Schedule on-call shifts

You can add a shift occurrence to the schedule by clicking the Add Shift button from any of the on-call groups tabs. When you add a shift occurrence you can specify the start, duration, and how often it recurs (to create a series). This occurrence is associated with your time zone in xMatters (for example, if your time zone is '(UTC-0800) US/Pacific', that's also the time zone of the shift).

You can also add a shift occurrence by drawing it directly on the calendar. For more information about adding a shift occurrence in the calendar view, see Add a shift by drawing on the calendar.

To add a shift occurrence or series to the schedule:

1. Click the Add Shift button.
2. Type the name of the shift occurrence in the Name field, and an optional description in the Description field.
3. To set the duration of the first, or original shift occurrence, click in the Start and End date and time fields to adjust the date and time the occurrence starts and ends.
   • You cannot choose a start date earlier than the current date.
   • The Create Shift screen will indicate if you have specified a shift occurrence that is longer than 24 hours.

4. Create a series by adjusting the shift recurrence settings. For more information about working with shift recurrence options, see Advanced shift recurrence options.
5. Click Save.

The shift occurrence or series you just created does not contain any members. To add members to your shift and adjust the escalation timeline, see Escalate alerts within a shift.

Copying a shift occurrence or series allows you to create a new shift that has the same members, escalations, and rotation rules as the original shift. This enables you to more easily build out the shift schedule without having to re-enter the same member information every time you create a new shift.

When you copy an active shift occurrence or series, the newly-created shift includes the same members, escalation rules, and rotation rules (for alert- or schedule-based rotations) as the original shift, and is active all the time. Shift-based rotations are based on the newly-created shift (not the original shift). 

If you copy an unscheduled (expired) shift occurrence or series, xMatters creates a new default shift that has the same members but does not copy other information.

To copy a shift occurrence or series:

1. From the Schedule tab, click Shifts.
2. Locate the occurrence or series you want to replicate.
   • The Shifts tab contains either a single list of active shifts, or tabs for Scheduled and Unscheduled Shifts.
   • You can copy active scheduled shifts and unscheduled shifts.

3. Click Copy Shift.

4. Type a name and description for the shift, and then click Copy Shift. xMatters creates a new shift.

You can delete an entire shift series to remove it from the on-call group. When this happens, any members that do not belong to other shifts are also removed from the group.

To delete a shift series from the Shifts tab:

1. Click the Shifts tab.
2. Locate the shift series you want to delete, and then click the gear icon next to its details in the left pane.

3. Select Delete Shift.

To delete a shift series from the Calendar view:

1. Locate the shift series in the calendar view and click the name.
2. Click Delete Series.
3. In the pop-up window that appears, click Delete Series.

You can delete a single shift occurrence from a shift series. Deleting an occurrence does not affect the rest of the series, or change its recurrence schedule.

To delete a shift occurrence:

1. On an on-call group's Calendar tab, locate the shift occurrence you want to delete.
2. Click the occurrence to display its details, and then click Delete Occurrence.
3. Click Delete to delete the occurrence.

If the time at which a deleted occurrence was originally scheduled for has not already passed, you can restore it.

To restore a deleted shift occurrence:

You can edit the name and description of a shift occurrence or series to make it easier to understand how xMatters shift schedule correspond to your organization's shift schedule. The on-call group interface allows you to modify a shift name and description from the shifts tab. You can also modify the shift name (but not the description) from the calendar tab.

To edit the name and description of a shift occurrence or series from the Shifts tab:

1. Click the Shifts tab.
2. Click the shift occurrence or series that you want to edit.

3. To edit the shift name, click the shift name, and then type a new name.
4. To edit the shift description, click the shift description, and then type a new description.

To edit the name of a shift occurrence or series from the Calendar tab:

1. On the Calendar tab, click the shift that you want to edit.
2. In the displayed dialog, click the shift name and type the new name of the shift.

Once you have created a shift occurrence you can adjust its start and end times and repeating pattern (to create a series), to reflect your organization's real-world shift schedule.

To adjust the occurrence or series duration from the Shifts tab:

1. Click the Shifts tab.
2. Locate the shift occurrence or series you want to adjust, and then click the gear icon next to its details in the left pane.
3. Select Edit Shift.

4. To adjust the start time of the shift, click the calendar icon in the Shift Start area, and then select the date and time at which the shift starts.
   1. You cannot edit the Shift Start to a start date earlier than the current date.
5. To adjust the end time of the shift, click the calendar icon in the End Date area, and then select the date and time at which the shift ends.
6. Verify the shift start and end date. Default shifts end at 00:00 on the day after the start date; if you are adjusting a default shift you may need to adjust the day as well as the time.
7. Click Save.
   1. Changes to the shift duration will apply to the entire series. You can change the duration of a single shift occurrence from the calendar tab.

You can also edit the shift occurrence duration by clicking the shift time frame summary link below the name and description of the selected occurrence on the Shifts tab:

You can create a shift series by configuring a shift occurrence to recur on a regular basis. This enables you easily replicate a real-world shift schedule, instead of creating multiple one-time shift occurrences.

xMatters provides many options for defining shift recurrences. For more information about working with these advanced recurrence options, see Advanced shift recurrence options.

To adjust shift recurrence options from the calendar view:

1. Click the Calendar tab.
2. Locate the shift occurrence or series on the calendar, and then click the shift area.

3. To edit the shift recurrence, click Edit Series. The Edit Series dialog opens.

4. Adjust the values in the Edit Series dialog to reflect your shift options. For more information about working with shift recurrence options, see Advanced shift recurrence options.
5. Click Save.

You can configure shifts to be off duty on holidays such as civic holidays and special events. When a shift is not on call on holidays, shift members do not receive notifications sent on holidays during the specified holiday hours. After you configure a shift to be off-duty on holidays, you may want to create a separate holiday shift to handle holiday notifications. To learn more about how to configure on-call group holidays, see Schedule holiday shifts.

To set a shift to be off duty on holidays:

1. Click the Calendar tab.
2. Locate the shift on the calendar and click it.
3. In the pop-up dialog box, in the area that describes the current holiday settings, click Edit.
   1. Holiday information is displayed only when the on-call group is configured to use site holidays. For more information about setting site holidays for a group, see Site to use for holidays.

4. Clear the On Call On Holidays check box.
5. To ensure the shift remains off-duty for the entire duration of the holiday, set the start time to 00:00 and set the duration to 24:00.
   1. You can set a different start time and duration to make the shift off-duty during part of a holiday but remain active for all of its regular schedule that is not within those hours. For example, if you have a shift that is regularly on-duty from 8 AM to 5 PM and you set it to be off duty on holidays from 8 AM to noon, then the shift will still be on-duty on holidays from noon to 5 PM.

6. Click Save.

Empty shifts do not contain any members. When a notification is sent to an on-call group with an empty shift, there are no members assigned to receive the notification (members of other active shifts may still receive the notification). Shifts may be empty when they are initially created or may become empty when you adjust the roster.

The calendar displays empty shifts with a dashed border, allowing you to quickly identify shifts without any members and adjust the roster so that their corresponding time frame is covered.

The calendar view allows you to identify empty areas that are not covered by any shift. If a notification is sent to an on-call group at a time when it does not have an active shift, group members are unable to receive the notification.

When the Highlight Gaps check box is selected, gaps in the calendar are displayed with a dashed border and red striped background. You can then adjust the surrounding shifts to cover this gap or click the highlighted area to add a new shift that covers the missing time.

The following image displays the weekly view of a calendar that contains several shifts. There is a gap in coverage on Sunday and Monday.

Selecting the Highlight Gaps check box highlights the gaps in the calendar coverage.

To view time frames not covered by a shift:

1. Click the Calendar tab.
2. Select the Highlight Gaps check box.
   1. Timeframes that are not covered by a shift are displayed with a dashed border and a red diagonally-striped background.
3. Click a highlighted are to create a shift that covers the empty time frame.

For more about creating a holiday shift, see Schedule holiday shifts.

Unscheduled shifts are recurring shifts that have passed their "End By" date and are not scheduled to occur again. A recurring shift with an end date becomes unscheduled after midnight on the date specified in the recurrence settings, even if the shift does not occur on that day. If your on-call group contains one or more unscheduled shifts, the Shifts tab displays an option to view either a list of scheduled or unscheduled shifts. Note: Recurring shifts that are set to end after a specific number of occurrences do not become unscheduled; they are always included in the Scheduled list even if there will not be any more occurrences.

You can edit an unscheduled shift to reschedule it again in the future, or you can copy an unscheduled shift to create a new scheduled shift with a 24x7 time frame using the same group membership. You can also delete unscheduled shifts to remove them from the list of unscheduled shifts.

Edit an unscheduled shift

To edit an unscheduled shift, select Edit Shift from the shift's Settings menu (the gear icon) or click the shift time frame summary link below the name and description of the selected shift on the Shifts tab:

Copy or delete an unscheduled shift

Copying and deleting unscheduled shifts use the same workflow as regular shifts. For more information on copying or deleting shifts, see Copy a shift or Delete a shift.