Track > Timesheet > Automatic Shifts · Automatic Shift Types
1. What are “Automatic Shifts”?
For employees whose working hours are more or less the same every week, or who work according to a recurring shift schedule (e.g. two days on, two days off), there is no need to enter or add working hours to the schedule manually every day. The system creates these shifts automatically once a day.
The feature consists of two steps. First, one or more automatic shift types, or rules, are configured for the company. These rules determine how shifts are created. The appropriate type is then assigned to a specific employee, optionally for a defined period.
Automatic Shift Type
A template or rule according to which shifts are created — either based on contracted hours or a template-based cycle. It is configured once and can be used for multiple employees.
Automatic Shift
An automatic shift type assigned to a specific employee, with optional start and end dates.
Automatic Entry
A working-hours or planned-working-hours entry that the system creates automatically based on an automatic shift.
Additional information
Additional information
This is a newer system that replaces the “Fill automatically” checkbox previously available on the employee card. All settings created using the previous feature have already been transferred to the new system automatically, so no manual migration is required.
Do not confuse this with the “Available Shifts” feature — that is something completely different: employees themselves select an available shift that has not yet been assigned to anyone. Automatic Shifts do not require any action from the employee — the shifts are created by the system.
2. Creating an Automatic Shift Type
Before a shift type can be assigned to an employee, it must be configured. There are two types — choose the one that best matches the employee’s working pattern.
Before you start, check
whether the company has the Automatic Shifts feature enabled;
whether the employee has the correct contracted hours;
whether workday start times have been configured correctly for the company or object;
for a template-based type, whether the required shift templates have already been created;
whether the employee already has another automatic shift assigned for the same period.
Two types
Work load based
Suitable for the most common case: an employee works on the same days every week and works the same number of hours. Simply select the days of the week (Monday–Friday by default if none are specified). The number of hours and start time are calculated automatically (see section 4).
Template-based (cycle)
Suitable for employees with a recurring schedule (e.g. 2 days on / 2 days off). Select the cycle length (1–14 days) and assign the appropriate shift template to each day of the cycle (from the Shift Templates tab). A day without a selected template remains empty — no shift is created for that day.
Example: work load based type
Mari works Monday to Friday, full-time.
the contracted-hours-based type is selected;
Monday–Friday are selected as the working days;
the system automatically creates working hours for Mari on each selected working day, taking her contracted hours into account.
Example: template-based (cycle) type
Jaan works in a pattern of 2 days on, 2 days off.
a 4-day cycle is created;
the appropriate shift template is assigned to cycle days 1 and 2;
no template is selected for cycle days 3 and 4;
the system automatically repeats this 4-day pattern, creating shifts only on cycle days 1 and 2.
Settings common to both types
What to generate — determines whether shifts are added to actual working hours (Working times) or to the timesheet (Scheduled Working times). The latter option is available only if the company has the Scheduled Working times module enabled.
Add as unconfirmed — when enabled, shifts are created in the Awaiting confirmation state rather than immediately as confirmed.
Add also on public holidays — by default, no shift is created on a public holiday; when enabled, a shift is also created on public holidays.
How many days ahead to generate — 1 to 100 days, with 1 day as the default. A higher value is particularly useful for template-based cycles, so the employee can see upcoming shifts in the timesheet in advance.
Additional information
Additional information
Changing an automatic shift type later (e.g. the selected weekdays or cycle templates) does not affect automatic shifts that have already been created retroactively. They remain as they were created under the previous rule. See
section 6 for more information.
3. Assigning an Automatic Shift to an Employee
Once a suitable automatic shift type exists, it must be assigned to a specific employee.
Open Working Times › Automatic Shifts and click Add
This view is visible only if the company has the Automatic Shifts module enabled.
Select the Employee and the appropriate Automatic Shift Type
If needed, add a start date and end date. If neither is specified, the automatic shift remains valid indefinitely.
Save
New automatic shifts will start being created from tomorrow onwards — changes made today do not affect today retroactively.
Additional information
Additional information
An employee can have only one active automatic shift at a time for the same calendar day. If you try to add another assignment whose period overlaps with an existing one, the system will show an error stating that the employee already has an automatic shift for that period.
To switch to a new shift type, first set an end date for the existing automatic shift (see also section 6).
4. How Shifts Are Created (and When They Are Not)
Once a day, the system checks all active automatic shifts and determines whether and what kind of shift should be created for each applicable day.
Situation | Condition | What happens |
Regular working day | For a contracted-hours-based type, the day is one of the selected weekdays; or for a cycle, a shift template has been assigned to that cycle day | The shift is created |
Public holiday | Add also on public holidays is not enabled | No shift is created |
Public holiday | Add also on public holidays is enabled | The shift is created as usual |
Employee has an absence | The absence type does not allow overlapping working hours | No shift is created — the absence remains |
Employee has an absence | Overlapping working hours are allowed in the absence type settings | The shift is created as usual, alongside the absence |
Employee has an absence | Working hours are configured as hidden during the absence | The shift is created and linked to the absence |
Cycle day | No shift template has been assigned to that cycle day | No shift is created |
Start time (work load based type only)
The start time is determined in the following order:
the workday start time configured for the object itself, if one has been set;
otherwise, the company’s general workday start time;
if neither is configured, the default start time of 09:00 is used.
Length of the working day (work load based type only)
The length of the working day is calculated by dividing a 40-hour weekly workload by the number of selected working days and then adjusting the result according to the employee’s own contracted hours:
5 selected working days → 8 hours per day;
4 selected working days → 10 hours per day.
If the company does not use a schedule-based break system, an appropriate lunch break is also added and the end time of the working period is extended accordingly.
For template-based (cycle) types
The content of the working time (times, project, etc.) comes directly from the selected shift template (the Shift Templates tab) — the time and number of hours are not calculated separately.
The cycle is counted from the start date of the automatic shift itself, if one is specified. If no start date is specified, the cycle is anchored to a fixed calendar date so that the same automatic shift type behaves consistently with the calendar week for all employees who do not have a separately specified start date.
Confirmation
Automatically created working hours are confirmed if Add as unconfirmed is not enabled. If it is enabled, the entries remain awaiting manual confirmation.
5. How to Identify Automatically Created Working Hours
Working hours do not have a separate label in the normal view, but their source can always be checked in the table.
1. Open the Working Times (or Timesheet) table and select “Saving type” from the filters
Select Automatic — this displays only working hours created by the system.
2. Review them before payroll processing
A useful check at the end of the period is to verify that all employees with automatic shifts have the correct hours and that nobody has working hours on an incorrect day (for example, if an absence was added to the system later).
Additional information
Additional information
If automatically created working hours are edited manually (for example, the time is corrected), the entry loses its Automatic marker and is no longer displayed under the Automatic filter.
If the edited day is still in the future and is within the number of days configured under Generate how many days in advance, the system may create working hours for that day again during the next automatic generation. This can result in overlapping entries.
If the edited day is already in the past (or is only tomorrow), this risk does not apply.
6. Common Problems
Quick checkpoints for the most common questions.
No working hours were created
check whether the day was a public holiday and whether Add also on public holidays is enabled for the automatic shift type;
check whether the employee had an absence on that day;
for a cycle, check whether a shift template has been assigned to that cycle day;
check whether the automatic shift was active on that date according to its start and end dates.
Duplicate or overlapping working hours were created
check whether future working hours have been edited manually (see section 5);
check the Generate how many days in advance setting — the higher the value, the longer this risk remains.
Does changing an automatic shift type later affect working hours that have already been created?
No. Changing an automatic shift type (e.g. weekdays or cycle templates) does not affect automatically created working hours retroactively — including working hours that have already been generated for future dates.
They remain as they were created under the old rule. The new rule applies only to days for which working hours have not yet been created.
If you want already-created future working hours to be regenerated according to the new rule, you must delete them manually. The system will then recreate them according to the new rule during the next automatic generation.
I want to move an employee to a different automatic shift type
set an end date for the employee’s current automatic shift;
add a new automatic shift with the new type and set its start date to the following day.
7. Useful Tips
A brief summary of the most important things to keep in mind when using Automatic Shifts.
Choose the type based on the situation: use work load based for employees with fixed working days, and template-based for employees with a recurring shift schedule.
If working hours are completely different every day and do not follow a recurring pattern, Automatic Shifts should not be used.
The old “Fill automatically” checkbox on the employee card no longer does anything — this functionality is now located under “Working Times › Automatic Shifts”.
Previous settings have already been transferred automatically, so no manual action is required.
Only one automatic shift can be assigned to an employee at a time.
For overlapping periods, set an end date for the old automatic shift before adding the new one.
At the end of the period, use the “Saving type → Automatic” filter for review.
This allows you to see all automatically created working hours at once and review them before payroll processing.