How to generate shifts from demand#
For: Manager You’ll need: A plan that includes demand forecasting — Plus or Pro — a labor standard that resolves for the week, and permission to create shifts.
Turn a week of forecast demand into draft shifts in one pass, then hand them straight to automatic assignment. Nothing is written until you have seen what it would cost.
Run it#
Go to Planning → Demand → Demand plan and navigate to the week you want to build.
Click ‘Create shift skeletons’.
Read the preview — see How to read the generation preview.
Click ‘Next: Create shifts’.
Read the summary of what was created.
Click ‘Next: Automatic assignment’ to staff the week, or ‘Finish and show in calendar’ to stop here and staff it yourself.
The three steps are shown across the top: Preview, Shifts created, People assigned.
What it will and won’t touch#
It creates draft shifts. Nothing is published.
Published shifts are never rewritten. Neither is anything you edited by hand.
Earlier drafts from a previous generation run are replaced. The preview tells you how many, under ‘Replaced’ and ‘Left alone’.
Only shifts starting in the future are generated. Earlier shifts stay. If a planned start passes before creation, nothing is changed and you are asked to preview again.
So running it a second time after recording new numbers is safe: it re-plans its own output and leaves everyone else’s work alone.
People already assigned to retained shifts count toward demand at the same location, area, and position. Generation fills the remaining demand. Empty retained shifts do not count as staffing, because the next automatic assignment step only staffs this generation’s new shifts.
Where the shapes come from#
If any of your shift profiles apply to that week, generation uses only those. The preview says which case you’re in:
‘Shapes come from your shift profiles.’
‘Some shapes come from your shift profiles; the rest are derived from your work policy.’
‘None of your shift profiles apply here, so shapes are derived from your work policy.’
‘No shift profiles yet, so shapes are derived from your work policy.’
See How to manage shift profiles.
Before replacing earlier generated drafts, the system checks again whether they have been published, assigned or offered on the marketplace. Protected shifts are kept. The next assignment step changes only shifts created by this generation.
Verify it worked#
Open the shift calendar for that week: draft shifts stand where the forecast asked for people, and the count matches the ‘Shifts’ figure from the preview.