The function of this section is showing you how to use the calendar. The calendar works in conjunction with the Schedule and the Dispatch screen. Each night the system creates the tasks in the Dispatch screen from the tasks/assignments in the Schedule screen that are effective for the date the dispatch tasks are being generated. This process checks the Calendar when creating the Dispatch tasks and if the employee has planned time off at the time of the task, the employee will be removed from that task. If a different employee has been designated in the calendar event to cover for the absent employee, the task will now be assigned to that employee If no cover employee has been specified, the task will be marked as 'Unassigned' with respect to the employee assignment.
Scheduling an Absence
To schedule an absence, follow the steps given below:
- Navigate to Set-up > Calendar
In the picture above you will notice multiple things. Notice you see the week ahead. Here you can see all scheduled events, or when you have employees that have called time-off in advance. You can see the employee's name, if the reason has been approved, who is covering for that employee, and if this is a re-occurring event.
2. In order to create a new event, select, "Add Event" in the upper right corner. This will create a pop up window, as shown below. Fields with * are required.
3. Select Employee in Employee field for whom the event is created.
4. Select Reason from a drop down list for the Employee event.
5. Select Covering Employee if there is another person who will perform tasks during selected Employee absence.
6. If the event will not re-occur, then
- select Start and End Date of the event;
- select Start and End Time of the event and go to step 10.
7. If the event is re-occurring, check Make recurring box. Additional fields will be displayed (see screenshot below).
8. Select duration of the event:
- if the event is for a whole day, select All Day check box (Start and End Time will not be necessary);
- otherwise enter Start and End Time of the event;
9. Select Days of the week when the event takes the place.
10. Click on Save button to create the event.
When you are creating an event, there are three potential outcomes as to how this event will be created:
- The event runs from a certain start date AND time until an end date AND time (WILL include weekends).
- This will create events that are displayed on the weekly view with the first being from a start time to the end of the day (1:00 PM – 11:59 PM), the middle events displayed as ‘All day’, and the ending event displayed as (12:00 AM – 2:00 PM).
- The recurring all day event runs from a certain start date to an end date (COULD include weekends).
- This will create events that are displayed all as ‘All day’ events from the start date until the end date on the selected days of the week.
- The a recurring specific time event runs from a certain start date to an end date (COULD include weekends).
- This will create events that are displayed as a specific time (1:00 PM – 2:00 PM) from the start date to the end date on the selected days of the week.
There is an option to delete an event if it is necessary. To do that follow the steps:
- Open Set-up -> Calendar page.
- Find an event that you need to delete.
- Click on Trash icon next to desired event.
- Click on Delete button on pop-up to confirm an event deletion.
- If Trash icon was selected by mistake, you can click on Cancel button to cancel the event deletion.
It is important to remember, if you do not assign a replacement, you will have to make sure to do so on those days on Dispatch screen, as there will be no one to cover for those tasks.
Also, please note, when an employee is not available due to a calendar event, this employee's name will appear crossed out in the employee assignment drop-down list. In the screen-shot below, Roger Ebert is crossed out today, because he has a planned absence on the day of the dispatch..
