What each option in the dialog does#
For: Manager You’ll need: Nothing.
The ‘Automatic assignment’ dialog has six options. Three decide how far a run may reach into published shifts, two decide how the demand forecast sets each shift’s target headcount, and one favors last period’s crew. This article explains each one, then runs one Friday through all of them so you can see exactly what changes.
The example#
Your company uses demand forecasting. The Bartender position is set to minimum 1, target 2, maximum 3. You generate for Monday to Sunday, and enough bartenders are available.
Friday has two Bartender shifts:
Early, 16:00 – 22:00 — published. Maria is on it; the second slot is empty since Tom called in sick.
Late, 18:00 – 02:00 — a draft, nobody on it yet.
The forecast asks for 7 bartenders at the 21:00 peak. Both shifts cover that hour, so the run splits the 7 between them by length instead of giving 7 to each: Early 3, Late 4.
Last Friday, Jonas worked the Late shift.
With the defaults — ‘Unpublished shifts only’, ‘Staff to demand forecast’ ticked, the other two unticked — the run leaves Early alone and puts 3 people on Late as drafts. Each section below changes one option and says what moves.
‘Unpublished shifts only’#
The default, and the safe one. Only draft shifts are staffed. People on published shifts still count — their hours fill their weekly cap and their rest windows — but nothing your team can see changes, and nobody is notified. Holes in an already-published week stay empty.
In the example: Early is not touched. Maria stays, the empty slot stays empty. Late gets 3 people as drafts: its forecast share is 4, but the position’s maximum of 3 caps it.
‘Also fill vacancies on published shifts’#
Draft shifts plus the empty slots on published ones. Nobody is ever removed. Anyone newly added sees the shift immediately and is notified: asked to accept it if your company requires shift acceptance and the shift hasn’t started, otherwise told they were added. This is the option for “someone called in sick and there’s a hole in a week the team can already see.” A shift you’ve already posted to the marketplace as an open shift is left alone while that offer still takes responses.
In the example: Early is filled up to 3. Maria stays and two people are added. Both are notified the moment the run finishes — with an acceptance request if your company requires shift acceptance. Late: as before.
‘Also reassign published shifts’#
Published shifts are re-planned like drafts, so somebody can lose a shift they had already counted on. Anyone taken off is notified straight away; anyone added is notified as above. Someone who has already clocked in, whose hours are approved, or who has put the shift on the marketplace is never moved.
In the example: Early is re-planned. Maria keeps her slot unless moving her buys a clearly better plan; anyone removed hears about it immediately, and anyone added is notified as above. Late: as before.
Warning
With the last two options, your team sees the changes, and any notifications go out, the moment the run finishes. There’s no review step in between. If you’re not sure, generate with the default first and look at the result.
‘Staff to demand forecast’#
Ticked by default, and shown only when demand forecasting is switched on for your company. Each shift’s target comes from the forecast for the hours it covers, instead of the target headcount set on the position. Shifts that overlap split the forecast between them, so two concurrent shifts don’t both claim the same people. A shift whose hours or position no forecast covers falls back to the position’s headcounts.
In the example, unticked: the forecast is ignored and both shifts target the position’s 2. Late gets 2 instead of 3, and Early’s hole is a single slot — which stays empty unless a published-shift option is on.
‘Override position limits’#
Off by default. A shift is normally never staffed past the position’s maximum headcount, even when the forecast asks for more. Tick this to let the forecast win — only on the shifts where it exceeds the maximum. Without ‘Staff to demand forecast’ it changes nothing: there is no forecast target to exceed.
In the example, ticked: Late’s forecast share of 4 is above the maximum of 3, so Late gets 4. Early is unchanged — its share of 3 is within the limit.
‘Keep the usual crew’#
Off by default. The people who worked the same shift last period — same location, position, weekday, start time and length, in the equally long stretch right before your range — are favored for it again. A preference only: coverage, work policies and stated availability still come first, and someone who marked those hours as preferred still ranks above the usual crew.
In the example, ticked: Jonas worked Late last Friday, so he is favored for Late this week — unless someone else asked for those hours, or a rule blocks him.
Verify it worked#
The line at the top of the run page names the reach you chose — for example “Filling unpublished shifts from … to …. Published shifts are not changed.” Under ‘What changed’, Late lists 3 people with the defaults and 4 with ‘Override position limits’; Early rows appear only when a published-shift option was on, each tagged Live. With ‘Keep the usual crew’, the summary line adds how many people kept their usual shifts.