How to extend your current rota
In Smartplan, users have the ability to extend a current rota. This way, you can easily add a few weeks of shifts to your current rota if you need to expand it quickly.
If your staffing need is the same from one rota to another it might be an advantage for you to use the template function or duplicate a whole rota to an coming month.
In this guide, we will show you:
- How you can use the template to create a new rota
- How you extend a rota with a few weeks
- How you duplicate you rota to a new one
Use the template to create a new rota
Is your staffing need repeated from one month to another - or one rota to another? Then we highly recommend you to use the template tool to plan your rotas. This way, you save time on manual entries because Smartplan has already saved your staffing need once.
If you're not familiar with the template function, we recommend you to read this article listing how the template works.
If you prefer to create your upcoming rotas from scratch, you can easily staff it via your saved templates. Once you have defined the period for the rota, click on the "template" button and import your chosen template to the rota.
The template is synchronized automatically with the rota as shown in the example here. My template was staffed and therefore the shifts in the rota are also staffed.
Even though your new rota is based on a template you'll be able to add new shifts and make changes directly in the rota. The changes that you make directly in the rota wont affect the template.
When you're satisfied with the rota, you publish it. Now it will be visible for all of the employees.
Extend your rota with a few weeks
Sometimes it can be necessary to extend a rota by a few weeks. In Smartplan, you always have the option to extend the period as your rota covers.
Please note, that it's not possible to have a rota more than 32 weeks (8 months). Furthermore, we do not recommend very large rotas as it will take longer for the system to load, and you may experience longer response times. If your rota lasts several months, you may want to consider learning more about how to duplicate the rota instead.
Let's take a look on an example: My current rota runs from the 3rd of April to 31st of May. But I want it to cover June as well, so I need to extend it with one more month.
When I have turned the rota back into editing, I'm able to change the end date. When I click on the end date, the calendar appears where I can change the date to 30th of June instead.
Now I have added four extra weeks to the rota, and since I used my staffed template to create the rota, the newest weeks will be staffed as well. If I hadn't used the template to create the rota with, the added weeks would de empty after adding them.
In this picture you can see that my rota continues in June as I wanted.
Furthermore, I am able to create minor changes directly in the rota before I publish it again, if it's necessary.
Duplicate a rota to a new one
If your staffing needs are repeating in the new rota, it might be an advantage for you to duplicate the rota instead of creating a new one. This is particular relevant if you use a template to create the rota.
Let us say that my upcoming rota should be more or less identical to my current. Instead of creating a new one, I can click "edit rota" and "expand rota"
After this, Smartplan automatically opens a new window, were you can setup your new rota. The system chooses a new startdate, which is the date after the end date on you former rota.
You might have to change the period for the rota and make som changes to the shifts if needed.
Please note, that my new rota in this example already is staffed, as I a template to create the previous rota. The template is therefore automatically applied to the new rota as well. This also means, that if you haven't used a template in your previous rota, your new rota will be completely empty to begin with.
When I am satisfied with the upcoming rota, I publish it. This way, I can easily extend and duplicate my rota to be ready for the upcoming months/period.
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In summary, it is possible for you to extend a rota in three different ways. It's difficult to say if one way is better than the ofter, as it depends on how you prefer to do it. Whatever you choose, you should be aware of that these methods unfold most of their potential when they are used in combination with a (staffed) rota template.