Build and publish the roster

1Open the week

Click Calendar in the sidebar. Click Week.

Staff are grouped by team. Each row shows the person and their rostered hours for the week. Each shift is a tile with the team, the time, what the kiosk recorded, and the role note.

Click Today to come back to this week. Click the arrows to move a week.

On a narrow screen the week is wider than the page. Drag an empty part of it sideways, or scroll it, to see the other days.

2Book jobs instead of shifts

A cleaner does not work one shift a day. They do four houses.

An admin opens Admin, Calendar, and sets The calendar books to Jobs. Choose Both if you roster hours as well.

In Jobs, each Team is a row you can fold. Its heading shows each day's jobs as coloured counts, and 2 more jobs when there are more than fit. Click the heading to fold or open it. A Team with nothing booked this week starts folded.

Under the heading is each person in the Team. The Team's leader has a Team lead badge beside their name.

Each job is a block in its work type's colour, with its name in capitals and its time. Every job of one work type is the same colour. A job with no work type keeps a colour of its own. The drive to it is above the block. Day lists each person's jobs under their name, with the site, and Month shows each job's start and name in its day.

When you roster somebody on a day with no job, their cell shows Available and the hours from their published shifts. A day you have not rostered them stays empty.

Use All teams at the top to show one Team. Click Filter to hide work types. Click Today, or the arrows either side of the dates, to move.

Click a job on any view to open its panel beside the calendar. The panel shows the customer, the site, the status, the date and start time and the arrival window. It also shows who does the job, its priority and any special instructions. Click Open in maps under the site for directions. Priority and Special instructions come from fields of those names on your jobs table, so add them there to see them. Click the customer or the site to open them. Click Edit to change the job, or to delete it with Delete this job at the foot of the form.

Plan the day on Routes to see the drive. Until you do, the tile reads Not planned yet. It starts at the job's Arrive from, or after the job before it when it has no window.

A tile reading Address not found is at a site the map cannot place, such as "Remote" or a street with no suburb. Open the site and pick its address from the search.

Click an empty cell to book a job for that person on that day. The form starts with the day and the person filled in, then asks for the rest.

In Both, clicking asks whether you want a shift or a job.

Click Timeline for the week, person by person. Each day's jobs in order, with the drive to each one.

The heading counts the week: how much goes on site, and how much on the road.

3Stop somebody being booked twice

An admin ticks Refuse a job that clashes under Admin, Calendar.

The job form checks for a clash before you save. Once it has a day, a person and an Arrive from, a red line appears under Booked time. It names what that person is already on, and when.

Book a person who is already on another job or a shift, and the calendar refuses it. The message names what they are on, and when.

Leave it unticked and the calendar asks instead: the same sentence, with the choice to book it anyway.

The drive between two sites counts as busy either way. Two jobs an hour apart across a city clash even when their times do not.

4Add a shift

Move the mouse over an empty cell and click the plus. On a cell that already has a shift, click the small plus in its corner.

Set Start and End. Pick the Team (optional) and type a Role (optional), such as Barista.

Use Note for this shift (optional) for anything that applies to this week only, such as a training shift or an early finish. Click Add shift.

Click Copy last week to copy every shift from last week into this one as drafts. The role comes across, the note does not.

It asks first, and says what it would do: how many shifts it would copy, how many of them would land on a shift that person already has (each one leaves a duplicate on the cell), what is already drafted in that week and who added it, and how many are skipped because the person is no longer active. On a week that has already started it also offers to copy this week into next week instead, with that week's own counts beside it. The phone app asks the same question in the same words.

In Day, click Add shift. In Month, click the plus beside a date. Choose the Staff member, or Someone not on the list and type their name.

If the person is off that day, click Add leave instead. Add leave opens with them and the day already chosen.

In the mobile app, tap Today and then Add shift, or tap a date in Monthly and then Add shift. Under Staff member, tap the person, or Someone not on the list and type their name.

5Publish the week

Click Publish week. Confirm the count. Staff can now see their shifts.

If you cannot publish, click Submit week instead. An admin sees submitted for review at the top and publishes it.

Click Review drafts to check the drafts before you publish. Click Select shifts to publish or delete several at once.

6Swap a shift

Click Swap a shift on the toolbar. Under Your upcoming shifts, click Offer to swap on one you cannot work. It shows as Open to the rest of the team. Click Withdraw to take the offer back before anyone picks it up.

Under Open shifts to pick up, click Take to cover a shift a colleague offered. Staff can do the same at the kiosk: after their PIN, tap Swap shift.

A shift someone picked up waits for a manager. Click Swap requests, then the tick to approve or the cross to decline. Approving moves the shift to whoever took it, and both people are told.

7Confirm the hours worked

Click Day. Click a shift. The Confirm shift panel opens with the rostered time and what the kiosk recorded.

Under Actual hours worked, the start and end are filled in from the check-in. Change them if needed. Click Confirm hours.

Under Check in and out, read their check in time, each break from start to finish, and their check out time. A shift clicked on the week view, or tapped in the mobile app, shows the same list.

Click No-show if the person never arrived. Click Undo to clear a confirmation.

Click Timeline on the week view to confirm a whole week person by person. Timeline under Tools is the same table on a page of its own.

In Timeline, click Add shift for a day somebody worked with nothing rostered, then confirm its hours. Click the calendar icon on a shift to change its rostered time or delete it.

On the Timeline page, pick Rostered, Manager input or Check-in on each shift. Then click Approve all at the top to save every shift you picked. In the mobile app, Approve all is at the bottom of Timeline. A shift with no hours picked stays To confirm.

Confirming the hours of a draft shift also approves and publishes it, so it leaves Roster approvals. This happens for an admin, or for somebody allowed to publish the roster. Anyone else confirms the hours and the shift waits for approval.

In the mobile app's Timeline, tap Add shift under the week, or Add a shift for under a person's shifts, and pick the Day. Tap Edit shift beside a day to change its rostered time or delete it.

If you run more than one venue or company, the mobile app's Timeline has the location button under the week. Choose a venue to see the people who work there, or another company in your group to confirm its hours.

8Approve or turn down an unscheduled shift

Someone who was not rostered can start a shift at the kiosk. When they finish it, you get a notification, and Unscheduled appears on the Calendar toolbar with the number waiting.

Click it. Each row names the person, the date, the times they actually worked and the hours.

Hours somebody typed onto a job with Add time wait here too, when they fall outside a rostered shift. Their row carries Typed in, which sets them apart from hours a check in measured.

Click Approve to count the hours. It adds a published shift at those times, already confirmed.

If the times are wrong, such as somebody who forgot to check out, click the pencil first. Change Start and Finish, then click Approve at these times.

Click Not approve to turn it down. Type a reason if you want to give one, then click Confirm not approved. No shift is added and the hours never count.

Either way the row leaves the list, the person is notified with the decision and any reason, and the decision is written to Activity log with your name on it.

9Change, approve or withdraw leave

Click an On leave tile on the week grid. Click Edit to change it, then Save changes. A request still waiting also has Approve and Decline.

To change or withdraw your own request, click Request leave. Your requests are listed under the form. Click the pencil on one that is Waiting to change it, or the bin to withdraw it.

10Open a due date

Dates from your tables are listed under Due dates. Click Open beside one. The record opens over the calendar.

Change it there, its date included. Click Archive to archive it. Anybody who is not an admin sends an admin a request instead.

Click a due date's title to rename just the calendar entry.

11See who is away

Choose Leave in the dropdown beside Day, Week and Month. The calendar then shows who is away on each day, with what kind of leave it is and the days it runs.

A solid block means somebody approved the leave. A dashed one is still waiting on a decision. Click any block to open Leave requests, where you approve or decline it. On the phone, a waiting request has Approve and Decline on its own card.

Choose Approved, Waiting on a decision, or Approved and waiting to narrow the view to that leave.

Click Add leave at the top, or the plus on a day, to book leave for somebody.

On the phone, By person lists each request under the person's name, with its dates and how many days it covers. By location in Monthly draws a month calendar for each location, one under another, with the number away on each day. Tap a number to see who it is.

Choose the dropdown's first choice, such as Jobs or Shifts, to see your bookings again. The web remembers your choice in that browser.

12Put anything with a date on the calendar

You need a table with a date field first, such as a Room bookings table with a Booked from date. Then open Calendar and click New calendar beside the dropdown.

Give it a name, choose the Table, and choose the date field under Starts on. For records that last more than a day, choose a second date under Ends on.

Under Rows grouped by, choose a field such as a person, a room or a vehicle, and each one gets its own row in the week. Under Place, choose the field that says where each record is.

Click Add calendar. It is now in the dropdown beside Leave, for everybody who can see that table.

A day shows at most three records. Click + more to see the rest of that day, and click any record to open it. Click Add, or the plus on a day, to add a record that starts that day.

To change it, choose it in the dropdown and click Edit calendar. Remove takes the calendar away and leaves the records in their table.

13Check people in and out

Choose your calendar in the dropdown, click Edit calendar, tick People check in and out and click Save changes. Use it for anybody arriving for something booked, such as a child at care or a client at an appointment.

Click Day and Today. Each person booked today has a Check in button beside their name. Click it when they arrive, and Check out when they leave. The times show under their name.

Above the list it counts who is in now, who has checked out and who is still to come. In the week, a green dot marks who is in and a grey one who has left.

Pressed by mistake? Click Undo beside the button. A check out made by mistake puts them back in, and a check in made by mistake is removed.

On the phone, the same button is beside each of today's names. Hold it to undo the last press.

14Let parents and clients check in at the kiosk

On a calendar with People check in and out on, click Check in PINs beside Add, then New PIN.

Under Who uses this PIN, type the parent's or client's name. Under Who they check in and out, choose each child or person, then click Make PIN. Read the six digits out to them.

Give a parent one PIN for all their children. If the calendar's rows are grouped by a linked record, such as a child, choose the child and the PIN covers every booking that names them.

At the kiosk, they tap Not staff? Check in here and type the PIN. Each person booked for them today has a Check in button, then Check out, and Check all 2 in does everybody at once. Done goes back to the start.

The times and who pressed show under each name in the calendar's Day view, such as "in 8:40 am, by Jane Smith".

Forgotten PIN? Open Check in PINs and read it out again. New number gives them a different one and the old one stops working at once.

15See one of your calendars in Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar

Choose the calendar in the dropdown and click Edit calendar.

Under Add to your other calendars, click Add to Google Calendar, Add to Outlook or Add to Apple Calendar, or click Copy and paste the link into any calendar that subscribes to a link.

The other calendar shows each record as an all day event and checks for changes on its own, usually within a few hours. Change a record here, not there.

16Put your own work in Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar

On Calendar, click Sync to my calendar. In the mobile app it is under the week's dates.

Beside Google Calendar or Outlook, click Connect and sign in. Your shifts, the jobs assigned to you, your approved leave and your bookings go into that calendar within a minute, and stay up to date.

For Apple Calendar, click Connect, then follow the three steps: make an app-specific password called Diract in your Apple Account, and paste it in with your Apple ID. Your work goes into a calendar of its own called Diract.

Once connected, choose what comes back. Show my own events as busy in Diract shows your team Busy at those times, never what the event is, and booking a job over one asks first. Moving something in my calendar moves it in Diract moves your bookings, and what your role lets you move, when you drag them there.

Rather not sign in? Click Subscribe instead. Your work appears in that calendar read only, and the calendar app checks for changes on its own schedule.

17Ask for your own leave, and see where it stands

Open Quick Glance and scroll to the bottom. Your leave sits under Leave, after every other widget, with how many requests are still waiting and how many a manager has approved.

Each row is one request: the days, the kind of leave, and whether it is Waiting, Approved or Declined.

Click Request leave on the card to ask for more. The same card is on the phone, and asks the same way.

18Let a team leader approve their team's leave

Open Admin, then Permissions. Find Approve their team's leave.

Click Add a team, a team leader or a person... and pick the team's leader, for example Kitchen leader. The leader is whoever is set as leader on that team in Admin, then Teams.

That leader can now approve, decline and book leave for the people on that team. They see only those people in Leave requests and on the leave calendar, and they hear about each new request from that team.

Their own leave is never theirs to decide. It goes to an admin, or to whoever has Approve everybody's leave.

Picking a person by name, or a whole team, covers every team that person leads, or that team for each of its members. To let somebody decide everybody's leave, use Approve everybody's leave instead.

19See who is away on the leave calendar

Open Leave requests from Review all on the Leave to approve card, or on the phone from the menu at the top left. Choose Calendar at the top.

Choose Day, Week or Month, and use the arrows or Today to move. Each block is one person's leave: filled when approved, dashed while waiting on a decision.

On the web, click a block to go back to the list and decide it. On the phone, a waiting block has Approve and Decline on it.

20Approve leave from Quick Glance

Open Quick Glance and scroll to the bottom. Leave to approve sits under Leave, beside Your leave. Each row is one request still waiting: the person, where they work, the kind of leave and the days. Where your group has more than one company, the row names the company too.

Click Approve on a row to agree to it. The person gets a notification with your decision.

To turn one down, click Review all. On the web, click the cross on the request, type a reason if you want to give one, then click Decline. On the phone, tap Decline, type a reason if you want, then tap Decline leave.

The full list has a search box and a location chooser. Type a name, a kind of leave or a location to narrow it, or pick a company or one of its locations.

On the phone, Leave requests is also in the menu that the button at the top left opens. Choose Waiting, Approved, Declined or All to see past decisions too.

The second row of choices filters by the dates of the leave. Upcoming shows leave on today or later, soonest first. Past shows leave that ended before today, latest first. Choose dates shows leave that overlaps the From and To dates you pick. All dates lists every request, newest first. Waiting opens on All dates, so a late request still shows. Approved, Declined and All open on Upcoming.

The list loads 100 requests at a time. Press Show more at the bottom to load the next 100. The search box and the location chooser only look through the requests already loaded, so narrow the dates first in a long list.

21See tasks on their due dates

Choose Tasks in the dropdown beside Day, Week and Month. Each task sits on the day it falls due, and Day, Week and Month work as they do for your bookings.

Click the circle beside a task to mark it done. Click its name to change it. Click + on a day to add a task due that day.

Pick a person's chip to see their tasks, or several chips to see several people's at once. Everyone shows every task this page lets you see. The Team chips narrow it the same way.

Overdue tasks from before the first day on screen sit under Overdue, above the days. Open tasks with no due date sit under No due date, below them.

22See your equipment's dates

Choose Equipment in the dropdown beside Day, Week and Month. The calendar then shows when each item falls due, when it should fall due next, and what was done.

Choose the dropdown's first choice, such as Jobs or Shifts, to see your bookings again. The web remembers your choice in that browser.

23Ask an end of day question

Click Admin in the sidebar. Click Calendar. Find End of day questions.

Type the question, such as How many kg of coffee used today?. Choose Number, Text or Yes or no. For a number, type the unit, such as kg, and choose what the week should show: Total for the week, Average, Lowest, Highest, How many days answered or No weekly figure. Click Add.

On Calendar, click Day. The questions are under End of day, below the shifts. Type the answer. It saves when you click away.

Click the arrows beside Today to answer for another day. A day that has not happened yet is greyed out and reads Answer this at the end of the day.

Click Week. Each question has a row under the roster grid with the seven days and the weekly figure. Click a day in that row to open it.

On a kiosk, in the browser or the Diract app on a tablet, a manager enters their PIN and finds today's questions under End of day, below the list of shifts. Type the answer and tap anywhere else to save it. The answer is recorded under the manager's name.

24Export or share the roster

Click Export PDF or Export CSV for the visible week.

Click Activity log to see who changed what on the roster and when.

Click Undo to take back your last roster change, such as a shift you added, deleted or copied in. Click Redo to put it back. Hover either button to see which change it will act on.