Scheduler User Guide. Version 6

Scheduler User Guide Version 6

Introduction...7 The Scheduling Process...7 Shift Description...8 On Call Shifts...8 Staff Description...8 Staff Requests and Preferences...9 Quotas...9 Individual Days Off Rules... 10 Scheduling Principles... 10 Time Between Shifts... 10 Allotment of Undesirable and Weekend Shifts... 10 Picking the Best Schedule... 11 Individual Request Files... 12 Running the Scheduler... 13 Starting the Scheduler... 13 Setting Scheduler Defaults... 13 Selecting Month or Block... 13 Default File and Folder Names... 14 Setting Outgoing Email... 15 Scheduling Parameter Defaults... 15 Making a New Schedule... 16 The <Month>Data.sch File... 18 Editing the Shifts... 19 Scrolling the Calendar... 20 Zooming In or Out... 20 Changing the Calendar Font... 20 Customizing the Calendar... 21 Printing the Shifts... 22 Editing the Shifts... 24 Adding a New Shift to a Day... 24 Editing, Deleting, Adding, and Formatting based on an Existing Shift... 24 3

Adding a Shift based on an Existing Shift... 25 Deleting a Shift... 25 Editing an Existing Shift... 25 Changing the Order of the Shifts... 25 Formatting a Shift... 25 Undoing a Change... 26 Adding a Message... 26 Entering and Editing Schedule Requests... 27 Zooming In or Out... 28 Scrolling the Calendar... 29 Selecting Shifts to Avoid... 29 Selecting Shifts to Assign... 29 Printing the Requests... 30 Editing Hours... 30 Entering Requests for Another Staff Member... 31 Saving the Schedule Requests... 31 Restoring Saved Schedule Requests... 32 Closing the Request Editor... 32 Making the Schedule... 33 Scrolling the Calendar... 34 Zooming In or Out... 35 Printing the Calendar... 35 Emailing the Calendar... 35 Viewing Schedule Statistics... 36 Printing Schedule Statistics... 38 Viewing Individual Staff Member Schedules... 38 Scrolling the Individual Calendar... 40 Zooming In or Out... 40 Printing the Individual Calendar... 40 Viewing Another Individual Calendar... 40 Closing the Individual Calendar... 41 Highlighting Assigned and Unassigned Shifts... 42 Printing All Individual Schedules... 43 4

Exporting Individual Schedules... 44 Using an exported Schedule... 44 Clearing and Closing a Schedule... 45 Editing the Schedule... 46 Assigning a Shift... 47 Deassigning a Shift... 47 Swapping Shifts... 47 Adding a Shift... 48 Deleting a Shift... 48 Editing an Existing Shift... 48 Changing the Order of the Shifts... 48 Formatting a Shift... 48 Undoing a Change... 49 Scheduling Parameters... 49 Schedule Version... 49 Setting Schedule Version... 49 Shift Search Limit... 50 Setting the Shift Search Limit... 51 Request Weighting... 51 Setting Request Weighting... 52 Consecutive Shift Limits... 52 Setting Consecutive Shift Limits... 53 Saving a Schedule... 54 Restoring a Saved Schedule... 54 Reports... 55 The Delimited Statistics Report... 55 The Delimited Schedule Report... 55 The HTML Schedule Report... 56 The PDF Schedule Report... 56 The Shift Backup Report... 56 The Daily Backup Report... 56 The Shift Breakdown Report... 56 The Schedule Problem Report... 57 5

The Requester Input Report... 57 Exiting Scheduler... 57 6

Introduction Scheduler is a computer aid to scheduling shifts in an Emergency Department. Scheduler is designed for a department with one to four sites and a "democratic" scheduling policy. That is, undesirable shifts are assigned to all staff members in proportion to total hours worked. However, you may alter the democratic scheduling for some or all staff members. Scheduler makes a schedule for a calendar month or a block of up to 56 days. Scheduler is flexible. Shifts are specified on a weekly basis. Days that may vary from the regular weekly routine, such as holidays, may be modified before assigning the shifts. Staff members may specify which shifts they do and do not wish to work. They may also specify which shifts they prefer and which they dislike and how many shifts to be assigned in a row. In addition, you may specify how many days off are required after a number of consecutive shifts or after a type of shift. After Scheduler has computed a schedule, you may edit it, changing the shifts and/or the staff members assigned to the shifts. Scheduler keeps track of the number and hours of each type of shift assigned to each staff member and displays these statistics for review and printing. Scheduler will write the schedule in a number of formats, including PDF, HTML for the World Wide Web, and delimited text for spreadsheet programs. Scheduler can even email your staff their individual schedules in a format that can be loaded into their Palm devices' datebooks. The Scheduling Process Before running Scheduler, you prepare descriptions of the shifts in your department and the staff who will fill the shifts. These descriptions are contained in two files, one for the shift description and the other for the staff description. You use the ShiftWizard and StaffWizard programs to prepare the shift and staff descriptions, respectively. The shift and staff descriptions only have to be constructed once and updated only as you revise your department's coverage or change staff. Each month or block, you gather your staff's scheduling requests. These requests may be transmitted directly into Scheduler from the Requester program or you can enter them when you run Scheduler. Next, you run Scheduler. Scheduler asks which month or block you wish to schedule and the names of the shift and staff description files. Then, Scheduler displays a calendar with the shifts to be filled. You may edit the calendar of shifts. If your staff's schedule requests have been transmitted by Requester, Scheduler will read them automatically. Otherwise, you can enter them, by clicking with the mouse on the calendar of shifts. Automatically entered requests can be reviewed and edited as well. Then, Scheduler assigns staff members to the shifts according to built in scheduling principles and the staff members' requests and preferences. 7

Once you have reviewed the schedule, you may wish to change the shifts or adjust one or more of Scheduler's settings. Scheduler allows you to clear the assignments completely in order to do this. You may fine tune the schedule by editing the shifts and/or the staff assignments. You can save any schedule for later review or further refinement. You may also print a schedule at any time. Shift Description In the shift description file, you describe shifts for each day of the week. For each shift, you specify the day of the week, the start time, the shift length, the site, the shift's priority, whether the shift is undesirable and/or a weekend shift, and a shift name, such as 'Day', 'Night', or 'Swing'. Unless you have specified otherwise, Scheduler will assign shifts that are flagged as weekend or undesirable in proportion to the total hours that each staff member is required to work. Shifts are prioritized in case the staff hours available to fill the shifts are scarce. Scheduler will fill the shifts in order of priority. In this way, minimum coverage shifts can be filled before double coverage shifts on busy days. Busy day double coverage shifts can be filled before double coverage shifts on light days, etc. The shift description file may also contain one or more rules specifying how many days off are required after working a number of consecutive shifts or after a certain type of shift. For instance, "After working 4 days in a row, give at least 3 days off", or, "After a night shift, give at least 2 days off." On Call Shifts You may designate shifts as "on call". Scheduler assigns on call shifts to staff members using the same rules and preferences as other shifts. However, on call shifts are not counted against the number of hours or shifts a staff member to whom they are assigned is required to work. Staff Description The staff description specifies information about each staff member, such as their name and email address, how many hours or shifts they are to work, and their standing scheduling requests and preferences. For each staff member, you may specify the minimum number of weekends off they are to have in each month or block. You may specify an email address for a staff member. Doing so will allow Scheduler to email that staff member his or her individual schedule. The individual schedule is in a format that can be loaded into Microsoft Outlook's calendar or a Palm device. The individual schedule contains a provision for setting a reminder alarm, if desired. Scheduler can also email each staff member a copy of the whole schedule. 8

For each staff member, you specify the minimum and maximum number of hours or shifts to assign and how many hours or shifts of vacation to credit. You may also specify that the staff member is only to be assigned to requested shifts. Staff Requests and Preferences Staff members may request to be assigned to specific shifts. These may be specified on a weekly basis (e.g. "I want all Monday day shifts.") or a daily basis (e.g. "Assign me to the night shift on the fifteenth."). You may tell Scheduler to only assign a staff member to requested shifts. Staff members may request that Scheduler does not assign them to certain shifts. These requests may be specific (e.g. "Don't assign me to the swing shift at our primary site on the twenty-first.") or general (e.g. "Don't assign me to any night shifts." Or "Don't assign me to Monday day shifts." Or "Don't assign me to any shifts from the twelfth through the nineteenth.") Scheduler will never assign a staff member to a shift that he or she has requested off. You may edit the schedule to override staff requests. Staff members may specify shifts that they prefer. This is particularly useful if a person likes to work shifts which are generally considered undesirable. Scheduler will give priority in assigning shifts to staff members who prefer them. Conversely, a person may specify that he or she dislikes certain shifts. Scheduler will avoid assigning disliked shifts to those staff members unless no one else is available to fill them. Like requests, staff preferences may be specific (e.g. "I prefer to work the night shift at our pediatric site on the eighteenth.") or general (e.g. "I dislike swing shifts on Mondays." Or "I prefer to work night shifts.") Note that, if a staff member specifies a general preference for shifts that are flagged as undesirable, he or she may be assigned such shifts in greater proportion than those who don't prefer such shifts. Staff members may specify a minimum and maximum number of particular kinds of shifts to be assigned consecutively. For instance, a staff member may wish to be assigned to consecutive weekend shifts in order to minimize the number of assigned weekends. He or she may specify (for example) that they be assigned to at least three but no more than four consecutive 'Day' shifts and no more than two consecutive 'Night' shifts. Quotas You may specify a minimum and maximum number of particular types of shifts to assign to a staff member. These shift quotas override Scheduler's democratic scheduling. Scheduler will assign undesirable and weekend shifts democratically to staff members who do not have quotas specified. Quotas can be set by shift type, site, and by "bad" (undesirable), "good" (not undesirable), and weekend shifts or any combination of these. For instance you may specify that Jones is to work a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 6 weekend night shifts, or Smith is to work a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 5 swing shifts at your urgent care site and a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 10 undesirable shifts. 9

Individual Days Off Rules You may specify rules for individual staff members for how many days off are required after working a number of consecutive shifts or after a certain type of shift. The rules set for an individual completely supersede the rules set for the rest of the staff in the shift description. That is, if you do not set any individual days off rules for a staff member, the rules set in the shift description (if any) will apply to that staff member. If you set one or more individual days off rules for a staff member, only those rules (and none of the rules in the shift description) will apply to the staff member. Scheduling Principles The number of different schedules that can be created from just a few shifts each day and a small number of staff members to fill them is mind-bogglingly large. When Scheduler goes to work, it creates many different schedules--hundreds each minute. Each time it makes a new schedule, it compares it to the previous one to see which is better. In a short time, Scheduler finds a schedule that has filled as many shifts as possible with the staff hours available and is as democratic and has satisfied as many staff preferences as possible. You set the limit on how long Scheduler will continue to search for a better schedule. Time Between Shifts Scheduler will not assign a staff member to any shift that the staff member has requested to be off. Scheduler will not assign a staff member to more than one shift in a calendar day. For shifts that are 12 hours or less in length, Scheduler will not assign a staff member to two shifts unless there are at least 12 hours between the end of one shift and the start of the next. For shifts that are longer than 12 hours, Scheduler ensures that there are as many hours as the length of the preceding shift between the end of one shift and the start of the next. You may edit a schedule in violation of these rules. You may specify a different minimum interval between shifts for each shift type. You set custom intervals in ShiftWizard. (See the ShiftWizard User Guide.) You may specify an interval of between 13 and 72 hours from the end of a shift to the start of the next. If the interval you select is between 13 and 24 hours, Scheduler will not assign a staff member to any shift that starts within the specified interval. If you select an interval longer than 24 hours for a shift that is 12 hours or less in length, Scheduler may assign a staff member to a shift on the following day, as long as there are at least 12 hours between the end of the first shift and the beginning of the second. If no shift is assigned on the following day, Scheduler will make sure that there are at least as many hours as you specified between the end of the shift and the beginning of the next. You may edit a schedule in violation of these rules. Allotment of Undesirable and Weekend Shifts Scheduler assigns shifts that you marked as undesirable or weekends to each staff member in proportion to the number of hours they are required to work. For 10

example, a staff member is supposed to be assigned to 140 hours of shifts in a month. This month has 30 days and there are 3 shifts each day of 8 hours apiece for a total of 720 hours. The staff member's 140 hours are about 19% of the 720 hours in the month. Therefore, this staff member will be assigned to approximately 19% of the undesirable and weekend shifts. In practice, Scheduler tries to assign undesirable and weekend shifts to each staff member as democratically as possible. However, it does not assign the exact same percentage of such shifts to each staff member. There are two reasons for this. When you specify how much a staff member is to work in hours (as opposed to shifts), in any given schedule, the total number of hours assigned to each person may be slightly more or less than the hours you specified that he or she is required to work. Also, the number or hours of undesirable and weekend shifts may be slightly more or less than the number required for exactly equal proportions. This results in variation in the percentage assigned to each staff member. In choosing the best schedule, Scheduler tries to minimize this variation. When a staff member specifies that they prefer undesirable or weekend shifts, Scheduler computes the total number or hours of these shifts that the person prefers. If the total of preferred undesirable or weekend shifts equals or exceeds the number or hours the staff member is required to work, Scheduler will allow that person to be assigned such shifts in greater proportion, up to 100%. For example, using the schedule above, a staff member specifies that he or she prefers Monday night shifts. You have marked night shifts as undesirable. There are 30 nights X 8 hours, for a total of 240 undesirable hours in the month. Scheduler will note that there are 4 Monday night shifts in the month, each 8 hours long, for a total of 32 hours. The staff member is supposed to work 140 hours this month with 46 hours of undesirable shifts. This staff member will still be assigned undesirable and weekend shifts in proportion to the hours he or she is supposed to work. Another staff member specifies that he or she prefers night shifts Monday through Friday. Scheduler will add up those hours, 4 weeks X 5 nights X 8 hours, for a total of 160 hours. This person is also supposed to work 140 hours this month. Scheduler will assign him to a greater proportion (up to 100%) of night shifts because 160 hours of preferred undesirable shifts exceeds the 46 hours of undesirable shifts that would have been democratically assigned. Staff members who have shift quotas specified may not be scheduled democratically if their minimum quota is greater or if their maximum quota is less than the number of shifts they would be assigned democratically. Scheduler makes sure that each staff member is off for at least the minimum number of weekends you specified in StaffWizard. You may edit the schedule so that a staff member has fewer weekends off. If a weekend is split across two months or blocks, Scheduler will "remember" to give the appropriate days off at the beginning of the second month or block. Picking the Best Schedule As stated above, Scheduler picks the best out of many different schedules it can make. Scheduler determines that one schedule is better than another based on a 11

hierarchy of schedule traits. A schedule with all shifts filled is better than one with any shifts unfilled. If both schedules have unfilled shifts, the one that has assigned more staff hours or shifts is better than one that has assigned fewer. If the schedules are equal to this point, Scheduler compares how often each has assigned more consecutive shifts than the staff prefers. If both are equal, Scheduler chooses the schedule that has distributed undesirable shifts most democratically. Individual Request Files For each staff member named in the staff description file, Scheduler will look for a file containing schedule requests for that staff member, prepared by the Requester program. Scheduler looks in the same folder as that containing the staff description file. Requester names the file for the staff member and month (or block) and year of the schedule being made and gives it the file name extension '.rqs', e.g. SmithJuly2003.rqs. The individual request file is written by the Requester program in a special format. You should put "standing" schedule requests (i.e., those that do not change from month to month) in the staff description so that staff members only send in requests specific to a given month or block. 12

Running the Scheduler Starting the Scheduler To run Scheduler, double click on the Scheduler Icon on your desktop. The default setting for Scheduler is to make a schedule for a calendar month. If you wish to make a schedule for a non-calendar block of days, you should change the default setting before proceeding further. See Selecting Month or Block, below. If you have prepared Shift and Staff description files, you are now ready to make a schedule. Before doing so, you may want to set some default values. Setting Scheduler Defaults Scheduler will save all default values from one Scheduler session to the next, until you change them. To leave any default value unchanged, click on Cancel in the dialog box. Selecting Month or Block To set Scheduler to make schedules for calendar months or non-calendar blocks of days, choose the Month/Block item under the Defaults Menu: Scheduler will display the Schedule By dialog box: Select Month to schedule by calendar month. Select Block to schedule by noncalendar blocks of days. Then click on Ok. 13

Default File and Folder Names To set the default folder in which Scheduler should look for staff and shift description files and saved schedules, choose the Folder item in the Files and Folders sub-menu under the Defaults Menu: folder. Scheduler will display a standard file dialog box which will allow you to choose a Click on OK when you have selected the folder you want. Click on Cancel to leave the folder name unchanged. By clicking on Shift File, Staff File, or Save File items in the Files and Folders sub-menu under the Default Menu, you may set default file names for the respective file types. 14

Setting Outgoing Email If you want Scheduler to email schedules to your staff, you must set the name of your email server and your return email address. To do this, choose the Email item under the Defaults Menu: Scheduler will display the Email Setup dialog box: Fill in the name of your outgoing (SMTP) email server and your return email address and click Ok. Click Cancel to leave the current setting unchanged. Scheduling Parameter Defaults Scheduler has five user settable parameters for controlling the schedule making process. Four of these may have default values set. To set these defaults, click on the Schedule Options item under the Defaults Menu: 15

Scheduler will display the Update Default Scheduler Parameters dialog box: Set the defaults and click on Ok. To leave the defaults unchanged, click on Cancel. See Scheduling Parameters, below, for the meaning of these settings. Making a New Schedule Click on New under the File Menu: 16

If you are scheduling by calendar months, you will see a Make a Schedule for dialog box like this: Click on a month from the list. (Scheduler automatically selects the month following the current month as the default.) Scheduler fills in the current year. If this is not correct, type the correct year. Now click on Ok. If you are scheduling by non-calendar blocks of days, you will see a Make a Schedule for dialog box like this: Fill in the number of the block for which you are making a schedule. Blocks should be numbered consecutively, starting from 1. Click on a month from the list. (Scheduler automatically selects the month following the current month as the default.) Fill in the day of the month on which your block begins. Scheduler fills in the current year. If this is not correct, type the correct year. Fill in the number of days in the block. Blocks may be up to 56 days (8 weeks) long. Now click on Ok. 17

Next you will see a Shift Description File dialog box: Double click on the name of the shift description file or single click on the name and click on Open. After opening the shift description file, you will see a similar Staff Description File dialog box. Double click on the name of the staff description file or single click on the name and click on Open. Note that Scheduler will fill in the default file names you may have selected previously. See Default File and Folder Names, above. Note the 'Files of type:' file filter control at the bottom of the dialog box. If the file you created is not displayed, change the file filter to include the type of the file you created. The <Month>Data.sch File You may see an error indicating that Scheduler cannot find "data from the previous month or block" in a file named '<month>data.sch' or 'Block<number>Data.sch'. Each time you finish making a schedule, Scheduler saves information to be used in making the next month's or block's schedule. If Scheduler made a schedule for <this month/block>, it will save the information in a file named <next month/block>data.sch. The data in this file allows Scheduler to avoid assigning staff members who worked on the last day of the previous month or block to inappropriate shifts on the first day of the current month or block. It also allows Scheduler to keep track of the number of consecutive shifts, days off, and weekends off from one month or block to the next. If you are scheduling by block and the last day of data saved in 'Block<number>Data.sch' does not correspond to the day before the first day of the block 18

for which you are making a schedule, Scheduler will display a "Data in Block<number>Data.sch is not from previous block" error message. Click on Continue but make sure to enter requests taking into account staff members who worked on the last day of the previous month or block. Editing the Shifts Now Scheduler will display a calendar of unassigned shifts: Scheduler displays the month and year or block number of the schedule in the title bar. If you are scheduling by month, the day of the month is displayed in the upper left corner of each day. If you are scheduling by non-calendar blocks, the day of the block is displayed in the upper left corner and the month and day of the month are displayed in the upper right corner of each day. Undesirable and weekend shifts are displayed in red. On call shifts are displayed in gray. Other shifts are displayed in blue. Higher priority shifts are displayed in brighter colors than lower priority shifts. The Site Letters you chose for each site in ShiftWizard (see the ShiftWizard User Guide) are displayed next to each shift along with the shift's start and end time. If you have only one site, the letters that precede the shift times, denoting the site, will not be displayed. The shifts are displayed in the order in which you arranged them with ShiftWizard. 19

Select a font from the drop-down list and click Ok. Click Cancel to leave the font unchanged. Customizing the Calendar You can choose to have the calendar start on a different day of the week. Click on Calendar under the Options menu: A Set Calendar Options dialog box will appear: Click on the up or down arrows to select the first (left-most) day of the week to appear on your calendar. In this dialog box, you can also change the printed title of your schedule. Type the title you would like to use for your schedule in the Schedule Title box. There are two special words you can use in your title. If you include the word #PERIOD (use all capital letters) in the title, it will be replaced in your title with the month and year and (if scheduling by a block of days) block number of your schedule. If you include the word #TODAY (use all capital letters), it will be replaced in your title with the date on which you print the schedule. For instance, if you type: Emergency Department Schedule for #PERIOD Printed on #TODAY When you print your schedule, it will look like this: Emergency Department Schedule for November, 2003 Printed on October 20, 2003 21

Printing the Shifts Scheduler is designed to print the calendar on either 8½"x 11" (Letter size) or 8½"x 14" (Legal size) paper in landscape orientation. To choose the printing format, click on the Printing Format item under the Options Menu: You will see a Set Printing Format dialog box: Choose the Large size for 8½"x 14" or the Small size for 8½"x 11" paper. Choose to print the calendar in color or black & white and click Ok. Scheduler will apply the correct settings for paper size and orientation to your printer. You may choose to print your calendar in any font that is available on your computer. You may also select a type size. You may have to experiment a bit to find a font and type size that is legible and fits on your paper. Scheduler can print the calendar showing all sites or you may select one or more sites to be printed at a time. If you always want to print the calendar showing all sites, click on the All button. If you wish to select the sites to print, click on the Selected Sites button. If you click on Selected Sites, at the time you print, Scheduler will ask you to select one or more sites. 22

You may print the calendar at any time. Click on the Print item under the File menu. You may also hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the P key. If you elected to print only selected sites (see previous page), Scheduler will display a Select Sites to Print dialog box: Select one or more sites to print. To choose more than one site, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the selected sites. To print the calendar with all sites, click on All Sites. Click on Ok to continue printing the calendar with the selected sites. Click on Cancel to abort printing. Scheduler will display the usual print dialog box for your system. Load your printer with the correct paper and click on OK. 23

Editing the Shifts As you pass the mouse cursor over the calendar, you will notice that the arrow becomes a hand. This occurs when the cursor passes over a shift or a day of the month/block. If you hover the cursor over a shift, the name of the shift is displayed. Adding a New Shift to a Day If you click on the day of the month/block in the upper left corner of each day, an Add a Shift dialog box will appear: Fill in the appropriate information and check boxes. Choose a shift type from the list. Click Ok to create the new shift on that day. The new shift will be placed at the top of the listed shifts. Click Cancel if you change your mind. Editing, Deleting, Adding, and Formatting based on an Existing Shift If you click on a shift, the shift will be highlighted and a pop-up menu will appear: Click on the appropriate item. If you change your mind, click away from the menu and it will disappear. 24

Adding a Shift based on an Existing Shift If you click on Add, an Add a Shift dialog box will appear. The values in the dialog box will be filled in with the same values as the shift you clicked on. You may edit any, all or none of these values. Click Ok to create a new shift. The new shift will be placed following the shift you clicked on. Click Cancel if you change your mind. Deleting a Shift If you click on Delete, the shift will be deleted. Editing an Existing Shift If you click on Edit, an Edit this Shift dialog box will appear. You may edit any, all or none of these values. Click Ok to assign the new values to the shift. Click Cancel if you change your mind. Changing the Order of the Shifts By clicking on Move Up or Move Down, you can arrange your shifts in any desired order. Formatting a Shift By clicking on Format, you can change the appearance of the shift on the displayed and printed calendar. A Format this Shift dialog box will appear: Checking Bold, Italics, or Underline will cause the shift to be displayed and printed with the respective text modification(s). Checking Skip will add a blank line after the shift on the displayed and printed calendar. 25

Enter a new message or edit the existing one and click Ok. To leave the message unchanged, click Cancel. You may add or edit a message at any time. Entering and Editing Schedule Requests Once you are satisfied with your calendar of shifts, you may need to enter or edit some or all of your staff's schedule requests. To do this, click on Enter/Edit Requests under the Window menu or hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the R key. A Display Schedule for dialog box will appear: Click on the staff member whose schedule requests you wish to enter or edit and click on Ok. 27

A new window will open, displaying the shifts and previously entered schedule requests for the selected staff member. Shifts the staff member has requested off will be displayed in red. Shifts to which the staff member has requested to be assigned will be displayed in blue along with the staff member's name. Zooming In or Out You may zoom in or out to see less or more of the schedule request calendar on your screen. Choose the Zoom In or Zoom Out item under the Window Menu to make the calendar bigger or smaller, respectively. You may also hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the Z key to Zoom Out. You may hold down the Ctrl key and the Shift key and at the same time press the Z key to Zoom In. 28

Scrolling the Calendar You may need to scroll to see the entire calendar. Clicking on the up or down facing arrows will scroll the height of one line. Clicking on the vertical scroll track (the gray space between the blue scroll bar and the up or down arrow) will scroll the height of one week. Clicking on the left or right facing arrows or on the horizontal scroll track will scroll the width of one day. Selecting Shifts to Avoid As you pass the mouse cursor over the calendar, you will notice that the arrow becomes a hand. This occurs when the cursor passes over a shift or a day of the month. If you hover the cursor over a shift, the shift name is displayed. To select a shift to avoid, position the mouse cursor over the shift so that it becomes a hand and click the left mouse button. The shift will turn red, indicating that the staff member wishes to avoid being assigned to that shift. If more than one shift on a day at a site has the same name (e.g. the "day" shift), all those shifts will turn red. If you wish to un-select a shift to avoid, click on it again with the left mouse button. The shift will turn blue. To indicate that the staff member wishes to avoid all shifts on a day, position the mouse cursor over the day of the month so that it becomes a hand and click the left mouse button. All the shifts on the day will turn red. If you wish to un-select all shifts on a day to avoid, position the mouse cursor over the day of the month so that it becomes a hand and click the left mouse button. If all the shifts on the day are red, they will all turn blue. If some shifts on the day are blue, all the shifts will turn red. Click the left mouse button, again, and they will all turn blue. You may select or un-select a contiguous run of days to avoid. Left click on the first (or last) day of the series, turning all the shifts red or blue. Then hold down the Shift key and left click on the last (or first) day. All the shifts on the days between and including the first and last will turn the same color as the first day you clicked on. Selecting Shifts to Assign To select a shift to which the staff member wishes to be assigned, position the mouse cursor over the shift so that it becomes a hand and click the right mouse button. The staff member's name will be displayed next to the shift. If more than one shift on a day at a site has the same name (e.g. the "day" shift), all those shifts will display the name. If you have more than one site and the staff member wishes to be assigned to a particular shift but doesn't care which site, you should right click on all the shifts at the sites to which the staff member wishes to be assigned. 29

Printing the Requests The request calendar is designed to print on 8½"x 11" (Letter size) paper in landscape orientation. You may print the calendar at any time. Click on the Print button. Scheduler will display the usual print dialog box for your system. Load your printer with the correct paper and click on OK. Editing Hours You may edit the hours or number of shifts the staff member is to work. Click on Edit Hours under the Window menu: An Edit Hours dialog box will appear: Adjust the minimum, maximum, and/or vacation hours or shifts and click on Ok. Click on Cancel to leave the hours unchanged. 30

Entering Requests for Another Staff Member To enter requests for the next staff member, click on Choose Staffer under the Window Menu or hold down the Ctrl key and press the S key. The Display Schedule for dialog box will appear and you may select another staff member. Saving the Schedule Requests You may save the edited schedule requests at any time. Saving the requests saves the current requests for all staff members. Click on Save Requests or Save Requests As under the File menu: If you clicked on Save Requests As or you clicked on Save Requests and you do not have a current save file, a Save Requests In file dialog box will appear. Select a file name and location for the saved requests and click on Ok. The current requests of all staff members will be saved in the file. 31

Restoring Saved Schedule Requests To restore previously saved schedule requests, click on Restore Requests under the File menu: A Restore Saved Requests From file dialog box will appear. Select a file name in which you previously saved requests and click on Ok. The requests of all staff members will be restored from the file. Closing the Request Editor When you have finished entering and editing the schedule requests, click on Close under the Window menu, Quit under the File menu, or the X in the top right corner of the window, or hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the C key or the Q key. 32

Making the Schedule Once you are satisfied with your calendar of shifts and all schedule requests have been entered and edited, it is time to make the schedule. Click on the Make Schedule item under the Window menu or hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the M key. Scheduler will go to work. While it works, Scheduler displays the Making Schedule dialog box: This box displays the progress Scheduler is making in finding the best schedule. You may interrupt Scheduler at any time by clicking on Stop. Scheduler will continue to make and compare schedules until you click Stop or it has examined a set number of schedules without finding a better one (see Setting the Shift Search Limit, below). 33

When Scheduler is finished, it will show the Making Schedule dialog box with a Done and a Continue button. If you would like Scheduler to continue searching for a better schedule, click on Continue. Scheduler will continue the search until you click Stop or it has again reached the Shift Search Limit. If you are satisfied with the search, click on Done. Scheduler will display the calendar of assigned shifts: Scheduler displays the month and year or block number of the schedule in the title bar. Also displayed in the title are the parameter settings used to make this schedule. (See Scheduling Parameters, below.) The Consecutive Limits parameters are displayed as Target/Absolute. Undesirable and weekend shifts are displayed in red. Other shifts are displayed in blue. Higher priority shifts are displayed in brighter colors than lower priority shifts. The Site Letters you chose for each site in ShiftWizard (see the ShiftWizard User Guide) are displayed next to each shift along with the shift's start and end time. If you have only one site, the letters that precede the shift times, denoting the site, will not be displayed. The name of the staff member assigned to the shift is displayed. If Scheduler could not find a staff member to assign to a shift, the name area is left blank. Scrolling the Calendar You may need to scroll to see the entire calendar. Clicking on the up or down facing arrows will scroll the height of one line. Clicking on the vertical scroll track (the gray space between the blue scroll bar and the up or down arrow) will scroll the height of 34

one week. Clicking on the left or right facing arrows or on the horizontal scroll track will scroll the width of one day. Zooming In or Out You may zoom in or out to see less or more of the calendar on your screen. Choose the Zoom In or Zoom Out item under the Window Menu to make the calendar bigger or smaller, respectively. You may also hold down the Ctrl key and at the same press the Z key to Zoom Out. You may hold down the Ctrl key and the Shift key and at the same time press the Z key to Zoom In. Printing the Calendar Scheduler is designed to print the calendar on either 8½"x 11" (Letter size) or 8½"x 14" (Legal size) paper in landscape orientation. To choose the printing format, click on the Printing Format item under the Options Menu. You will see a Set Printing Format dialog box. Choose the Large size for 8½"x 14" or the Small size for 8½"x 11" paper and click Ok. Scheduler will apply the correct settings for paper size and orientation to your printer. You may print the calendar at any time. Click on the Print item under the File menu. You may also hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the P key. Scheduler will display the usual print dialog box for your system. Load your printer with the correct paper and click Ok. Emailing the Calendar Scheduler will email the finished schedule to each staff member for whom you entered an email address in StaffWizard. (See the StaffWizard User Guide). In order for Scheduler to send email, you must have specified your email server name and return address. (See Setting Outgoing Email, above.) The calendar is emailed in HTML (the "language" of the World Wide Web). When Scheduler emails the calendar, it precedes it with the contents of a file named prologue.htm. This file is found in the ProgramData sub-folder of the folder in which you installed Scheduler. You may modify prologue.htm with appropriate HTML code in order to customize the appearance of your emailed calendar. The prologue.htm file is also used by the HTML Schedule Report. (See The HTML Schedule Report, below.) 35

To email the calendar, click on Email Schedule under the File menu. Viewing Schedule Statistics Once the schedule is made, you may display statistical information about the schedule. To do this, click on Show Statistics under the Window menu. You may also hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the S key. 36

A Schedule Statistics window will appear. You may need to scroll to see the entire contents of the window. Some statistics are displayed in the format <number1>/<number2>. Where this format is used, <number1> is the actual number of hours or shifts assigned and <number2> is the potential number of hours or shifts that could be assigned. Some staff members may have a notation next to their name. The following explains the possible notations: (RO) (BO) (WO) Requests Only Undesirable (Bad) shifts Only Weekend shifts Only (WBO) Weekend and Undesirable (Bad) shifts Only (NB) (NW) No Undesirable (Bad) shifts No Weekend shifts (NWB) No Weekend or Undesirable (Bad) shifts 37

(BP) Undesirable (Bad) shifts Preferred (WP) Weekend shifts Preferred (WBP) Weekend and Undesirable (Bad) shifts Preferred When you have finished viewing and/or printing the statistics, you may close the window by clicking on Close under the Window menu, Quit under the File menu, or the X box in the top right corner of the window, or hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the C key or the Q key. Printing Schedule Statistics You may print the schedule statistics at any time. Click on the Print item under the File menu. You may also hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the P key. Scheduler is designed to print the statistics on 8½"x 11" (Letter size) paper in portrait orientation. Scheduler will apply the correct settings for paper size and orientation to your printer. Scheduler will display the usual print dialog box for your system. Load your printer with the correct paper and click Ok. Viewing Individual Staff Member Schedules Once the schedule is made, you may display and print the schedules of individual staff members. To do this, click on Show Individual Schedule under the Window menu. You may also hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the N key. 38

A Display Schedule for dialog box will appear: Click on the staff member whose schedule you would like to review and click Ok. (If you change your mind, click Cancel.) A calendar displaying the schedule of the selected staff member will appear. Shifts that the staff member requested off are displayed in red. Assigned shifts are displayed in green. If you manually assigned a staff member to a shift which was requested off, the shift is displayed in magenta. All other shifts are shown in blue. 39

Scrolling the Individual Calendar You may need to scroll to see the entire calendar. Clicking on the up or down facing arrows will scroll the height of one line. Clicking on the vertical scroll track (the gray space between the blue scroll bar and the up or down arrow) will scroll the height of one week. Clicking on the left or right facing arrows or on the horizontal scroll track will scroll the width of one day. Zooming In or Out You may zoom in or out to see less or more of the calendar on your screen. Choose the Zoom In or Zoom Out item under the Window Menu to make the calendar bigger or smaller, respectively. You may also hold down the Ctrl key and at the same press the Z key to Zoom Out. You may hold down the Ctrl key and the Shift key and at the same time press the Z key to Zoom In. Printing the Individual Calendar You may print the individual calendar at any time. Click on the Print item under the File menu. You may also hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the P key. Scheduler is designed to print the individual calendar on 8½"x 11" (Letter size) paper in landscape orientation. Scheduler will apply the correct settings for paper size and orientation to your printer. Scheduler will display the usual print dialog box for your system. Load your printer with the correct paper and click Ok. Viewing Another Individual Calendar To view or print another staff member's individual schedule, click on Choose Staffer under the Window menu or hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the S key. 40

A Display Schedule for dialog box will appear: Click on the staff member whose schedule you would like to review and click on Ok. (If you change your mind, click on Cancel.) A calendar displaying the schedule of the selected staff member will appear. Closing the Individual Calendar When you have finished viewing and printing individual schedules, click on Close under the Window menu, Quit under the File menu, or the X in the top right corner of the window, or hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time press the C key or the Q key. 41

Highlighting Assigned and Unassigned Shifts As an aid to editing the shift assignments, you can highlight the shifts assigned to one or more staff members and/or the unassigned shifts. To do this, click on Highlight under the Window Menu: A Highlight dialog box will appear: Click on <unassigned> to highlight unassigned shifts. Click on the name of a staff member to highlight all shifts assigned to him or her. To make more than one selection from the list to highlight, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on multiple selections. To remove all selections, click on the Clear key. When you have made your selection(s), click on Ok. To leave your current selections unchanged, click on Cancel. 42

All the selected shifts will appear highlighted. Printing All Individual Schedules You may print an individual schedule for all staff members who have shifts assigned and who are not flagged REQUESTSONLY in the staff description file. To do this, click on Print Individual Schedules under the File menu: 43

Scheduler is designed to print the individual calendars on 8½"x 11" (Letter size) paper in landscape orientation. Scheduler will apply the correct settings for paper size and orientation to your printer. Scheduler will display the usual print dialog box for your system. Load your printer with the correct paper and click on Ok. Exporting Individual Schedules You may export individual schedules for all staff members. An individual file is created for each staff member. The file contains the staff member's schedule in the vcalendar format. vcalendar is an international standard for exchanging information about appointments, meetings, etc. Many computer applications, including Microsoft Outlook and Palm Desktop, can import vcalendar entries. In addition to exporting the individual schedules to files, you may email the file to each staff member as an email attachment. To export individual schedules, click on Export Individual Schedules under the File menu. To export and email the individual schedules, click on Export & Email Individual Schedules under the File menu: An Export Schedules To file dialog will appear. Choose the folder in which to put the exported schedules and click on Ok. Click on Cancel if you change your mind. Each exported schedule will be placed in a file in the selected folder. The files will be named in the form <name><month><year>.vcs or <name>block<number>.vcs. If you chose Export & Email, Scheduler will email the exported file to each staff member for whom you entered an email address in StaffWizard. (See the StaffWizard User Guide). In order for Scheduler to send email, you must have specified your email server name and return address. (See Setting Outgoing Email, above.) Using an exported Schedule An exported individual schedule is formatted so that programs such as Microsoft Outlook and Palm Desktop can import it into the calendar. Once the individual schedule 44

has been imported into the Microsoft Outlook or Palm Desktop calendar, a staff member can synchronize the calendar with a Palm device's datebook application. To import an exported individual schedule into Microsoft Outlook's calendar: Start Microsoft Outlook. Click on "Import and Export " under the File menu. An Import and Export Wizard will appear. Choose "Import an icalendar or vcalendar file (.vcs)" and click on Next. Browse to the file with your individual schedule and click Ok. To import an exported individual schedule into Palm Desktop's calendar: Start Palm Desktop. Click on "Import" under the File menu. Set the file type to "vcal file (.vcs)". Browse to the file with your individual schedule and click Import. Clearing and Closing a Schedule You may wish to make a schedule over with different shifts or scheduling parameters (see Scheduling Parameters, below) or for a different month. To remove all assigned staff members from a schedule, click on Clear Schedule under the Window menu: Scheduler will display your calendar with all shifts unassigned. You may edit the shifts and/or choose different scheduling parameters, prior to making a new schedule. 45

To close the current calendar completely, click on Close under the Window menu. Scheduler will clear the entire calendar. You may then start a new calendar or open a saved one (see below). If you have not already done so, Scheduler will remind you and give you an opportunity to save your schedule prior to clearing or closing it. Editing the Schedule You may edit the assignments of staff members to shifts. You may also add, delete, edit, or change the order of shifts. As you pass the mouse cursor over the calendar, you will notice that the arrow becomes a hand. This occurs when the cursor passes over a shift. If you hover the cursor over a shift, the shift name is displayed. If you click on a shift, it will be highlighted and a pop-up menu will appear. You may click Assign, DeAssign, or Swap to change the staff member assigned to a shift. You may click Add, Delete, or Edit to change the shift itself. Clicking Move Up or Move Down will change the order of the shifts. Clicking Format will display a dialog box to change the appearance of the shift on the calendar. If you change your mind, click away from the menu and it will disappear. 46

Assigning a Shift If you click on Assign, a Choose a Staffer to Assign dialog box will appear: One or more names in the list may be preceded by an asterisk. The asterisk indicates that this staff member has not requested this shift off, does not have another shift too soon before or after this shift, and meets all the other rules (e.g., not exceeding the maximum number of consecutive shifts, having enough weekends off, etc.) for being assigned to this shift. One or more names in the list may be preceded by a question mark. The question mark indicates that this staff member has not requested this shift off and does not have another shift too soon before or after this shift but may not meet all the other rules (as described above) for being assigned to this shift. Scroll to the staff member you wish to assign to the shift and click on his or her name. Click on Ok to assign the staff member to the shift. Click on Cancel if you change your mind. You may assign a staff member to an assigned or an unassigned shift. If you assign to a previously assigned shift, you will replace the previously assigned staff member with the one you select. After you click on Ok, Scheduler may display one or more warning messages concerning the assignment. If you still wish to assign the shift, in spite of the warning, click on Ok. If you change your mind, click on Cancel. Deassigning a Shift If you click on DeAssign, Scheduler will remove the staff member assigned to the shift. Scheduler may display one or more warning messages concerning the deassignment. If you still wish to deassign the shift, in spite of the warning, click on Ok. If you change your mind, click on Cancel. Swapping Shifts If you click on Swap, the shift will remain highlighted. Click on another shift to swap assignments. You may scroll to reach the shift you wish to swap. You may swap an assigned and unassigned shift. If you change your mind and do not wish to swap, click on the highlighted shift. 47

After you click on the second shift, Scheduler may display one or more warning messages concerning the swap. If you still wish to swap the shifts, in spite of the warning, click on Ok. If you change your mind, click on Cancel. Adding a Shift If you click on Add, an Add a Shift dialog box will appear. The values in the dialog box will be filled in with the same values as the shift you clicked on. You may edit any, all or none of these values. Click Ok to create a new shift. The new shift will be placed following the shift you clicked on. It will not have any staff member assigned. Click Cancel if you change your mind. Deleting a Shift If you click on Delete, the shift will be deleted. Editing an Existing Shift If you click on Edit, an Edit this Shift dialog box will appear. You may edit any, all or none of these values. Click Ok to assign the new values to the shift. Editing the shift does not change the assignment of a staff member to the shift. Click Cancel if you change your mind. Changing the Order of the Shifts By clicking on Move Up or Move Down, you can arrange your shifts in any desired order. Formatting a Shift By clicking on Format, you can change the appearance of the shift on the displayed and printed calendar. A Format this Shift dialog box will appear: Checking Bold, Italics, or Underline will cause the shift to be displayed and printed with the respective text modification(s). Checking Skip will add a blank line after the shift on the displayed and printed calendar. 48

Undoing a Change If you click on an area of the calendar that does not contain a shift, an Undo button will appear: Clicking on the Undo button will undo the last change you made to the calendar. You can undo up to the last ten changes. (Undo will not undo formatting changes. To change a shift format, click on Format and make the desired changes.) Scheduling Parameters Five user settable parameters control the scheduling process. These are Schedule Version, Shift Search Limit, Request Weighting, and Target and Absolute Consecutive Shift Limits. Schedule Version Although Scheduler can create and compare thousands of different schedules in a short period of time, there are many, many more possible schedules that Scheduler could have created and compared. If it seems that Scheduler is not finding an acceptable solution, changing the Schedule Version parameter will cause Scheduler to examine a different set of schedules, among which may be a better scheduling solution. Remember that if the number of staff hours available to fill shifts is small relative to the number of shifts and/or the number of staff requests to avoid shifts is high, it may be difficult or impossible to create a schedule which is democratic and honors staff preferences. Setting Schedule Version The default setting for Schedule Version is always 0. 49

To change the setting for Schedule Version, click on the Schedule Version item under the Options menu. You may only set the Schedule Version prior to creating a schedule. An Enter Schedule Version dialog box will appear. Type any number into the box. Click on Ok to set the new version number. Click on Cancel to leave the current setting unchanged. Shift Search Limit The Shift Search Limit controls how long Scheduler will search for a better schedule. The Shift Search Limit is a number that represents how many schedules to create and compare to the current best schedule before stopping. For example, the shift search limit is set to 2000 and the best schedule created so far was the 253 rd. If Scheduler doesn't find a better schedule by the time it gets to 2253, it will stop. 50

Setting the Shift Search Limit The default setting for the Shift Search Limit is set by clicking on the Schedule Options item under the Defaults menu (see Scheduling Parameter Defaults above). To change the setting for the Shift Search Limit, click on the Shift Search Limit item under the Options menu. You may only set the Shift Search Limit prior to creating a schedule. A Set Shift Search Limit dialog box will appear: Enter the desired limit and click on Ok. If you change your mind, click Cancel. Request Weighting The Request Weighting parameter is either On or Off. If Request Weighting is On, Scheduler will take into account the number of requests for shifts to avoid when choosing a staff member to assign to a shift. If Request Weighting is Off, Scheduler will not use number of shifts to avoid in making this calculation. If a staff member has many more requests for shifts to avoid than his or her colleagues, it is less likely that that staff member can be assigned to a given shift. This may result in the staff member having fewer shifts assigned if all shifts can be filled by other staff members. If it appears that a staff member with many requests for shifts to avoid is being assigned to a disproportionately low number of shifts, setting Request Weighting to On may remedy this. 51

Setting Request Weighting The default setting for Request Weighting is set by clicking on the Schedule Options item under the Defaults menu (see Scheduling Parameter Defaults above). To change the setting for Request Weighting, click on the Request Weighting item under the Options menu. You may only set Request Weighting prior to creating a schedule. A Set Request Weighting dialog box will appear. Set Request Weighting On or Off and click on Ok. Click on Cancel to leave the setting unchanged. Consecutive Shift Limits The Target Consecutive Shift Limit parameter sets a default limiting factor on the number of consecutive shifts assigned to a staff member. That is, if, in StaffWizard, you have not set a minimum and maximum number of consecutive shifts for a staff member that applies to a given shift, the Target Consecutive Shift Limit parameter is used. Once the target number of consecutive shifts has been assigned to a staff member, Scheduler tries to avoid adding another consecutive shift. The more a staff member exceeds the target, the more Scheduler tries to avoid adding another consecutive shift. However, Scheduler will always assign a staff member to an unfilled shift, even if the Target Consecutive Shift Limit is exceeded. 52

The Absolute Consecutive Shift Limit parameter sets an absolute limit on the number of consecutive shifts assigned to a staff member. Scheduler will never assign more consecutive shifts than the Absolute Consecutive Shift Limit. You may edit the schedule, assigning more consecutive shifts than the Absolute Consecutive Shift Limit. Setting Consecutive Shift Limits The default setting for Consecutive Shifts is set by clicking on the Schedule Options item under the Defaults menu (see Scheduling Parameter Defaults above). To change the setting for Consecutive Shift Limits, click on the Consecutive Shifts item under the Options menu: A Set Consecutive Shift Limits dialog box will appear: Type the number of Target and/or Absolute shifts in the box and click on Ok. Click on Cancel to leave the settings unchanged. 53

Saving a Schedule You may save a schedule at any time. To do this, click on Save or Save As under the File menu: If you have opened a saved schedule or previously saved a schedule, clicking on Save will save your schedule in the previously opened or saved file. If you click on Save As or have not yet saved your schedule and click on Save, Scheduler will display a Save Schedule In dialog box. Choose a file name and click on Save. Click on Cancel to abort saving the schedule. Restoring a Saved Schedule To resume working on a saved schedule, click on Open under the File menu. Scheduler will display a Read Saved Schedule From dialog box. Choose the file name in which you saved your schedule and click on Open. Scheduler will restore your schedule as you saved it and allow you to continue working on it. If you decide not to restore the saved schedule, click on Cancel. 54

Reports Scheduler can write information about the schedule calendar and statistics into files, in formats suitable for use by other programs or for human reading. These features are grouped under the Report menu: When you click on a report, Scheduler will display a file dialog box so that you can choose a file into which Scheduler will write the selected report. The Delimited Statistics Report The Delimited Statistics Report is intended for use by programs that can read tab delimited files, such as spread sheet programs. The Delimited Statistics Report contains one line for each staff member. Each line has the staff member's name, the total hours assigned, the maximum hours that should have been assigned, the total number of shifts assigned, the total number of shifts assigned at each site (up to four), the number of weekend shifts assigned, the total weekend hours assigned, the weekend hours assigned as a percent of total hours, the number of undesirable shifts assigned, the total undesirable hours assigned, and the undesirable hours assigned as a percent of total hours. (This is the same information that is displayed in the lower half of the Schedule Statistics window.) Each entry on the line is separated from the previous by a tab. The Delimited Schedule Report The Delimited Schedule Report is intended for use by programs that can read tab delimited files, such as spread sheet programs. The Delimited Schedule Report contains one line for each shift in the schedule. Each line contains the day of the month, a tab, the site letter, shift start time, a '-', and the shift end time, and, if the shift is assigned, a tab and the staff member name. 55