All Collections
Scheduling
Identify pending shift reason
Identify pending shift reason

How to identify and resolve the cause that a shift is flagged pending. Marked with a red bar in scheduler.

Ian Deshays avatar
Written by Ian Deshays
Updated over a week ago

Overview

A pending shift is one that has an issue that needs addressing before the shift can be confirmed. These shifts are easily identifiable in the scheduler as marked with a red bar, instead of the confirmed green bar. This is a useful feature to avoid common scheduling errors and protect your business. This is what a shift will look like in scheduler if flagged as Pending.

Reason for Pending status

  • Shift does not have either a carer or client assigned

  • Shift does have a carer assigned but carer has not confirmed shift acceptance

  • Shift is assigned to a carer who is double booked for a shift at that time

  • Shift is assigned to a carer on leave

  • Shift does not have required number of carer to client ratio

Note: A shift can be verified if the carer hasn't accepted but attendance was confirmed and the pending status will be resolved.


Identify Pending Shifts

Scheduler allows you to filter by pending shifts only to easily see the shifts that need attention. Navigate to Scheduler view, now click the check box marked "Pending".

Now you will see an array of the Pending shifts for the selected date range.

To view the reason for a shift's pending status, click the shift in question. This will bring up details of the shift, at the very top of this window you will notice a message about the pending status.


Shift Does Not Have Either a Client or Carer Assigned

There are three cases that are similar here, either the shift has:

No client;

No carer;

 or, both no client and no carer.

These are simple to resolve, simply assign the missing client or carer to the shift. To do this, click the shift, then click Edit (and it's usually best to click into Advanced Edit).

Now add a Carer or Client where applicable. For a full walk-through of this process and how to edit shifts in scheduler, please see the Help Desk Article: Scheduler - Edit a Shift.


Shift has a Carer Assigned and Carer has not Confirmed Shift

When creating a shift in Advanced Edit mode, there is an option to require carer confirmation they accept the shift. To view this toggle click a Shift, click Edit then click Advanced Edit. You will see under the option Shift, "Confirmation Required" Toggle.

If the carer hasn't accepted this shift yet, you will see the Pending reason "Carer has not accepted shift yet."

This can be resolved in two ways, either ask the staff to accept the shift, or you can verify the staff attendance despite the lack of acceptance. This verification will resolve the Pending status. 

To verify the shift, click the shift, now click more actions. You will see the option to either approve or unapprove staff attendance, click Approve to verify the shift and resolve the pending status.

You will see a notification that confirms the selection. 

If you made a mistake or wish to undo you action, repeat the above process, although instead click Reject or Cancel Verification to start over.


Shift is Assigned to a Carer who is Double Booked

You will see the message "Carer is booked for another shift."

This case occurs if you try to assign a shift to a carer at the same time, or overlapping time with the same carer who already has a shift in that time slot. The system will show you the shifts stacked and represent if one or more are marked as Pending.

Click Expand to view both (or more) shifts.

You can now see two clients against same carer. 

For even further detail, click Daily View in the drop down menu near the top right. 

Now you will see the issue, both shifts are assigned for the exact same time, with the same carer.

To fix the issue, you can drag and drop the shift to the correct time or day. For more information on scheduler navigation see the Help Desk Article: Scheduler - Interface and Navigation.


Shift is Assigned to a Carer on Leave

You will see the message "Carer is on leave."

This case is when a shift has been assigned to a carer who has entered leave or unavailability for that day. Notice the shift in scheduler will also have the staff as marked as on a non working day.

The resolution here would be to remove the Carer on leave, and then you could Advertise the shift to your team. Alternatively, drag and drop  the shift to an alternative Carer. See these Help Desk Articles for workflow to these possible solutions: 

If the Carer has accidentally mark leave or changed their status about leave please see this Help Desk Article: Marking Unavailability in Schedule to allow them to change their Unavailability Status.


Shift Does Not Have Required Number of Carer to Client Ratio

You will see the message "Shift has less than the required carer"

This case can occur if you have multiple client, or if you have split client in advanced view. In the following example, the three clients have 1:1 ratio requirements, and there is only one carer, so the shift is flagged as pending. 

For further details on client to carer ratios you will need to view Advanced Edit. Click the shift in question, then click Advanced Edit. 

You can now view the various details, notice each client has a ratio drop down that can be edited. 

Note: This is what the app is checking against carer numbers. Example: 1:1 clients need one carer each, 1:2 clients needs only half a carer so they could be in a situation with one carer for two 1:2 clients, 1:3 clients can be in a group of three 1:3 clients with one carer...

Solution for staff to client ratio issues

Two option exist for you here, one is to simply add more carers to the shift, this will fix the ratios and resolve pending status. The second is to toggle "ignore staff count" in advanced edit.

The latter can be quite useful for large groups, where the ratios get quite complicated or an exemption situation that is approved. Navigate to Advanced Edit as before, and notice under the heading Shift the setting that reads "ignore staff count". 

Toggle this option to "on" and the system will ignore the normal ratios, and resolve the pending status.

This is particularly useful when you have a Split Shift client and only one carer.


Summary

If there is a Pending status, the easiest way to determine the cause is by clicking on the Shift in question and verify what message is listed at the top of the shifts detailed view.

Did this answer your question?