How to ask people to accept shifts#
For: Admin You’ll need: Owner or Admin role.
You can ask people to accept or decline each shift you publish — a lightweight confirmation that they’ve seen the shift and will be there. It’s off by default; turn it on for the whole company.
Open the company settings#
Open the account menu (top-right) and click ‘Settings’.
In the right column, find the ‘Attendance’ section.
Turn on shift acceptance#
‘Require shift acceptance’ — when on, every person assigned to a published shift is asked to accept or decline it. Their answer (‘Pending’, ‘Accepted’, or ‘Declined’) shows next to their name on the shift.
‘Require decline reason’ — when on, a person must give a short reason before they can decline. Leave it off to make the reason optional.
Click ‘Save’.
Turning the setting on asks right away: everyone on a published shift that hasn’t started yet, and who hasn’t answered, gets an acceptance request. Turning it off puts every answer on those upcoming shifts back to ‘Pending’ and clears any decline reason — people who have already clocked in or whose hours are approved keep theirs.
Note
Acceptance is a pre-shift confirmation, and only a published shift can be answered. A person can change their answer until the shift starts — once it has started, they’ve clocked in, or their hours are approved, it’s locked. Publishing a shift asks the assignees for the first time. If you later change a shift’s time, location, or position, their answer resets to ‘Pending’, any decline reason is cleared, and they’re asked again — except anyone whose shift has already started or who has clocked in. Unpublishing a shift resets everyone’s answer as well.
What people see#
On a published, upcoming shift, the assignee gets a ‘Your response’ box with ‘Accept’ and ‘Decline’ buttons. For a repeating shift they can apply the answer to this occurrence, this and following, or all of them. See How to accept or decline a shift.
When someone declines, the managers who handle that shift’s location are notified, with a link to the shift, so you can arrange cover. The reason, if one was given, shows on the person’s assignment — the notification itself doesn’t carry it. The rest of the team doesn’t see it.
When you give an assignment on a published shift to someone else, the new person starts without an answer and is asked to accept, and the person you took off is told.
With ‘Require shift acceptance’ off, nobody is asked — but a person you add to a shift that’s already published still gets a “You were added to a shift” notification, with nothing to answer. The same notice goes to someone added to a shift already under way, whatever the setting. Publishing shifts sends nothing while the setting is off.
Tip
General-event RSVPs (Going / Maybe) don’t need this setting — they’re always available on a general event. ‘Require shift acceptance’ only controls normal shifts.
Verify it worked#
Open a published upcoming shift. Each assigned person now shows an acceptance badge, and anyone opening their own assignment sees the ‘Your response’ box. Turn the setting off and those disappear.