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Understanding these terms makes the rest of the docs click.

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Shift

A shift is one block of time an employee is expected to work on one day. It has a date, a start time, an end time, an optional role label (e.g. “Primary”), and an optional location/position. Shifts belong to a user and sit inside a schedule. Shifts have a status:
  • scheduled — normal
  • trade-pending — offered for trade, awaiting response or approval
  • absent — the person called out
  • completed — work is done (not yet automated)
  • cancelled — no longer active

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Shift definition

A shift definition is a reusable template like Day 0800–1800 or Night 2200–0600. Admins define them once; scheduling reuses them. Each definition has a code, label, start/end time, crosses-midnight flag, and pay differential.

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Schedule

A schedule is a named container for a period — “May 2026”, for example. It has a state: draft (being built) or published (visible to everyone). Only admins/supervisors see draft schedules; employees only see published ones.

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Time bank

A time bank is a per-user, per-type balance of hours (Vacation, Sick, Personal, Comp, Unpaid). Admins adjust balances; approved absences deduct automatically.

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Trade request

An offer from one employee to swap or give away a shift. It flows through three states:
  1. pending — just created, awaiting a target’s response
  2. accepted — target said yes, awaiting supervisor
  3. approved — shifts are reassigned on the live schedule
A trade can also be rejected or cancelled.

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Absence request

A request for paid or unpaid time off. Can be scheduled (planned in advance) or unscheduled (calling out the day of). Flows: pending → approved or denied.

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Overtime opportunity

An OT opportunity is a shift an admin or supervisor posts as available. Employees volunteer; a supervisor selects one (usually by seniority). Selecting creates a real shift on the chosen employee’s schedule.

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Coverage plan

A coverage plan defines minimum staffing by day-of-week and time — like “at least 3 people on Mon 0800–1700”. Coverage exceptions override for specific dates (a holiday, a training day). The Today/Approvals dashboard flags coverage gaps.

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Duty assignment

A duty is a fine-grained breakdown of what you’re doing during a shift — radio check-ins, breaks, training time, console primary. Employees see their own; supervisors can define reusable duty plans.

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Bidding round

A round is a window of time during which employees submit ranked preferences — either for vacation weeks or shift rotations. When the round closes, slots are awarded by seniority. See Bidding.

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Special assignment

A special assignment is an ad-hoc or recurring project a user is assigned to — training, QA, a committee. They live outside the regular shift schedule but are visible for planning.

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Role / Permission

A permission is a granular capability like trades.approve or schedule.publish. A role (e.g. “Supervisor”) is a named bundle of permissions. Every user has one or more roles; the union of their roles’ permissions is what they can do. → Full details in Permissions overview.

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Group

A group is an organizational unit — “Operations”, “Admin-Technical”, “Training”. Each user can belong to a primary group (mostly used for reporting and roster filtering).

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Location / Position

A location (also called position) is an optional seat or console assignment — “Console 3”, “Admin Desk”. Shifts can be pinned to one, but most shifts don’t require it — most people sit wherever.