Shift swaps

A swap hands one shift from the person it belongs to over to a coworker. The owner asks one coworker, the coworker accepts, and where the location requires it, a manager or admin approves. The shift moves only at the last step that applies.

The employee's steps are in How do I swap a shift?. This article is the admin's and manager's side.

The stages#

1. 1

   An employee asks a coworker

   The request is Pending. The coworker is told in the app, by push and by email.

2. 2

   The coworker accepts or declines

   A decline sets the swap to Rejected and the person who asked is told. What happens on acceptance depends on the location.

3. 3

   A manager or admin approves

   Where the location requires approval, the swap waits as Awaiting Approval. The shift has not moved yet. The location's managers and all admins are told in the app and by an urgent push.

   Approving moves the shift to the coworker and sets the swap to Approved. Declining sets it to Rejected. Both people are told either way.

Where the location requires no approval, the shift moves as soon as the coworker accepts, and the person who asked is told.

Cancelled means the person who asked withdrew the request. Only they can do that, and only while it is pending or awaiting approval. Nobody is notified of it.

Approve or decline a swap#

On the webIn the app

Open Schedules, then Shift Swaps. Open requests are listed under Pending Requests. A swap marked Awaiting Approval has Approve and Decline. As a manager you have no buttons on a swap you asked for or accepted. If your company lets managers see other locations, you may also see their swaps here. You can decide only the swaps of locations you are assigned to; on the others your decision is refused.

Swaps that wait for approval are also on the Dashboard: in the Action Center, the Swaps tab lists them, and Review opens the Shift Swaps page.

All Swap Requests, lower on the page, is the history.

What is checked when the shift moves#

At the moment the shift changes hands, on approval or on acceptance where no approval is needed, Atteny checks the coworker again. They must still be active and assigned to the shift's location, have no approved leave and no overlapping shift at that time, and must not have declared themselves unavailable then, unless the location allows it.

Where approval is required, a coworker with approved leave at that time can still accept. It is your approval that is then refused. Decline the swap.

If you read "This swap has already been decided. Reload to see its current state." and the swap is still listed after you reload, the shift can no longer be handed over. Decline the swap, or ask the person who asked to cancel it.

What employees can ask for#

• Only the person a shift belongs to can offer it, and only a published shift that is not cancelled. A draft cannot be swapped.
• The form offers the person's shifts of the next 60 days.
• The coworker list holds only active people who are assigned to the shift's location, have no shift at that time, are not on approved leave then, and have not declared themselves unavailable then, unless the location allows it.
• Nobody can ask the same coworker twice about the same shift while a request is open. A person can send at most 30 requests an hour.
• Only the coworker who was asked can accept or decline.

Managers and admins can offer their own shifts and accept a coworker's in the same way.

The two location settings#

1. 1

   Open the location's Scheduling tab

   Go to Locations, open the location, then select Scheduling. Scroll to the card Shift Swaps. Admins can change it, and so can managers assigned to the location.

   

2. 2

   Choose the two options

   • Require manager approval for shift swaps is on by default. Switched off, a swap takes effect as soon as the coworker accepts.
   • Allow claiming while unavailable is off by default. Switched on, people can accept swaps and claim open shifts that their own declared availability rules out.
3. 3

   Save

   Select Save at the top of the page. Save stores everything this tab shows. If the tab was never saved before, check the opening hours and the default break first: what the form shows is stored with it.

An admin sets which roles get each swap notification, and how, under Settings, Notifications, in the section Shift swaps. See Notification settings.

A page or button described here is missing? See I can't see a button or page someone else has.