This example walks through generating a new schedule automatically for a customer support team. It illustrates how to configure the date range and people selection, and explains what happens during and after the generation process.
For full reference documentation, see Auto Scheduling.
Scenario
A new two-week schedule needs to be created for a customer support team handling Voice and Chat queues. The team works Monday through Friday across two shift windows: an early shift starting at 07:00 and a late shift starting at 14:00. A forecast is available for both queues and covers the full scheduling period plus one additional day.
Before starting, the supervisor has already pinned manually assigned training sessions and one-on-one meetings in the schedule to prevent them from being moved during generation. Vacation and sick leave elements are already in place and do not need to be pinned.
Configuring the Generate Schedule Panel
Click Generate Schedule and configure the date range as follows:
|
Field |
Value |
Reason |
|---|---|---|
|
Date from |
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Start of the first Monday in the scheduling period. |
|
Date to |
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End of the second week. The range covers exactly two weeks as defined by the work plan. |
Maximum schedule length: The schedule date range cannot exceed 12 weeks. If the range is longer, the Generate button remains inactive.
Selecting People
In the Available People section, filter and select people as follows:
|
Field |
Value |
|---|---|
|
Teams |
|
|
Queues |
|
|
Selected people |
|
People without a work plan assigned are skipped automatically. Their manually assigned activities remain in the schedule and are not overwritten.
Configuring Advanced Settings
Click Advanced in the top-right corner of the panel to expand the advanced settings. Configure the following:
|
Field |
Value |
Reason |
|---|---|---|
|
Minimal Coverage per Queue – Voice |
|
Ensures the Voice queue is staffed to at least 80% of forecast demand during each time interval. |
|
Minimal Coverage per Queue – Chat |
|
Chat is a secondary queue for this team. A lower minimum is acceptable. |
Running the Generation
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Review all settings in the Generate Schedule panel.
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Click Generate. The schedule is saved automatically before the process starts. The screen title changes from Create New Schedule to View Schedule, and the schedule enters view-only mode.
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Wait for the Auto Scheduling in progress icon to disappear from the Scheduling Studio screen.
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Review the generated schedule and make any final manual adjustments.
Basic settings are locked after generation: Once Generate is clicked, the selected queues and schedule date range can no longer be changed. If corrections are needed, update the existing schedule rather than creating a new one for the same date range.
Key Points Illustrated by This Example
This example demonstrates several non-obvious behaviors described in the Auto Scheduling reference page:
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A forecast is required when two or more Voice queues are included. For schedules with a single Voice queue or Chat and Email queues only, a forecast is not needed. If the requirement is not met, the Generate Schedule button remains inactive.
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Only people with a work plan assigned are included in generation. People without a work plan are skipped. Their existing manually assigned activities are preserved and not overwritten.
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Pinned activities are never moved or deleted. Training sessions, meetings, and one-on-one elements that are pinned before generation stay in place. Unpinned non-productive activities may be moved to a better time within the same shift, but are not deleted.
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The schedule is saved before generation starts. Clicking Generate triggers an automatic save. From that point, the basic schedule settings cannot be changed. Corrections should be made to the existing schedule rather than by creating a duplicate.
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The forecast must cover one day beyond the schedule end date. An extra day is added automatically at the end of the schedule to display night shifts that end after midnight. The forecast must cover this additional day.