runs into a new month, check the shifts after the 1st yourself.

Always respected#

A person is proposed only at a location they are assigned to and never over another shift they have or were just proposed. While the Leave module is on, nobody is proposed during approved leave. Nobody is proposed on an approved day off in lieu, with the module off too. While the Availability module is on, nobody is proposed at a time their availability rules out, and people who said they are available then are preferred to people who said nothing.

A day a person has said nothing about counts as available, unless your company switched on Treat undeclared days as unavailable.

Unfilled places#

Unfilled counts the places for which no eligible person was found. The wizard names the main reason for each.

At a location with Allow claimable open shifts switched on, such a place becomes an open shift instead.

When there is nothing to list, the web wizard says which case it is: This week is already covered, or No shifts to propose when places are open but nobody could take them. The phone shows one sentence for both; read its Unfilled counter to tell them apart.

After you accept#

Each proposed shift is checked again as it is created. A shift is left out when it is on a past day, for a person who no longer works at that location, on approved leave, blocked by your company's availability rule, or overlapping another shift. The message says how many shifts were created and how many were skipped.

At most 200 shifts can be applied at once. A larger proposal is refused as a whole: choose one location in the top bar and run it location by location.

A manager cannot find the button? See I can't see a button or page someone else has.

Related articles

Still need help?

Contact support