Shift Swap Requests - Shifton Help

Shift swapping lets employees exchange shifts with colleagues, giving your team flexibility while keeping your schedule fully covered.

What Is This?

A shift swap is a request where one employee proposes trading their shift with another employee’s shift. Both employees agree to work each other’s original shift. Depending on your company settings, the swap may go through automatically or require manager approval. This feature helps reduce no-shows and last-minute staffing problems by empowering employees to handle scheduling conflicts among themselves.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
Module	Schedules module must be active
Setting	“Allow shift swapping” must be enabled in the schedule settings
Employees	Both employees must be assigned to the same schedule
Shifts	Both employees must have published shifts to swap

Step-by-Step Instructions

Enabling Shift Swapping (Manager/Admin)

Navigate to Schedules from the left sidebar.

Open the schedule you want to configure.

Click the Settings (gear icon) for that schedule.

Locate the “Allow shift swapping” option and enable it.

Optionally, configure the following related settings:

Setting	Description
Require manager confirmation	When enabled, swap requests must be approved by a manager before they take effect
Restrict to same position	When enabled, employees can only swap shifts with colleagues who hold the same position

Save the schedule settings.

Requesting a Shift Swap (Employee)

Open your schedule and find the shift you want to swap.

Click on your shift to open the shift details.

Select “Swap shift” from the available actions.

Browse the list of available shifts from other employees.

Select the shift you would like to take in exchange.

Add an optional comment explaining the reason for the swap.

Click Submit to send the swap request.

Responding to a Swap Request (Employee)

When another employee requests to swap with you, you will receive a notification.

Navigate to Requests or click the notification to view the swap details.

Review the proposed swap: your original shift and the shift you would receive.

Click Accept to agree to the swap or Decline to reject it.

Approving a Swap Request (Manager)

If manager confirmation is required, the swap request appears in the Dashboard > Employee Requests > Shifts Swapping tab.

Review the details of both shifts and both employees.

Click Approve to finalize the swap or Reject to deny it.

Both employees are notified of the decision.

Access Permissions

Role	Enable Swap Setting	Request Swap	Respond to Swap	Approve/Reject Swap
Owner	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Administrator	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manager	Yes (assigned schedules)	Yes	Yes	Yes (assigned schedules)
Employee	No	Yes	Yes	No

FAQ

Q: Can employees swap shifts across different projects?
A: No, shift swaps are limited to shifts within the same schedule. Employees cannot swap shifts between different schedules or projects.

Q: What happens if the “Restrict to same position” setting is enabled?
A: Employees will only see swap candidates who hold the same position. This prevents situations where someone unqualified for a role ends up covering that shift.

Q: Can a swap request be canceled after it is submitted?
A: Yes, the employee who initiated the swap can cancel the request before the other employee accepts it. Once accepted (and approved, if required), the swap is finalized.

Q: Does the swap update both employees’ schedules automatically?
A: Yes. Once a swap is completed (and approved, if manager confirmation is required), both employees’ schedules are updated automatically.

Q: Will employees be notified about swap requests?
A: Yes. Notifications are sent when a swap is requested, accepted, declined, approved, or rejected, depending on the notification settings configured for your company.

Possible Issues and Solutions

Issue	Possible Cause	Solution
“Swap shift” option not available	Shift swapping is disabled in schedule settings	Enable “Allow shift swapping” in the schedule settings
No shifts available to swap with	No other employees have shifts in the same schedule or position	Check that the schedule has multiple employees with assigned shifts
Swap request stuck in pending	Manager confirmation is required but not yet given	Remind your manager to review the pending request
Employee cannot see swap requests	Notifications are turned off	Check notification settings under the employee’s profile
Swap rejected without reason	Manager declined the request	Ask the manager for feedback; consider submitting a new request with a note
Shifts did not update after approval	Page not refreshed	Refresh the schedule page to see the updated assignments