How shift validation works#
For: Manager You’ll need: Nothing.
When you assign a person, drag a shift, or hover one on the calendar, Shiftavo runs a battery of checks and surfaces issues as badges, tooltips, and (in strict mode) save blockers. This article walks through what’s checked, the three severity levels, and where each issue surfaces.
The three severity levels#
Every check produces an issue with one of three severities:
Error (also called ‘blocking’) — a hard violation. Examples: the person has no MLP entry for this position at this location, or the assignment would push them over a daily-hours cap. In strict mode, the form refuses to save.
Warning — a soft violation worth flagging but not blocking. Examples: the assignment crosses a recommended (not enforced) rest break, or the person is on Mode B availability with no covering block.
Info — informational. Examples: this is the person’s first shift this week, or the position is at minimum (not maximum) headcount.
What gets checked#
The checks fall into five families:
MLP eligibility — does this person have an MLP entry for the shift’s (location, position) pair? If not, they don’t appear in the candidate list at all.
Skill requirements — does the person hold every skill the position requires, with a non-expired certification where required?
Availability — for people on ‘Set availability’ (Mode B), is there an availability block covering the shift? Unavailable blocks and confirmed leave count against this. People on Mode A are never gated.
Work-rule limits — daily hours cap, weekly hours cap, rest-between-shifts, consecutive-day limit, overtime tier thresholds. Driven by the work rule resolved for the assignment (see How Shiftguide picks a work rule).
Break rules — does the shift trigger a required break? Are paid / unpaid windows correct? Driven by the location’s break rules.
Headcount thresholds (minimum, target, maximum) on the position are also surfaced — both under-min and over-max produce blocking errors; target is informational.
Where issues surface#
The same issue can show up in several places:
Eligibility badges in the assignment dropdown — each candidate row shows a red icon for blocking errors and a yellow icon for warnings. See How to read the eligibility badges.
Calendar hover tooltip — hovering a shift block shows a list of every active issue, grouped by person.
Coverage cell tooltip — on the coverage grid, each cell tooltip lists the issues that gap the staffing for that hour.
Save blocker — when you save a shift form in strict mode, blocking errors stop the save and render under the field that caused them.
Tune what you see#
Two personal settings control how loud validation is. The defaults are reasonable for most planners; tune them once you know which issues are noise for your team.
‘Tooltip validation level’ — the threshold for what shows up on hover. ‘Error’ shows only blocking errors; ‘Warning’ adds warnings; ‘Info’ shows everything.
‘Shift validation level’ — the threshold for what blocks saving. Same three options.
Both live on How to set your calendar preferences. They are per-user, not per-company.
Verify it worked#
Open a shift, click ‘Add person’, and look for the badge column. Hover an assigned shift on the calendar — the tooltip should list any issues. Open How to set your calendar preferences and toggle the validation level; the next page load reflects the new threshold.