One-off schedule changes: time off and extra shifts

Your weekly shift pattern handles the normal week. For everything else, a wedding, a training day, a one-off Saturday clinic, use a one-off change on the Shifts page.

If you cannot open Shifts, ask the clinic owner for rota access.

The two kinds

• Time off removes availability: a holiday, an appointment of your own, a half day.
• Extra shift adds availability on a day you would not normally work: that one-off Saturday, or a late evening for a launch event.

Adding one

1. Go to the Shifts page and find Add time off or an extra shift.
2. Choose the Staff member and the First day. For a holiday, set the Last day (optional) too.
3. Pick the Kind: Time off or Extra shift.
4. For time off, leave both times blank to take the whole day, or set Start (optional) and End (optional) for a partial day. Extra shifts always need times.
5. Add an optional note, for example Annual leave, and press Add.

If you can see Location (extra shifts only), an extra shift can be given a location, so patients can book that site only on the days someone is actually there.

A holiday in one entry

Set a first and last day and every day in between is added for you, so a fortnight away is one entry rather than fourteen.

• You can add up to 92 days at a time. For anything longer, add it in two goes.
• Any day in the range that already has an entry for that person is left alone, so nothing is doubled up.
• Adding a single day that already has an entry offers to replace it: press Replace it with the new entry, or Keep what is there.

Where you see them, and changing them

Under Time off and one-off changes, everything from today to a year ahead is listed by month, showing the date, who, the kind, the times (or All day) and your note. A single day has Edit, to change it in place, and Delete if plans change back.

A holiday you entered with a first and last day is listed as one row: the first day to the last day, with the number of days beneath. (Days are grouped only while they are consecutive and share the same person, kind, times, location and note.) The row has three buttons:

• Show days lists every day beneath it, each with its own Edit and Delete, so you can change or remove just one day. Hide days closes the list.
• Edit all opens the whole run in one form: First day, Last day, Start (optional), End (optional) and Note, then Save all days. The staff member and kind stay as they are. Days still inside the new range are updated, days that now fall outside it are removed, and new days are added, leaving alone any day that already has its own entry.
• Delete all removes every day in one go, after you confirm Delete all N days.

For any date, however far ahead, click the day in the Month view at the top of the page and use Edit or Remove there.

On the calendar, the affected hours are shaded as non-working, and online booking respects the change immediately: no slots during time off, new slots during an extra shift.

Existing bookings are yours to move

Adding time off stops new bookings landing in those hours, but existing appointments are never moved or cancelled. If a booked-appointment warning appears, check the listed patients and times before pressing Save anyway or Delete anyway. Check the diary yourself if no warning appears, and reschedule anything affected.

Closing the whole clinic

Closing the whole clinic? Add time off for each person who works that period. This removes online availability without creating a diary appointment. If you reopen early, delete the time off for the days you are back.