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Shift Swaps

Swap shifts with colleagues when you need to change your schedule. Swaps require agreement from the other employee. On most days the system auto-approves the swap as soon as the other employee accepts — your supervisor only steps in if a working-time rule is in the way.

If you just want to give a shift away (no exchange needed), use Shift Offers instead.

Requesting a Swap​

  1. Go to your Schedule.
  2. Find the shift you want to swap.
  3. Click Swap.
  4. Browse available shifts from colleagues at your location.
  5. Select the target shift and click Swap with.
  6. A request is sent to the other employee.

Requirements​

Before you can request a swap, make sure the following conditions are met:

  • Both shifts must be published.
  • Both shifts must be at the same location.
  • Neither shift can be in the past.
  • You cannot have a pending swap on the same shift.

Responding to Incoming Swaps​

When someone wants to swap a shift with you:

  1. Open the Swap Requests section.
  2. Go to the Incoming tab.
  3. Review the proposed swap details (date, time, location).
  4. Click Accept to agree, or Reject to decline.

After Acceptance​

The moment the other employee clicks Accept, the system runs a compliance check on both employees in their post-swap shifts:

  • If everything passes, the swap auto-approves immediately. Both shifts are reassigned, and you both get a "swap approved" notification. No supervisor click needed.
  • If a working-time rule is flagged (rest period, weekly rest day, etc.), the swap pauses at "Accepted" and your supervisor reviews — they can either override and approve, or reject.
  • If the swap would create an overlap with one of the other employee's existing shifts, the Accept call returns an immediate error and the swap stays in "Pending". Overlap can never be approved (one person can't work two places at once), so the system fails fast instead of escalating to a supervisor.

If your supervisor rejects, both employees are notified with the reason.

Status Flow​

A swap request moves through these stages:

  1. Pending — waiting for the other employee to respond.
  2. Accepted — the other employee agreed but a working-time rule was flagged; the swap is parked for supervisor review. (You'll usually skip this state — clean swaps go straight from Pending to Approved.)
  3. Approved — the swap is complete and both schedules are updated.

At any point, a swap may also be Rejected or Cancelled.

Cancelling a Swap​

You can cancel your own swap requests while they are still in Pending status. Once the other employee has accepted, cancellation is no longer available.

When the Underlying Shift Changes​

If a manager cancels, reschedules, or reassigns a shift that's part of an active swap (yours or anyone else's), the swap auto-cancels. You'll get a "Swap auto-cancelled — the shift changed" notification, and the swap row in /shift-swaps shows the same note in amber under the status badge so you can see the cause. There's nothing to do on your end — just request a new swap if you still want to trade.

Locked Payroll Periods Block Swaps​

If either shift in a swap falls in a payroll period that's been locked or exported (managers run payroll on the period, then close it), the swap can't be approved — the period is the official record sent to payroll, and changing it after the fact would corrupt the books. You'll see a clear error message naming the locked period if you try. Wait for the manager to unlock the period (rare) or hold the swap for a future, unlocked period.