Best practices and tips for managing schedules

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Use scheduling in Zendesk Workforce Management (WFM) to build draft schedules, test changes, and publish coverage plans for your teams. This article provides best practices and tips for managing schedules so you can keep your schedules accurate and make changes with confidence.</p>
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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Use scheduling to create and test draft schedules without affecting agents, revert to published versions, and export/import schedules for backup. Copy schedules to save time. When managing schedules, remember CSV imports replace shifts, review time off entries to avoid duplicates, use overtime for extra coverage, set weekly hours carefully, and understand time off auto-approval rules and cancellation policies to maintain accurate scheduling and reporting.</p>
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<p class="p">Use scheduling in Zendesk Workforce Management (WFM) to build draft schedules, test changes,
and publish coverage plans for your teams. This article provides best practices and tips for
managing schedules so you can keep your schedules accurate and make changes with
confidence.</p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ygn_ctx_hjc">Tips for testing schedules</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_dtp_dtx_hjc">Best practices for managing
schedules</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="p">Related articles:</p>
<ul class="ul">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9858048119194" target="_blank">Understanding WFM forecasting</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6443407875354" target="_blank">Setting up WFM forecasting</a></li>
</ul>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ygn_ctx_hjc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Tips for testing schedules</h2>
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<p class="p">Use these tips to test your draft and published schedules:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ygn_ctx_hjc__ul_j1x_x3n_kjc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Experiment with draft schedules.</strong> Draft schedules let you experiment without
affecting agents because agents don’t see draft changes until you publish them. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6443348279194#topic_jtc_ds5_zzb" target="_blank">Publishing the schedule</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Revert to the last published version.</strong> You can revert a draft schedule to its last
published state. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6443348279194#topic_khv_fnm_bgc" target="_blank">Reverting published changes</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Export and reimport schedules.</strong> You can export a schedule to CSV and import it
later if you need to restore or reuse it. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6443377641754#topic-1__section_fgx_jhb_1dc" target="_blank">Exporting a schedule</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Duplicate schedules to save time.</strong> You can copy an entire week of scheduled shifts
for your whole team or for a specific group of agents. You can also copy one agent’s week
to another agent. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9474004874010" target="_blank">Duplicating agent schedules</a>.</li>
</ul>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_dtp_dtx_hjc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Best practices for managing schedules</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Keep these best practices in mind when managing schedules in WFM:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_dtp_dtx_hjc__ul_y4f_fjn_kjc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">CSV imports replace shifts</strong> for the listed agents within the date range in the
file. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6443377641754#topic-1__section_bgx_jhb_1dc" target="_blank">About importing a schedule</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Review time off entries before importing.</strong> Time off entries aren’t overwritten
during import and can stack if they overlap or are duplicated, which can affect your
reporting. Unless you intend to import time off, make sure your CSV file doesn’t include
time off entries.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Use overtime for extra coverage.</strong> Add overtime when you need extra coverage for a
workstream and agents need to work outside of their normal schedule. You can create an
overtime general task or unified status and map it to a workstream so agents remain in
adherence while working extra hours where needed. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6443365957274#topic_dfm_5gc_v1c" target="_blank">Adding a task</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Set weekly hours carefully.</strong> For the weekly working hours setting in your
location’s automatic shift requirements, set the minimum and maximum number of hours an
agent should be scheduled each week. This value represents the total scheduled shift
length, regardless of the amount of unpaid time within a shift. For example, if agents
work five days a week with nine-hour shifts that include a one-hour lunch, set the maximum
value to 45 hours. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6443345205402#topic_z3b_jff_b1c" target="_blank">Creating automatic shifts</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Understand how time off auto-approval works.</strong> Time off auto-approval rules apply
to a team, but they check for existing time off across the entire WFM pool. For example, a
rule for Team A that approves time off when fewer than 10 people have time off in a week,
checks approved time off requests for all agents, not just agents on Team A. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/7274654710042" target="_blank">Creating automatic approval rules for time off requests</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Check all applicable rules for agents on multiple teams.</strong> When an agent is part of
multiple teams, time off auto-approval checks all relevant rules. Time off is
auto-approved only if all rules pass.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Keep in mind that agents can cancel pending or approved time off requests</strong> anytime
before the time off starts, whether the request is approved or still pending. This action
doesn’t require manager approval. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6443360882586#topic_aht_z5l_3hc" target="_blank">Cancelling a time off request</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Review deleted time off entries in the audit log.</strong> Time off entries that a manager
deletes from the Schedule page don't appear in the Time off management page. Information
about those entries remains available in the WFM audit log. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6641426375066" target="_blank">Viewing the WFM audit log for changes</a>.</li>
</ul>
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