Getting Started with Advanced Scheduler 

Green Leaf’s Elevated Platform 

Welcome to Advanced Scheduling 

Advanced Scheduling helps you create, manage, and publish employee schedules by matching employee availability, skills, and location needs with your staffing requirements.

Getting started with Advanced Scheduling involves three key phases:

1. Prepare Your Team
   Assign employee scheduling information, including Skills, Scheduled Cost Centers, Scheduler Profiles, and employee availability and preferences.

2. Build Your Schedule
   Create a Workload Template (optional), create a Continuous Schedule, define shifts, and assign employees based on your staffing needs.

3. Publish Your Schedule
   Review your schedule, make adjustments, resolve any scheduling issues, and post it for employees to view.

Follow the steps in this guide to complete each phase.

Step 1: Prepare Your Team for Advanced Scheduling 

Required Employee Assignments 

1.) Skills

Skills identify the type of work an employee is qualified to perform. Employees can have multiple skills assigned. In many organizations, a skill matches the employee's job title (for example, Cashier, Inventory, or Manager), but it does not have to.

Skills help ensure employees are scheduled for work they are qualified to perform.

2.) Scheduled Cost Centers 

Scheduled Cost Centers identify the location, department, or other type of cost center where an employee can be scheduled to work. Employees can have multiple Scheduled Cost Centers assigned if they work in more than one location or department.

3.) Scheduler Profile 

The Scheduler Profile defines an employee's scheduling rules, such as whether they are Full-Time or Part-Time. Each employee can be assigned only one Scheduler Profile.

Before an employee can be scheduled, they must have the appropriate Skill, Scheduled Cost Center, and Scheduler Profile assigned.

Think of it as:

• Skills = What they can do

• Scheduled Cost Centers = Where they can work

• Scheduler Profile = How they can be scheduled
  

Additional Requirement for Scheduling Managers

Users who create or manage schedules for a location must also have:

4.) Managed Scheduled Cost Center

The Managed Scheduled Cost Center identifies the location(s) the manager is responsible for scheduling. Managers can have multiple Managed Scheduled Cost Centers assigned.

Full Guide: Managed Scheduled Cost Center Assignment (Adv. Scheduler)

Verify Employee Assignments 

Use the Advanced Scheduling Employee Audit report found under the Employee Roster widget to verify that all required assignments have been completed.

Navigation Path:
Main Menu > Team > Employee Information > Advanced Scheduling Employee Audit

Full Guide: Advanced Scheduler Employee Audit

For more information on assigning Skills, Scheduled Cost Centers, and Scheduler Profiles, refer to the guides below:

Employee Maintenance Guide

Mass Skill Assignment Using the New Experience Interface (Adv. Scheduler)

How to Mass Edit Employee Scheduler Assignments in the New Experience (Adv. Scheduler)

Review Employee Availability and Preferences 

Before creating your schedule, review and update employee availability and scheduling preferences.

These settings help Advanced Scheduling understand when employees can work and what scheduling considerations should be taken into account when assigning shifts.

Confirm that employee information is accurate for:

• Availability – The days and times the employee is available to work.

• Preferences – Employee scheduling preferences, such as preferred shifts, days, or scheduling requests.

Keeping employee availability and preferences updated helps improve scheduling accuracy and ensures employees are assigned shifts that align with their availability.

If your organization allows employees to manage their own availability and preferences, employees can update this information themselves. Availability requests typically go through an approval workflow and may require manager approval before they take effect. Preference updates do not typically require approval and can be updated by employees directly.

Managers should ensure employees understand how to keep their information current and review the information as needed before building the schedule.

Employee-level Guide: Updating Availability & Preferences (Employee-level)

Navigation Path:
Main Menu > My Team > Schedule > Advanced Scheduling > Employee Availability and Preferences

Manager-level Guide: Managing Employee Availability & Preferences (Adv. Scheduler)

View Employee Availability and Preferences on the Roster 

Step 2: Build Your Schedule

Create a Workload Template (Optional)

A Workload Template helps Advanced Scheduling understand your location’s recurring staffing needs. Use a Workload Template to define recurring shifts or coverage requirements that repeat from week to week. A Schedule Template can also be used to define shifts when building a schedule and is discussed further below.

Your Workload Template serves as the foundation for your recurring staffing needs. It tells the system how much coverage is needed each day and helps define your minimum staffing requirements.

Once created, your Workload Template can be used to quickly generate open shifts when building future schedules.

Additional shifts can always be added directly from the Schedule Roster as needed.

Important

Changes made directly to shifts from the Schedule Roster only affect the specific schedule you are working on. They do not update the original Workload Template.

To permanently update your recurring staffing requirements, make changes from the Workload Templates page.

Full Guide: Maintaining & Adding Workload Templates (Adv. Scheduler)

Creating a Continuous Schedule 

The new Advanced Scheduler experience uses a Continuous Schedule workflow.

You can still access the familiar Schedule Report, but the way you create schedules from an existing schedule has changed.

Access the Schedule Report 

Go to the Advanced Scheduler page.

Select View Full Report in the upper-right corner.

The Schedule Report will open.

From the Schedule Report, you can:

• Create a new schedule (Add New option)

• Manage an existing schedule (calendar icons)

• Delete an existing schedule (trashcan icon)

• Import a pre-built Workload Template (pencil icon)

The Clone option on the Schedule Report is being replaced by the new Continuous Schedule workflow.

If you previously used Clone to create a new schedule from an existing schedule, use "Use a previously published schedule" when creating your new schedule.

From the Schedule Report, select Add New in the upper-right corner to create a new continuous schedule. 

Before choosing how to build your schedule, enter the basic schedule information.

Enter Your Schedule Information

You will be prompted to enter:

• Schedule Name (optional) – Enter a name for your schedule if desired.

• Start Date for Schedule – Select the day of the week your scheduling cycle starts. This will typically align with the day a new pay period begins.

• Use Settings From – Select the location you are creating the schedule for.

Select Create.

Choose How to Build Your Schedule 

After you select Create, choose how you want to build your Continuous Schedule.

You have three options:

• Start with a blank schedule

• Use a saved template to define shifts

• Use a previously published schedule (new version of cloning)

Choose the option that best matches how you want to build your schedule.

Option 1 - Start with a Blank Schedule 

Select Start with a blank schedule if you want to build your schedule from scratch.

You will be taken to the Schedule Roster, where you can add shifts directly.

If you normally use a Workload Template, you can still use that process. Select Back to return to the previous screen, then select the pencil icon to import your Workload Template.

You can use either method on its own or combine them:

• Import a Workload Template

• Add shifts manually

• Import a Workload Template and then add shifts manually

Option 2 - Use a Saved Template to Define Shifts 

Select Use a saved template to define shifts if you have already built a schedule and saved it as a template.

Select the saved template you want to use to define the shifts for your new schedule.

Note: To create a template, open an existing schedule, select the three-dot menu (⋯) in the upper-right corner, and select Save as Template.

Option 3 - Use a Previously Published Schedule 

Select Use a previously published schedule when you want to start with a schedule you have already created and published.

This is the new workflow for what you may have previously used the Clone option to do.

Select the schedule you want to use.

Choose How to Assign the Shifts

When using either a saved template or a previously published schedule, you will be asked how you want the imported shifts to be assigned.

You can choose:

• Assign the shifts to the same people – Keeps the shifts assigned to the same employees as the original schedule or template.

• Same shifts, but reshuffle who they are assigned to – Imports the same shifts, but assigns them to different employees.

• Leave them as open shifts – Imports the shifts as open shifts, which will be available in your Open Shifts panel.

Select the option that works best for your schedule, then select Create.

Manage and Assign Shifts on the Roster

Once you've chosen how you want to build your schedule, you'll work from the Schedule Roster.

You can continue to manage your shifts much like you did before. You can edit, delete, copy, and make other changes to individual shifts as needed.

The Schedule Roster has also been updated with some new options that can help you build and manage schedules more efficiently.

Open Shifts Have Moved 

The Open Shifts panel has moved from the left side of the roster to the top of the roster.

Use the Open Shifts panel to review shifts that have not yet been assigned to an employee.

Assign Shifts Automatically 

You can use Auto Assign to automatically assign qualified employees to open shifts.

Auto Assign continues to account for employee scheduling requirements, including availability and preferences.

You can use Auto Assign before or after making manual adjustments.

Assign Shifts Manually 

You can assign shifts manually using the following options.

Assign from the Open Shifts Panel 

1. Select the open shift.

2. Select Assign Employee.

3. Select the employee you want to assign to the shift.
   

Assign from the Schedule Roster 

1. Locate the employee on the Schedule Roster.

2. Hover over the day on the employee's schedule row.

3. Select the + icon.

4. Review the list of open shifts the employee is qualified to work.

5. Select the shift you want to assign.

Add a Shift Manually 

You can add shifts on the fly directly from the Schedule Roster.

Use the available shift options to add a new shift, then assign the appropriate employee, Skill, Scheduled Cost Center, and shift times.

Assign Qualified Open Shifts to an Employee 

1. Select the employee's name on the Schedule Roster.

2. Select Load Qualified Open Shifts.

3. Select the shift you want to assign.

4. Select Assign Employee.

5. Repeat these steps until the employee's schedule is complete.

6. Select Close.

Common Shift Adjustments 

You can make the following changes to shifts:

• Drag and drop shifts

• Copy a shift

• Freeze a shift

• Delete a shift

• Manage a shift

Manage Shifts Individually or in Bulk 

You can select multiple shifts on the roster and manage them at the same time, or continue to make changes to individual shifts.

This can be useful when you need to make the same change to several shifts at once.

The new roster also gives you additional ways to organize and manage shifts. You can:

• Override shift colors

• Add names to shifts

• Select and manage multiple shifts at once

Move Between Scheduling Weeks 

Once your first Continuous Schedule has been created, you can move to the next scheduling week by selecting the arrow next to the schedule date range, located above the Open Shifts panel.

The Continuous Schedule option allows you to move between scheduling weeks without leaving the Schedule Roster.

This makes it easier to:

• Save time by moving between weeks without reopening or navigating to another schedule.

• Plan ahead by quickly accessing future weeks to build and update schedules in advance.

• Maintain visibility by reviewing schedules across consecutive weeks to identify staffing needs and maintain consistent coverage.

• Make updates efficiently by moving directly to the appropriate week when staffing needs or schedules change.

Step 3: Review and Post Your Schedule 

Before posting your schedule, review the Schedule Roster to confirm that:

• Required shifts have been created.

• Open shifts have been assigned or intentionally left open.

• Employees are scheduled according to their availability and preferences.

• Employees have the appropriate Skills and Scheduled Cost Centers.

• Staffing coverage meets your location's requirements.

• Any schedule warnings or rule violations have been reviewed and corrected if applicable.

Post Your Schedule 

Posting your schedule works just as it did before.

Select the second three-dot ellipsis (⋯) in the top-right corner of the Schedule Roster page.

Choose Post Schedule.

If there are any schedule rule violations, warnings, or errors, a pop-up may appear notifying you of the issue.

Be sure to review any warnings or errors and make the necessary corrections before posting the schedule live to your team.

Once the schedule is posted, it will also be available for employees to view on their timesheets.

Depending on your company's configuration, employees may also be able to complete scheduling actions such as:

• Swapping shifts

• Dropping shifts

• Requesting coverage

• Picking up open shifts

Employee schedule actions typically require manager approval unless your organization's settings allow otherwise.

Advanced Scheduling Complete 

Your Advanced Scheduling setup is now complete.

Continue reviewing employee availability, staffing needs, employee scheduler assignments, and schedule changes regularly to maintain accurate coverage.

Quick Reference 

To access the familiar Schedule Report:
Advanced Scheduler → View Full Report

To create a new schedule:
View Full Report → Add New → Enter schedule information → Create

To build from a blank schedule:
Add New → Enter schedule information → Create → Start with a blank schedule

To use a saved template:
Add New → Enter schedule information → Create → Use a saved template to define shifts

To build from a previously published schedule:
Add New → Enter schedule information → Create → Use a previously published schedule

To import a Workload Template:
Start with a blank schedule → Back → Pencil icon

To find Open Shifts:
Open Shifts panel → Top of the Schedule Roster

To move between scheduling weeks:
Select the arrow next to the schedule date range above the Open Shifts panel.

To post the schedule:
Schedule Roster → Second three-dot ellipsis (⋯) → Post Schedule