1. Getting started
We haven't exactly got our stopwatch out and timed it, but to get started on Findmyshift with your free 30-day trial, you can create an account in seconds and start working on your schedule within minutes. We're not a fan of long sign-up procedures so we've kept it short, sweet and simple. You don't even need to give your credit card details.
2. Uploading staff with a CSV file
Once you've created your account in an (almost) lightning speed time, you will be prompted to add staff, because what is a schedule without staff? If you have a list of your staff already stored away in the depths of your hard drive, drop that list into Excel or save it as a .csv file and then you can upload it directly into Findmyshift. If you include staff email addresses and mobile number in columns in the spreadsheet, they will also be uploaded.
3. Weekly shift templates
Because staff often work the same shifts every week, you don't want to have to write out the same shifts for each of these people every time you update your schedule. That's why Fndmyshift has Templates. Using the right-click menu and options, you can create shift patterns for your staff and then apply them to upcoming weeks.
4. Copying & pasting
Don't you just love copy and paste? Well, Findmyshift is built to allow you to copy and paste till your heart's content, or rather until you're happy with your schedule. Use the right-click menu options to copy what you need and then paste it where it should be.
5. Dragging & dropping
Copy & paste editing not clever enough for you? Fine. Why not see if dragging and dropping shift times, Facility names and Comments works for you. It's as simple as clicking your mouse on the data you want to move and holding that mouse button down while you move it to the correct cell. This will save you a lot of deleting and re-typing.
6. Multi-cell editing
If you're still unimpressed with dragging, dropping, cutting and pasting, then try multi-cell editing. It's a great time-saving feature on Findmyshift as it allows you to highlight multiple cells and then edit them at the same time. Best of all, they don't even have to be all in a bulk together, you can use the CTRL (or CMD) key to highlight random cells across the schedule.
7. Keeping staff updated
You love your staff - okay, you like your staff - but you don't want to spend hours contacting them with their upcoming shifts. Make those hours disappear by sending notifications of shifts to staff automatically as and when you edit the schedule. Alternatively, you can choose when to send these notifications by storing them in your Outbox. Then just click the send button when you want to release these messages into the wild.
8. Time off management
Managing time off is another task that can take up a huge chunk of your time. Using Findmyshift to manage staff time off requests will save you time in many ways. Firstly, staff can use the system to request days off by using the right-click menu on a day they want off on their schedule. Secondly, you can then review the requests either on the schedule itself (and accept or reject using the right click menu) or you can review requests in bulk on the Time Off page.
9. Keyboard shortcuts
The best way to save time while editing your roster is to learn a few of the keyboard shortcuts that make things happen very quickly on your schedule. Take a look at some of our keyboard shortcuts. You'll find that many of them are the same as they keyboard shortcuts you use in other programs.
10. Real-time reporting and budget forecasting
So this snazzy feature may not appear to be an obvious time-saving feature in relation to the time spent on your roster but you can use your staff schedule for more than just allocating shifts to staff. Use your schedule to track hours worked, time-off and the "charge-out" costs that you invoice clients for, if that's what your business does. So if you have budgets to stick to, you can quickly and easily see if you are meeting these while editing and updating your staff schedule by saving your changes and then opening the appropriate report. This saves you having to spend lots of time doing sums or working on a separate spreadsheet.
Enjoy saving time and money with Findmyshift!