01 · Start here
Set ShiftGrid up in the right order
ShiftGrid connects staff, locations, company-controlled availability, rotas, attendance, requests, communication and reporting. A clean setup makes scheduling much faster and prevents staff from being assigned before their working windows are defined.
Configure the company
Set timezone, week start, time format, currency, sign-in security, time-clock rules, scheduling rules and branding.
Create locations
Add every workplace staff can be assigned to or scheduled at. Enable placements if you need work areas such as Floor, Kitchen, Register or Security.
Add the team
Create or invite Employee and Manager accounts, assign the correct workplace, and apply custom roles only where needed.
Assign employee availability
An Owner or Manager sets the recurring days and times each Employee is available. Employees do not create or edit their own availability.
Build and publish the rota
Use Rota Builder, Quick Build, templates, copied weeks, open shifts and the detailed shift editor, then review availability conflicts before publishing.
Run the week
Use Live Staffing, Time Clock, requests, Timesheets and Reports to manage what actually happens after the schedule is published.
02 · Roles & access
Understand system roles and custom roles
Owner, Manager, and Employee are permanent system roles. The Owner controls company-wide permissions for Manager and Employee, while custom roles provide optional permission presets.
- Owner: permanent system role with full company access. Owner cannot be deleted, renamed, or restricted, which prevents company lockout.
- Manager: permanent system role. The Owner can change its company-wide permissions from Roles & Permissions.
- Employee: permanent system role. The Owner can change its company-wide permissions while employee availability remains read-only.
- Custom roles are optional presets built on either Employee or Manager, then apply their own permission overrides.
- Roles & Permissions is Owner-only by default. The Owner can delegate access by granting Manage Roles & Permissions to Manager, Employee, or a custom role.
- Delegated role managers cannot grant permissions that they do not already hold.
03 · Company setup
Configure Company Settings before adding a large team
Open Dashboard → Settings as the Owner and establish the rules the rest of the platform will use.
Company information
Enter the company name, contact email, phone, address and country.
Branding
Choose the dashboard brand colour and optional company logo.
Localisation
Choose the display currency, timezone, week start and 12-hour or 24-hour time format.
Employee and Manager sign-in security
Employee 2FA and Manager 2FA are controlled separately. Changing one does not alter the other.
Time-clock rules
Configure unscheduled clock-ins, early clock-ins, grace periods and the allowed early clock-in window.
Rota workflow
Configure Open Rota visibility, whether employees may submit pickup requests, cover requests, swap requests, and draft/publish behavior. Employee pickup never directly changes the schedule; management approval is always required.
04 · Locations
Create locations, workplaces and placements
Locations represent the real workplaces where staff are assigned, scheduled and, when configured, verified for attendance.
Open Locations & Workplaces
Create each active workplace with a clear name and the available address/location information.
Assign staff
Assign Employees and Managers to the workplace they normally operate from. Manager scope and scheduling views can depend on this assignment.
Enable placements if useful
Placements are optional work areas such as Front Desk, Bar, Floor, Kitchen or Register that can be attached to shifts.
05 · Staff onboarding
Add Employees and Managers
ShiftGrid supports direct account creation, one-use email invites and reusable invite codes.
Direct account creation
Create the account, choose Employee or Manager, assign a workplace and optional custom role, then securely provide the temporary password.
Email invite
Create a one-use invite for a specific email address. The staff member follows the link and completes account setup.
Invite code
Create a reusable code with an expiry and usage limit for controlled multi-person onboarding.
Assign availability before scheduling
After an Employee exists, open Staff Availability and define their recurring working windows. This is a management task, not an employee onboarding step.
- Employee is the standard staff role.
- Manager should only be used when the user needs operational management access.
- Employee and Manager sign-in verification are controlled independently.
- Active staff and pending invite reservations count against employee-seat capacity.
06 · Staff Availability
Owners and Managers control when each Employee is available
Availability is a company-controlled scheduling rule. Employees can view what has been assigned to them, but cannot add, edit, delete or reconfirm availability themselves.
Open Staff Availability
Owners can use Dashboard → Staff Availability. Managers with employee-management access can use the same page for employees in their management scope.
Select the Employee
Choose the Employee whose working window you want to define.
Choose Available, Preferred or Unavailable
Available defines a normal scheduling window. Preferred is also treated as a schedulable working window. Unavailable marks a day or date that should not be treated as a normal working window.
Choose recurring weekday or specific date
Recurring weekday Available/Preferred entries are the normal working windows used for scheduling eligibility. Specific-date entries can represent exceptions.
Enter the start and end time
For example, Monday 09:00–17:00 or Thursday 12:00–20:00. Add additional entries for the other days the Employee can work.
Save the entry
ShiftGrid records the management action in the audit trail and notifies the Employee that their availability was updated.
Review setup status
Employees with at least one recurring Available or Preferred window show as Set. Employees without one show as Not set and are kept out of new standard rota assignments until management configures them.
- There is no Sunday employee reconfirmation anymore.
- There is no first-login employee availability form anymore.
- Employees cannot change availability by using an old URL or stale client because the server actions also block employee writes.
- Managers assigned to a location can only manage availability for employees within their allowed management scope.
- An Unavailable entry by itself does not make an Employee schedulable.
- Deleting the final recurring Available/Preferred working window makes the Employee unschedulable again until management assigns another working window.
07 · Schedule
Build the actual schedule
Schedule is the one place where an Owner or Manager turns assigned availability into the actual week employees will work.
Open Schedule
Choose the week and workplace at the top of the page.
Choose an Employee
Select an Employee from the left. Standard Employees need at least one recurring Available or Preferred working window assigned by management before new shifts can be added.
Use the Week grid
Employees are listed down the left and Monday–Sunday runs across the top. Each employee/day cell shows assigned availability and any existing shift. Click the cell to schedule that Employee.
Use the suggested hours
Schedule defaults to Use availability, so clicking a day uses the Employee assigned hours automatically. Common times such as 9–5, 8–4, 10–6 and 12–8 remain available as shortcuts.
Keep clicking days
The selected Employee stays active, so you can add the rest of their week without repeatedly reopening forms.
Use shortcuts only when useful
Fill Mon–Fri and Copy Last Week stay near the normal workflow. Templates and cleanup tools sit under More, while Detailed view preserves the existing day-column and drag/drop tools for advanced scheduling.
Review conflicts
If a planned shift sits outside assigned availability, review the warning before publishing.
Publish
Once the rota is ready, publish according to the company publishing rules so employees can see their assigned shifts.
08 · Coverage
Open shifts, pickup, cover and swaps
Employee self-service can help solve coverage problems after management creates the schedule, but employees only submit requests. Management controls the actual schedule assignment.
- Open shift: a required shift with no assigned employee yet.
- Pickup: when enabled, an Employee can request an eligible open shift. The Employee is not auto-assigned; an Owner or Manager must approve the request before the schedule changes.
- Cover request: when enabled, an Employee can ask management for coverage for an assigned shift.
- Shift swap: when enabled, Employees can request an exchange with another team member, but management approval is required before assignments change.
- These request workflows do not give Employees permission to rewrite company-assigned availability or directly assign their own shifts.
09 · Time clock
Clock in, clock out and mandatory workplace GPS
Employee attendance is geofenced to the workplace assigned to the shift. ShiftGrid requires a fresh device location for every employee Clock In and Clock Out.
Configure the workplace GPS zone
The Owner opens Locations & Workplaces → the location → GPS Clock Zone, enters the normal workplace address and clicks Find Location. ShiftGrid resolves the GPS point automatically; the Owner then chooses the allowed radius. Use My Current Location is available when setting up on-site, while raw latitude/longitude are kept under Advanced coordinates for troubleshooting only. Employees cannot clock at an unconfigured workplace.
Employee opens Time Clock
For a scheduled shift, ShiftGrid uses that shift’s location. For an allowed unscheduled session, ShiftGrid uses the Employee assigned workplace.
ShiftGrid requests Location Services
A fresh high-accuracy reading is requested with no cached-location fallback. iPhone/iPad Safari or installed PWA and Android Chrome or installed PWA must have Location Services and site/app location permission enabled.
Server verifies the clock zone
The server validates coordinate ranges, reading freshness, reported accuracy and distance from the workplace. The full GPS accuracy range must fit inside the configured radius.
Server verifies the network
ShiftGrid also checks the public connection used for the clock request. Detected VPNs, proxies, Tor, privacy relays such as Apple Private Relay, hosting/datacenter tunnels and residential proxies are rejected.
Clock event is blocked when verification fails
Denied/off Location Services, unsupported location, stale readings, poor accuracy, missing workplace coordinates, being outside the radius, or a detected anonymizing/private network all prevent Clock In or Clock Out.
Employee clocks out at the workplace
Clock Out runs the same location verification again. A scheduled shift uses the same shift workplace; unscheduled or legacy entries fall back to the Employee assigned workplace.
Management reviews records
Verified distance and location status are stored with time entries. Owners/Managers can correct records later with an audit reason, but Employees cannot use that adjustment path.
10 · Time off
Time off and approval workflow
Employees can request time off without gaining control over their normal availability.
- Employee submits requested dates through Time Off.
- Management reviews the request and its scheduling impact.
- Approved time off should be considered when building future rotas.
- If an Employee normal recurring availability itself needs changing, an Owner or Manager changes it in Staff Availability.
11 · Live operations
Use Live Staffing after the rota is published
Live Staffing is the operational view for who is working now and where attention is needed.
- See active clock sessions and workplace context.
- Compare today scheduled staffing with actual attendance.
- Investigate missed clock-ins or unusually long active sessions.
- Use the dashboard and Timesheets for follow-up corrections and reporting.
12 · Communication
Chat and notifications
ShiftGrid keeps schedule-related communication inside the workforce system.
- Location and company chat keep teams connected.
- Push notifications can surface schedule and approval changes.
- Employees are notified when management changes their availability.
- Notification Settings control personal notification behavior where supported.
13 · Time & reports
Timesheets and operational reports
Use recorded time and schedule data to understand what happened during the week.
- Timesheets provide clock-in and clock-out records.
- Managers can review records within their permitted scope.
- Reports summarize attendance and worked-hour information.
- CSV exports can feed external accounting or payroll processes. ShiftGrid itself does not run payroll.
14 · Permissions
Roles, permissions, and delegation
Use permanent system roles for the company baseline, then add custom roles only when a team needs a different permission mix.
- Owner, Manager, and Employee are permanent system roles and cannot be deleted or renamed.
- Owner always has full company-wide access and cannot be restricted.
- The Owner can configure the Manager and Employee system-role permissions for the company.
- Custom roles inherit either Employee or Manager permissions first, then apply custom overrides.
- Roles & Permissions is Owner-only unless the Owner explicitly grants Manage Roles & Permissions to another system or custom role.
- A delegated role manager cannot grant permissions they do not personally hold.
- Employees never receive availability-write access, even through a custom Employee role.
15 · Billing
Per-location Rota billing and employee seats
ShiftGrid bills the Rota System by purchased location and bills employee seats separately.
- Each purchased location is one quantity of the company’s Rota location subscription price.
- The Rota location Price ID is read server-side from STRIPE_PRICE_LOCATION_ROTA; no Stripe Price ID is hardcoded in the application.
- Employee seats use the separate STRIPE_PRICE_EMPLOYEE Price ID from the server environment, with quantity equal to purchased employee seats.
- Pricing pages and checkout retrieve the current unit amounts from Stripe using those environment-backed Price IDs.
- Employees remain assigned to their own workplace/location even though employee-seat billing is tracked at company level.
- Owners can add locations or employee seats later; Stripe updates the existing subscription quantity and applies billing changes.
- Changing availability or moving an existing employee between company locations does not create another employee-seat charge.
16 · Mobile
Install ShiftGrid as a PWA
ShiftGrid can be installed to a phone home screen without a traditional app-store download.
Open ShiftGrid in the phone browser
Sign into the correct company account first.
Add to Home Screen
Use the browser install or Add to Home Screen option.
Open the installed app
The PWA uses the same account, permissions, schedule and time-clock rules as the web application.
17 · Owner routine
Recommended scheduling routine for Owners
A simple management sequence keeps the rota predictable.
Review staff and locations
Make sure active Employees are assigned to the correct workplace.
Review Staff Availability
Configure new Employees and update any management-approved availability changes before opening Schedule.
Build the rota
Use assigned availability, click-to-schedule, common-time shortcuts and copied weeks to create draft shifts.
Resolve conflicts and open coverage
Review shifts outside availability, open shifts and employee coverage requests.
Approve employee requests
If Employees request open shifts, cover, or swaps, management reviews the request before any final assignment changes.
Publish
Publish the finalized rota so Employees receive their actual assigned schedule.
Run the week
Use Live Staffing, approvals, Timesheets and Reports for daily operations.
18 · Manager routine
Recommended workflow for Managers
Managers operate within their assigned permission and location scope.
- Maintain availability for Employees in your permitted team when management approves a change.
- Build and adjust rotas using those assigned working windows.
- Review open-shift pickup, cover, swap and time-off requests before schedule assignments change.
- Monitor Live Staffing and Timesheets for the workplace.
- Escalate company-wide settings or billing changes to the Owner.
19 · Employee guide
What Employees do in ShiftGrid
Employees use the schedule management gives them; they do not build their own working availability or directly assign their own rota.
- View assigned shifts in My Schedule.
- View company-assigned availability if they open the Availability view directly.
- Contact an Owner or Manager if assigned availability needs changing.
- Clock in and out according to company rules.
- Request time off, cover or swaps where enabled.
- Request an eligible Open Rota shift where enabled; management must approve before the Employee is assigned.
- Read notifications, chat with the team and review worked hours.
20 · Troubleshooting
Common scheduling and availability problems
Check these items before assuming the rota is malfunctioning.
- Employee missing from Schedule: confirm the account is active and management has created at least one recurring Available or Preferred working window.
- Employee says availability is wrong: an Owner or Manager must correct it; the Employee cannot edit it themselves.
- Old /availability-setup bookmark: the retired employee setup page safely redirects back to the dashboard.
- Old client tries to submit weekly availability: the server rejects the write and explains that management controls availability.
- Manager cannot edit an Employee: confirm the Manager has the required employee access and the Employee is within the Manager location scope.
- Employee requested an open shift but it is not on My Schedule: the request remains pending until an Owner or Manager approves it.
- Shift is outside the expected time: review the Employee assigned availability and the shift warning in Rota Builder.
Need to see it in action?
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