Scheduler s Responsibility in Schedule Optimizer Cheat Sheet SmartLinx Solutions, LLC 4/6/2009
Managing Schedules Figure 1. Main Scheduling Screen (default) 1.0 - Main Scheduling Screen The Main Scheduling screen is the primary screen of the Schedule Optimizer application. It is the first screen to appear upon logging in to the application. Located at the top left of the window are the From and To dates. These specify the start- and end date of your displayed scheduled cycle. To change the scheduling period, double-click the From date and a calendar window will appear. From the Calendar window, you can select a different From date. Figure 2. Calendar Window The date highlighted in green signifies the start date of the scheduled cycle, the date highlighted in blue signifies today s date. To find the desired date and month use the scroll bars and arrows at the bottom of the window. Now you can select a different From date, just click on your desired start date and click OK. The schedule will redisplay beginning with the date you have selected. Another way of changing the period is to click on menu item Edit and then select Go to. Figure 3. Go To date If you click on submenu item Today or Beginning of the Month, the schedule will redisplay beginning with the date you have selected. If you select Date, the calendar window will appear. Page 2
1.1 Create a New Schedule To create the schedule for the current period or to set up the schedule for the next period, there are two steps Figure 4. Relevant Date Range Selection First, select the relevant date range. Double click the From date The Calendar Window will display. In the Calendar window, highlight the first day of the new schedule period and click OK. Figure 5. Calendar Window The start dates of the new periods will be highlighted in green. It is recommended that only the highlighted days are selected, otherwise you may throw off your schedule. NOTE: If the highlighted days are not set on the correct weekdays, please have your administrator adjust the schedule start date in the File > Properties > Department menu. The Schedule window will redisplay. Figure 6. Generate Schedule Second, go to the Tools menu and select Generate Schedule A message box will remind you that this schedule period selected will be overwritten. Click Yes to continue. Figure 7. Generate Schedule reminder Page 3
As the new schedule is being generated, a message box will let you see the status of the build. The new schedule will display. Figure 8. New Schedule Figure 5. Console Screen (by Daytime view) 1.2 Generate Schedule for an Employee Figure 9. Generate Schedule for an employee If any changes are made to an employee s default rotation, you may need to update their schedule (based on those changes). Select the employee s name and right click, and select the Generate Schedule for Employee option. A message box will remind you that the schedule for dates with the date you have selected until the end of the schedule period will be replaced. Click Yes to continue. Figure 10. Generate Schedule for an employee reminder 1.3 Refresh the Displayed Schedule When you have been working on the schedule, such as making changes to the application or to employee profiles, it s a good idea to refresh the schedule to see the effect of your changes. Click the Refresh toolbar icon, and a refreshed schedule will display. Figure 11. Refresh Icon Page 4
1.4 Lock / Unlock the Schedule A user with the proper security authorization can lock or unlock the schedule for updates. Click on the Lock or Unlock toolbar icons, and a message box will ask you to confirm your choice. Figure 12. Lock / Unlock the Schedule 1.4 Restore the Schedule To restore a schedule for an employee first make sure you are in the correct pay cycle period using the From and To dates Figure 13. Restore Backups From the File Menu select Restore Schedule. From the Restore Schedule Backups screen Select Employee by highlighting the Id box that corresponds to their name, then click restore. A dialog will appear asking to confirm your choice to restore the schedule. Figure 14. Restore Schedule Backups screen Figure 15. Restore Schedule Dialog You can also choose to restore a Full Schedule by selecting a schedule that is not highlighted in yellow for the appropriate period. Full Backups are taken each time a full schedule is generated and Individual backups are taken when an individual schedule is generated. Backup sets are saved for 30 days. Page 5
Common Scheduler Tasks Figure 16. Single Day Employee Schedule Becomes a dropdown if employee has 2 nd positions 2.0 Modifying Employee Shifts Double clicking on a cell on the main scheduling grid will bring up a new window. From here you have the ability to: Move already scheduled employees to a secondary position, a different shift, or unit by using the drop down menus. View an employee s lateness by selecting the late tab. If the employee was late, a checkmark will appear on this tab as well as their arrival time. Click on the Generate Warning button to generate a warning for lateness or any other reason for the employee. When you click on the Generate Warning button, a new window opens. Fill in the dates, select a reason from the dropdown and add company remarks, then click OK. Mark someone absent by clicking on the unit drop down box and selecting absence, then choosing absence reason. Schedule an employee for overtime by clicking in the overtime box. A check will then appear, and you will need to fill in the number of hours that will count as overtime. Figure 17. Replace Options 2.1 Replace Employees To make substitutions in the schedule, first position the cursor on the cell of the person and day when the substitution is necessary. Click once to highlight the cell. Click the right mouse button to display an options menu and select the Replace option. Page 6
A list of employees with Availability record will display. To view a list of all employees who are off any shift that day, check the box underneath the listing. All the listings come together with employee phone numbers, and are sorted by Date of Hire. The number in parenthesis signifies the number of shifts that employee, is already scheduled to work that particular week. Figure 18. Employee Availability To call an employee to check availability, highlight the employee s phone number that you want to dial and click on the Dial button. A Dial Window with employee s name and phone number will open. (if your computer is connected to phone line, you may click the Dial button to dial the number. Fill in the Result of Call (dropdown) and add detail comments. Figure 19. Dial Employee Then click on Save & Exit. All information regarding the call will be logged and saved for future reference. Once a suitable replacement has been identified, highlight the employee s name or phone number, and then click on the Replace button at the lower right of this window. Now you will be asked to confirm the substitution. Confirm by clicking on Yes or No. Figure 20. Replace Employee Reminder Page 7
Once you have confirmed, a Reason for Absence window will appear which allows you to select the reason for the employee s absence and to provide a comment if appropriate. When the schedule redisplays, the cell you have highlighted contains the reason code in bold type for ease of reference. Figure 21. Absence Reason Before you select the substitute employee, you have the option to view the work schedule for that employee by double clicking on desired employee name. Figure 22. Substitute employee schedule Figure 23. Schedule for Double shift 2.2 Schedule for Double Shift On the main schedule screen right click the cell of the employee who will be working a double Choose Schedule for Double Shift out of the menu that apears. From the next set of options choose which shift that employee will work. Note: The shifts that are grayed out conflict with the hours of the shift the employee is already scheduled for. Page 8
A new screen will appear and from there you can choose the unit that employee will work for the new shift. Once you have created a double shift the cell will be highlighted green. Figure 24.Select Unit Screen By double clicking on the cell you will see both shifts and you can view/clear that double shift or the original shift. You can schedule the employee to a second position, if one is available. The position: area would become a dropdown from which you can make your selection Figure 25. Individual Schedule Double Shift view Page 9
2.3 Mark with Overtime Click on the cell for the shift you want to mark with overtime and right click with your mouse to display an option menu. Select the Mark with Overtime option. Figure 26. Mark With Overtime When the schedule redisplays, the cell of the date you have marked with overtime will be highlighted with pink text. To specify the total number of hours to be marked as overtime, double click on the cell, and enter the hours in the Overtime tab in the window that opens. Then click on OK. Figure 27. Individual Schedule Overtime Tab Page 10
2.4 - Default Rotations To set up work settings double click on the desired employee in schedule view. The employees personnel record will appear, click on the Rotations Tab and select the Change Settings button. Figure 28. The Rotations Tab Select the Type and number of work rotations (or length in weeks of employees schedule), then click Next. Figure 29. Change Employee Settings Figure 30. Change Employee Settings (shift and unit) Select desired unit and shift and click Next. Page 11
Then select the days each week that the employee is working, and click Next. Click Next again to confirm. Figure 31. Change Employee Settings (work days) You can also make single changes to the work settings, by clicking on the shift or unit of the scheduled work week, and using the dropdown menu that appears select the desired Shift or Unit. These single changes will carry over for each week that you generate a schedule for. To schedule a second shift in the rotation, use the 2 nd Shift tab for when an employee is schedule to work a double as part of their rotations Figure 32. Rotations Tab (2 nd Shift). Page 12
2.5 Additional Options In the main Schedule View, when you right click on a cell in the schedule, you will also have the following options: Open By selecting on open, you get the individual daily settings as if you had double clicked on that cell. Mark Absent By clicking on a specific cell located on the main screen, then proceeding to right click the mouse you may mark that day as an absence or any of the other codes available. Generate Warning You can also generate a warning. A generate warning window will appear asking you for a warning reason you can select from a list of available reasons View/Print Call Log Generate a report listing calls made to the employee within a specific date range. Edit Employee Access the employee s information and make changes to their personal record. Add Employee Add a new employee with the same position as the currently selected employee. Delete Employee When deleting an employee from the schedule you have an option of saving this person s schedule as a vacancy, which then can be assigned to another employee. Figure 33. Additional Options or you can type in your own reason. You can also add in any company remarks. By clicking OK, a warning letter will be generated for that employee. View Attendance A new window appears where you may view and edit the days that the selected employee was absent. This window also allows you to view a summary of the reasons the employee have been absent, by clicking on the Summary button. View Availability Quite similar to attendance records. The only difference is that in this new window you may edit all the days by clicking on setup and filling in the days an employee is available for work. View/Print Employee Information View/print options available. By selecting this option a report is generated with all the information on that particular employee, including contact and attendance information. View/Print Individual Schedule View/print this nifty fouror six week individual schedule. Schedule Time off Here you may schedule vacation by specifying the beginning and ending period. You can also view a summary of all days off, by clicking on the Summary button. Note: These options are only available for employees scheduled for the currently selected shift group (not highlighted in RED) Dial Employee A new window appears that allows you to dial that employee s number if your computer is connected to a phone line. Page 13
Schedule Maintenance Figure 34. Attendance Record Icon 3.0 Attendance Record The Attendance Record window gives you an instant view of one employee s attendance record for the entire year. To display this window click the Attendance Records toolbar icon as shown in figure 34. Figure 35. Attendance Record The information displayed in this window reflects data entered directly into the schedule. Click the drop down arrow at the top left to display the list of employee names. When you select one of the names, that employee attendance record is displayed. To change the year being displayed, click the dropdown arrow on the upper right. Scroll through the list of absence codes that have been defined for your facility, to show/change/add the scheduled workdays and the days off, and to print the record. Figure 36. Attendance Record 2 The example in the adjacent figure shows the attendance records for an employee. To change the attendance record, double click on the day you wish to make an entry. Page 14
Select a reason using the drop down and click OK. Figure 37. Absence Reason You can view an attendance summary for the year by clicking the Summary button. Figure 38. Summary Button Figure 39. Summary 3.1 Scheduling Time Off There are three different ways of marking an employee down for vacation time. Figure 40. Main Schedule Screen (Absences) In the schedule view, by double clicking the cell corresponding to the day on which the employee has vacation and manually filling in the corresponding absence code letter for the reason of the absence, for example Holiday Off (H) Holiday Off (H) Page 15
Select a cell and right click on it to open up the drop down list. Then select the View attendance Record for employee name. You will be taken to the Attendance Records for the employee and to change the attendance record, double click on the day you wish to make an entry and a dialog box will appear, prompting you to select a reason using the drop down, click OK as shown in the example above, (section 3.0). Figure 41. View Attendance Record for emploee And finally, by right clicking the cell again but choosing Schedule for Time Off instead. Figure 42. Schedule Time Off Here you can schedule the vacation by specifying the beginning and ending period and the days. Figure 5. Vacation Scheduler Page 16
3.2 Managing Overtime In schedule view, Schedule Optimizer gives you the ability to scroll across to a weekly total column (dark grey) of each employee s weekly schedule to verify their total hours. This column allows a scheduler to make sure no total hours are greater than 40 hours. Figure 44. Weekly Totals Schedule Optimizer also gives you the ability to verify the total number of hours scheduled each day and for the whole week. The Totals row is highlighted in black, located at the bottom of the screen. This can also be sorted by shifts, units, job title or for the whole departments as seen above. 3.3 Par Levels Par levels, highlighted in blue, located at the bottom of the screen can be viewed for each unit, shift, job title or for the whole department, and show the total number of employees required that particular day. Figure 45. Budgeted Pars You can view the PAR levels listed in the blue bar, at the bottom right hand side of the screen for each shift and each unit. To view the levels > single click on the shift and or the unit you would like to compare the PAR levels for. To set or edit the Fixed PAR levels click on View, then select Job Positions Figure 46. View > Job Positions Page 17
The position window will display. Figure 47. Job Positions Select the Job position that you will need to set/edit the PAR level for. Or Click on Add to insert a new position or modify to alter an existing one. Position Information window will appear. Go to the Fixed Daily PAR tab. This is where you set the count for each unit for each shift. Click into the third column labeled Count next to the unit that you would like to set or edit. Enter the new setting. You need to enter the setting separately for each day of the week. To change to a different day, click on the tab that is labeled with the day of your choice. Figure 48. Fixed Daily PARs When you have finished setting your PAR levels click OK and then click Close. Page 18
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Page 20 Scheduler s Responsibility in Schedule Optimizer