Create a shift pattern

What this achieves

A shift pattern is a repeating cycle of shifts and rest days. Applying it to a group over a date range generates the shifts into a draft schedule, so a rotation is described once rather than placed by hand every week.

Required role: Administrator.

Before you start

Create the shift templates the cycle will use. Each day of a cycle is either a template or a rest day, so a pattern cannot be finished without them.

Steps

Go to Time & Attendance → Shift Patterns.
Select New pattern.
Enter a name.
Set the Cycle length (days).
Under Cycle days, set each day: pick a template, or mark it as a Rest day.
Save the pattern.

Applying the pattern

Building the pattern does not schedule anybody. Applying it does.

On the pattern, select Apply.
Choose the Scope — Team, Department, or Location. Pick at least one.
Set the range with From and To.
Select Generate draft.

The pattern applies to everyone matching the scope you chose.

Example: applying a warehouse rotation to HC Corp UK Ltd’s Operations department generates shifts for all 18 people in it. Scope to a team instead if only part of the department works that rotation.

Generating produces a draft, not a live roster

Shifts are generated into a draft schedule for you to review and publish. Nobody is notified and no roster changes until you publish it from the schedule board.

Example: Priya Raman generates a month of warehouse shifts, reviews coverage on the board, fixes two gaps, and publishes. Until then the warehouse team’s schedule is unchanged.

What generation skips

Applying a pattern adds shifts; it does not overwrite. The result reports what it skipped:

Option	Description
Holiday days	Days on the holiday calendar for the affected employees.
Rest days	Days the cycle marks as rest.
Already-present shifts	Days where a shift already exists.

Because existing shifts are skipped rather than replaced, applying a pattern twice over the same range is safe — the second run fills only what is missing.

It also means a pattern cannot be used to clear and rebuild a period. Shifts already there stay until you deal with them directly.

Deleting a pattern

Deleting a pattern does not affect shifts already generated from it. Those shifts stay on their rosters; you lose only the ability to generate more from that cycle.

What happens next

Open the schedule board to review what was generated. Coverage is evaluated against your coverage rules, so gaps are visible before anyone sees the roster. Publish when it is right, and lock it when it should stop changing.