If you’re using Internet Explorer (IE) and have noticed that not all functionality is working as it should be, it’s because eSchedule has been added to your browsers “Compatibility View Settings”. There are 3 quick steps to resolve this:
Click the tools icon (gear) in the top right corner of your browser. This may vary depending on your version of IE. You can also hit “alt” on your keyboard while on the page and it should bring up a menu below your web address bar. Both “tools” menus are highlighted below… click either.
Once you’ve opened the tools menu, click on “Compatibility View Settings”.
You should see “eschedule.ca” listed under “Websites you’ve added to Compatibility View:”. Click on this URL to highlight it, then click the “Remove” button. Once it’s been removed, you can click “Close”.
Once you’ve hit close the page will automatically refresh and VOILA, fixed.
If you’re passed the point of creating and approving a schedule, then it’s time to learn some of eSchedule’s more advanced features. This blog post should contain at least a couple of hacks you haven’t tried before… and if not? Well then you’re already an employee scheduling expert!
You can also follow along with the step-by-step video tutorial. Just click the button below:
Schedule Views
You’re likely already familiar with the “View 1” and “View 2” options when you want to edit your schedule, but did you know there are actually six different views you can choose from when you click “View 2”? You can see all six highlighted in the image below. I suggest checking out each of them and am sure you will be able to find a favorite that best fits your scheduling requirements!
Top right: The six different views you can access under “View 2”. Bottom left: The different customization options available to filter by position, show absences and availability, hide unscheduled employees and define a color for each schedule status.
Filters and Colors for Full Customization
On the bottom left side of the “View 2” image above, you can see various options to filter and customize your schedule with.
Check “show absences” to display all pending and approved time-off requests directly on the schedule.
Hide unscheduled will only affect the first four views (day, week, month and two weeks by employee) by only displaying employees that have shifts during the period selected.
Show availability also only affects the first four views and gives a visual representation of when each of your employees can be scheduled
You can also denote a different color to represent each status on your schedule
Multiple Shifts Shortcut
This functionality provides a quick way to create multiple of the same open shifts, rather than using a template. Say for instance that you noticed a sudden increase in customer demand and didn’t have the necessary employee coverage to meet it. With a couple clicks, you can add up to ten open shifts during this peak period, and automatically notify all available employees of the new shifts.
To do this, just click the “add shift” button or click an empty space in the calendar. This will pull up the “create NEW shift” modal, where you just need to select the position required and shift time. Next click “shift options” to choose how many of that shift you would like to create and on which days that week. Once you click “save”, the open shifts will be added to your schedule and if your schedule is already approved, they will be sent out to your available staff.
Copy Shifts
Copying shifts is a real time saver if you have a recurring schedule each week. This option can be found under the “advanced” menu in View 2 of your schedule. All you have to do is select the dates of already created schedule to copy from, and then select which dates to copy these shifts to.
Maybe you just had a perfect week of shift coverage, and want to replicate that into next week. The shifts will copy over identically, including the employees that were assigned to each. If any employee happens to be unavailable, they will be replaced by an open shift which can then be filled with someone else.
Drag and Drop
In View 2 of your schedule, you have the ability to drag and drop shifts to different days, or to assign them to different employees (depending on which view you select). Here is what this function can do in all six of the different views:
Day by employee view:
Drag assigned shifts or open shifts to different employees to assign them to it
Mouse over the end of the shift and drag it to change the time the shift finishes
Drag shifts left or right to change the start and end time
Week, Month, 2 Weeks by employee view:
Drag assigned shifts or open shifts to different employees to assign them to it
Drag shift to a different day to change when it occurs
Month, Week by shift view:
Drag shift to a different day to change when it occurs
Bulk Update Hours
On the “Employees” page, you may have noticed a checkmark next to each of your staff and a “bulk update” button at the bottom of the list. This provides a shortcut to update the maximum hours/week setting across multiple employee profiles.
Maybe half your staff is part time… just check off the ones that are and set their hours all at once. If the other half is full-time, you can set the remaining employees to 40hrs/wk so that you avoid any overtime expenses. The system will automatically prevent employees from being scheduled over their max hours.
As promised, we’ve released some exciting new updates to our online scheduling software, eSchedule. This includes a now FREE Absence Management Module, a new Timecard feature, a redesigned 15-day FREE trial, and a number of application performance improvements. Check out the release notes for a full list of the updates by clicking here.
FREE Absence Management Module
One of the biggest announcements from this release is that our Absence Management Module will now be FREE, enabling businesses of any size to track their employees time-off.
Upon completion of a 15-day eSchedule free trial (more on that later), accounts that don’t require our web app’s scheduling functionality at this time, will automatically be given unlimited access to the Absence Management Module.
This means that you can still have an infinite number of employees in the system and they will all have the ability to log-in to eSchedule and request time-off. We have also released several improvements to the Absence Module, including the ability for managers to request time-off on behalf of their employees.
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No Credit Card Required
Timecard Feature
Our new timecard feature allows employees to track their actual hours worked, giving managers the ability to account for factors such as overtime, breaks and holiday rates. A brand new report compares these timecard hours and rates to the actual scheduled hours, providing a clear overview of potential discrepancies. With one-click you can download the report and have it ready to upload into your payroll software.
FREE Trial
We’re giving you the chance to try out this newly updated version of eSchedule, with full access to all features, FREE for 15 days! No payment information is required to sign-up and our set-up wizard takes just a few minutes to guide you through the initial steps.
Your subscription information will be available on a new page within the application, called “Subscription” and found under the “Settings” tab. Here you will find the plan you will fall under at the end of your trial, based on the number of active users you have in the system.
Performance Improvements and General Updates
On top of the aforementioned additions, you will also notice general updates to a few already existing features, speed increases and fixed bugs. Most notable, is that View 1 and View 2 have been renamed to NEW View and OLD View respectively, since all of our recent and future updates will only affect View 2 (NEW View).
One more improvement I suggest you checkout, is the “show availability” toggle on the left side of the NEW View. If you are on any of the “by employee views” and click the box to turn this feature on, depending on employee availability you may notice that some days are shaded in partially or entirely. The partial shades indicate that your employee has specific availability on that day (Mondays, 9am-5pm), while the shaded box means they are unavailable. This visual illustration combined with our drag and drop interface further reduces the effort required to create an error-free schedule.
We would love to hear your thoughts on these new updates, please feel free to connect with us:
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*Trial Downgrades to FREE Absence Management Automatically
