Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Admin/Manager FAQ's

Frequently Asked Questions from Admins & Managers:

  • Why can't I see shift exchange and drop requests from employees?
  • How do I give admin access to an employee?
  • How do I add an employee to another department?
  • How do I know when there are requests from employees that need to be approved?
  • How do I set my labour budget?
  • How can staff clock in and out for breaks?
  • How is the rounding on the timesheets being calculated?
  • How do I change the sort order of my employees on the schedule?
  • How do I see or print a master schedule of all departments?
  • How do I see a daily schedule view?
  • Can I set up a manager or scheduler and block them from seeing wages?
  • My account says it's closed, how do I login?

 

Why can't I see shift exchange and drop requests from employees?

Admins often hear from employees that they are posting shifts for drop or exchange and then wonder why they are unable to see these shifts. It is important to inform these admins on how the shift exchange process works so they know that employees need to finalize all shift exchanges or drops before it gets sent to an admin for final approval.

The full process includes one employee who first posts a shift, a second employee then offers to pick up this shift or offers shifts back in return, and then the first posting employee confirms the trade. At this point, both employees will have a pending shift exchange in their app and an admin can now view this request and approve or decline. 

For more information on how employees post shifts for exchange or drop and offer to pick up shifts that have been posted, check out the following links: 


How do I give admin access to an employee?

Any employee can be upgraded to have admin access by another admin or manager. To do this, the admin can go to the employee's user profile, click the Edit User button and then change the employee's role from Employee to any level of admin. The three access levels in order from highest to lowest are Company Admin, Location Admin, and Department Admin. The highest level that the employee can be upgraded to is dependent on the admin who is upgrading them. For example, a Location Admin can upgrade an employee to a Department Admin or Location Admin but not a Company Admin. 

For more information on editing employee profiles, click here: Editing Employee Profiles. 

For more information on user roles, click here: Explaining Roles. 


How do I add an employee to another department?

Admins will often ask if they can add an existing employee to multiple departments or if they have to create a new user for them. They never need to create new profiles for existing employees and there are two ways that these employees can be added to additional departments. 

The first way this can be done is by going to an employee's user profile, click on the Departments tab and then add this employee to any other departments they work in. This is the best option if the admin wants to update each employee one at a time and add them to one or more other departments. Click here for more information: Add and Remove Employees from a Department. 

The second way this can be done is to go to the department schedule that employees need to be added to, click on Employees on the left navigation bar, and then scroll down to the employees Not in this department. Then click the green Add button to the right of the employee's name that needs to be added to this department. This option is better for adding many employees to the same department. Click here for more information: Add Existing Employees to Other Departments. 

In both options above, it is important to add any positions for this employee that they will need to have in this new department. This information can also be updated on the employee's user profile. 

For more information on editing employee profiles, click here: Editing Employee Profiles


How do I know when there are requests from employees that need to be approved?

There are two main places an Admin can go to check to see if there are employee requests that need to be approved. The first is on the main Dashboard of the MakeShift web account. The Dashboard shows a count of how many requests there are from employees for available shifts, time off, and shift exchanges. Keep in mind that available shift requests and shift exchange requests are shown by department so the admin will need to switch the Dashboard view between each department to see all requests. (Time off requests show up company wide so this number will remain the same as the admin switches between departments). They can click on the number in any of the three request boxes which will redirect them to the page they need to approve these requests.

If the client is subscribed to MakeShift Live, there is a tab called Approvals which shows all requests for available shifts, time off and shift exchanges. This method makes it more obvious to admins when they have requests that need to be approved since they will receive push notifications letting them know each time a request comes in.

For more information on approving employee requests on the web, check out the following links:

  • Approving Available Shift Requests
  • Approving Shift Exchange Requests
  • Approving Time Off Requests

For more information on approving employee requests on the MakeShift Live app, check out the following links:


How do I set my labour budget?

There is a labour budget bar above every department weekly schedule. This can be set by clicking on View Details on the right side of the bar which will open up a budget view split up into days. An admin can then enter what their weekly budget is in dollars and/or hours. 

For more information about the labour budget bar, take a look at the links below:


How can staff clock in and out for breaks?

MakeShift does not currently support the ability for employees to clock in and out for breaks in the middle of a scheduled shift. However, unpaid breaks can be added to shift templates or individual shifts which will automatically subtract that time off the total hours for the day on the timesheets. Alternatively, admins can schedule multiple shifts for employees to represent the shift before the break and the shift after the break so that employees can clock in and out during these times. 


How is the rounding on the timesheets being calculated?

The MakeShift timesheets round the total hours each day based on the Timesheet & Tardiness rules that have been set up by the Location or Company Admin. Any clock in and out time outside of these rules will be rounded to the nearest minute. When an admin is reviewing timesheets for approval, they can be reminded of what these rules are by clicking on the "i" information button at top right corner of the timesheets. 

For more information on Timesheet & Tardiness Rules, click here: Timesheet & Tardiness Rules. 


How do I change the sort order of my employees on the schedule?

Employees can placed on the schedule either Alphabetically, by Start Date or Manually in any other order. To change the way employees are sorted, go to the department Profile and update this here. To sort employees manually, go to the department Employees list and drag and drop employees into a new order. 

For more information about the employee sort order on the schedule, click here: Reorder Employees on the Schedule. 


How do I see or print a master schedule of all departments?

Currently MakeShift does not have a master view of all department schedules. Individual department schedules can be printed either by day or by week. To print the department schedule by week, go to the department schedule and click the Download Schedule button at the bottom right corner of the screen. Choose Excel as the download option.

For more information about printing a weekly department schedule, click here: Print Weekly Schedule.


How do I see a daily schedule view?

The daily view of a department schedule can be found on the main MakeShift Dashboard. The schedule on the right of the screen shows a daily view of all employees scheduled to work in this department. An admin will have to switch to the Dashboard for other departments to view those daily schedules. This schedule can be printed by clicking on the Download Schedule button at the bottom of the daily schedule. Choose Excel as the download option.

A daily schedule can also be viewed within the MakeShift Live app for managers. 

For more information about printing a daily department schedule, click here: Print Daily Schedule. 


Can I set up a manager or scheduler and block them from seeing wages?

An admin can update the profile of another admin to block their access to viewing wages. They can go to the user profile of an admin and uncheck the box that says View Wages. This admin will still have full access to all other MakeShift features as well as the ability to view the labour budget bar, however they will never see wages by employee. Please keep in mind that an admin can only edit the profile of an admin who has a lower access level than them. For example, a Location Admin can edit a Department Admin's profile to hide wages from them, however they cannot make this change for other Location Admins or Company Admins. 

For more information about hiding wages, click here: Hiding Wage Access. 


My account says it's closed, how do I login?

There are a few different reasons why an admin would not be able to login due to a cancelled account. If the billing information has not been updated on an account prior to a client's trial period ending, if the credit card has expired and wasn't updated, or if a Company Admin closes the account for any reason, an admin trying to login will get the following message:

"Your Account Has Been Cancelled

An Administrator has cancelled your MakeShift account. To reactivate it, please update your company’s billing information."

If a Company Admin logins and sees this message, they will also have the option to click the blue Update Billing button to reopen the account. Location and Department Admins do not have access to billing and so it is important that they speak with their Company Admin to make sure the billing information is updated.

For more information about updating billing information, click here: Update Billing Information.