Advanced copy and paste

How to use the Copy Custom Range tool to create repeating shift patterns over any time period

James Denham avatar
Written by James Denham
Updated over a week ago

You can use the Copy Custom Range tool to copy a customisable selection of shifts and paste them in the future, one or more times. This is really useful when you’re happy with a portion of your rota, and want to repeat it for future days and weeks.

If you want to save a portion of your rota as a template, to be applied whenever you need it, we recommend using the Templates tool, instead:

How to use the tool

To use Copy Custom Range, go to the Rotas page and click Copy → Copy Custom Range.

In the Copy section, select the start date and end date of the shifts you wish to copy.

Next, in the Paste section, select the date range you'd like this custom range of shifts copied into. Once confirmed, your copied shifts will be repeated/looped to fill the
entire pasted date range. 

Selecting employees

Customise which employees' shifts you copy across in the Employees selector. If you uncheck an employee, any shifts they have during the chosen date range will not be copied.

Shift clashes

When pasting your range of shifts, some of the new shifts may clash with shifts you have already assigned. Use the drop-down to select which action to take when the clashes occur:

  • Clear shifts before pasting - Completely wipe all shifts from the Paste Range before pasting

  • Overwrite clashing shifts - In the event of a clash, the shift you're trying to copy will overwrite the existing shift

  • Move copied shifts to 'Open Shifts' - In the event of a clash, the shift you're trying to copy will be placed in Open Shifts, and the existing shift will stay where it is

  • Don't copy shifts that clash - In the event of a clash, the shift you're trying to copy will not be copied, and the existing shift will stay where it is

You can select one of these options for each use of the Copy Custom Range tool.

Top Tip

If you are using the tool to copy a shift pattern, remember to include the days when nobody is working. For example: If you have five days of shifts during the week and the weekends are blank, remember to include the weekend in your selection so that the seven-day pattern is copied across correctly.

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