Shift Change Request
A single day's exception to the roster. The man works a different shift on that one date, or has it off, and the crew's rotation is left exactly as it was.
What it is for
The Shift Roster says what a day normally is. This says what one particular day actually is.
That distinction is the whole value of the screen. A supervisor who agrees on Tuesday that two men will swap shifts has two ways to record it. He can go and change the roster, which moves the crew's rotation for everybody and every date after it, and nobody will notice until the month end figures are wrong. Or he can raise this request, which changes one man on one date and leaves the pattern alone.
Use it for a client who binds each man to a shift and wants a request and an approval whenever that changes. For such a client this is the only way a shift moves, and the roster becomes something only HR touches.
Do not use it where the shift change is permanent or affects a crew. A man moved to nights for three months is a change to the Shift Roster, not ninety of these requests.
A day is either worked on a different shift or it is off. Exactly one of the two, because both at once means nothing and neither leaves the day unchanged.
Where the change is a swap, name the other man in Covered By. It is optional, because a shift change is often just a change rather than a trade, but on a genuine swap it is what lets anybody reading the two requests see that they belong together. Each man still needs his own request. One request never changes two people's days.
Every field, in plain words
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transaction | The document number. | Fills itself. Leave it. | |
| Employee | Whose day is changing. | EMP-0142 | Required. Pick from the list. One request, one man. |
| Name | Their name. | Imran Shahid | Fills itself. Leave it. |
| Transaction Date | The one date being changed. | 18-Mar-2026 | Required. This is the day itself, not the day the request was typed. Only one date per request. |
| Time Template | The shift he is to work on that date instead of his normal one. | The afternoon shift, 16:00 to 00:00 | Pick from the list. Fill this or tick Off Day, never both and never neither. |
| Name | The shift's name. | Fills itself. Leave it. | |
| Off Day | Tick when the day is to be off rather than worked on a different shift. | Ticked for a day off | Leave Time Template empty when this is ticked. |
| Covered By | The other man in a swap, who is taking this one's shift. | EMP-0151, Naveed Akhtar | Optional. Fill it on a swap so the pair can be seen together. He needs his own request for his own changed day. |
| Covered By Name | That person's name. | Fills itself. Leave it. | |
| Remarks | Why the change was agreed. | Swap with Naveed Akhtar, family function. Agreed with shift in-charge | Write something. A day moved with no reason on it is the thing that gets questioned at the month end. |
How to configure it
- Make sure the man has a normal shift to change. A person with no Shift Roster line has no shift for the request to be an exception to.
- Set up the approval so the request reaches the person who is allowed to agree a shift change, usually the shift in-charge or the department head.
- Open the screen, pick the Employee and set Transaction Date to the day being changed.
- Either pick the Time Template he will work instead, or tick Off Day. One of the two.
- On a swap, name the other man in Covered By and raise his request too.
- Write the reason in Remarks and save.
- Get it approved before the day where that is possible, because the day's attendance is judged against whatever shift applies when it is judged.
- Check the day on Employee Attandance afterwards and confirm the schedule shown is the one from the request.
Scenarios
"Each man is tied to one shift and it must be requested when it changes"
This is that client's screen. Build the shifts on Shift Pattern, assign them once on Shift Roster, then let every exception come through here with an approval. HR stops editing rosters and the month end figures stay explainable.
"Two men want to swap Saturday"
Two requests. Imran's names the afternoon shift with Naveed in Covered By. Naveed's names the morning shift with Imran in Covered By. Both approved, and the roster is untouched.
"Nobody is tied to a shift, men turn up for whichever one needs them"
Then this screen is the wrong tool and so is a request for every day. A client who works that way wants the shift recorded as worked rather than requested in advance, which is a Shift Roster question and a reporting one, not an approval one.
"He is moving to nights from April"
Change the Shift Roster. Put a Date To on his current roster line and add him to the night crew's roster from the first of April. Do not raise a request per day.
"The request was approved and the day still shows the old shift"
Look at the date on the request. A request dated the day it was typed rather than the day being changed changes the wrong day, and it is the commonest mistake on this screen.
What it is connected to
- The Shift Roster supplies the shift the request is an exception to, and is where a permanent change belongs.
- The Shift Pattern and the time templates behind it are what the request picks from.
- Employee Attandance shows the changed schedule on the day, and the day's late, early and absent marks are judged against the new shift rather than the old one.
- Payroll Attendance counts what attendance says, so a shift change approved after the sheet was made needs the sheet remaking.
- An On Duty Request is the document for a day worked away from the site. A shift change is for a day worked at the site on different hours.
If something looks wrong
- "It will not save" - Employee or Transaction Date is empty, or neither a Time Template nor Off Day was set, or both were. Exactly one of the two is needed.
- "It says a request already exists" - there is another request for the same man on the same date. One exception per man per day.
- "The wrong day changed" - Transaction Date is the date being changed. It was filled with the date the request was typed.
- "His crew's rotation has moved" - somebody changed the Shift Roster instead of raising a request. Put the roster back and use this screen for the one day.
- "The day shows late although he worked the agreed hours" - the request was not approved, so the day was judged against his normal shift.
- "The payslip does not reflect it" - the Payroll Attendance sheet predates the approval. Remake it.