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Two controllers agree a swap. Then what?

In most organisations the answer is a form, a supervisor, and a spreadsheet. Here it is 24 checks that run at once. The engine does not stop at the first failure: it reports every rule that would be broken, so the person asking finds out everything in one go rather than one refusal at a time.

Try a swap

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It doesn't stop at the first broken rule.

Two controllers propose to trade shifts. SkyRoster runs 24 automated checks against the trade: qualifications, rest, overtime, allowances, team and unit membership. It does not stop at the first one that fails; it reports every broken rule at once. Pick a scenario below, or set the qualifications, shifts and duty pattern yourself and press Check this swap.

Turn on JavaScript to change these controllers, dates and duty patterns. The worked example below already shows every check.

Controller A
Shift
Controller B
Shift

Allowed: all 24 checks passed.

Roster integrity

The two sides of the swap have to be a coherent, exchangeable pair in the first place.

3 passed

  • Pass
    Blocks aligned

    Both blocks are the same length and cover the same dates.

  • Pass
    Same roster

    All shifts belong to the same published roster.

  • Pass
    Shifts must differ

    The two sides differ in date, shift type or qualification.

Eligibility and qualifications

Both employees must actually be allowed to work the shift they are about to receive.

2 passed · 2 not applicable

Organisation and team

A swap cannot move work across an organisational boundary the employee does not belong to.

1 passed · 2 not applicable

  • Not applicable
    Same employee category

    Both fictional controllers are modelled as the same employee category.

  • Not applicable
    Team membership

    Neither shift here is bound to a specific team.

  • Pass
    Unit membership

    Both employees hold membership in the unit of every shift they receive.

Fatigue and rest

The resulting schedule still has to be safe to work.

2 passed

Absence and conflicting requests

The shifts must not already be spoken for by leave, duty, or another pending request.

4 passed

Pay, allowance and limits

A swap must not quietly move money, banked hours, or monthly quotas between two people.

1 passed · 7 not applicable

Both controllers here are fictional, and so are their shifts and duty patterns. No customer data appears anywhere on this site.

The part that is not on this page

Approval is separate

Passing every check means the swap is legal, not that it is automatically approved. Whether it needs a supervisor, and how many steps that takes, is configured per request type in your instance.

Hours follow the shift

A swap moves banked hours and overtime entitlement with it. That accounting is the least visible part of swapping and the part that causes the most disputes when it is done on paper.

The controllers are invented

Every name, shift and qualification on this page is fabricated. No customer data appears anywhere on this site.

Your swap rules are not these swap rules.

Every organisation has its own constraints on who may swap with whom and when. Bring yours to a working session and we will show you which of these checks map onto them and which would need a new rule.

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