Locations are part of your organization structure. From the Locations page, you can define where and when you do your work. Anything from operational hours, timezones, to the maximum number of working hours per week can be set up here.

After setting up your locations, you can start creating shift layouts, assigning agents to them, and defining scheduling rules. Scheduling rules help Tymeshift create a schedule that works best for your team. You can also choose what kind of shift logic to apply to any given location.

This article includes the following topics:

• Accessing Locations
• Setting up locations
• Creating shifts 
• Editing a location
• Deleting a location

Accessing Locations

Note: You must have Schedule - Manager (Full Access) permission to access the Locations page.

To access Locations

1. Hover over the Admin section.
2. Select Organization Structure.
3. Click Locations.

Setting up locations

When you first access the Locations page, it appears blank. 

To set up a location

1. Click the Add location (+) icon.
2. Enter a unique Location name.
3. Click the drop-down menu and select the Time zone.
   By default, the time zone selected in the Timezone Switcher is used.
4. Choose your Operational Hours. 
   This is set to Open 24/7 by default.
   Select Specific hours to choose certain days of the week and specific hours. If you're using Automatic shifts, it's recommended to set the same length of time for every day.
5. If you're using Automatic shifts, set the following Automatic shift requirements:
   
   • Number of working hours per week: define the minimum and a maximum number of hours your Agents are allowed to work during a week.
   • Number of consecutive workdays: define how many days in a row your Agents are allowed to work.
   • Number of consecutive days off: define how many days off in a row your Agents are able to take.
   • Minimum number of hours between shifts: define the number of rest hours your Agents will have between shifts.

   Important: The operational hours and automatic shift requirements only apply if you're using Automatic shifts. The Fixed shift logic overrules these settings.

6. Click Save.
7. Next, click the Shifts section in the top right. From here, you can start creating shifts:
   • Automatic (default): create multiple shift layouts and assign users to them. We'll do the rest for you.
   • Fixed: create multiple shift layouts, assign users to them, and define the time those users start working

Learn more about Automatic and Fixed shifts, as well as how to create Rotating shift folders.

Note: You can also create folders to better organize your team's shifts. See Organizing shifts in folders.

Creating shifts

You can create automatic or fixed shifts for each of your locations. After you create your shift layouts, you can move them to folders to help organize or rotate your team's shifts.

Automatic shifts

Choose Automatic to have us do the bulk of the work for you. 

 To create an automatic shift

1. Access your Locations page and then select a location.
2. Click the Shifts section in the top right.
3. Click the Add Shift Or Folder (+) icon and select Automatic shift from the menu.
4. Enter a Shift name. For example, End of Day Meeting Auto Shift.
5. Click Add shift.
6. To add an intraday shift, click the Add intraday variant (+) icon below the Actions menu.
7. In the Settings tab, configure your settings:
   • Name: the name for this shift layout.
   • Shift length: the length of the shift.
   • Max difference in shift start time: a window of hours where we'll schedule your agents to work. Note that if you don't enter a number, it defaults to zero which means your agents will start their shifts at the same time for the amount of time you defined on the Keep the same shifts for setting.
8. Click the Intraday tab and set the intraday variant. This is when your agents' General tasks, such as a break or meeting, should occur:
   • Note: The Layout preview displays an overview of what you're setting.
   • Click the Task(+) icon.
   • Select a Task from the menu. This can be any general task that your agents need to have or accomplish on a daily basis such as a break, lunch, or a daily stand-up meeting.
     It can also include any Workstreams they're assigned to. If you don't select any workstreams, the workstream is auto-populated for you based on what's been forecasted.
   • Can occur between hours of shift: this is the time interval in which the tasks will occur counting from the start of the shift.
     For example, if you select a break task and choose 2 and 4 and it means that breaks for these agents will be scheduled between the 2nd and 4th hours after their shift has started.
   • Duration: the duration of the task.
9. Click Save.
10. Select Agents on the top right to assign users to this shift layout and then click Save.
    By default, all users who are assigned to workstreams are displayed, but you can filter by your Teams, Workstreams, other Locations, and your Zendesk groups.

Note: You can add more general tasks or workstreams to your shift by clicking the plus sign (+). You can set one intraday variant to an Automatic Shift.

Adding specific start times to automatic shifts (EAP)

Note: The following enhancement is in an early access program (EAP). Not all users currently have access to it.

When configuring the settings of a shift's intraday variant, currently the only option is to set a flexible shift start time. This EAP introduces a second option to set a specific shift start time.

To add a specific start time

1. When configuring the settings of an automatic shift in the Edit intraday variant dialog, click the Specific shift start time toggle below the Name and Shift length fields.
2. Specify one or more start times in the Start time field. If you choose more than one starting time, the start times for each agent will be chosen to best satisfy the forecasted staffing needs.
3. After you're done editing the variant, click Save.

Fixed shifts

The Fixed shift logic works similarly to the Automatic shift logic but you have more control over when your Agents are scheduled to work.

To create a fixed shift

1. Access your Locations page and then select a location.
2. Click the Shifts section in the top right.
3. Click the Add Shift Or Folder (+) icon and select Fixed shift from the menu.
4. Enter a Shift name. For example, 9am MWF.
5. Click Add shift.
6. To add an intraday shift, click the Add intraday variant (+) icon below the Actions menu.
7. Configure the following settings:
   
   • Name: the name for this shift layout.
   • Start time: the time your agents start working.
   • Length: the length of the shift.
   • Working days: the days your agents will work. The days that appear dimmed will be their days off.
8. Click the Intraday tab. The fixed shift intraday settings work similarly to the automatic shift intraday, but with these key differences:
   
   • You can set up multiple intraday variants for each shift.
   • Each variant can be assigned to one or more days of the week (each day can only have one intraday variant).
   • In the top left of the intraday variants screen you will be able to see an indicator showing the days covered by the multiple intraday variants of that shift
9. Select Agents on the top right to assign users to this shift layout and then click Save.
   Make sure that agents are assigned to workstreams so they can be selected.

Rotating shifts

Rotating shifts allow you to create multiple intraday shifts for your agents to rotate between.

To create a rotation folder

1. Access your Locations page and then select a location.
2. Click the Shifts section in the top right.
3. Click the Add Shift Or Folder (+) icon and select Folder from the menu.
4. Enter a Name and then click Add Folder. 
5. Choose your Rotation period. 
   

   Note: All rotations start from Jan 01, 2022 and not from the day or week that your rotations are created. The order of the shifts will dictate the order of the rotation that week.

6. Click Save.
7. In the Shifts sidebar, select the shifts you want to rotate and drag them into the rotating folder.

After a shift has been added to the rotation folder, you can view the rotation period of your agents by clicking the Rotation preview tab inside of the folder. If you'd like to change the order of shifts, you can reassign agents to different shifts.

Organizing shifts in folders

Arranging shifts in folders can help you keep all your shifts organized and help you locate shifts.

To create a shift folder

1. Access your Locations page and then select a location.
2. Click the Shifts section in the top right.
3. Click the Add Shift Or Folder (+) icon and select Rotation folder from the menu.
4. Enter a Name and then click Add Folder. 
5. Click Save.
6. In the Shifts sidebar, select the shifts you want to organize and drag them into folder.

Editing a location

To edit a location

1. Access your Locations page and click the location you want to edit.
2. Edit the location settings and shifts as needed.
3. Click Save.

Deleting a location

To delete a location

1. Access your Locations page and hover over the location you want to delete.
2. Click on the three dots icon that appear next to the location name.
3. Click Delete.
4. Confirm you want to delete the location by clicking Delete location.