What publishing a shift does#
For: Manager You’ll need: Nothing.
Publishing is what makes a shift visible to the people on it. A draft shift is yours alone; a published shift is on your team’s schedule.
What happens on publish#
The shift’s state changes from ‘Draft’ to ‘Published’ — Shiftavo stamps who published it and when.
Assigned shift workers see the shift on their schedule.
If your company uses shift acceptance, each assignee who hasn’t answered yet is asked to accept or decline. On a shift that’s already under way they just get a notice that they’re on it; a shift that has already ended notifies nobody. Without shift acceptance, publishing sends no notification — the shift simply appears on their schedule.
There’s no separate step to “publish the assignments” — a person is on the shift or they aren’t, and publishing the shift is what shows it to them. An assignment doesn’t carry its own draft/published state; it just gains a worked-hours status (‘Scheduled’ → ‘Confirmed’ → ‘Approved’) once the shift is over and time is recorded. See Shift lifecycle — from draft to approved.
Anyone you add to the shift once it’s published is notified straight away, with or without shift acceptance, as long as the shift hasn’t ended — see How to assign a person from the eligible pool.
What’s skipped#
A shift is skipped if it’s locked — i.e. one of its assignments is attached to an approved time entry. Locked shifts stay as they are; the rest of the batch still publishes. Non-drafts are skipped too: already-published shifts and cancelled shifts aren’t touched. Shifts in a schedule template are never published.
Example: publishing through Sunday#
Friday’s 09:00 shift has Maria (hours already approved) and Aleksei (nothing recorded yet). Saturday’s draft has two unassigned slots. Sunday’s draft has Aleksei on it. You publish through Sunday:
Friday’s shift is skipped — Maria’s approved assignment locks it, so the whole shift stays as it is.
Saturday’s draft publishes — nobody is on it, so nobody is notified; it appears empty on the team calendar.
Sunday’s draft publishes — with shift acceptance on, Aleksei gets an acceptance request; without it, the shift just appears on his schedule. His assignment’s status doesn’t change: publishing changed the shift, not him.
Taking it back#
Published the wrong week? Unpublish it — that retracts the shift to draft, as long as the shift hasn’t started and none of its assignments has been approved. Everyone assigned is notified, their answers go back to ‘Pending’, and live marketplace offers on the shift are withdrawn. Once it has started or its hours are approved, unpublish is blocked; cancel it instead. See Shift lifecycle — from draft to approved.
Verify it worked#
After the cascade runs, filter the planning list by ‘Status’ = ‘Draft’ for the same window. What is left is exactly what the cascade skipped — the shifts locked by an approved assignment.