How to read the demand plan

How to read the demand plan#

For: Manager | Admin You’ll need: A driver, some recorded history, and a labor standard.

The demand plan is the page you actually work on: one week at a time, one row per day, showing what Shiftavo expects and what staffing that implies.

Open it#

  1. Go to Planning → Demand → Demand plan.

  2. Pick the ‘Location’ and the ‘Driver’ at the top of the page.

  3. Move between weeks with the arrows, or jump back with ‘Today’.

What the columns mean#

Column

What it shows

‘Day’

The date. Click the row to expand its interval detail.

‘Actual’

What was really recorded, for days that have passed.

‘Forecast’

What Shiftavo expects, from your history — or your own number, marked ‘Yours’, if you set one.

‘Your day forecast’

The field where you type your own number for the day.

‘Required hours’

The labor hours the day implies, across all resolving standards.

‘Peak heads’

The largest headcount any one position needs in a single interval of that day.

‘Required hours’ and ‘Peak heads’ are derived: change the forecast or a labor standard and they follow.

When the page is empty#

If you see ‘Nothing to plan against yet.’, there is no active driver — an Admin sees a ‘Create your first driver’ button there. If the rows exist but required hours stay at 0, no labor standard resolves for that position and time; see How to create a labor standard.

What you can do from here#

How current the numbers are#

The forecast is rebuilt every night for the whole horizon — a little over a year ahead — and the required hours are recomputed in the same pass, so the two can never disagree. Recording a value today shows up in tomorrow’s forecast.

Verify it worked#

Pick a past week: the ‘Actual’ column is filled in, and ‘Forecast’ sits close to it. A large, consistent gap is a signal — check Forecast vs actual.