When scheduling your staff, TimeForge allows you to schedule by position or by employee.

An example of scheduling by position might be: From 3:30pm – 8:30pm, I need a cook, and that cook happens to be Joe Smith.

An example of scheduling by employee might be: From 3:30pm – 8:30pm, I need Joe Smith, and Joe happens to be a cook.

Some businesses find that scheduling by employee is best for them, and other businesses prefer scheduling by position. Use the one that makes sense
for your business, or switch between the two with a single click.

You may want to copy multiple shifts if you are creating a schedule that will be similar to a previously created schedule. For example, if you made a schedule a couple of weeks ago, and the schedule you are currently building will contain many of the same shifts, you can simply copy those shifts over to save time.

If the schedule you are creating will contain a shift identical to another shift, you may want to copy that shift. Copying a shift can save you time, since it is quicker than building an identical shift from scratch. You can also copy a shift that is similar to the shift you want, then edit it.

To more easily view only specific parts of the schedule, you may want to filter the positions. Filtering the positions also helps you to organize the schedule view in a way that might make more sense to your business than viewing the schedule .

The AutoScheduler is an industry leading tool that TimeForge offers to its users at no additional cost. AutoScheduler lets you input the basic outline of a schedule, then you click “AutoSchedule” and presto! The perfect schedule is born. An AutoScheduled schedule is optimized to make both employees and managers happy by considering employee requests, skill levels, busy times, costs of different employees, and other criteria. The AutoScheduler creates the most profit-friendly and most employee friendly schedule possible. Below are instructions for AutoScheduling a shift.

TimeForge enables you to track and forecast sales. When scheduling, you are offered the option of viewing different sales categories, like gross sales or customer counts. Sales Categories enable you to track the financial impact of a schedule, which is beneficial to your business for many reasons. By tracking the financial impact of a schedule, future schedules can be more budget-optimized, you can avoid monetary surprises, and you can further analyze the operations of your business. You should have previously designated sales categories through the Sales tab before attempting to add a Sales Category to a schedule. If you need to do so, navigate to the Sales tab and add Categories before following the instructions below.

You may want to add a note to a particular shift if there are special circumstances or responsibilities associated with that shift. For example, you may want to add a note to a shift that says: “The supplier should arrive during your shift. Please be sure to give him the piece of paper on the desk” or “Gross sales need to be at 20,000 by the end of your shift. Push!”

You may want to delete a shift if you’ve accidentally created one that you don’t need, or if you overstaffed a schedule. Below are instructions for deleting a shift.

Shift confirmations enable you to ensure that the employee who is scheduled for a particular shift has received notification and confirmed that they will work the scheduled shift. Confirmed shifts also let you better predict the cost of each shift. You may want to view shift confirmations to see which employees have confirmed their schedules shifts and which employees have not.

Your daily labor cost is how much your employee wages cost for the day. Analyzing your daily labor costs is important for understanding your business operations, noticing any room for improvement, and preventing over- or under- staffing in the future.

There are two ways to view the daily labor cost, and both involve the Schedules page. Below are instructions for both methods of accessing your daily labor costs.