Working hours

Use working hours to tell Assembled when each person is available for shifts, breaks, and other scheduled activities. Working hours are a type of scheduling rule, and you can assign them to one person or to everyone in a team, site, queue, or channel.

To set them up, go to Configure > Scheduling rules.

Note: If your Schedule menu includes Shifts, you create and assign working hours on Schedule > Shifts, and the Working hours rule type isn’t listed on the Scheduling rules page.

How working hours work

Assembled uses each person’s working hours for:

• Time off. A time off request counts only the time that overlaps the person’s working hours, so balances and coverage are accurate.
• Schedule checks. When someone’s schedule doesn’t match their working hours, the Staffing timeline flags it so you can fix it.
• Manual scheduling. Each person’s working hours show on the Staffing timeline as outlined boxes, so you can see where their shifts should be.
• Automatic scheduling. Schedule generation and the schedule assistant build shifts from working hours. Anyone without working hours isn’t scheduled.

A few rules apply to every working hours rule:

• A pattern can repeat over up to 20 weeks, for teams that rotate between shifts instead of repeating the same week.
• Each assignment has a start date and an optional end date. By default, working hours start immediately and continue with no end date, so you can set up someone’s current hours and a future change at the same time.
• Group assignments update automatically. When you assign working hours to a team, site, queue, channel, or skill, people who join that group later get the same working hours.
• One working hours rule applies to a person at a time. You can assign several working hours rules to the same person, as long as their date ranges don’t overlap. Overlapping rules are flagged as a conflict.

Create working hours

1. Go to Configure > Scheduling rules.
2. Select Add rule, then Create manually.
3. Choose Working hours.
4. For each day people work, select the plus icon on that day and set the hours.
5. For a rotation, select Add another week and set the hours for each week.
6. Under Total rest time, enter the total rest time in each shift.
7. Choose who the working hours apply to. Select Add group, then choose specific people, or a team, site, queue, channel, or skill.
8. Optional: set a Start date and an End date for the group.
9. Select Save rule.

The working hours appear on the Staffing timeline for everyone assigned, from the start date.

Upload working hours from a CSV file

1. Go to Configure > Scheduling rules.
2. Select Add rule, then Upload working hours.
3. To see the format, select Download example file. Replace the example rows with your own working hours and save the file.
4. Add your CSV file, then follow the steps to map its columns and select Continue.
5. Check the preview under Confirm upload, make any changes you need, and confirm the upload.

Upload results shows what was created or updated. Each row sets one week of a working hours rule: its name, time zone, week number in the rotation, the start and end time for each day, and who it applies to (teams, queues, channels, skills, sites, or agent emails). If a row has the ID of an existing working hours rule, that rule is updated instead of creating a new one.

Set working hours for one person

You can create a working hours rule and assign it to a single person, or to a few people chosen by name. This is useful when someone needs a different schedule from the rest of their team.

For example: a team member has a medical exception and works a shorter shift than everyone else. Create working hours for that shift and assign them only to that person.

Set working hours for a group

Instead of assigning working hours to each person, assign them to a team, site, queue, channel, or skill. Everyone in that group gets the same working hours, including people who join it later.

For example: you assign working hours to Team A. Everyone currently on Team A is assigned those hours, and when you add someone new to Team A, they get the same hours automatically.

Change working hours over time

To switch someone to different working hours on a set date, assign both working hours rules to them with date ranges that don’t overlap.

For example: new trainees work mornings for their first 2 months, then move to later shifts. Create one working hours rule for the morning shift and one for the later shift. Assign both to the trainees, ending the morning assignment and starting the later one on the day they switch.

Edit, check, and export working hours

To edit working hours or who they’re assigned to:

1. Go to Configure > Scheduling rules.
2. Find the working hours rule. To narrow the list, filter by the Working hours rule type.
3. Select the three-dot menu on its row, then Edit.
4. Make your changes, then select Save rule.

To check each person’s working hours, open the By person tab. It shows each person’s working hours for the week you select.

• To find people with no working hours, change All rows to Rows with missing working hours.
• If someone has overlapping working hours rules, they’re flagged as a conflict. Select Resolve > to choose which rule applies, or add an end date to the older rule so the two don’t overlap.

To download all working hours as a CSV file, select Export, then Working hours.

Keep in mind: Manage team > People management shows only each person’s active working hours, including when you export from it. To see past and future working hours, use the Scheduling rules page.