Employee Scheduler
The Employee Scheduler program is accessed through the Scheduler center in Point of Success Office Manager. If the Scheduler does not appear on the menu in Office Manager, the program is not registered. To register the Employee Scheduler, select Tools, Company Information. Key in the Employee Scheduler serial number and unlock code. Press the Process Registration Now button and the panel should turn green. This indicates that the software is registered and ready for use. Note that if Point of Success is not registered, Employee Scheduler cannot be registered either.
Main Screen
Once the program is registered, the Scheduler center will be visible in Point of Success Office Manager. Press the Scheduler button in Point of Success Office Manager to display the scheduler's main screen. When a new schedule is to be established, the main screen will look like the figure above. The Jobs section will be blank and the Add Jobs To This Day button will be highlighted yellow. Press this button to display the Add Jobs To This Day window.
All available jobs are located on the left panel. To transfer jobs to a schedule, click the job and then press the arrow key. The double-arrow keys are to move all items from one panel to another. If it becomes necessary to add additional jobs to the Available Jobs list, press the Add or Modify Available Jobs button. The Job List window will appear listing available jobs to add. If a job is incorrectly listed, or one needs to be created, the New or Edit buttons can be used. To edit an existing job, highlight that job and press the Edit key. This will bring up the details of the existing job. Modify and save the changes to that job.
When creating a new job, assign the description, department and status as outlined in the Job Entry window. If the job name already exists, a message window will display that information and request that an alternative name be selected. If there are insufficient job departments, additional departments may be added. They are added in a different part of the software. Under Tools, choose Departments. The departments list will display. This list can be changed or additional items may be added to this list. Departments are groups of employees.
Scheduling Employees
Employees are listed at the bottom of the main screen. Their name, title, department, hourly pay, pay type, scheduled hours, target hours and remaining hours are displayed for convenience. In the panel to the right of the available employees is the unavailable times and reasons for specific employees. To display the unavailable times, click the employee to select their record. Their unavailable times are listed.
To schedule an employee, highlight a block of time in the Jobs grid above the employees and designate the length of time that job is needed. Once the job block is created and displayed in blue in the Jobs grid, click and drag an employee from below to fill the job need. The employee's name will appear in the job slot signifying that they have been assigned to that job.
If there is a restriction with the employee because of unavailability, a message will display but the scheduling will not be restricted. If the employee has previously established an unavailable time, that time and reason will display when the employee is selected. In the example below, Daniel Rowen has established an unavailable time between 8pm and 11pm. He has, however, been scheduled until 8:30pm so a warning message displays regarding the unavailable time. The schedule can be adjusted to accommodate the unavailable request or may be ignored. The message is provided for the scheduler's information only.
Creating a New Work Schedule
There are three ways to create a new or blank work schedule. To create a new work schedule, click New Work Schedule… from the menu on the left panel in Scheduler.
| 1. | Copy time slots from prior work schedule. Use this schedule as an empty schedule template to create a new schedule. Employee job assignments WILL NOT transfer with the schedule. |
| 2. | Copy time slots from prior work schedule. Use this schedule as an empty schedule template to create a new schedule. Employee job assignments WILL transfer with the schedule. |
| 3. | Create a new blank work schedule. This option will allow you to change the work period dates. After choosing any desired option, the wizard displays the additional steps required to set up a new schedule. |
For Options 1 and 2, choose the prior schedule from the list of schedules to copy and click Next. Choose the start date for the new schedule. Drop the calendar down next to the start date to choose a date rather than type a date in the field. Once this date has been chosen, click Finish. The new schedule will then be ready for modification.
Open an Existing Work Schedule
To open a work schedule that has been previously established, click Open Work Schedule… from the panel on the left side of the Scheduler center. A Work Schedule List window displays each work schedule that can be opened. Click any of the listed schedules and press the Open button. The schedule will be displayed in the main screen of the Scheduler center. The schedule can then be modified and printed for reference.
Employee Unavailability
The main Employee Unavailability screen displays the time slots for each day of the week for Recurring Unavailable time slots on the top and requested Single Date Unavailability times and dates on the bottom of the screen. Choose a specific employee from the list in the top left corner of the screen to view and add unavailable times and dates.
To add a new unavailable date, press the New Unavailable Time button on the lower left of the screen. The Employee Unavailable Entry screen is displayed allowing for either a recurring scheduled event or single event to be entered. Day of the week, start and end times and reason codes are entered on this screen. Once the unavailable time and date details have been entered, press Save to reserve this time block.
Note: Another way to enter a visual unavailable time is to use the mouse and drag the pointer to highlight the block of time to designate as unavailable. The Employee Unavailability Entry screen will automatically appear with the times designated. If there are additional requirements, they can be adjusted in this screen.
Schedule Options
The Schedule Options button on the left panel of the Scheduler center opens the Schedule Options window. In this window, the Work Hours and Grid Minute Intervals are set.
Work Hours designates the entire work schedule start to finish. The earliest person who is scheduled for a day and the latest time any employee is scheduled to leave.
Grid Minute Intervals allows the user to set the display intervals of the schedule grid. Both the Work Schedule and the Employee Unavailability grid intervals can be set independently. The intervals available are 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 1 hour blocks. The shorter the time interval, the more screen is required to display. A very small time interval setting will require screen scrolling to view the entire schedule. Intervals can be set and reset as often as is necessary for convenient schedule viewing.