From a Demand Curve to a Staffed Week, in Three Steps.
A forecast tells you how many people you need at 11:15 on Thursday. It does not tell you what shifts to write. Shift generation does that: it takes the week's required hours and covers them with the shift shapes you actually run — the early, the mid, the close — then hands the result straight to automatic assignment. Every step shows you the cost before it commits anything, and every step can be undone.
Preview, Create, Assign.
Preview.
Before a single shift is written you see the count: how many shifts, for how many people, how many hours of coverage beyond what the forecast asks for, how many hours your own position minimums add on top, which existing drafts would be rewritten and which shifts would be left alone. Any hours no shift shape can reach are listed by day, not quietly covered by an invented one.
Create the shifts.
Apply, and the drafts appear. Published shifts and anything you edited yourself are never rewritten — the generator only touches drafts it made. One button undoes the whole pass, including bringing back the drafts it replaced.
Assign the people.
Hand the fresh week straight to automatic assignment without leaving the flow, or stop here and staff it yourself. The assignment step has its own undo, so you can step back one stage at a time rather than starting over.
A Catalogue of the Shapes You Run.
A profile is a shift shape with a name.
A start time, a length, the weekdays it applies to, and optionally the location, area, or position it belongs to. Keep a catalogue and generation may only use those shapes — the roster comes out looking like one you would have written. Keep none and shapes are derived from your work policy instead: lengths between its minimum and maximum, starting where the day opens and where demand steps up.
Longer shifts are better for people and cost idle hours.
In derived mode a shortest-shift selector re-runs the numbers live, so the price of a three-hour floor versus a six-hour one is visible before you commit. A shift is not free either: you tell Shiftavo what one fewer shift is worth in briefing and handover time, and generation consolidates exactly where a merge pays for itself.
Your position minimums are honoured and priced separately.
If a position needs two people whenever it is open — a skill rule, a safety rule, your own policy — a quiet hour is staffed at two, not one. The hours that adds are reported apart from forecast overshoot, so you can tell the cost of your own rules from the cost of a forecast being wrong.
Gaps are reported, not papered over.
If your catalogue has no shape that reaches Sunday morning, generation says so — day, time, position, and how many people short — instead of inventing a shift nobody would roster. Add a profile that reaches it, or staff those hours by hand.
Where to Go Next.
The pages that sit next to this one — and the documentation when you want the detail.
Set Up Your Company
Locations, areas, people, positions, employment types, eligibility — all the structure your schedule depends on.
Set Up Your Company
Roles & Permissions
Five roles come with Shiftavo. On Plus, add your own — copy one, name it, tick exactly what it does.
Roles & Permissions
Schedule & Coverage
Plan shifts on a calendar, apply templates, and watch the coverage grid go green. Compliance flags surface as you plan.
Schedule & Coverage