Weekly scheduling process

What you need to have on hand

Before you begin each week you should assemble and organize the following information:

• Hourly volume information for every day of the last week.
• A list of employees that have left your employ during the last scheduling period.
• Information on any new employees that have been hired since the last scheduling period.
• Any changes in your employees’ information that will affect next week’s schedule. This may be availability changes (due to crew requests), changes in job qualifications, ratings, min/max hours, and so on. It's a good idea to keep a binder of some form that your employees may use to record their time off requests. This will allow you to quickly make changes to their availabilities when it comes time to do the schedule.
• Any fixed shifts you will be using this week, including manager schedules, deliveries, and so on.

Once you have assembled all of the information above, you are ready to begin the scheduling process.

Begin scheduling

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:

1. To do list: is the list of steps you follow each week to prepare your weekly schedule
2. Summary: information on the summary screen will help you analyze how well your data has been setup and identify corrections that you need to make

Home form options

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, as shown above. 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, as shown below. 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 group or choose FORM | HOME on the menu.

To do list

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:

• Stay organized, by simply following the tasks in the order listed you can be sure that the schedule you generate is accurate and you won’t have to backtrack to complete a missed task.
• Never miss a task, by checking each task off when complete you can be sure that you have not missed any steps required to create an accurate schedule.
• Remain focused, we understand that most managers are not able to sit down and complete the schedule from start to finish in one sitting – they get interrupted. By following the tasks in order and checking them off when complete, you can return to the schedule after an interruption knowing exactly where you left off.

The steps are grouped into two sections:

1. tasks that you perform Before generating the schedule; and
2. tasks that you perform After generating the schedule

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 "4:00AM" 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.

Tasks to be performed before scheduling

The first section of preparing your weekly schedule walks through the six steps that need to be completed before generating your next schedule:

1. Review hours of operation
2. Enter last week's volume
3. Make volume projection
4. Perform employee time-off requests
5. Review employee fixed shifts
6. Generate shifts

1: Review hours of operation

Selecting the first step opens the Hours of operation form, as shown. The following outlines the weekly review of this form; for more detailed information follow this link to the Hours form or see 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.

Procedure

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:

• Open time/close time: if you change your hours of operation then you would need to update the open and/or close time fields. For locations open twenty-four hours, set both the open and close times to 4:00 AM; ESP's internal boundary time.
• Holiday: the Holiday field is a checkbox located beside the date in the Hours of operation section. If you have only ONE day that is considered a Holiday during the new scheduling week, you tell ESP that by checking the Holiday box beside the appropriate day. ESP will then know to use your employees’ holiday availability to schedule that day. For a scheduling week with multiple holiday days, such as Spring Break, you would leave the holiday column unchecked and instead use your employees’ alternate availability to accurately schedule those days. Click here for more detail on scheduling a week with one holiday day.
• Openers/Closers: this section tells ESP if you require people to come in before your location opens to the public to set up and if you require people to stay past your closing time to clean up. The information entered in this section is scheduled regardless of your volume, so it is important that you review this section and make any adjustments needed before you generate the schedule. It's much easier to correct your entries at this stage than editing them after the schedule has been generated.
  If your location is open 24-hours this section will be 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.

2: Enter last week's volume

When you choose task 2, the Volume history form, as shown, opens to the previous week. The following outlines the weekly review of this form; for more detailed information on this form follow this link to the Volume history form or 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.

Procedure

There are two ways that you can add volume into ESP: importing this information from your POS or manual entry.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3: Make volume projection

When you choose task 3, the Volume projection form, as shown, 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 follow this link to the Volume projection form or 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.

Procedure

To begin, select the Generate volume projection option on the toolbar. This will open the Generate volume projection window, as shown, where you tell ESP how to generate the volume it will use to generate shifts for the next schedule.

Standard projection

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.

Advanced projection

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, as shown. 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.

Type of data smoothing to use

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:

1. None: ESP takes the hourly total and breaks it evenly into the four fifteen-minute periods.
2. Half-hour: ESP looks at the upcoming volume and adjusts the current hour's volume amount accordingly. You will find that if the next hour has a large volume increase, the total for this hour is broken into two uneven numbers with the amount in the second half hour higher than the first.
3. Quarter hour: ESP will adjust your volume similarly to the Half-hour option but on a fifteen-minute basis. The hourly total will be broken down into four uneven numbers and if there is a large volume increase for the next hour, you will see the volume for this hour increase with each quarter hour.
4. Hour: ESP treats the hourly total the same as for the None option above – as four equal amounts.

Remove high and low values before averaging

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.

Modify/Edit your projection

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.

4: Perform employee time-off requests

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.

Time-off requests

The following outlines the steps you follow in the Time-off requests form each week as you prepare your schedule. Follow this link for detailed information on the Time-off requests form or 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:

• Group the entries on this form By employee or By day. If your employees enter their requests on a calendar the By day option makes entering daily requests easy. If, however, you prefer to enter each employee’s changes at once, then the By employee option is the better choice for you.
• View entries for the current schedule only - This week (the default view), or entries for the current and future schedules together - All entries.
• Expand/contract all will expand or contract all the entries on this form at once. If you want to expand or contract the entries for only one day or one employee, click on the plus or minus sign in the field beside the day or employee’s name.
• View employee will open the information form for the employee that your cursor is on so that you can update other information such as adding jobs that they have learned or making temporary changes to their availability. Using this option saves you time as you don’t have to leave this form, then open the Employee forms, and then navigate to the correct person. Once you have made these additional types of changes to the employee’s information, return to the Time-off requests form by selecting it from Main group or by selecting FORM | TIME-OFF REQUESTS from the menu.

Procedure

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:

• Employee: enter the person’s name by selecting it from the drop down list. To make filling in this form easier filtering has been added that allows you to quickly move to the correct person without having to scroll through the whole list. For example, if you wanted to select Steve, typing S would bring you to the top of the list of S names and then typing t would move you down the list further to the first person whose name begins with St.
• Day: this field will default to the last day that you entered a book off for. To change the day, either type the day in the field or select it from the drop down list.
• Start date/Finish date: enter the date that the book off is to begin in the Start date field and the date that the book off is to end in the Finish date field.

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.

Fast auto-entry

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.

Employees’ information

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 follow this link to the Employee form or see the Employees chapter of 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:

Remove employees that have left

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, it will be stored in ESP’s files so that it may be viewed when you are looking at past schedules.

Add new employees/reinstate previous employee

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, as shown.

You are given two options for adding employees; select the tab that refers to the type of employee that you are adding:

1. Reinstate previous employee: Choosing this option opens a list of all employees who have been removed. Select the person that you want to add back, enter the labor category that the person will belong to and then press the OK button at the bottom of the window. The employee’s form will open, displaying information about the employee as it was when the employee was terminated; review and update the information for changes. This option is useful if someone takes a leave of absence, or if you have a seasonal worker; e.g., a university student who goes to school in another town but returns to work during summers.
2. Add new employee: Enter the person’s First and Last names and select the Labor category that the new person will be assigned to. You will probably notice that as you type the employee’s name that the Schedule name is automatically filled in with the employee’s first name and last initial. After filling in the new person’s name, and selecting the Labor category that this person will be assigned to, press the OK button. The Employee form will open with the employee’s name and labor category filled in, ready for you to enter the rest of their information.

For new employees you will enter information into four tabbed screens, which will allow ESP to begin generating shifts for the new employee. For detailed information on each of these screens follow this link to the Employee form or see the Employees chapter in the Reference manual.

• General: stores general information about the employee. The labor class field, which was filled in when you added the employee is used to set limits on the number of shifts and closes the employee may work. The paid field is used for statistics on the schedule.
• Availability: enter the employee’s availability on this screen. You can enter both a regular and an alternate availability for each employee, which is particularly useful for students. The shift and hour limits fields will already be filled in with the information from the Labor category that you assigned the employee to but these fields may be modified. ESP uses the information on this screen to generate valid shifts for the employee.
• Stations: enter all of the stations that the employee may work at. Rate the employee’s performance at each station and indicate if there is any time that the employee is restricted from working at each station.
• Other: enter information to reach the employee’s emergency contact person. This section also stores the employee’s hiring history; if you are entering information for a new employee only a hire date will appear. If you have reinstated a previous employee you will see the date the person was originally hired and terminated, the date you just reinstated them, and any dates in between when they were hired and terminated at this location.

Modify employee’s information

You may also need to update information for your current employees that may have changed since the last schedule, such as:

• General: updating labor class, wage, address, etc.
• Availability: entering temporary changes for the next schedule.
• Stations: adding stations the employee has learned since the last schedule, updating the rating for stations, and removing any restrictions that are no longer required.
• Other: updating emergency contact information as required.

Once you are sure that your employees are all up to date, move onto the next step.

5: Review employee fixed shifts

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, as shown, 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.

Procedure

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:

• Employee: enter the employee’s name by typing it into the field or selecting it from the drop down list. ESP’s built-in filtering feature makes filling in this form easier as it allows you to quickly move to the correct person without having to scroll through the whole list. For example, if you wanted to select Steve, typing S would bring you to the top of the list of S names and then typing t would move you down the list further to the first person whose name begins with St.
• Day: enter the day that the fixed shift is to be scheduled by either typing in the day or selecting it from the drop down list.
• Start time/Finish time: enter the time that the shift begins in the Start Time field and the time that the shift ends in the Finish Time field.
• Station: enter the station that this fixed shift will be assigned to in the Station field; or leave it blank to allow ESP to assign the person at the station that the person is needed most at.
  
  If the fixed shift will be made up of more than one station, select the additional (...) button in the station field to open a new window where you enter the information about the multi-station shift. This option is useful when you need to fix someone to work a short two hour shift, e.g., to accept a delivery; enter the fixed two-hour shift on delivery and then enter additional fixed hours at another station.
• Temp: a checkmark in the Temp box tells ESP that this is a Temporary fixed shift.
• Start date/Finish date: these fields are only active if the Temp box is checked. You would then enter the date that this temporary change begins and the date that this temporary change ends.
• Department: this column is only active if you schedule for more than one location to allow you to specify where the shift is to be scheduled. Remember this column will not appear if you schedule only one location.

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.

6: 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:

• Quarter hour shifts: allows ESP to generate shifts that begin on the quarter hour, half hour, three-quarter hour, or whole hour.
• Half hour shifts: allows ESP to generate shifts that begin on the half hour and whole hour only.
• Whole hour shifts: allows ESP to generate shifts that begin on the whole hour only.

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.

Tasks to be performed after generating your schedule

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:

1. Review and edit schedule
2. Preview reports
3. Backup your ESP 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. Follow this link to the Home form for detailed information about the Summary screen or see the Main chapter in the Reference Manual.

1: Review and edit schedule

When you choose the first option, Review and edit schedule, the Schedule form, as shown, 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 more detailed information follow this link Schedule form or see the Main chapter in the Reference manual.

Toolbar options

The toolbar option View allows you to see the shifts on the screen By day or By employee or by Errors. When viewing the shifts By day, each day is displayed individually with the details of each shift listed on the left side sorted by stations and a visual display of the shift on a line bar on the right side. A tab for each day is at the top of the screen, which allows you to quickly and easily change the day that you are viewing. When viewing Shifts by employee the same information is displayed as the Shifts by day view. As this option is a weekly view of each employee's shifts for the entire week there is no line bar presentation of each shift or day tabs across the top of the screen. When viewing the Errors option, any shift during the week that has an error or violation will be displayed sorted by employee. This allows you to quickly identify and correct problem shifts.

The Statistics option opens a window displaying a summary of your labor including daily and weekly labor cost, labor percent, hours used and volume per man hour. This information is live and is updated as you edit the schedule to help you keep track of the effect that your editing changes are having on your labor cost.

The toolbar option Expand/Contract all will open or close all of the shifts for the day or week, depending on the view. Alternatively you may expand or contract the entries for a single station or employee using the plus/minus sign beside the group's name.

The generate schedule option allows you to generate the schedule at any time. This could be useful if you find that your edited changes have made the schedule worse - simply regenerate and start again. Be careful, however, as this option regenerates all shifts and will erase any edited changes you made.

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 at the department that the shift(s) you are viewing will be scheduled at. There are no department tabs or columns 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:

• Shifts are displayed in the body of the form. When viewing shifts By day, shifts are displayed by job order on the left side of the screen and on a line bar on the right side. When viewing shifts By employee, the shifts area displays an alphabetical list of employees with all of their shifts for the week. You can edit the schedule right in this area by clicking inside the field you wish to change, making your change and then posting the change. For detailed information on editing shifts follow this link to the Schedule form or see the Main chapter in the Reference Manual.
• When you select an Employee field you have two options. The drop down arrow head opens a list of all employee names; the additional (...)button will display a list of employees with additional information about each employee to help you find the best person to fill an unassigned shift or to find a replacement for someone already scheduled.
• When the schedule form is open, a Status box appears at the bottom of the Places panel in the left sidebar. The Status box displays information about the selected shift, such as any errors or violations associated with the shift. A Details link at the bottom of this box will open an Employee summary window that displays information about the employee that your cursor is on. This summary allows you to easily see the employee’s availability; his/her qualified stations; and hour and shift limits. This information can help you determine why someone would not be a good choice to fill a shift or why their shift created a violation. This can also help you identify corrections that may be needed to your employees’ information.
• A Totals section is displayed at the top of the form, above the shifts area, with information dependent on how you are viewing the form. In either view, the Totals section displays the difference between your projected labor and actual labor. This information is updated as you edit the schedule, which allows you to see the effect that your edited changes have made.

The By day view displays daily totals for the job that your cursor is on in the Totals section.

The By employee view displays weekly totals for the job that your cursor is on in the Totals section.

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.

2: Preview reports

The following is an overview of your weekly review of the reports that ESP produces. For detailed information on each report follow this link to Reports or 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.

1. Schedule reports
2. Employee reports
3. E-mail report

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.

Schedule reports

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.

The Break report is a daily report of the breaks due to each employee working that day, which can be used to ensure that all employees receive their appropriate breaks.

The Daily labor summary is a daily report displaying the labor and volume projected for each hour. Use this report to monitor projected to actual volume throughout the day to determine when labor needs to be added or cut.

The Daily schedule (line bar) displays your daily schedules for the week in a graphical line-bar format, which provides an overview of shift coverage, expected sales rates, crew profile and changeover times. Use this report for a final review of your schedules before you print and post them

The Employee schedule is an alphabetical list of all station assignments and work times for each employee. This report is available in two formats:

1. the Detailed format displays each shift assignment on a separate line and is ideal for posting, and
   
2. the Compact format displays the information horizontally, which allows for easy separation of individual schedules for distribution to each employee.
   

The Manager's summary is a summary view of shifts for each employee that includes a comparison of hours and shifts scheduled versus what they are allowed.

The On-call list is a daily list of all employees that can work at given times and stations, taking into account the hours and days that they are currently working. You can use this report to determine if you can extend the shift of someone already scheduled or if you need to bring in an employee to replace someone who has called in sick or someone who has not shown up.

The Statistics report is a summary of the schedule produced including daily and weekly totals for hours, labor cost, labor percentage, sales per man hour, and more.

When the schedule reports are open, the toolbar displays options that allow you to move around the forms and view the information.

• Prev Page / Next Page: this option allows you to move forward or back one page at a time; when viewing multi-page reports.
• Go to page __: this option allows you to move to a specific page, e.g., when the Daily schedule is open to Monday you can quickly move to Saturday by typing 6 in the Go to page box.
• Zoom: the zoom options allow you to Zoom in or Zoom out on a page or to reset it using the Zoom page option.

Employee reports

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.

The Training summary gives a summary of the performance level of your crew at each station. Use this report to help determine your hiring and training needs.

The Service awards report is divided into months beginning with the month of the current schedule. Each employee is listed under the month that he/she was hired and includes their hire date and the number of years the employee will reach on their next anniversary. This report can alert you to any employee who is reaching a milestone in service years, which will appear bold on the report.

This Employee birthdays report is divided into months beginning with the month of the current schedule. Each employee is listed under the month that his/her birthday falls on. This information is based on the entry in the Birth date field on each employee's information screen; if no birth date has been entered on that form then the person's name will appear on this report with N/A listed under the Age on birthday column. Besides identifying employees who will be celebrating birthdays during the current schedule week, this report can identify when to change employees' labor class.

The Employee phone list is an alphabetical list of employees listing their contact information, which can be used to contact an employee to replace a sick or no-show worker.

The Employee list is an alphabetical list of your employee's information. Each employee is listed on a separate page with all of their information, which allows you to quickly and easily review each employee's information.

When the employee reports are open, the toolbar displays options that allow you to move around the forms and view the information.

• Prev Page / Next Page: this option allows you to move forward or back one page at a time when viewing multi-page reports.
• Go to page __: this option allows you to move to a specific page, e.g., when the Daily schedule is open to Monday you can quickly move to Saturday by typing 6 in the Go to page box.
• Zoom: the zoom options allow you to Zoom in or Zoom out on a page or to reset it using the Zoom page option.

E-mail report

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:

1. The Preview e-mail screen allows you to view your message before you send it. The message will change as you scroll through the list of names to display information for the active employee. When the e-mail field for the person selected is blank the message area will display No e-mail for this recipient.
2. The Template screen allows you to edit the default message that will be sent to all employees; the same message will be sent to everyone so be careful when editing. Coding is used to display information relevant to the schedule; these should not be removed:
   • %week calls the date of the current schedule
   • %schedule calls all the shifts for the selected employee
   • %hours calls the total number of hours assigned to the selected person; this should be the same as the number listed in the top section
   • %shifts calls the total number of shifts assigned to the selected person; this should be the same as the number listed in the top section
   • %closes calls the total number of closes assigned to the selected person; this should be the same as the number listed in the top section.

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).

Print reports

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.

3: Backup scheduling data

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.

Procedure

When you select ESP’s Backup Wizard the window shown below will open.

The wizard provides you with two options:

1. Backup your ESP data
2. Restore your ESP data

Backup your ESP data

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.

Restore your ESP data

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:

1. from a backup that you have made yourself: choose this option if you are setting the program up on a new computer or if the schedule data and the backups are damaged
2. from one of ESP's automatically created backups

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.