Shifts is a rota for your team. You place shifts on a calendar that already shows your sessions behind them, so you can see what needs covering; Session adds up everyone's hours as you go, emails each person their own shifts, and exports the totals for payroll.
It's off by default - most venues are one or two people and don't need it. Turn it on when you want it, and off again later if you don't; nothing you've added is deleted either way.
Turn shifts on
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Open Company settings
Go to Settings -> Company and scroll to Features.
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Switch it on
Turn on Enable staff scheduling. A Shifts item appears in your menu straight away.
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Check your team is there
Shifts can only be assigned to people on your team. If anyone's missing, add them under Settings -> Team first - see Admins & staff.
There's a second route to the same switch: while shifts are off, Settings -> Team carries a Turn on Shifts button at the top of your team list, which turns it on and takes you straight to the rota.
Turning staff scheduling off hides the Shifts area and keeps every shift you've added. Turn it back on and your rota is exactly as you left it.
Add a shift
Open Shifts from the menu. There are three views - Day, Week and Month - and Week is where most rotas get built.
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Draw it, or use the button
Drag down a day column to draw a shift straight onto the grid - the drag sets the times. Or press Add shift in the header and fill the times in.
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Pick the days
One shift can cover several days at once. Tick every day it runs and Session creates one shift per day.
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Pick who's on
Tick one person or several. Several people on the same block get their own bar, side by side, so nobody is hidden behind anyone else.
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Add a note if it helps
Notes are for your team - "opening", "cover for Nia". They appear on the shift and in the email each person gets.
To change a shift, click it. You can also drag it up or down to move it, or drag its top or bottom edge to make it longer or shorter. Hold Alt (Option on a Mac) while dragging to leave a copy behind.
Just finished a week that looks like last week's? Copy last week brings the whole thing forward. Anything already there is left alone, so it's safe to press twice. The button only appears in Week view - it copies into the week you're looking at, and Day and Month don't show you which week that is. Anyone no longer on your team is skipped, and you're told how many.
Read the week
Your sessions show behind the shifts in grey, so a session with nobody on it is visible at a glance. Each shift bar carries the person's initials and how long the shift runs.
Along the top, every person on that week is listed with their total hours. Click someone to show only their shifts; click them again to go back to everyone.
If you run more than one site, the buttons next to Day/Week/Month switch between them, and shifts are only ever shown for the site you're looking at.
Your week starts on whichever day you've set under Settings -> Company -> Regional settings, so the rota lines up with the rest of your admin.
Month is a good way to check a whole period at once - one line per shift, and clicking a day adds one.
Email your team their shifts
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Open the sheet
Press Email shifts at the end of the row of names.
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Set the dates
It starts on the week you're looking at. Change the dates for a fortnight, a month, or whatever you're sending.
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Choose who to send to
Everyone with shifts in that period is ticked. Untick anyone you're not sending to. People with no email address on file can't be sent to - add their address under Settings -> Team.
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Write your message and check the preview
Your subject and message are remembered for next time. Underneath, you'll see exactly what one person is about to receive.
Everyone only ever sees their own shifts. Session sends one email per person, built from that person's rows - there's no combined rota, so nobody learns anyone else's working pattern.
Export hours for payroll
Export hours shows each person's total for the week, split by site if you run more than one, and downloads as a CSV for your payroll system.
These are the hours you've put people down for, not hours worked. Nobody clocks in or out in Session, so a shift somebody swapped or left early still counts. Check the totals against what actually happened before you pay against them.
What your team sees
Staff get a My shifts page showing their own week and their hours - read only, and only ever their own. They can't see anyone else's shifts and can't change anything.
Admins don't get that page: your own shifts are on the rota with everyone else's.
Common questions
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Do I have to use it? No. It's off unless you turn it on, and turning it off later hides it without deleting anything.
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Can staff add their own shifts? No. Only admins build the rota; staff can see their own shifts and nothing else.
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Can I put two people on the same shift? Yes - tick both when you add it. They'll show side by side on the grid.
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Someone's missing from the staff list. They need to be on your team first. Add them under Settings -> Team, then they'll appear.
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Why does my week look empty when I know there are shifts? Check the site buttons and the names along the top - if a person is selected, you're only seeing theirs. Click them again to clear it.
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Does this track clock-in and clock-out? No. Session records what you planned, not what happened.
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Can I use it on my phone? Yes, and it opens on the day view - a week of seven columns is unreadable on a phone. Week and Month are there on a laptop or tablet.
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Do shifts show on my booking page? No. Nothing about your rota is visible to customers.
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What happens to my team if I turn it off? The Shifts area disappears from your menu and your staff lose their My shifts page - for them it's as if the feature was never there. Every shift you've added is kept, so turning it back on restores the rota exactly as you left it.
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Everyone's times look wrong by twelve hours. The emails and the rota both use the clock your venue is set to. Check 12-hour or 24-hour under Settings -> Company -> Regional settings.