Features Shifts

Who's working, at a glance.

Build next week from the shifts you run most weeks. Fill it while nobody can see it, publish once, and let people hand shifts off from there.

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A week of shifts in the Alpacca calendar, with the ones still short of people marked and counted.

See it

From a blank week to published.

Build the week, publish it and export the hours, in under a minute.

The schedule builder

Draft the week before anybody sees it.

Your usual week is the shifts you run most weeks — Open, Lunch, Close, and how many people each takes. Building turns it into next week, dated and ready to fill. Nothing is saved and nobody is told until you publish, so a half-made schedule stays your business.

Build from your usual week

One tap lays out every shift the week asks for, on real dates, with its slots still open.

Fill it in, change your mind

Put names in the slots, re-time a shift, add one the week needs or drop one it doesn't. Start over and nothing was ever written.

Publish once

One action puts the week live and tells everyone on it. Open it again later and publishing amends the week instead of duplicating it.

Next week being built in Alpacca, still a draft, with each day’s shifts listed and the slots still to fill counted.

Time off and availability

The week knows who’s away.

Put somebody on a shift they can’t work and Alpacca says so while you’re still drafting — they’re on approved time off, or those aren’t hours they work. A request you haven’t decided yet shows as a note instead, and never stops you publishing.

Approved time off is flagged on the shift, by name
Hours somebody doesn’t work are flagged the same way
A request still waiting on you reads as a note, not a conflict
Weekly hours and days away live on each member’s own profile

What's included

From your usual week to the published one.

Schedule people, not spreadsheets

Set your usual week once — the shifts you run most weeks — and build from it every week. Published shifts land beside the rest of the organization's calendar, and in each person's own calendar once they link it, so nobody checks two places.

Your usual week: name, hours, and people needed
Assign individual members or a whole team
Shifts that run past midnight are handled
Everyone gets notified when the week is published
Share the published week as a PDF

See gaps before they hurt

The draft counts its own slots as you fill it, and a shift that's short of people is flagged on the calendar and in the day's list once it's live — so uncovered hours stand out while there's still time to fix them.

Slots filled out of slots needed, all week
Open and part-filled shifts flagged in the list
Filter down to just the shifts still needing people
Changes and cancellations notify the people affected

Your week, or the whole roster

Members see their own shifts by default. Editors flip one filter to see every shift — or one person's whole week — without leaving the calendar.

My Shifts and All Shifts calendar lenses
Picking who works ranks whoever is actually free
Target hours per person, checked as you assign
With labor costs on, what each person would add to the week
Filter by member for a one-person roster
Shifts in Google Calendar or Outlook, for anyone who links theirs

A shift in Alpacca showing who is on it, the skill it requires, and a Pick up shift action for taking the slot somebody has put up.

Hand-offs

Shifts change hands without the group chat.

Someone can't make their shift? They put it up from the shift itself. Anyone with the skill for it sees it going spare and can take it — and when a swap needs a manager's sign-off, it waits for one before anything moves.

Give away a shift you're on, with a note
Pick up an open slot or someone else's shift
Only members with the right skill can take it
Approve or deny hand-overs before they take effect

Shift checklists

Opening and closing, on the shift itself.

Attach a checklist to a shift in your usual week, and whoever works it ticks each item off. It locks two hours after the shift ends, so it stays a record. How shift checklists work

Guides

See how it’s done.

Short videos, one task each, with the steps written out. All guides

Set up your week templatePut in the shifts a normal week needs, once. Every week after builds from it in one tap. Build, fill and publish a weekBuild next week from your template, put people on the open shifts, and publish when it is ready. Add a checklist to a shiftWrite your opening or closing routine once. Whoever works that shift checks it off, and it stays on the record. Add your teamAdd the people you schedule. They can start using the app themselves whenever you send them a link. Your shifts: pick up and give awayFor your team: pick up an open shift, or give one away when they can't make it. Check off your shift's checklistFor your team: tick each item as you go. Clock out with items left, and it reminds you first. Request time offFor your team: ask for days off from your phone. It waits there until a manager decides.

More features

Get everyone working from the same schedule.

Try every feature free for 14 days on Essential, billed monthly. After that you pay per organization, not per person, and you can cancel anytime.

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