Fixed shifts form

This form can be opened from the Settings task group, the HOME form's To-do list, or by selecting FORM | OTHER FORMS | FIXED SHIFTS from the menu.

When you open the form you will see all the fixed shifts that have already been entered with the total number of fixed shifts displayed in the bottom status line.

Purpose of the Fixed shifts form

This form provides one place to enter, modify, and store your fixed shifts and saves you from having to open each employee's form to enter their fixed shifts individually.

A fixed shift is a specific shift that you want scheduled regardless of your volume (sales or transactions). Often these will be non variable shifts such as maintenance, delivery truck, or hostess. However, any station can be fixed on the schedule.

If you use the fixed shifts form to specify various variable labor stations (those that appear on the Positioning guides), ESP will reduce the labor requirements for the station correspondingly. For example, if you assign a Kitchen fixed shift during a time when your Positioning guide calls for 3 Kitchen shifts, your fixed shift will count as one of the three.

Types of Fixed shifts

There are two types of fixed shifts that ESP schedules; both types may be entered on the Fixed shifts form:

1. Fixed shifts that don't specify a particular employee to work. This type of fixed shift allows ESP to choose an employee from a pool of available and qualified employees when it generates the schedule.
2. Fixed shifts that you assign to a specific employee who must work that specific shift. If the employee is qualified to work more than one (variable labor) station you can leave the station field blank to allow ESP to schedule them at the station where they are needed most.

Options on the toolbar

The toolbar provides various options for viewing information.

Group

The toolbar option Group provides two options for grouping entries on this form: by Employee or by Day. If you enter each day's fixed shifts together then the By day option makes entering daily requests easy. If, however, you prefer to enter each employee’s fixed shifts at once, then the by Employee view is the better option for you. For reviewing the entries the by Day option is the more logical choice.

View

Another toolbar option, View, provides two options for viewing entries: This week or All entries. Choosing This week displays only the fixed shifts that are active on the current schedule. Choosing All entries displays fixed shifts for the current schedule and future schedules. The All entries choice is helpful for those locations that enter the managers' shifts for a full month.

Expand/contract all

Selecting the toolbar option Expand/Contract all will alternately expand or contract all the entries on this form at once. Selecting this button will display all shifts; selecting it a second time will "collapse" the shifts with just the group header (employee name or day) visible for each set of shifts. You can also expand or contract the groups individually by selecting the plus(+) or minus(-) sign to the left of the group title.

View employee

While viewing and editing a fixed shift that is assigned to an employee, you may wish to review the employee's full information. Selecting the toolbar option View employee will quickly open the information screen for the employee that your cursor is on. This saves you from having to leave this form, open the Employee forms and then navigating to the correct person. After making your additional changes, you can quickly return to the Fixed shifts form by selecting the Back button on the toolbar.

ESP displays the number of fixed shifts beside each group header (employee name or day).  When the entries are grouped By day the summary indicates the total number of fixed shifts assigned on the day; when the entries are grouped By employee the summary indicates the number of shifts assigned to each employee.

At the bottom of the list, the total number of fixed shifts for the week is displayed. Comparing the total number of fixed shifts to the total number of shifts on your schedule can help you to better control the number of fixed shifts you are using.

Adding or modifying fixed shift entries

To Add a new entry, click in the top row labeled Click here to add a new row and enter the information under each column:

• Employee: enter the employee’s name or select the name from the drop down list. When you select the drop down list you can quickly move to the correct person by typing the first initial. For example, if you wanted to select Steve, typing S would bring you to the top of the list of names beginning with the letter S and then type T to move down this list to the first person whose name begins with St.
• Day: the Day field will default to the last day that you entered a fixed shift for. To change the day, either type the day in the field or select it from the drop down list.
• Start time/Finish time: enter the time that the fixed shift begins in the Start time field and the time that the fixed shift ends, in the Finish time field.
• Department: visible only if you schedule for more than one location to allow you to tell ESP the location that the fixed shift will be worked at. If you schedule only one location this option does not appear on the form.
• Station: select the station that the fixed shift will be worked at; or, leave this field blank to allow ESP to schedule the shift at the variable hour station that the person is most needed. When you select the Station field you can enter a station manually or select one of the two buttons. The arrowhead button opens a drop down list of all stations; the additional (...) button opens the Edit fixed shift segments window where you can view and modify the current fixed shift's information and add additional connecting fixed shifts.
• Temp: if this new entry is a temporary fixed shift indicate that by selecting the Temp box, which puts a checkmark in the box and activates the next two fields.
• Start date/Finish date: these fields are active only if the Temp box is checked. Enter the date that the temporary fixed shift begins in the Start date field and the date that it ends in the Finish date field.
  The start and finish dates display the full schedule week dates that the day falls in.

Save the new entry 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 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.

Tip - save time with ESP's auto-entry

ESP's auto-entry feature saves you time when entering the same fixed shift information. 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 fixed shift to multiple entries.

To use this feature, place your cursor in the Employee field of the top row labeled Click here to add a new row and enter information in each of the fields using the TAB key to move to the next field, and then TAB your way to the end and press TAB one more time. That entry is now posted and the cursor is positioned on the Employee field ready for the next entry. You will notice that as soon as you enter the employee's name, the other fields are filled in with the same day and times that you just entered. If that is correct for this entry simply TAB your way through the rest of the fields to make the entry. If it is not correct simply make the necessary changes as you TAB through the fields.