What is Auto-Fill?
Auto-Fill, or Automatic Shift Filling, is a powerful tool that acts as your scheduling assistant. It automates the task of assigning shifts to your team members. It considers your team's unique needs, employees' contractual availability, and various operational constraints, ensuring an optimized and compliant schedule.
Before You Begin
To maximize the effectiveness of Soon's Auto-Fill feature, it's essential to carry out several initial steps:
Ensure "Can edit" Access on the schedule Board:
Verify that you have "Can edit" access rights to the Board. This level of access is essential for setting up and modifying schedules.
Create Events with Role Requirements:
Set up Events on the Board for future dates and indicate the required number of people for each role. Watch the video below for guidance on how to do this. Note that the Auto-Fill feature cannot fill Events in the past.
Add Users to the Board:
Make sure all relevant team members are added to the Board. Users marked as "Not visible" cannot be considered by the Auto-scheduler. To add users, navigate to the Board, then go to "Settings" → "Users" and click on "+ Add Users".
Review and Adjust User Contract Values:
Go over each user's contract details, including their working days, minimum and maximum hours per day, week, and month, as well as their hourly cost and availability time zone. Accurate information here is crucial for effective scheduling. To update user contracts, navigate to "Menu" → "Users" → "Team" and click on the desired user's profile. Visit our dedicated help documentation to learn more about updating user contract settings.
Assign Applicable Roles to Users:
Ensure that users are assigned to roles that match their skills and job responsibilities, as this facilitates effective shift allocation by the Auto-scheduler. To assign roles to team members, navigate to "Menu" → "Users" → "Roles".
If you're new to Soon, you may want to familiarize yourself with the basics by visiting our "Getting Started with Soon" guide.
Step-by-Step Guide
To automatically assign events on the Board to your team members, click the "Auto-Fill" button located at the bottom left of the Board. Look for the 🪄 (magic wand) icon, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + F. This will open the Auto-Fill setup menu.
Step 1: Solver settings
First, you select the date range for which you want to Auto-Fill the schedule. Only events in this period will be considered. In the next step, you can choose if you want to fill all or only specific events within the period.
Second, you must define your optimization goal. This sets the outcome that you find most important. There are always many different configurations that the scheduler can make; the goal is to decide what the absolute best result looks like in your case.
Step 2: Select events
In this step, you'll see a list of all events that fall within the period you defined earlier. By default, all events within this period with available seats are selected, as all those still need to have employees assigned to them. You can deselect the events you don't want to auto-schedule by clicking on the list items or directly on the event cards on the Board itself. You need to select at least one event to move forward. To be eligible for auto-filling, events must meet certain criteria:
Events should be scheduled for a future date. This includes both published and unpublished events.
Events that have already begun are not eligible for auto-filling as they exist partially in the past.
Events must at least have one defined role (even a "no role") with set values for the minimum and maximum required number of people. Watch this video for guidance on how to do this.
The maximum required number of people has not been reached yet (there should be empty seats to be filled).
Step 3: Select people
Now, select which users the Auto-scheduler should consider. By default, all listed users are selected. You can use the search function to easily find and deselect any users you don't want the Auto-scheduler to consider. There's no need to worry about their contractual availability or any other potential conflict at this stage, as that will be handled in the next step when you set up constraints. Remember, you need to have at least one user selected to continue. The following users are eligible for selection:
Users who are added to the board.
Users who are not marked as "Not visible" on the board.
Users that have the "active", "invited", or "created" status. Users with the "deactivated" are not listed.
Step 4: Set constraints
The final step is to select the rules the auto-scheduler should adhere to. The system will respect the constraints you set, avoiding any conflicts or unsuitable outcomes. This flexibility allows you to enable or disable constraints according to your needs. Note that a schedule is more likely to be feasible if all constraints are turned off, and less likely if all are active.
There are essential constraints that are always enabled, acting as the backbone of effective scheduling. These include:
Ensuring the number of people scheduled for each event does not exceed the maximum required.
Preventing users from being scheduled for overlapping events, considering events across all boards.
Guaranteeing each person is only assigned to an event once, thus avoiding duplicate assignments.
Additionally, pre-solver data checks are in place to help you ensure your inputs are correct, making the auto-fill feature usable without any prior WFM or tool experience.
Once you're set, press the "Start solver" button 🎉 and relax. In just a blink, you'll have the best schedule ever, magically whipped up by our algorithm – faster than a rabbit pulled out of a hat! 🎩✨🐰
Results and Adjustments
After the Solver is done, the Auto-scheduler will present a proposed schedule. People assigned through the auto-fill process are highlighted in purple boxes. Upon completion, you will have the following options:
Accept the proposed schedule
Manually modify the proposed schedule
Discard the proposed schedule
💡 Tip: use the hours overview to view the distribution of scheduled hours across the team for each week when reviewing the results. This feature is useful for understanding team workload distribution.
At times, the Auto-scheduler might encounter an infeasible solution or leave the schedule empty. This could be due to several reasons, such as a lack of available team members or too restrictive constraints. For guidance on addressing these issues, please take a look at our troubleshooting guide and results explained guide.
Our support team is always ready to assist if you need additional help or have questions. Wishing you a successful and seamless scheduling experience with Soon!
Have Feedback for Us?
Your feedback is crucial to us as we strive towards creating a more refined and customizable Auto-Fill experience. We welcome your thoughts and suggestions - feel free to share them by taking our survey, emailing us, or reaching out directly through our in-app chat. Your input helps us make Auto-Fill better for everyone!
Frequently Asked Questions
What plan is needed for the Auto-Fill feature?
Auto-Fill is available on all paid plans and in the free trial. The Business plan is required for more advanced objectives and constraints. Custom constraints tailored to your team are offered to Enterprise customers.
Does the Auto-Scheduler consider events not selected by me?
Yes, the Auto-Scheduler includes all existing events / already scheduled shifts that don't need filling from all boards in its consideration. This ensures an optimized and compliant schedule by taking into account the full context of current schedules and commitments.
How do I update user contract details for Auto-Fill?
To update user contracts, navigate to "Menu" → "Users" → "Team", and click on a user profile. Similarly, on a Board, go to "Settings" → "Users" and select a user. Visit our dedicated help article to learn more about updating user contract settings.
Are Auto-Fill results automatically applied?
No, the schedule isn't automatically applied. First, you have the opportunity to review and tweak it. If it looks good, you can finalize it by clicking the "Update" button, marked with a green checkmark icon. This action will save your changes for any events that haven't been published yet and will automatically update those that have already been published.
How quickly will I see Auto-Fill results?
Typically, results from Auto-Fill are generated in a matter of seconds. However, for schedules with greater complexity, it might take a little longer, possibly a minute or more, to ensure the most efficient and accurate scheduling outcome.
What's the maximum scheduling period for Auto-Fill?
There's no strict limit, but typically teams schedule between 1-2 weeks and up to 8-9 weeks ahead.
Can I or other admins update the schedule while Auto-Fill is active?
While in Auto-Fill mode, neither you nor other admins with "Can edit" Board access can change the schedule. This is to maintain accuracy, as the Board becomes temporarily locked to prevent any modifications during the Auto-Filling process.
Can the Auto-Scheduler manage various time zones?
Absolutely, the Auto-Scheduler is designed to handle different time zones seamlessly. It considers the event's time zone, the user's leave request time zone, and the user's contractual availability time zone. It consistently evaluates schedules from the perspective of the user's availability time zone, ensuring precise and fair scheduling, which is crucial for teams operating in multiple time zones.
How are hours calculated when a shift spans different days, weeks, or months?
The shift's hours are allocated to the respective days, weeks, and months within the user's time zone. Any unpaid breaks are deducted proportionally.
Can I use other parts of the Soon while the Auto-Fill is in progress?
Certainly, you can use other parts of Soon or even close the app while Auto-Fill is in progress. The results will be displayed when they're ready, and you can decide whether to apply or discard the auto-schedule at your convenience.