Set up and manage Gusto Time Scheduling

With Gusto’s Time Scheduling feature, admins and managers with the required permissions can create and publish work schedules. You can organize workers by group (role, department, location, etc.), or have everybody on one work schedule. 

If your company has time off requests enabled, approved and pending time off requests will be visible on the schedule to prevent scheduling an employee when they're off.

Scheduling is available on Plus, Premium, or Time & Attendance Plus Simple add-on plans—upgrade your plan at any time.

 

Set up Gusto Time Scheduling

In order to set up Scheduling, you first need to enable Time tracking—it does not need to be fully set up, just enabled.

Part 1: Enable Time tracking

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Settings section on the left-hand side.
  3. Select the Customization tab.
  4. Click edit next to Time tracking.
  5. Toggle to Enabled.
  6. Click Save.

Part 2: Set up Time scheduling

Only admins with the required permissions can create a schedule group. Managers can create and assign shifts once the scheduling group has been created—review the Access and permissions for Time scheduling dropdown for more information.

  1. Click Time & Attendance and select Scheduling.
  2. Click Setup scheduling. 
  3. Name the scheduling group—each group must have a unique name.
  4. Confirm what weekday you want the scheduling calendar view to begin with.
    • This does not change the payroll workweek. 
  5. Set the schedule’s default time zone.
    • This will apply to the schedule calendar view and creating new shifts.
  6. Click Continue.
  7. Add workers to the group by searching by name or job title.
    • Workers can belong to multiple groups, and can only see the shifts for the groups they’re assigned to. 
    • Hourly contractors can be added to schedule groups—to stay compliant, make sure scheduled work for contractors is aligned with their contract terms.
    • These worker types cannot be added to a schedule:
      • International contractors
      • Team members with a hire date in the future
      • Dismissed team members
  8. Click Finish and view schedule.
View, add, edit, duplicate, unpublish, or remove a shift

If you make a change to a shift that's coming up within the next day, we'll immediately send the employee an email notification. 

For changes to shifts that are further out than the end of the following day, regardless of the number of changes, employees will receive a single email saying that changes have been made.

Drag and drop shifts

For ease, you can drag any published or unpublished shift that's already been created and drop it in another cell. If you move the shift to a time that overlaps with another shift, you'll get an error message.

When a shift has been dragged/dropped to another cell, the job and project of a shift will update automatically, depending on the day and member the shift gets added to.

View shifts
  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click on any shift to see the following:
    • Shift status (draft or published)
    • Date and time of shift
      • If the shift is an overnight shift, start and end dates will be included.
    • Team member's name who the shift is assigned to
    • Shift breaks
    • Job
    • Project
    • Notes
  5. From here, you can also: 
    • Click the pencil icon to edit shift details.
    • Click the plus sign to duplicate the shift.
    • Click the upward facing arrow to publish the shift.
    • Click the eye icon to unpublish a shift.
    • Click the trash can icon to delete the shift.
Add a shift
  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click the Actions dropdown and select +Add shift, or click the + on the individual shift cells you'd like to add the shift to.
  5. Choose who you'd like to assign the shift to. 
    • These worker types cannot be added to a schedule:
      • International contractors
      • Team members with a hire date in the future
      • Dismissed team members
  6. Select the start date and time of the shift. 
  7. Select the end date and time of the shift. 
  8. Add other shift details (like a job title or projects, if applicable).
  9. Add shift notes—these can be viewed by other admins, the employee's manager, and the employee.
  10. Click Save as draft to save for later, or Save & duplicate to duplicate the shift.
Edit a shift

Published and unpublished shifts can be edited by following the steps below.

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Select the individual shift cells you’d like to edit the shift. You can modify:
    • Who the shift is assigned to
    • The start date, end date, and time of the shift
    • Other shift details (like job title, or projects, if applicable)
    • Add shift notes—these can be viewed by other admins, the employee's manager, and the employee.
  5. Click Publish to post the modified shift assignment immediately. 
Duplicate a shift

You can duplicate both assigned and unassigned shifts.

Duplicate multiple shifts

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click the Actions dropdown and select Duplicate shifts.
  5. Select the date range of shifts you'd like to duplicate.
  6. Select the start date for the duplicated shifts.
  7. Choose if you want the duplicated shifts to include worker assignments.
    • Selecting No will make all duplicate shifts unassigned.
  8. Click Duplicate shifts.

Duplicate a single shift

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click on the shift you want to duplicate.
  5. Click More actions at the bottom and select Duplicate.
Unpublish a shift
  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Select the shift you want to unpublish.
  5. Click the Actions dropdown and select Unpublish shift.
Remove a shift
You can remove both assigned and unassigned shifts.

Remove a single shift

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click the shift you'd like to remove.
  5. Select Delete shift.

Remove all shifts

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click the Actions dropdown and select Delete all shifts in this view.
Publish drafts (shifts)

You can publish individual shifts, or all draft shifts in the schedule view. Only assigned shifts can be published. 

When you publish shifts, the workers assigned to those shifts will receive an email and an in-app notification, and they can view their assigned shifts on the website and in the Gusto mobile app.

Publish individual shifts 

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click on the drafted shift and select the upward facing arrow ↑.
  5. Click Yes, publish to post the shift assignment immediately. 

Publish all shifts 

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click Publish drafts in the top-right corner.
View hours or print your schedule

Learn more about how hours will appear on your schedule below.

Total hours

When you view a schedule, you can see the total hours a worker has scheduled. The total includes hours across all group schedules.

Total hours will be displayed on:

  • Schedules for customers that DO NOT have Time tracking enabled
  • Schedules for contractors 

Regular and overtime hours 

When you view a schedule, you can see the total regular hours and overtime hours a worker has scheduled during a week. The overtime and regular hours shown include scheduled hours across all group schedules.

Overtime hours and regular hours will be displayed on:

  • Schedules for customers that have Time tracking enabled with overtime policies assigned to scheduled workers

 The information tooltip will provide a breakdown of the hours (regular and overtime) for the employee.

Print your schedule

Follow the steps below to download a PDF version of your schedule.

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click Actions and select Download printable PDF.
    • A PDF will be generated of the current schedule view with published shifts only.

You can access the report after it’s generated from the Reports history section.

Add or archive/remove a scheduling group

Use the dropdowns below to learn how to add or archive/remove a scheduling group.

Add a scheduling group
  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. In the group dropdown, click +Add another group. 
  4. Name the scheduling group—each group must have a unique name.
  5. Set the schedule’s default time zone
    • This will apply to the schedule calendar view and creating new shifts.
  6. Click Continue.
  7. Add workers to the group by searching by name or job title.
    • Job titles need to be added to employees for them to show as an option.
    • Workers can belong to multiple groups, and can only see the shifts for the groups they’re assigned to.
    • These worker types cannot be added to a schedule:
      • International contractors
      • Team members with a hire date in the future
      • Dismissed team members 
  8. Click Finish and view schedule.
Archive/remove a scheduling group

Admins can remove or archive schedule groups at any time. Once a schedule group has been removed, admins, managers, and workers will no longer be able to access the schedule or shifts within the removed schedule group.

Other existing schedule groups will remain accessible by admins and assigned managers and workers. 

Archive/remove a schedule group

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select the group you'd like to remove or archive.
  4. Click Settings in the top-right corner.
  5. Click Remove group at the bottom.
  6. In the popup, confirm you'd like to remove the group.
Edit schedule settings

Edit the group name, time zone, or calendar view start date

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click Settings in the top-right corner.
  5. Make the necessary changes.
  6. Click Save.

Add or remove employee view access to coworkers' schedules

Admins with the required permissions can enable the ability for employees to view an entire schedule, including coworkers shifts.

  1. Sign into Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling. 
  3. In the scheduling group, click Settings in the top-right corner.
  4. Under the “Schedule visibility” section, select one of the following: 
    • Can only view their assigned shifts on this schedule.
    • Can view all shifts on this schedule, including coworkers’ shifts.
      • Workers will not be able to see regular/overtime hours estimates, notes, draft shifts, unassigned shifts, or time off.
  5. Click Save.
Add or remove workers from a scheduling group

Only admins with the required permissions can add or remove workers from a schedule group. 

Employees (hourly or salaried), and hourly domestic contractors can be added or removed from a schedule group.

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Scheduling.
  3. Select a group.
  4. Click People in the top-right corner.
    • To add a worker: Click into the search bar and select their name.
      • Only workers selected below will appear on this group’s schedule, and scheduled shifts can be created for them. 
      • When you add someone, you can add shifts for them for the current date and up to 6 previous days.
      • These worker types cannot be added to a schedule:
        • International contractors
        • Team members with a hire date in the future
        • Dismissed team members
    • To remove a worker: Click the x next to their name.
      • When you remove someone, you can still add shifts for them for the current day (until midnight) and previous days.
      • Any shifts for the worker you removed that have any overlap with time after midnight of the current day will be unassigned so you can assign them to someone else.
  5. Click Save.
Edit access and permissions for scheduling groups

Full access or limited access admins (with time tracking and time off access) can create a schedule group and edit/manage schedules (such as adding/removing employees).

People managers can have access to managing direct reports’ schedules within a schedule group—managers must be added to the scheduling groups they'll be managing.