Creating a Basic Schedule

Generate a standard work schedule with fixed hours, lunch breaks, and regular work days and days off. The Basic schedule type is ideal for traditional 9-to-5 teams.

What Is This?

The Basic schedule type uses automatic distribution to create shifts with consistent working hours for every assigned employee. It is the simplest and most commonly used schedule type — perfect for office teams, retail staff, or any group that follows a standard daily timetable.

When you choose Basic, Shifton automatically generates shifts for each employee across the selected date range based on the work days, start and end times, and break settings you define.

Prerequisites

#	Prerequisite	Details
1	Active Shifton account	You must have a registered company account
2	Admin, Owner, or Manager role	You need permissions to create schedules
3	A project with assigned employees	The schedule must be linked to a project that has employees

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Basic Information

Navigate to Schedules in the sidebar and click + Add schedule.

Complete the basic information fields:

Field	Required	Description
Enter schedule name	Yes	A descriptive title (e.g., “Office Team — March”)
Color	No	Choose a color to identify this schedule on the calendar
Select a project	Yes	Select the project this schedule belongs to
Select dates	Yes	Set the start and end dates — maximum 3 months
Basic employee pay rate	No	Base pay rate per hour for shifts in this schedule
Select week control type	Yes	How overtime is handled: Allow with confirmation (default) / Allow / Disallow

Below these fields is a section with employee action permissions (checkboxes). See the Schedule Settings and Permissions article for details.

Click Next to proceed.

Step 2: Select Schedule Type

On the schedule type selection screen, choose Basic (automatic distribution).

“Creates schedules with a fixed number of working hours, lunch breaks, work days and days off. For example, it can be used to generate a standard 9-5 timetable for a selected number of employees.”

Click Next. The Basic schedule uses a fixed template — no additional configuration is required at this step; shift details are added after creation.

After Creation: Add Employees

After the schedule is created, it appears in the Schedules list but has no employees yet.

Click the schedule name to open it.

Go to the Add employees tab.

Select the employees to include and click Add.

After Creation: Add Shifts

For Basic schedules, shifts are added through the Company Schedule page:

Use Actions → Bulk add to add shifts for multiple employees at once using a shift template.

Or click the + on any day cell to add a shift for a specific employee manually.

See the articles on Bulk Shift Actions and Adding Shifts Manually for details.

Publish the Schedule

Click Publish & notify employees so employees can see their shifts in the mobile app. Until published, shifts are visible to managers only.

Access Permissions

Role	View Schedule	Create Basic Schedule	Edit Shifts	Delete Schedule
Owner	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Admin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manager	Yes (assigned projects)	Yes (assigned projects)	Yes (assigned projects)	Yes (assigned projects)
Employee	Yes (own shifts only)	No	No	No

FAQ

Q: What is the typical use case for a Basic schedule?
A: The Basic type works best for teams with a standard, predictable timetable — such as a Monday-through-Friday office with 9 AM to 5 PM shifts and a one-hour lunch break.

Q: Can I set different hours for different days of the week?
A: No. The Basic schedule uses the same shift template for every work day. If you need different hours on different days, consider the Advanced schedule type instead.

Q: What if I need to exclude a specific day (like a holiday)?
A: After the schedule is generated, you can manually delete or modify individual shifts for holiday dates.

Q: Can I change the work days after the schedule is created?
A: You cannot change the schedule type configuration after creation. However, you can manually add or remove individual shifts on the schedule page.

Q: The schedule date range is limited to 3 months — what do I do after it ends?
A: Use the Reduce/Extend schedule function to extend the schedule into the next period. See the Extending and Shortening Schedules article.

Q: Shifts are not visible to employees — why?
A: Shifts must be published. Click Publish & notify employees on the schedule page. Until published, only managers can see the shifts.

Possible Issues and Solutions

Issue	Possible Cause	Solution
Shifts not generated for some employees	Those employees are not assigned to the selected project	Assign the missing employees to the project and recreate or add shifts manually
Break time overlaps with shift end time	The break start time is set too late in the day	Adjust the break start time so the break ends before the shift end
Schedule shows no data on the calendar	You are viewing a different project or date range	Switch to the correct project and navigate to the schedule’s date range
Cannot select Saturday or Sunday as work days	Calendar interface issue	Ensure you are clicking the correct day toggles in the work days selector
Shifts appear with wrong duration	Incorrect start or end time entered	Delete the schedule, correct the times, and recreate it