What Are Shifts?
Shifts let you set up work intervals that vary from day to day or week to week. You can extend or replace your operating hours with shifts.
Required Editions
| Available in: Lightning Experience |
| The Field Service core features, managed package, and mobile app are available in Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions. |
When the managed package is installed, scheduling and optimization considers shift availability. Confirmed shifts appear on the Gantt.
Shifts Versus Operating Hours
Shifts are similar to operating hours in Salesforce, with some key differences. Operating hours let you define consistent, ongoing time slots when your team is available. Shifts, by contrast, let you define variable time slots that can vary from day to day. You can use both shifts and operating hours to assign work, so that you can assign team members to shifts where and when they’re needed.
For example, if you use operating hours for your regular weekday hours, you can create shifts to define weekend on-call duties. You can use shifts instead of operating hours. For example, you can create shifts for a workforce of students or contractors who don’t have regular work hours. Make sure you define an Operating Hours record with no associated time slots for the service resource's Territory Member records when using shifts instead of operating hours, as Resource Availability considers both operating hours and shifts.
Shift Scheduling Versus Service Appointment Scheduling
Shift scheduling and service appointment scheduling are different functionalities. Shift scheduling assigns ad hoc availability hours to a service resource, while service appointment scheduling assigns work to a service resource. You can use shifts and shift scheduling in addition to service appointment scheduling.
Field Service includes specific tools and records for assigning shifts, distinct from tools used for scheduling service appointments. To avoid confusion, learn more about the differences between shift scheduling tools and service appointment scheduling tools.
| SHIFT SCHEDULING | SERVICE APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING |
|---|---|
| Scheduling rules in Setup determine which service resource can be assigned a shift through shift scheduling tools. | Work rules associated with scheduling policies determine which service resource can be assigned a service appointment by using appointment scheduling tools. |
| Scheduling objectives in Setup determine the best service resource to be assigned a shift based on business goals. | Service objectives associated with scheduling policies determine the best service resource to be assigned a service appointment based on business goals. |
| Job profiles determine which skills a service resource must have to be assigned a shift. | Work types determine which skills a service resource must have to be assigned a service appointment as well as other factors such as duration and due date. |
| Shift scheduling constraints can be used to limit how many shifts can be assigned to a service resource within a given time frame. | Count work rules can be used to limit how many service appointments can be assigned to a service resource each day. |
| Shift scheduling tools include the Get Candidates shift assignment action, and bulk shift assignment by using the Mass Shift Update button on the shift list view. | Appointment scheduling tools include the Get Candidates and Book Appointment actions on the Work Order page layout and other tools for assigning service appointments. |
Prerequisites for Using Shifts
Make sure that your Salesforce org meets the following requirements to use shifts.
- You must have at least one service territory.
- You must have at least one service resource who’s assigned to a service territory.
- To let them create shifts, give your shift and service managers access to view, create,
and edit the following objects:
- Shifts
- Job Profiles
- Service Territories
- Service Resources
- Service Territory Memberships
- To select job profiles when you create shifts, add the Job Profile field to shift layouts.
- To select recordset filter criteria when you create shifts, add the Recordset Filter Criteria field to shift layouts. Give users access to view the Recordset Filter Criteria object.
Limitations for Shift Management
- Scheduling and optimization features in the managed package don’t consider job profiles.
- On the Shifts tab, you can’t use the quick search box to filter.
-
The NOT operator isn’t supported when you define filter logic for
shifts. If your filter logic uses NOT, we recommend adjusting the filter type instead, for
example by using the
does not containoperator.
