Covering and holidays

People go on vacation, call in sick, and swap shifts. Rather than editing schedules and remembering to change them back, set up a cover: a temporary change that ends by itself. Holidays work the same way for the whole account: list the dates once and each schedule decides what to do on them.

You need a role assigned to Add/Edit Alert Contacts to add covers and holidays.

Cover for someone

1. Go to Alerts → Alert Schedules and click Cover on the group's row, or open the group and click Cover for someone.

2. The dialog shows who is On call right now. Fill in:

   Field	What to choose
   Who's out?	The person who is away, or Nobody, just add someone to add an extra person
   Who's covering?	The person stepping in, or Nobody, just remove them to take the absent person off without a replacement
   Where in the order?	Shown when someone is covering. Take the covered person's place, First or Last
   Which schedules?	Shown when the group has more than one schedule. All schedules in this group, or just one
   From / Until	When the cover starts and ends. Quick picks: Rest of today, Until tomorrow 8am, Through the weekend, End of current schedule
   Note	Optional, for example "Dana on vacation"

3. Click Save cover.

While a cover is active, the group's row on the list shows "n cover override(s) in effect" and the group editor shows a Cover in effect banner listing each one. Click End now to end a cover early.

How a cover changes the list

You set	Effect on each schedule the cover applies to
Out: Dana, covering: Luis	Luis takes Dana's place in the order (or goes First or Last if you chose that). If Luis is already on the list, Dana is removed and Luis keeps his own place, so nobody is notified twice
Out: Dana, covering: nobody	Dana is removed. If that leaves the schedule empty, the Otherwise schedule's people are used
Out: nobody, covering: Luis	Luis is added, first or last

A cover only affects schedules the absent person is actually on. The covering person needs to be an alert contact with a working number.

Note

If an alarm is already sending one text at a time when you add a cover, the cover takes effect at the start of the next lap through the list. New alarms use it straight away.

Holidays

Holidays are listed once for the whole account and used by every schedule group. Nothing is a holiday unless it's on this list.

Add holidays

1. Go to Alerts → Alert Schedules and click Holidays at the top right.
2. To add one date, pick it, type a name if you like, and click Add. Then click Save holidays. Dates you add are not kept until you save.
3. To add the US federal holidays for a year, type the year and click Add US federal holidays. These are saved straight away.

To remove a holiday, click the × on its row and then Save holidays.

How schedules treat holidays

Each schedule (other than Otherwise) has three holiday options in the group editor:

Setting	On a holiday, the schedule...
None checked	Runs normally, as if it were any other day
Skip on holidays	Does not run, even if the holiday falls on one of its days. The next schedule down is tried
Also run on holidays	Runs on its own days and on every holiday, whatever day of the week the holiday falls on, during its hours
Holidays only	Runs only on holidays, during its hours. Its days are ignored

A schedule can't be both Holidays only and Skip on holidays.

For an overnight schedule, the holiday is judged by the day the shift starts: a 17:00 to 07:00 schedule that starts on Christmas Eve is a Christmas Eve shift.

Example: weekday staff off on holidays, weekend crew covers

Order	Schedule	Days	Hours	Holidays	Contacts
1	Weekday days	Mon to Fri	07:00 to 17:00	Skip on holidays	Dana, Luis
2	Weekend and holidays	Sat, Sun	all day	Also run on holidays	Priya
last	Otherwise				Plant manager

On a Monday holiday, "Weekday days" is skipped and "Weekend and holidays" runs all day.

Related

• Schedule groups
• Alert contacts