Before you begin each week you should assemble and organize the following information:
Once you have assembled all of the information above, you are ready to begin the scheduling process.
Once you have assembled the information above, open the schedule program and the HOME form will appear.
The HOME form is divided into two tabbed screens:
From the HOME form's toolbar you can easily review a different schedule and start a new one. You will use the Start a new schedule option each week to begin the next schedule.
When you open ESP the current schedule on file will be displayed. The date of the schedule appears on the right side of the title bar, which is blue to indicate you are viewing the current schedule. To open a past schedule, select the toolbar option Review past schedule; when you select this option a list of dates of all schedules on file will open, simply select the week that you wish to view and it will open. The title bar will display the date of the past schedule you are viewing and it will also change to a reddish color; this is a visual indicator that you are viewing a past schedule.
When a past schedule is open the toolbar option, Go to current schedule, becomes active; use this option to easily return to the current schedule.
Help about each form is available on screen by using the Help icon on the toolbar, by choosing HELP | ESP HELP from the menu, or by pressing the [F1] key. Selecting any of these options will open a Help and Support window on the right side of the form. When viewing the Schedule task list you may also open the help window using the More information button at the top of the list.
Information on the Help and support screen will be relevant to the form that is open. If the computer you schedule on is connected to the internet, you can access additional on-line resources using the link at the bottom of the help screen. The on-line resources provide additional information about the form you are viewing as well as access to information on other forms used in ESP. The on-line resources are updated as required whereas the program help screen is only updated when you upgrade your version of ESP.
Remember you can return to this Home form from anywhere in the program using the Home icon on the toolbar. Alternatively, you may use the Home option from the Main or choose FORM | HOME on the menu.
The To do list screen is a list of steps that you follow each week while preparing your schedule. They appear on the Home form to help you:
The steps are grouped into two sections:
To begin a new schedule you choose the toolbar option Start a new schedule. Selecting this option tells ESP to store the last schedule on file and prepare all of ESP’s forms for a new schedule; a new window opens where you tell ESP if the new schedule will follow the last schedule on file or if there are changes to be considered.
For most weeks you will check the box to create a new Schedule immediately following last week. You would only uncheck this option if the schedule starts on a different day. When you uncheck this box the Starting date box is activated so that you can tell ESP the date that the new schedule begins on. The Starting time field is grayed out; this field is just a reminder that 4:00 AM is ESP's internal daily boundary time, which cannot be changed.
After choosing your options, press the OK button and ESP will prepare all your forms for the new scheduling week. Once ESP has completed this, you are ready to begin following the steps on the Schedule tasks list.
The first section of preparing your weekly schedule walks through the six steps that need to be completed before generating your next schedule.
Selecting the first step opens the Hours of operation form. The following outlines the weekly review of this form; for more detailed information refer to the Settings chapter in the Reference manual.
At this step in the weekly scheduling process you will be reviewing the information on the Hours of operation form for accuracy and making any adjustments needed for the new schedule week.
For most weeks, you will not need to change any information on this screen. However, there are a few fields that you may need to consider:
If your location is open 24-hours,
this section should be left blank as your location doesn't "open" or
"close".Once you are sure that the information is accurate return to the Schedule task list by selecting Home on the toolbar, from the Main task list, or by choosing FORM | HOME on the menu. Check the Completed box beside this task before moving onto the next task.
With time entries, noon
and midnight are often confused; to avoid this confusion ESP has color coded time entries.
Midnight is 12:00 AM and appears with a blue clock to indicate
night hours; 12:00 PM is noon and will appear with an orange clock
indicating afternoon hours.
When you choose task 2, the Volume history form opens to the previous week. The following outlines the weekly review of this form; for more detailed information on this form see the Main chapter in the Reference manual.
Each week at this step you will be entering and/or reviewing the actual hourly volume from the previous week. This information is stored on file and provides a way for ESP to forecast volume for future scheduling weeks.
There are two ways that you can add volume into ESP: importing this information from your POS or manual entry.
Importing from your POS: if the computer you schedule on is connected to your POS system, you may be able to configure ESP to import volume from your POS system. If you have already setup importing of your last week's volume, at this step in the scheduling process you will be reviewing the information on the screen to ensure that it has polled correctly.
Manual entry: If you are not importing your volume information then each week at this step you will be manually entering last week’s volume. When you open this form check to ensure that the date on the title bar is correct for the values you will be entering. If not, correct it by choosing VOLUME | CHANGE RECORDED DATE… from the menu and navigating to the correct date. You may also use this option if you discover the date is wrong after you have entered the values; this will save you from having to reenter the information on a new form.
Although hourly totals are displayed you may enter your volume on the hour, half-hour, quarter hour, or in any combination of these. This information will be used to produce volume projections for future schedules so it is important to enter as much detail as possible. Selecting the plus (+) sign in the hour column will expand that hour so that you can enter half-hour or quarter-hour totals. Or, you can use the toolbar option Expand/contract all to expand or contract all the hours for the week at once. As you enter values the daily and weekly totals will be calculated automatically.
Whether the information is automatically imported or manually entered, at this point in the scheduling process you should also record in the Comments box any conditions, such as weather, special promotions, etc., that may have affected the volume you are entering. The comments you enter can help you determine the weeks to use when generating a future volume projection.
Once you are sure the information on this screen is correct return to the Schedule task list and check the completed box beside task 2. You are now ready to move onto task 3.
When you choose task 3, the Volume projection form opens. If you have not projected volume for the current schedule the values area will be blank. The following outlines the weekly review of this form; for detailed information see the Main chapter in the Reference manual.
Each week at this step you will be making a volume projection, which ESP will use when generating shifts for your schedule.
ESP stores your actual volume history on file so it’s easy to make an accurate projection for the next scheduling week. However, there may be certain conditions that affect your volume that cannot be projected using your volume history. For example, there may be a parade in town or a special promotion on Saturday. To account for these conditions, ESP allows you to fine tune the projected volume.
To begin, select the Generate volume projection option on the toolbar. This will open the Generate volume projection window where you tell ESP how to generate the volume it will use to generate shifts for the next schedule.
Use the Standard projection option to generate the projection by averaging a specified number of consecutive previous weeks. You can also ask for the projection to be adjusted up or down by a percentage. With this option, all the weeks will be adjusted by the same percentage.
When you select the Advanced projection tab, a list of all the weeks of volume you have on file, including comments you may have entered for each week, will be displayed. You can then select any number of weeks for ESP to use in its projection.
To select a week of volume to be used in your projection simply check the box in the Selected field for that week. Then tell ESP to raise or lower the values for the week selected by entering a number in the % Adjust field; each week selected may be adjusted by a different percentage.
Using the Advanced projection option is particularly useful for weeks where the expected volume will be significantly different from the trend of the previous consecutive weeks. For example, weeks that have one holiday on the same day each year. The Comment field displays the entry you made in the comments box when you first entered the volume on the Volume history form. These comments can help you quickly determine the weeks to use for the projection, for example you could easily find Thanksgiving week for the past few years from all the weeks on file.
This option can be used with either Standard settings or Advanced settings. It tells ESP how to calculate your hourly volume projections and how it should attempt to smooth out the periods where the volume changes dramatically. There are four choices:
Selecting this option tells ESP to remove the highest and lowest value for each hour and then makes the projection based on the remaining values. This option can be used with either Standard settings or Advanced settings but, for this option to work correctly you must base your projection on at least five weeks of volume history. Any fewer than five weeks will not give ESP enough weeks to produce a good average.
After you select the options that you want ESP to use to generate your projection, press the OK button and the values will be displayed in the Volume area.
ESP will generate a very accurate projection because it's based on your actual volume history. However, there may be conditions that will affect the volume for the next schedule that cannot be projected accurately using your history. For example, there could be a parade in town or you may be running a special on Saturday. To account for these conditions ESP allows you to edit the generated information on the screen.
You may change any hourly, daily, or even a weekly total; you can also expand an hour using the plus (+) sign in the hour field to review and modify quarter-hour amounts. Or expand all of the hours at once using the toolbar option Expand/Contract all.
When you change an hourly total, each quarter-hour amount is adjusted proportionately; if you change a daily or weekly total all the amounts for that day or the whole week are adjusted.
You can even adjust parts of a day or week by highlighting the section you want to change, choosing the Adjust by % option on the toolbar, entering the percentage amount that you want the selection changed by, and then clicking on the GO button. The highlighted section will be adjusted by the percentage you requested. This feature saves you from having to manually adjust individual entries.
If you are not happy with the projection or your edited changes you may use the toolbar option Generate volume projection to regenerate the projection at any time.
Before leaving this form, add any comments about conditions that may affect the volume for the scheduling week, such as any promotions that are running.
Once you are satisfied with the projection, return to the Schedule task list, mark the completed box beside this task, and then move onto task 4.
Each week at this step in the scheduling process you will be updating your employees' availability due to crew requests and updating their information with any changes that affect the upcoming scheduling week.
When you choose the Start button for option 4, the Time-off requests form will open. During this step in the scheduling process you will also be reviewing and updating the Employees' information forms for any changes to their profiles that affect the upcoming scheduling week.
The following outlines the steps you follow in the Time-off requests form each week as you prepare your schedule. For detailed information see the Main chapter in the Reference manual.
The Time-off requests form allows you to enter all of your employees’ requests for time off on one screen rather than having to open each employee’s form to make changes individually.
Options on the toolbar allow you to change the way the information is displayed:
Each week when you first open the Time-off requests form it will either be empty or filled in with entries that carried over from the last schedule. Editing this form to add new entries and modify the ones already listed is easy and you may use the three editing icons, located at the bottom of the form, to help you.
To Add a new entry, click in the top row labeled Click here to add a new row and enter information into the following fields:
Save your changes by moving off the row or by clicking the
button at the bottom
of the screen.
To Change an entry, click inside the field that you want to
change, make your change, and then save it by moving off the row or by
clicking the button
at the bottom of the screen.
To Remove an entry, click inside the row that you want removed
and then click on the 
button at the bottom of the screen.
Use the 
button at
the bottom of the screen to Cancel any change before
it has been saved.
When you post an entry ESP retains the information and automatically inserts the same values for the next entry. So you can quickly apply the same time-off request to multiple employees.
To use this feature, place your cursor in the Employee column of the top row labeled Click here to add a new row and begin typing the name of the employee. As noted above, ESP will automatically suggest the employee name as you type. Once the correct name appears, press the TAB key. This moves you to the Day column, type the letter of the appropriate day and press TAB. If you are making a request for the current schedule week then your entry work is complete, simply press the TAB key until you reach the end of the row and then one more time. The entry is posted and the cursor is positioned back on the Employee field ready to begin the next entry. Type the name of the next employee and you will notice that the remaining fields are filled in with the same information from the previous entry. If this is correct, tab through the remaining fields to complete the entry. If it is not correct make the appropriate changes as you tab through the fields.
If you are entering time-off requests for weeks other than the current schedule week, you will need to change the start and finish dates. As ESP remembers the dates that you last used, it is best to enter time-off requests for future weeks after completing all the requests for the current schedule week.
As you are entering an employee’s time-off requests, you can easily move to that employee’s information form to update other types of information by selecting the toolbar option View this employee.
ESP stores an information form for each employee; the following discusses using this form while preparing your weekly schedule; for detailed information see the Employees chapter in the Reference manual.
Each week before generating your schedule you should update your employees’ information for changes in job qualifications, number of days or closes, availability changes, etc. Keeping this information up to date ensures that ESP is generating a schedule based on accurate data; which will mean less editing work for you.
Types of changes you may need to make to your employees’ information while preparing the weekly schedule include:
Each week you must remove any employee that no longer works at your location. If you don’t they will appear on the schedule and you will have to edit them out.
To remove an employee, open the employee form for the person you wish to remove and then select the toolbar option Terminate employee. This will open the Terminate employee window.
Confirm that the name displayed is the employee that you want to remove from future
schedules. If not, select the button
at the bottom of the window, move to the correct person’s information, and then select
the Terminate employee option on the toolbar. Once you confirm that it is the
correct person, enter the date the person’s employment is terminated and then press the
OK button at the bottom of the screen. The employee will then be removed on the date you
entered.
When you terminate an employee their information will not be visible for all future schedules, however, the information is stored in ESP’s files so that it may be viewed when you are looking at past schedules.
Each week you will also need to add employees who have been hired since the last schedule. As well as reinstate anyone who was terminated in error or who has returned to work.
To add/reinstate employees, select the toolbar option Add employee, which will open the Add employee window.
You are given two options for adding employees; select the tab that refers to the type of employee that you are adding:
For new employees you will enter information into four tabbed screens, which will allow ESP to begin generating shifts for the new employee. Each of these screens is discussed in detail in the Employees chapter in the Reference manual.
You may also need to update information for your current employees that may have changed since the last schedule, such as:
Once you are sure that your employees are all up to date, move onto the next step.
The following describes reviewing the Fixed shifts form while preparing your weekly schedule; for detailed information follow this link to the Fixed shifts form or see the Staffing chapter in the Reference manual.
When you open the Fixed shifts form it will be filled with entries that have carried over from the last schedule.
This form is used to tell ESP the shifts that you want scheduled regardless of volume. Fixed shifts can be assigned to a particular employee, who must work that shift or, you may leave the shift unassigned, which tells ESP to find an employee who is available and qualified for the shift when it generates the schedule. For example, you may need a person to receive a delivery on Wednesday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM but don't have a particular person to work it.
Each week, before you generate your schedule, you should review the entries on this form for accuracy and make necessary adjustments. You will also need to add any Fixed shifts that are needed for the next schedule that are not yet listed.
Keeping the information on this form up to date will save you editing time each week. For example, in some locations delivery shifts are setup on this form but the day changes from week to week. If you don’t change the day on this form before you generate, you are left with editing work that could have been avoided. There may also be entries that are no longer used; removing them from this form saves you from having to edit them out of the schedule or from shifts being left unscheduled because people are scheduled at these fixed shifts that you no longer need.
To Add a new entry, click in the top row labeled Click here to add a new row and enter the information in the following columns:
Save your changes by moving off the row or by clicking the
button at the bottom
of the screen.
To Change an entry, click inside the field that you want
to change, make your change, and then save it by moving off the row
or by clicking the
button at the bottom of the screen.
To Remove an entry, click inside the row that you want removed
and then click on the
button at the bottom of the screen.
Use the button at the
bottom of the screen to cancel any change before it has been saved.
Once you have updated your Employees’ information return to the Schedule task list and check the completed box beside task five. You are now ready to generate shifts.
When you choose the Generate shifts option the Schedule form opens with the Generate schedule dialogue box open.
Check that the date displayed is correct for the week that you are scheduling and make your shift selection:
When you have made your shift selection and ensured that the date is correct press the OK button and ESP will generate shifts for the schedule.
You may regenerate the shifts at any time, if you are not happy with the results of your edited changes, by selecting the Generate schedule button on the toolbar.
You are now ready to begin the first task of the second stage of the weekly scheduling process: Tasks to be performed after your schedule has been generated.
The second part of preparing your weekly schedule includes three steps that take you through reviewing and editing your schedule, printing and/or e-mailing, posting and then backing up your data.
During this stage of the scheduling process you should use the Summary screen, which displays information about the current schedule, to determine changes that are required and to see how well your data has been set up. For detailed information about the Summary screen see the Main chapter of the Reference Manual.
When you choose the first option, Review and edit schedule, the Schedule form opens. You may not need to use this option because the last step in the first part of scheduling opens this form. You can also open the Schedule form by selecting the menu option FORM | SCHEDULE. The following discusses reviewing and editing the schedule form while preparing your weekly schedule. For detailed information see the Main chapter of the Reference manual.
If you schedule for more than one location the department that the shift is scheduled at is identified as a column when viewing the shifts by employee or by errors and on a tab at the top of the form above the weekday tabs when viewing shifts by day. This allows you to easily identify the department that the shift(s) you are viewing will be scheduled at. The department tabs and columns will not be displayed if you schedule only one location.
Both options provide easy access to additional information that will assist you in editing the schedule right on the screen:
Once you have completed reviewing and editing your schedule return to the Schedule task list, mark this task completed and move to the next step.
The following is an overview of your weekly review of the reports that ESP produces. For detailed information on each report see the Reports chapter in the Reference manual.
ESP produces a number of reports that may be used in your operation; these have been separated into three groups.
You can access the reports that ESP produces from Reports on the Places panel or by selecting FORMS | REPORT FORMS and then the report group you wish to view.
The Schedule reports relate directly to the schedule you are viewing. When you select the Schedule reports you will see a tab for each report at the top of the screen, which allows you to easily move between reports. Each week you should review the schedule reports on screen and then only print the reports that you need; reducing paper and preventing you from posting a schedule with errors.
When the schedule reports are open, the toolbar displays options that allow you to move around the forms and view the information.
The Employee reports provide information to help you effectively manage your employees. Each week you should review the employee reports to identify training requirements and employee information that needs updating. A tab for each report appears at the top of the screen to allow you to quickly move between reports.
When the employee reports are open, the toolbar displays options that allow you to move around the forms and view the information.
Use the E-mail report form to send employees their weekly work assignments by e-mail.
The top section of the form is setup as a table with a row for each employee that shows their name, e-mail address, and total number of hours, shifts, and closes scheduled for the week. This information is taken from the Employees’ information screens and the Schedule form. Employees who do not have an e-mail address entered on their general screen will appear grayed out on this report with the e-mail and totals fields blank.
The bottom section of the form is divided into two tabbed screens:
When the E-mail reports form is open the toolbar provides an option that lets you send messages to All employees with an e-mail address entered or only to the Selected employee(s). The E-mail selected is useful if you want to send a customized message to one or more employees.
When you select either option you receive a warning that the message is about to be sent, select OK to continue or CANCEL to return to the E-mail reports form without sending the message(s). This precautionary step will save you from sending messages in error.
When you exit from the E-mail reports, the template message will return to the default. This will save you from inadvertently sending a customized message to the wrong person(s).
After you have reviewed the reports you are ready to select any or all the reports that you want to print.
To print a report, open the report you want to print and select the Print icon on the toolbar or the FILE | PRINT REPORT option on the menu. When the print screen opens choose from options that will print the whole report, selected pages of the report, or only the current page that is open.
ESP automatically saves a copy of your data files in the same folder that your data is stored in every time you exit the program. The user defines how many backups the program will save between three and ten consecutive backups. For example, if you set this to three then when you exit the program after the fourth time, the new backup will overwrite the first backup, and so on. What that means is that the last three copies of your data as it stood when you exited the program is saved.
So why bother backing up your data each week? It's a preventive measure in case your computer crashes and deletes your schedule data and the program's automatic backups.
We recommend that you backup your data to a removable disk or network drive each week as the final step in preparing your weekly schedule using ESP's Backup wizard. You can open ESP's Backup Wizard from the Home form's Schedule task list or by selecting TOOLS | BACKUP/RESTORE on the menu.
Making weekly backups to a removable disk is a preventive measure in case your computer’s hard drive ever crashes or your data becomes corrupted. You have invested many hours of work into setting up your initial files and many more each week as you use ESP. It only takes a few minutes each week to backup your data and with a backup you can quickly restore your information; without a backup, you will have to re-enter all your data – a time consuming task.
Make a point of backing up your data immediately after producing and printing your schedule to ensure that you have a current and up to date copy of your data to restore in case your computer crashes or the data becomes corrupt.
When you select ESP’s Backup Wizard a new window opens and you presented with two options:
Select this option after your schedule is completed to create a backup on a removable disk or network drive.
When the wizard opens, select the Next button and a window opens where you tell ESP the location that you want to backup the files to. This entry will default to the last location that you backed up your data to. You can select that option, enter a new location that you want to backup your files to, or choose the Browse button to navigate to a different location.
We recommend that you backup to a removable disk or network drive to ensure that you can restore the data if required. If you only back up the schedule to your hard drive you may not be able to retrieve it if the hard drive crashes.
Select this option to restore your data after a disk crash, if your data becomes corrupt, or to simply cancel the changes that you made during your current schedule process.
When you select the Restore your ESP data option a new window opens that gives you two options for restoring your files:
Select the option that applies to the location of the data that you wish to restore and then press NEXT. You will then see a progress screen, when the files have been overwritten select the CLOSE button to close the window and the schedule program will open to the data that you have restored.
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