Create Employee Schedules Automatically – in 40 Seconds
Up to 95% Less Scheduling Effort
Over 20 Customizable Scheduling Criteria
Error-Free Shift Scheduling with a Traffic-Light System
Schedule from Anywhere – via Web & Mobile App
With TimeTrack, you can create employee schedules automatically. With just one click, the algorithm assigns all shifts to the right employees in compliance with your scheduling rules—in under 40 seconds per week. The algorithm simultaneously takes into account employee skills, availability, target working hours, absences, statutory rest periods, and weekend rules. It is ideal for businesses with complex shift patterns, changing availability, or multiple work areas that want to replace manual scheduling with fast, error-free automation.
Vorteile
Dienstplan automatisch erstellen
Wochenplan in 40 Sekunden, Monatsplan in 2 Minuten – per Klick, ganz ohne manuelle Eingaben.
Ampelsystem
Überstunden, Doppelbelegungen und unterschrittene Ruhezeiten werden erkannt – bevor der Plan veröffentlicht wird.
Über 20 Planungskriterien
Skills, Sollstunden, Verfügbarkeiten, Abwesenheiten – individuell priorisierbar und als Vorlage speicherbar.
Offene Schichten
Mitarbeiter sehen offene Schichten und tragen sich selbst ein – weniger Rückfragen, weniger Koordinationsaufwand.
Automatische Benachrichtigung
Bei jeder Schichtänderung werden Mitarbeiter sofort per E-Mail und App informiert – ohne manuellen Aufwand.
TU Wien Algorithmus
Entwickelt mit der Technischen Universität Wien – wissenschaftlich optimiert für komplexe Schicht- und Ruhezeitregeln.
TimeTrack creates your shift schedule fully automatically—in under 40 seconds for an entire week and in less than two minutes for a full month. The built-in algorithm was developed in collaboration with TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology) and takes all defined scheduling requirements into account simultaneously, including employee qualifications, availability, target working hours, absences, and work locations.
Instead of assigning each shift manually, you define your scheduling rules once and generate the schedule with a single click. The result is a complete, easy-to-read employee schedule that your team can access immediately. Any changes are automatically communicated via email and in the app.
Create Your Schedule in Four Simple Steps:
TimeTrack creates your employee schedule fully automatically using an algorithm developed in collaboration with TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology). The system takes all defined scheduling requirements into account—including qualifications, availability, target working hours, and approved absences—to find the best possible schedule.
With a single click, you get a complete shift schedule that is clear, error-free, and ready to use immediately. Your employees always know when and where they are scheduled to work. Any changes are automatically communicated via email.
You define the rules—TimeTrack handles the shift assignment. More than 20 scheduling criteria can be weighted individually, including approved absences, target working hours, shift requests, employee skills, and availability. Each criterion is assigned a priority—from “Very High” to “Low”—and the algorithm builds the schedule accordingly.
Save your configured priorities as a template to make scheduling even faster the following week. Ideal for businesses with complex shift patterns, multiple locations, or different work areas.
Example: Set target working hours to “Very High” and shift preferences to “Low,” and the algorithm will aim to match employees’ actual hours as closely as possible while only accommodating preferences when they do not conflict with higher-priority requirements. Save your configured priorities as a template to make future scheduling even faster.
TimeTrack automatically detects scheduling conflicts such as overtime, double bookings, or insufficient rest periods before the schedule is published. The traffic-light system highlights critical shifts with color-coded warnings, so you can immediately see where adjustments are needed.
Example: If a shift is understaffed, it appears in red; if everything is correct, it is shown in green. This turns a complex schedule into a clear, easy-to-review overview—without any manual calculations.
You don’t have to start from scratch. Run automatic scheduling with the option to keep existing assignments, and all previously assigned shifts will remain unchanged while only open shifts are filled automatically.
Example: If you have already assigned the shift supervisor to Monday, the algorithm will leave that assignment unchanged and automatically fill only the remaining open shifts according to your scheduling rules. This lets you combine manual planning decisions with the speed of automation.
After scheduling, review the result in the compact view or list view. At a glance, you can identify understaffing or overstaffing, absence conflicts, target vs. actual working hours, weekends worked, and potential rest-period violations.
You can correct any problematic shifts manually using drag and drop, or simply run the automatic scheduling process again. This gives you full control while still saving most of the time spent on scheduling.
What Is Automatic Employee Scheduling?
Automatic employee scheduling means that software creates the entire work schedule automatically instead of requiring you to assign every shift manually. You define your scheduling rules once—such as staffing requirements, employee skills, availability, and target working hours—and an algorithm assigns all shifts to the right employees in line with those rules. With TimeTrack, this takes just one click and only a few seconds.
How Does Automatic Employee Scheduling Work with TimeTrack?
You define employee skills, availability, work areas, and staffing requirements for each shift, then specify how strongly each scheduling criterion should be weighted. The algorithm, developed in collaboration with TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology), then creates a complete, optimized employee schedule based on these requirements. The finished schedule appears instantly in the calendar and can be adjusted at any time.
What Does “Create an Employee Schedule Automatically” Mean?
Creating an employee schedule automatically means letting an algorithm handle shift assignments instead of scheduling each employee manually. The software evaluates all defined scheduling requirements simultaneously and finds the best possible combination. Creating a weekly schedule takes around 40 seconds, while a full monthly schedule is generated in under two minutes.
How Long Does Shift Assignment Take with Automatic Employee Scheduling?
The time required for shift assignment varies. For a typical week, the process takes around 40 seconds. For a full month, it takes approximately two minutes.
What Is the Difference Compared to Digital Employee Scheduling?
With digital employee scheduling, you assign shifts manually while being supported by warnings, suggestions, and a traffic-light system. With automatic employee scheduling, the algorithm handles the entire shift assignment process at the click of a button. TimeTrack combines both approaches, allowing you to generate schedules automatically and then make manual adjustments digitally whenever needed.
Can I Really Create an Employee Schedule with Just One Click?
Yes. Once your configuration is set up, a single click is all it takes to schedule the entire period. The algorithm considers all active criteria and generates a complete employee schedule. You can save the configuration as a template, making future scheduling even faster.
Which Criteria Are Used to Create the Employee Schedule?
The algorithm takes into account factors such as staffing requirements per shift, employee skills, shift types, work areas, positive and negative availability, target working hours, existing assignments, absences, shift applications, rest periods, and weekend rules. You decide which requirements take priority in the configuration settings, ensuring that the schedule aligns precisely with your operational rules.
How Far in Advance Should an Employee Schedule Be Created?
How far in advance an employee schedule should be created depends on company policies and common practices within the industry. In general, schedules are prepared around one to several weeks in advance, giving employees enough time to plan around their working hours.
How Much Notice Is Required to Change an Employee Schedule in Austria?
In Austria, employers generally need to provide sufficient advance notice when changing an employee’s work schedule. In certain exceptional or unforeseeable circumstances, shorter-notice changes may be permitted, depending on the employment contract, collective agreement, and applicable labor law.
Can an Employee Reject a Work Schedule?
Yes. In Austria, employees may be entitled to reject a schedule change if it is made at short notice without sufficient justification or if legitimate personal commitments have not been adequately taken into account.
How Is TimeTrack Different from Excel-Based Employee Scheduling?
Excel-based employee schedules require manual data entry, offer no automatic conflict detection, and become difficult to manage as teams grow. TimeTrack creates schedules automatically, checks absences, employee skills, and rest periods in real time, and notifies employees of any changes. This saves time and significantly reduces scheduling errors.
How Long Does It Take to Create an Employee Schedule Automatically?
For a typical week, scheduling takes around 40 seconds, while a full month takes approximately two minutes. The exact processing time depends on the number of employees, shifts, and active scheduling criteria. Even complex schedules covering multiple work areas are usually generated within seconds or a few minutes.
How Many Scheduling Criteria Can Be Configured?
TimeTrack offers more than 20 individually configurable scheduling criteria. Each criterion can be assigned a priority from “Very High” to “Low” or ignored entirely. This allows you to define precisely which factors the algorithm should prioritize when scheduling requirements conflict.
Can I Assign Different Priority Levels to Individual Scheduling Criteria?
Yes. Each scheduling criterion can be prioritized individually. For example, you can set target working hours to “Very High” and employee shift preferences to “Low.” The algorithm will then aim to match actual working hours as closely as possible, while only accommodating shift preferences when they do not conflict with higher-priority requirements. This ensures that the final schedule reflects your actual operational priorities.
Can I Save My Configuration as a Template?
Yes. Every criteria and priority configuration can be saved as a template and reused whenever needed. You can also create separate configurations for different work areas. This makes recurring scheduling significantly faster and helps ensure consistent results.
Are Employee Skills and Qualifications Taken into Account?
Yes. You can define the required skills for each shift and assign the relevant qualifications to each employee. The algorithm then prioritizes employees whose qualifications match the shift requirements. For example, if a shift requires a valid first-aid qualification, only employees with that qualification will be scheduled.
Can the Software Account for Different Shift Types?
Yes. Shift types such as early, late, and night shifts can be created as templates and included in the scheduling process. The algorithm distributes different shift types evenly across the scheduling period, helping prevent individual employees from being assigned a disproportionate number of less desirable shifts.
Are Work Areas and Locations Included in the Scheduling Process?
Yes. Scheduling is managed by work area, and each area can have its own configuration. Employees are only assigned to the areas for which they are authorized. This makes it easy to manage scheduling across multiple locations or parallel work areas.
How Are Employee Availability and Unavailability Taken into Account?
Positive availability indicates when an employee prefers to work, while negative availability marks times they would prefer to keep free. Negative availability can be prioritized from “Low” to “Very High.” For example, if an employee marks every Friday afternoon as unavailable, the algorithm will only schedule them during that time if no other suitably qualified employee is available.
Can I Set a Maximum Number of Consecutive Shifts?
Yes. You can limit the maximum number of consecutive working days or shifts, both in general and by shift type. For example, you can specify that no employee should be scheduled for more than four consecutive days. The algorithm then distributes shifts accordingly, helping to avoid both excessively long work streaks and too many isolated single shifts.
Are Employee Shift Requests and Preferences Taken into Account?
Yes. When employees apply for specific shifts, their requests are included as a soft optimization criterion in the scheduling process. The algorithm gives preference to those employees for suitable shifts, provided that no higher-priority rule—such as staffing requirements, absences, or rest periods—conflicts with the request. This helps improve employee satisfaction without compromising scheduling quality.
Is the Staffing Requirement for Each Shift Taken into Account?
Yes. For each shift, you can define how many employees are required, and the algorithm assigns staff accordingly. For example, if a shift requires three people, the system schedules exactly three employees, helping to avoid both understaffing and overstaffing. Any remaining staffing gaps are clearly highlighted in the list view.
Are Target Working Hours Taken into Account in Automatic Scheduling?
Yes. Each employee’s target working hours are a key scheduling criterion. The algorithm distributes shifts so that actual working hours come as close as possible to the defined target hours. For example, if a full-time employee has a monthly target of 173 hours, the system balances their assigned shifts accordingly.
Can I Set Target Working Hours for Weeks, Months, and Quarters?
Yes. Target working hours can be taken into account on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. For quarterly target hours, you can also specify that they must not fall below or exceed a defined limit. This makes it easy to manage longer balancing periods accurately.
What Happens If Target Working Hours Are Exceeded or Not Met?
The algorithm aims to keep deviations from target working hours as small as possible. Any remaining over- or under-allocation is shown as a target-versus-actual comparison in both the list view and the compact employee schedule report. This lets you immediately see where adjustments may be needed.
Are Absences and Vacation Days Automatically Taken into Account?
Yes. Approved absences such as vacation or sick leave are taken into account during scheduling, so absent employees are not assigned to shifts. Public holidays and non-working days are also included. Any conflicts are clearly highlighted with color-coded indicators in both the list and compact views.
Does Automatic Employee Scheduling Comply with Statutory Rest Periods?
Yes. The minimum daily rest period—11 hours by default—as well as the weekly rest period are taken into account during scheduling. For example, if a late shift ends at 10:00 p.m., the next shift will be scheduled no earlier than 9:00 a.m. the following day. Any violations can also be displayed as warnings in the employee schedule.
Are Maximum Daily and Weekly Working Hours Respected?
Yes. Maximum daily and weekly working hours are taken into account through the configured working-time rules. The system helps prevent these limits from being exceeded and highlights potential violations using the traffic-light system. You can define the applicable limits for each employee in their working-time model.
Are Public Holidays Taken into Account in Automatic Scheduling?
Yes. Public holidays are automatically recognized and taken into account when calculating target working hours and creating the schedule. In work areas that do not require holiday staffing, no employees are scheduled on public holidays. This ensures that each holiday is either staffed correctly or left free, depending on your scheduling rules.
How Are Weekend Shifts Distributed?
Weekend shifts are distributed as evenly as possible across the team and can be managed using dedicated scheduling rules. You can limit the number of weekends worked per month, per quarter, and consecutively. This helps prevent the same employees from repeatedly being scheduled on weekends.
Can I Limit the Number of Weekends Worked per Month or Quarter?
Yes. You can set maximum limits for weekends worked per month, per quarter, and for consecutive weekends. For example, you can allow a maximum of two weekend shifts per employee per month. Each weekend is counted only once per employee, even if they work multiple shifts during that weekend.
Are Multi-Day Weekend Shifts Scheduled as Continuous Shifts?
Yes. Continuous weekend shifts from Saturday through Sunday are assigned as a single continuous shift rather than being split into separate days. This is particularly useful for duties that span both days. Required rest periods before and after these shifts are also taken into account.
Does the Software Distribute Shifts Fairly Among All Employees?
Yes. The algorithm aims to distribute shifts as evenly as possible across the team rather than placing a disproportionate burden on individual employees. It takes into account target working hours, the distribution of different shift types, and weekend rules to create a balanced schedule across the entire planning period.
Can I Automatically Complete an Existing Employee Schedule?
Yes. You can run automatic scheduling while keeping existing assignments in place. For example, if the team leader is already assigned to Monday, that assignment remains unchanged and only the open shifts are filled automatically. This allows you to combine manual scheduling decisions with automatic planning.
Can I Manually Adjust the Automatically Generated Schedule?
Yes. The automatically generated schedule works just like a regular employee schedule and can be edited manually at any time. Individual shifts can be moved or reassigned using drag and drop. Alternatively, you can simply run automatic scheduling again after making changes.
How Can I Review the Scheduling Results?
After scheduling, you can review the result in both the compact view and the list view. These views show understaffing and overstaffing, absence conflicts, target vs. actual working hours, weekends worked, and potential rest-period violations. Any problematic shifts can be corrected manually or by running the automatic scheduling process again.
Are Employees Notified About Changes to the Work Schedule?
Yes. When shifts are changed, employees are automatically notified by email and in the app—without any manual effort. This significantly reduces follow-up questions and ensures that everyone can always see their latest shift schedule.
Can Employees Sign Up for Open Shifts Themselves?
Yes. Open shifts are visible to eligible employees, who can either assign themselves or apply for available shifts. This reduces the coordination effort required for scheduling, while final approval remains with the person responsible for workforce planning.
Which Subscription Plan Includes Automatic Employee Scheduling?
Automatic employee scheduling is included in the Gold plan. You can find an overview of all other features included in this plan on our pricing page. Digital employee scheduling with the traffic-light system is available starting with the Premium plan.
Which Businesses Is Automatic Employee Scheduling Suitable For?
Automatic employee scheduling is particularly well suited to businesses with complex shift patterns, changing employee availability, or multiple work areas and locations. The more employees and scheduling rules there are to consider, the greater the potential time savings. Smaller teams can also benefit from faster, more accurate scheduling.
