Unavailable Periods and Roster Planning
This article covers the planning side of rostering. It explains how people record when they're unavailable, how Qik warns you about clashes, how to draft a roster before anyone is notified, and how confirmations, nudges and scheduled reminders work. For the basics of rosters and assignments, see Rosters and Assignments.
Rostering needs to be enabled for your organisation. If you don't see roster options, contact support.
Unavailable periods (blockouts)
A blockout period is a stretch of time when a person can't be rostered, such as annual leave, a work trip or exam week. Each period has a Description (why they're unavailable), a start, an end and a timezone, and belongs to one person.
Adding a blockout for someone else
- Open the person's profile and go to the Availability tab.
- Click Add Blockout Period for name.
- Enter a Description, the From and To dates and times, and the Timezone.
- Save. Use the edit and delete buttons beside an existing period to change or remove it.
You need permission to edit the person's profile to add, change or remove their blockouts. If the person has written roster preferences, they appear at the top of the same tab.
People adding their own blockouts
Anyone with upcoming assignments sees a Your assignments panel on their dashboard home page. Its Availability link opens Your availability, where they can click Add blockout period, enter a description and the From and Until dates, and save. They can also Remove their own upcoming periods there. People can only manage blockouts for the profile linked to their own login.
Roster preferences
Profiles have a free-text Roster - Preferences field for softer wishes, for example "Weekday evenings only, no more than twice a month." It doesn't block anyone from being rostered. It's shown on the profile's Availability tab, and Auto roster takes it into account.
How Qik protects against clashes
When you add someone to a position, Qik checks two things first:
- Blockouts: if the person has a blockout that overlaps the event, the add is refused with "Unavailable:" followed by their description.
- Double rostering: if the person is already rostered (and hasn't declined) on another event at an overlapping time, or on a different roster at the same event, Qik reports "Already rostered as position at event".
Neither is a hard stop. When you add several people at once, any that clash are listed together, and you can choose Add anyway or Skip them.
Seeing availability on the roster
- When anyone in view has a blockout that overlaps the events on screen, the roster grid shows an Away & Unavailable section with one line per person, under the events they'll miss. Click the heading to collapse or expand it.
- When you select an empty position, the side panel lists Suggestions. People with a blockout for that event are moved to a separate n Unavailable tab, showing their reason and dates. You can still add them from there.
- A suggestion shows when the person was last and next rostered relative to this event ("Rostered 2 weeks before"). It's flagged with a warning if they're already rostered elsewhere at the same time.
Blockouts are only shown for people whose profiles you can view.
Setting up positions for planning
Positions are configured on the roster type. Open the roster's definition and go to the Roster Settings tab. Each position can have:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Description | Guidance for whoever fills the position, such as what it involves. |
| Confirmation Options | Request confirmation from the assignee (the default), or Set the assignee to confirmed by default for positions that don't need a reply. |
| Decline Options | Allow the assignee to decline (the default), or Require the assignee to swap with someone else. With the second option, anyone trying to decline is told "You can not decline position assignments", including through email links. |
| Suggest Filter | Which people to suggest for this position. |
| Require Filter | Criteria people must meet to be suggested. Suggestions, including people who have held the position before, are limited to those who match. |
| Reminders | Scheduled reminders for this position only (see below). |
The roster type itself can also have Managers, roster-wide Reminders, and an Event Relevance Filter, which marks the roster type as relevant only for events that match.
The require filter only shapes suggestions. Someone who doesn't match can still be added by searching for them by name.
Drafting a roster before notifying anyone
Assignments can be proposed (drafts). A proposed assignment shows "Draft. Not sent yet." and nobody is told about it. This lets you build several weeks of roster, adjust it, and then send it all at once.
- When there are proposed assignments in view, a numbered button appears in the roster toolbar. Open it and choose Send all n proposed to send them, or Remove n proposed to discard them.
- Once sent, each person is notified by email, app push notification and in the dashboard. Positions set to confirm by default become Confirmed straight away. Otherwise they show "Notified. Awaiting response".
- Draft assignments don't count when Qik decides whether an event has people involved. For example, they don't stop a recurring event from moving.
Auto roster
Auto roster asks Qik's AI assistant to draft open positions for you. It considers each person's blockouts, roster preferences, relationships, recent load and history, and the position's filters. It only creates proposed assignments, never sends anything, and adds a short reason to each one.
- In the roster (or Planner) view, drag across the empty slots you want filled, or ⌘/Ctrl-click them.
- Click Auto roster n positions in the toolbar or the side panel.
- Watch progress in the Auto roster window. Large selections are worked through in batches, and you can Stop at any point. When it finishes, read the Summary of what was filled and what couldn't be.
- Review the drafts, change anything you disagree with, then use Send all.
Auto roster appears only when the AI assistant is enabled for your organisation and you can create assignments. Contact support if you'd like it switched on.
Other planning shortcuts
Each roster type's cell on an event has a menu with:
- Add once-off position: a position for this event only, not added to the roster type.
- Assign a group: roster the members of a team or other group in one go.
- Save as a new group: turn the people rostered here into a group you can reuse.
- Nudge (n) unconfirmed: see below.
Use the Add Permanent Position button on a roster type's row to add a new position to the roster type.
If your organisation also uses run sheets, the Planner view shows the roster and the run sheets of the listed events together. See Run Sheets.
Confirming and declining
Each notified person gets a link in their notification email. It lets them confirm or decline without logging in. When declining, they can add a note explaining why. The link also shows their other upcoming assignments.
People who log in to the dashboard can respond from the Your assignments panel on the home page. Tapping an assignment offers Confirm, Unavailable (decline) and View Event Details.
On the roster, assignments show as Confirmed, Unavailable (with their note, if given), "Notified. Awaiting response", or Draft.
Manager notifications
When an assignment is confirmed or declined, the roster's Managers are notified by email, push and in the dashboard. If an individual roster has no managers of its own, the managers set on the roster type are used. A manager isn't notified about their own assignment, or about a change they made themselves.
Nudges and scheduled reminders
Nudge
Use Nudge (n) unconfirmed on a roster type's cell for an event to resend a reminder straight away. It goes to everyone in that cell who has been notified but hasn't confirmed or declined. Drafts aren't included. The reminder is sent by email, app push notification and in the dashboard.
Scheduled reminders
Reminders on the roster type (or on a single position) are sent automatically for every roster of that type. Each reminder has:
- Direction (Before or After) and Anchor (Event start or Event end).
- Amount and Unit (Minutes, Hours, Days or Weeks). For example, 2 Days before Event start.
- Time of Day (optional), for day or week reminders: send at a fixed time such as 9am rather than the same time as the event.
- Channels: Email, App Push Notification and/or Admin (in the dashboard).
- Extra note (optional): added to the reminder, for example parking or entry instructions.
- Positions (optional, roster-level only): limit a roster-wide reminder to certain positions.
Reminders go to people who have confirmed or are still awaiting a response. People who declined and drafts that haven't been sent don't get them, and no reminder is sent if the event has been deleted. If a position has its own reminder at the same moment as a roster-wide one, the position's reminder is sent instead, so nobody gets two.
Permissions
- Managing someone else's blockouts needs edit access to their profile. People can always manage their own.
- Adding, sending and removing assignments needs the assignment permissions for your role.
- Changing positions, reminders and managers means editing the roster type's definition, which needs definition permissions.