Fill out or edit a Shifts schedule in Excel

Entering or changing your Shifts schedule in Excel and then importing it to the Shifts app can speed your work, particularly if you manage a large team. And because the members of your team are automatically added to the Excel template before you begin, assigning workers to shifts is a breeze.

Overview

There are three main steps to working in Excel: export the team members and schedule from Shifts, edit the Excel workbook, and import the workbook back into Shifts. The exported workbook will contain the team members and their emails, and any existing shifts within the time period you choose.

If you're starting with a blank schedule, you'll need to add people to the schedule before you export it to Excel. For instructions, see "Organize shifts by group" and "Add people to the schedule" in Fill out a schedule in Shifts.

What about import errors?

If the workbook contains errors when you import it, Shifts returns it to you with the errors clearly indicated, as well as instructions for fixing them.

Export a Shifts schedule for editing in Excel

This procedure creates an import-compatible Excel workbook for your edits.

In the Shifts app, go to the team schedule you want to edit.
Go to More options at the top right of the Schedule page, and then select Export schedule.
Choose the start and end dates for the timeframe you want to work on.
Under End date, select Generate a report compatible for import, and then select Export.

Note: Open (unassigned) shifts aren't currently exported in the workbook. Only assigned shifts will appear.

Edit a Shifts schedule in Excel

Open the Excel workbook you exported from Shifts.
Select Enable Editing at the top of the page. You can either work directly in the exported file, or use Save as to create a second copy of the file for editing.
Read the Instructions page in the file, and see The Excel template for Shifts. These resources will help you avoid common import errors.
Make your changes and additions on the Shifts and Day Notes sheets and save your work.

Note: The maximum number of shifts you can import per file is 10,000. Use a second file to import more shifts.

Import a Shifts schedule to the Shifts app

In the Shifts app, go to the page that shows the team schedule you've edited in Excel.
Go to More options at the top right of the Schedule page, and then select Import schedule.
Select Upload file, navigate to the edited Excel file, and select Open.

When the import is complete you'll see one of the following:

A message informing you that the import was successful. (You get to skip the next section of this article!)
A message directing you to download an Excel error file that will help you find and fix the issues.

View and correct import errors

Open the error file from your Downloads directory. Its name will end with "error".
Go to the Errors worksheet.

Each line of the sheet shows the location of an error and what needs to be corrected.
Go to the Shifts sheet and correct the errors. The error locations will be red.

In this case, the Shift Start Date was accidentally entered as 7/30, which resulted in a shift longer than 24 hours. The manager would then change the date to 7/31.
When you're done correcting errors, import the workbook to Shifts again.