Why Use Shift Categories?

Categories & Shift Colors - (Optional) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Why Use Shift Categories? (Using Categories is optional)

You might want to create Categories for your shifts for many reasons. It allows you to filter schedules to show only certain groups of shifts (beyond filtering by Position or Position Group) and for certain time periods etc.

If you have shifts with similar begin and end times over multiple Positions you can create Categories with "Add Shift Default Settings" by clicking the Category drop down box and choosing Add / Edit Categories to create categories. Ex. if you have similar night shifts for different positions you can create a NIGHT category and enter and defaults so that when you Add Shifts you can first choose that Category and the fields will be prepopulated (but changeable) in the window.

You can create Categories for:

Different Events - you can set the Category default description to reflect the Event details

Clients that Helpers deal with on a repeated basis

Special shifts that you want to distribute evenly to all Helpers (See Selective AutoFill) You may want to make sure for example that all Helpers help at least one night shift per week. Or you may want to be sure your "more popular" shifts are evenly distributed between all Helpers.

You can create Categories for any reason

There are many reasons why you might want to put your shifts into categories:

1. Better control of AutoFill. Example: You can set all your weekend shifts (for some or all positions) to a category (WKND for example), then filter your schedule to that category before AutoFilling to get a better distribution of your weekend shifts before unfiltering to show all the shifts and using AutoFill to assign the remaining non-weekend shifts.

2. Create an at-a-glance view of who's assigned to certain types of shifts through the Category Chart's display of the assigned shifts' categories for up to 4 weeks at a time.

3. Get statistics (either through Statistics schedule view or the Reports section) on which Helpers have helped shifts of certain categories like "graveyard" or "premium shift" or for a certain event or client.

4. For adding repeating shifts you can set a category default position, start and end time, duration, color and/or description. When adding new shifts just choose the category and your shift is automatically defaulted to your choices.

5. Grouping categories You can choose which categories to display together by creating Category Groups (similar to the Position Groups). You can use these category groups as shortcuts to view statistics or create reports as well.