Workflow tips, shortcuts and features to save you time and simplify your day-to-day roster building and workforce management
Building and managing rosters can be repetitive and time-consuming, especially when coordinating multiple employees, shifts and rosters. By using practical shortcuts and time-saving tips, you can make the process faster, simpler, and far less tedious.
These strategies help reduce errors, improve accuracy and with the right approach, roster management becomes more efficient, leaving you with extra time to focus on your team and daily operations.
Learning how to work smarter with rosters can transform what used to be a chore into a smooth, manageable part of your workflow.
In this article, we will cover:
- Viewing an employee's contact details for emergency call-ins
- Your shortcut keys and tips on adding shift times
- Adjusting shift start and end times in bulk
- Multiple different ways to delete shifts in bulk to clear your roster
- Quickly accessing approve shifts from the roster
- Additonal foundU features that you can employ to save time rostering
For further guidance on viewing shifts and roster details, refer to Roster display, filters and print rosters.
Employees can be unpredictable — they might call in sick, run late, or miss a shift — and sometimes you need to contact them quickly or make changes to an individual employee’s roster. Being able to access an employee’s contact details and publish updates just for them is a valuable tool.
In this section, we’ll explore how to view contact information and filter employees to make it easier to locate and update select shifts.
Viewing employee contact details
While building rosters or managing changes, you may need to contact employees directly — for instance, to ask them to start a shift earlier, swap a shift, or fill in last-minute gaps.
Once an employee has been added to your roster, you can select the ellipsis next to their name to view their:
Email address – Selecting it will open your email app (e.g., Outlook) to send a message.
Mobile number – Selecting it lets you call using your soft phone.
Hot tip: Use the 'Pin empty rows to the top' display option to keep any employee visible on your roster, even if they don’t have any shifts assigned.i
By default, admins can view this information. If you prefer not to display employee contact details on the roster, you can disable this option. Learn how here.
Additionally, if you need further employee information, such as checking their positions or reviewing operation exclusions or exclusives, you can select the employee's name to navigate to their profile.
Permission Reminder: If you do not have permission to access employee profiles, you will be unable to select an employee's name to navigate there.
Filtering employees
You don’t need to publish all rosters at once. Filtering lets you focus on specific employees or rosters, which is useful if you want to:
Publish full- or part-time employees before casuals
Edit shifts for just one employee
Publish a single roster without affecting others
To filter employees:
Navigate to and select the filter icon on your roster to open the Filter drawer.
Then, select the options for which rosters or employees you want to filter.
To apply your filter, select Apply filter.
From here, make any shift changes as needed. When you’re ready to publish, only the filtered shifts will be published — keeping the rest of your roster unaffected.
Hot tip: You can use Ctrl/Cmd + F to find an employee by name, but this won’t filter the list. Publishing will still publish all available rosters.
Once you’re familiar with the basics of rostering, using keyboard shortcuts and time-saving editing techniques can significantly speed up the process. These tools are designed to help you make quick, consistent changes to shift times without needing to edit each shift individually.
Common scenarios where these shortcuts and tricks are especially useful include:
Moving multiple shifts earlier or later to meet a last-minute client request
Quickly adjusting coverage after a change in trading hours
Fine-tuning shift times across several employees without rebuilding the roster
Making small timing adjustments during busy rostering periods
Explore each option from the tabs below to learn how you can update shift times faster and more efficiently.
When creating new shifts or editing existing shifts on your roster, there are a few keyboard shortcuts you can use to help speed up the process when adding shift times or navigating through the fields.
Keyboard shortcuts
- Editing shifts - Double-click on a shift to quickly enter the Edit shift drawer.
- Field navigation - Use the tab key or shift+tab on your keyboard to quickly move through the options in the Create Shift drawer or Approve Shifts drawer. This way, you don't need to manually select each field to edit it.
- Menu navigation - Use the up and down arrow keys to navigate to specific positions in the drop-down menu. You can then select Enter to confirm.
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Exit the drawer - Use the ESC key to swiftly exit the shift modal. Keep in mind that your progress is not saved.
Adding shift times
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Punctuation is not required - There is no need to use a period or colon when adding shift times.
- For example, entering 730 will set the time to 7:30 am.
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Identifying am or pm - When adding shift times, specifying am or pm is not mandatory. If no identifier is entered, the platform defaults to am, as it is the earliest time of day.
If your business rosteres both am and pm shifts, you can specify the time by adding 'a' or 'p' when typing.- For example, entering 730p will set the time to 7:30 pm.
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24-hour time - This method of adding shift hours is beneficial for businesses that operate extended hours or overnight.
Using 24-hour time provides a consistent way to add hours to shifts and prevents confusion between am and pm shifts. Punctuation is not needed for this method of adding shift times.- For example, entering 1930 will set the time to 7:30 pm.
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Decimals - When adding shift times, using decimals will apply them as fractions of an hour (i.e, 0.50 is half an hour)
This is useful for rostering permanent or salaried employees who work regular hours, such as 7.6-hour days.- For example, entering 19.50 will set the time to 7:30 pm.
Similarly, most of these shortcut keys also work on the Employee App for employees who may be submitting times.
For businesses that require continuous on-floor coverage, Day view is the best way to review staffing levels. This view displays each shift as a timeline bar for the day, making it easy to identify gaps between shift start and end times.
Please note: Breaks are not visually highlighted in Day view. Enabling the 'Breaks' display setting shows break durations and times only in the hover state, so keep this in mind when reviewing coverage.
If you notice a gap in coverage while reviewing a roster in Day view, you can adjust shifts in the following ways:
Drag the start or end of a shift - Extends or shortens the shift and automatically updates the start or end time. This will change the shift duration.
Drag the entire shift along the roster - Moves the shift to a different time; the shift duration remains unchanged.
In the image below, there is a coverage gap between 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm. The shifts on either side have been extended by adjusting their start and end times to cover the gap.
Additionally, there was no coverage during a 3:30 pm break, so an entire shift has been moved to ensure coverage during that time.
Editing shift times in bulk is ideal when the same change needs to be applied to multiple shifts, such as when a client requests an earlier start.
This option lets you select specific shifts and move them forward or backward, or set a new start or end time. Using this method, shifts are moved as a whole - only the start and end times change, while the shift duration remains the same.
To adjust shifts in bulk:
- On your keyboard, hold the shift key and select all shifts to be adjusted; this can be done on any roster in your filtered view.
- Next, select Times from the taskbar.
- From the Adjust shift times drawer, choose which times are being updated. You can choose from:
- Start time - Apply the same changes to the start times for all selected shifts.
- End time - Apply the same changes to the end times for all selected shifts.
- Entire shift - Apply the same changes to the start or end times to all shifts selected.
- Apply your changes, choose from one of the options below:
- Earlier by - This will move all start or end times forward by the hours set.
- Later by - This will move all start or end times backward by the hours set.
- To start at - This will update all start times to the specified time.
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To end at - This will update all end times to the specified time.
Hot tip: The Example preview field provides you with a visual representation of the changes being made to the shifts.
- To apply your updates, select Save xx adjustments.
Deleting shifts in bulk is a powerful way to quickly undo roster changes. Whether you need to remove multiple draft shifts or cancel published shifts, bulk deletion helps you clean up rosters fast and with confidence.
There are many situations where bulk deleting shifts is useful, including:
Loading the wrong template
Copying the incorrect week’s roster
Reducing shifts due to lower sales
Removing shifts when an employee goes on leave
Your platform offers several flexible options for deleting shifts in bulk. Deleting shifts is permanent and cannot be recovered, so please consider which option best suits your needs before proceeding. The options are:
Delete specific shifts across one or multiple rosters
Delete all shifts for a single employee
Delete all shifts for a single day
Delete all shifts on one or multiple rosters
Explore each option from the tabs below.
Please note: Shifts can only be deleted if they are still editable. Once a shift has been approved, pre-approved, declined, submitted by the employee, or clocked in, it cannot be deleted. If this is the case, they will need to be managed in Approve Shifts.
This is the most flexible method for removing shifts, as it allows you to select individual shifts across one or multiple rosters within your filter. It’s especially useful if you need to trim shifts due to reduced sales
To delete specific shifts:
- On your keyboard, hold the shift key and select the first shift to delete.
- Select all shifts to be deleted; this can be done on any roster in your filtered view.
- To delete, select Delete from the taskbar.
- You will then be prompted with a warning to delete the shifts; select Delete.
This method removes all shifts assigned to an employee on a specific roster. If the employee works across multiple rosters, shifts on other rosters won’t be affected; however, you can repeat this action on each roster they appear on.
This option is especially useful if you’ve loaded a template or copied a roster and:
A full-time or salaried employee is on leave, and their shifts don’t need to be reassigned
An employee has given notice, and the roster period falls after their termination date
To delete shifts for a single employee:
- Locate your employee and select the ellipsis next to their name.
- Select the Remove employee and shifts option.
- You will then be prompted with a warning to delete the shifts; select Delete.
Please note: This action will also remove the employee from the roster. If needed, they can be added back at any time using the Add Employee button.
Deleting or cancelling all shifts on a specific day is useful when your business experiences:
- An unexpected shutdown
- Is closed on a public holiday, and your roster consists of casual employees
This method will remove all shifts assigned against all employees on an individual roster; shifts on other rosters won’t be affected. You can repeat this action on each roster you need to remove shifts from.
To delete shifts for a specific day:
- Locate the specific day on your roster and select the ellipsis to it.
- Select the Delete Xxx-day shifts option.
- You will then be prompted with a warning to delete the shifts; select Delete.
Please note: If your roster contains published shifts that you are cancelling, you'll need to republish the roster. This action sends the cancellation to the employee and will remove the shift cancellation cells from your roster.
Deleting all shifts on a roster is useful if you’ve accidentally loaded the wrong template, copied the wrong week’s roster, or imported incorrect shift details.
This method deletes all shifts on the selected rosters within your filter, allowing you to remove shifts from any rosters you have permission to access.
Once deleted, you can apply the correct template, copy the correct roster, or re-import your shifts.
To delete all shifts on a roster:
- Ensure the roster you want to delete shifts from is selected in your filter.
- Navigate to Tools > Bulk Delete Shifts.
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In the modal that opens, carefully select the rosters you would like to delete all shifts from. The dates will automatically default to the roster period in view on your screen.
Hot tip: The rosters appear in order of ID number. Please use the search to find your specific roster(s).
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To delete the shifts, select Delete shifts from xx selected rosters.
- You will then be prompted with a warning to delete the shifts; select Delete.
Please note: If your roster contains published shifts that you are cancelling, you'll need to republish the roster. This action sends the cancellation to the employee and will remove the shift cancellation cells from your roster.
The next step after publishing a roster for your employees is clocking and then approving their shifts. To make this easy, especially if you spend a lot of time in the roster, you can access Approve Shifts directly from the roster.
You can do this in 3 ways from the roster:
- Access all shifts in Approve shifts for an entire day
- Access all shifts in Approve shifts for a specific employee
- Access approved shifts for a worked shift (clocked, approved or declined shift)
Explore each option from the tabs below.
Please note: Only shifts that have been published, clocked, or submitted by an employee are available in Approve Shifts. Draft and errored shifts cannot be accessed from Approve Shifts.
Accessing approved shifts using this method provides a filtered view of a specific roster and day.
This is particularly useful for public holidays, allowing you to easily review shifts that were worked and those marked as public holiday, not worked.
To access Approve Shifts for an entire day:
- In the relevant roster, locate the day you want to review, then select the ellipsis.
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From the menu, select View Approve Shifts.
You will then be taken to Approve Shifts, automatically filtered to the selected roster and day.
Accessing Approve Shifts for a specific employee automatically filters the view to show only that employee and the selected roster. If the employee works across multiple rosters, only the roster you selected will be shown.
This is useful for reviewing shifts for terminating employees or auditing an individual employee’s shifts.
To access Approve Shifts for an employee:
- In the relevant roster, locate the employee you want to review, then select the ellipsis.
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From the menu, select View in approve shifts.
You will then be taken to Approve Shifts, automatically filtered for the selected employee, roster and the corresponding roster week.
Once an employee has started a shift—by clocking in, submitting it, or if it has been pre-approved or declined by an admin—it can no longer be edited directly from the roster.
If you try to edit it from the roster, you’ll be prompted to go to Approve Shifts, where you can make your changes. When accessed this way, the page is automatically filtered for the relevant roster and day.
To access Approve Shifts for a worked shift:
- From the roster, for any clocked, approved or declined shift, select Edit.
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From the Edit shift drawer, select View Day.
- You will then be taken to Approve Shifts, automatically filtered to the selected roster and day.
Once you’ve built a few rosters from scratch and are comfortable with the basics, you’ll likely want to speed up the process and save time. Below are some additional foundU features to help you roster more efficiently.
Permission Reminder: Some features are permission-controlled. If you cannot access a feature, please contact your direct supervisor.
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Copy your rosters
- This feature lets you copy all rosters within your filter to another week - either the next week or a week of your choice.
- It’s a quick way to populate multiple rosters with draft shifts.
- In summary, use this feature to copy multiple rosters, but only to one week at a time.
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Save and load roster templates
- Save a roster as a template and load it into future weeks, up to 12 at a time.
- You can create multiple templates for different scenarios (e.g., high- or low-sales periods), allowing you to bulk-fill rosters with draft shifts.
- In summary, use this feature to apply one roster template across multiple weeks.
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Create bulk shifts
- Ideal for warehouses or businesses that work regular or standard shifts.
- You can create multiple shifts per day (e.g., multiple 10 am- 6 pm shifts) for up to 3 months in a single action. This saves time compared to adding shifts individually.
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Set up a break schedule
- Automatically apply breaks to shifts based on their duration.
- Break schedules can be customised per operation, saving you from adding breaks manually to each shift longer than five hours.
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Update cost codes in bulk
- If your business uses shift costing, you can update or override all cost codes for a specific day or range of days.
- This is useful for one-off events, training, or other situations where labour needs to be costed separately.