Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Team Management & Scheduling!

[Tom]

On January 28th, we hosted a Square Team Management & Scheduling Live Q&A!

@seiderman is the product manager on Square Team Management, focused specifically on scheduling, timecards, and the Square Team app. Having worked at Square for 6+ years, he’s experienced in working directly with sellers on how they can use Square to improve their team operations. While passionate about all things Square and Team Management, he still finds time to indulge in other hobbies including video games, working out, and playing with his 7yr old cocker spaniel / lab mix dog.

A few example questions:

• How can I use shift scheduling to improve my labor cost margins?
• How can I share the schedule out with my team?
• Is there a way to test out the paid scheduling features?

[MtnHigh]

I have 1 suggestion and 1 question. It would be nice to be able to select which days the employee's are not available to work and have those days automatically blocked out. And is it possible to print the schedule? I would like to be able to post it. Thank you for the great addition to the service.

[seiderman]

Hi MtnHigh, thanks for the question! Today, team members are able to update their recurring availability in the Square Team App, available for iOS and Android. You also have the ability to update availability on your team’s behalf in the Timecards section of your Square Dashboard. For more information on the Square Team App check out this Support Center article.

That said, we definitely hear you on the need to track one-off time requests (e.g. sick time, vacation, etc.), and print your schedule. These two features have been some of our top requests since our December release. The good news is that the team is currently working on adding support for both of these features. We’re hoping to roll this out in an update within the next couple of months. If interested, happy to include you in our future beta.

[wolfangs23]

Is there a way to have different service (item) time lengths for different team members? ie. one barber can do a men's hair cut every 20 mins while another need 30 mins per cut. and also how do you indicate which days each different member is working?

[seiderman]

Hey @wolfangs23, thanks for bringing this up! It sounds like your question may have more to do with Appointments so I reached out to their team. Here is a workaround that you may consider:

For now, you may consider making different services for each staff member, which would allow you to list different times under the duration. Each service and variation has a section to pick the assigned Team members (under the bookable by Customers Online Switch). From there, you can update each employee's hours under the Staff tab of the Appointments Dashboard, open the profile to show details, and update the location and hours section.

We do not currently have a per-service set of availability per employee so each employees' availability applies to all services they are assigned to. Thank you for your patience as we continue to iterate based on seller feedback. Hope this helps for now.

[DeepBrewingCo]

Here are my requests

1. Ability to drag and drop shifts

2. Ability to see notes on the weekly shift screen

3. Ability to see a month at a time

4. Ability to set a typical schedule to copy without assigning employees

5. Ability to edit/publish the schedule without notifying everyone and only notifying the folks with changes

6. Ability to click into a shift and edit the person assigned instead of deleting that shift and recreating it with the new person

7. Do not refresh back to the top of the page upon each save - instead stay where you are

8. Ability to copy entire month

[NinthStreet]

Agreed on Drag and Drop shifts! Especially when I have open shifts.

[thecreamerymm]

Good list here.

+2 for drag and drop

[seiderman]

Hi DeepBrewingCo, @thecreamerymm, @NinthStreet 

Really appreciate the feedback! Lots of great requests here that we hope to add support for soon. Below are some additional details on each specific request: 

1. This is something we’ve been hearing about a lot, and are actually planning to rollout support soon. Keep an eye on your Square Dashboard!
2. Are you referring to the notes you can add during shift creation? Or notes left by your employees during a shift? 
3. Definitely something we’ve started to hear more and more. Out of curiosity, are there specific tasks you use the month view for? How does this differ from the day and week views?
4. Good news! You should be able to do this within the current product. When using the Job view, you can duplicate the schedule from week to week without copying specific team member assignments. To do this, you’ll just want to make sure the “Copy over team member information” is deselecting in the confirmation modal.(see screenshot below).
5. Same as above, you should be able to control which team members receive notifications in the current product (see screenshot below). When publishing a schedule, you have two options for team notifications: notify all team members, or only notify affected team members. Definitely let me know if either of these settings are not working for you.
6. Similar to the answer above, you can update team member assignments without deleting the shift in the job view. We also hope to ease this process on the Team view when rolling out drag and drop support in the coming weeks. 
7. This is definitely something we’ll look into. Can see how this could be quite disruptive during the scheduling process.
8. Also, heard this requested a few times. Hoping to add support for this down the line.

[thecreamerymm]

Appreciate the detailed follow up and glad to hear that drag and drop is likely on the way!

Any progress on adding a time off function? Right now you only offer Availability. That's good for standard/repeating availability but it doesn't address exceptions to that availability.

For instance; Mary is always available on Thursday's but she's not available on Thursday 2/25 until 1PM because she has a doctors appointment.

Is that feature in the works?

[seiderman]

Hey @thecreamerymm,

Yup, this is something the team is actively working on and hoping to ship within the next couple of months. If interested, I'm happy to include you in our upcoming beta program.

[thecreamerymm]

Hi @seiderman! Happy to hear it's in the works. Just following up to see if we're any closer. Thanks!

[seiderman]

Hey @thecreamerymm,

Thanks for following up. We're pretty close. Should be reaching out to you before the end of the month.

[thecreamerymm]

LOVE that answer!! Y'all rock!

[TwoDog]

Hello! Thank you for adding this feature!  I would love for employees to be able to jump forward and request certain days off.  Since not everyone has set schedules, and some employees availability changes weekly.  Form what I have seen that currently is not a option. Also a print option would be great as well. 

[thecreamerymm]

This is the ONLY reason I haven't moved to Team Management yet...

USE CASE - An employee is always available to work on Thursdays, but not on Thursday Feb 4th from 9AM to 11AM because of a dentist appointment. 

[TwoDog]

Exactly, I am being told this feature will be available soon! 

[seiderman]

Thanks for the question TwoDog. You can find more details on these two features in the response above. Definitely let us know if you want to participate in a future beta! Learn more here: Square Beta Program

[TwoDog]

Yes please!!  I employ mostly high school students.  So their schedule tends to change around a lot by the week.  Do you know when this feature might become available? 

[HairByBobby]

I would love to be able to print out my daily scheduled. I make notes on it to keep, formulas and random things. I only print out the one page so I have somewhere to take the notes and QUICKLY see my schedule when working. Especially when doing color. I don't want to touch my phone. Plus I don't have time to open my phone, computer or tablet to see my schedule. Quick glance and all is known.

[seiderman]

Hi @HairByBobby! Thank you for this feedback. Mentioned this above, but this is something we’re working on adding. Keep an eye out for upcoming feature updates for when this will be available. In the meantime if you have any other shift scheduling questions here is a helpful Support Center article you can reference.