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Updated:
2012-05-08
Rotaville ( http://Rotaville.com/ ) is new online software for managing your work Rota - sometimes known as a Roster or Schedule. Instead of using grids or spreadsheet cells, Rotaville displays shifts on a regular calendar view. Managers can easily schedule new shifts and then assign employees with a single click. Managers can quickly plan shifts for the days and weeks ahead.Employees and managers can clearly see when each shift starts and ends and who is working.
Rotaville also supports multi-user access allowing Employees to check the rota from home or on their mobile. A beautiful and easy to read one page PDF of the rota can be printed or emailed. Rotaville is free for all employees and for small businesses.
Larger businesses can purchase an upgrade if required. Please see the following chapters in this manual for full details of all the Rotaville features.
We hope that you enjoy using Rotaville.
Rotaville is thoroughly tested using the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox and Safari web browsers. Rotaville runs fast in these browsers.
Rotaville is not currently supported in any version of Internet Explorer.
The Rotaville mobile site currently works best on the iPhone. It also works well on Android and other smart phones.
A Rotaville workplace contains the list of employees, managers, and the rota (or possibly multiple rotas) for your company or organisation.
If a workplace doesn't yet exist it will need to be created.
Clicking the "Work" tab will take you to your default rota view. To change the workplace and rota being viewed click the "Rotas" tab.
The workplace/rota selector is shown listing the workplaces and rotas that you currently have access to.
A new workplace can be made by clicking the 'Managers: Create a new Workplace and Rota' button. Enter the name of your business and an optional description, then click the create button.
Your new Rotaville workplace and it's first rota will be created. Some example shifts with some examples employees will be automatically added to the new rota.
The workplace name and description can be changed in Workplace settings.
You can also change the "First day of week" which is the day when your new weekly rota normally starts. On the Rota web UI a thin green line will show just before each first day of the week.
You can also replace the default logo image for your workplace with your own by clicking the "Add Logo" button.
Each rota also has some settings. Click "Rota Settings" to open.
You can change the Rota name, the optional description and your business hours start and finish. These are the hours that you need to show on the rota to include times from your earliest shift though until the last shift of the day.
Adjust your business hours to only show the hours that you need. This saves space on the both the rota web UI and the printed PDF rota view.
Just a little bit of extra space can be added to your rota by adding an extra hour to either side of your normal business hours. This can make the rota easier to read and use.
To edit the employee details click on "Edit this Employee".
Employees can be deleted from the employee edit page. When an employee is deleted all of their information, including historical shift assignments are also deleted.
From the employee list you can add new employees to the workplace. After clicking the Employees Tab then click the "Create New Employee" button.
For each new employee they
- must have a name
Optionally they can have
- a description
- an email
- a telelphone number (in international format)
Entering email and telephone details will allow you to use Rotaville for communicating directly them.
Finally click 'Create' and the new employee details are added to the system.
You can customise the default picture assigned to the employee by clicking on "edit avatar" and the uploading their staff photo or other suitable picture.
To add a new shift simply click on the rota at the day and time you'd like the shift to begin. If you click-hold-and-drag, you can can accurately mark out he shift from it's start time to it's finish time.
Hover over a shift to display green arrows on either side of it. These green arrows are handles which you can click and drag to adjust the shift start and end times.
Shifts will automatically be given a name taken from it's day and start time, e.g. "Monday 9am"
Click on the shift name to edit it. The form has two optional fields, the shift name and description. These fields are useful for when you want to convey additional information about the shift. This extra information will be displayed in the shift header after it is saved.
After click the shift title to edit the shift details you can also delete the shift completely by clicking "Delete".
Assigning employees to shifts is really easy.
When you hover over a shift the assign link appears, click it to pop-up the list of employees.
Click the on an employee name to assign them to work that shift. Repeat this process to assign as many employees as you need.
Shifts from earlier days can be "cloned" to create new shifts.
Click-hold-and-drag the clone icon from an existing shift to a new day, drop the cloned shift on the new day by releasing the mouse button.
Complete days can be cloned by using the clone icons next to the day row. Drag the shifts to a new day and click save on each shift.
To reveal more days on the rota web UI click "show more calendar". This allows you to extend your shift planning well into the future. Planning is best done using a computer with a large screen.
You can also navigate to past and future weeks using the links at the top left and right of calandar.
Historical shift information is available for up to one year in the past. New shifts can be planned for up to one year in the future.
Rotaville supports keyboard commands and navigation using various Keyboard shortcuts. For a busy manager using the keyboard commands will make updating and maintaining the rota much faster. The Keyboards commands allow you navigate and edit the rota with similar ease and speed as you might have when using keyboard shorts to edit an Excel spreadsheet.
While in keyboard mode the mouse is disabled. Keyboard mode is actually made up of many different sub-modes such as 'Edit Shift Mode' and 'Assignment Mode'. All modes have their own unique keystroke commands.
Mini-Help for the current mode is always showing at the top of the screen. Press "?" at any time get full help for the current mode. Press "esc" to exit from the current mode.
You can clone multiple days (rows) of shifts (e.g. whole weeks) by first marking out the days you want to clone using "J" or "shift+down" to mark out days in down direction ( "shift+up" or "K" to mark days upwards) and then using "c" to clone the shifts (or "s" to clone shifts without assignments).
Navigate the cloned shifts to the new dates you want (using "j" "down" or "up" "k") and then paste the shifts onto the rota using "v" or "p".
Use "esc" to exit cloning mode without pasting.
The New Shift Mode and Shift Editing Modes display a popup form to edit the shift details. Use the "tab" key and "shift+tab" keys to navigate between the form fields.
The start and end time fields will accept different formats for the time. Both 12 hour (am/pm) and 24 hour times are accepted. Abbreviations are also accepted, e.g. "13", "1pm", "1pm", and "13:00" are all accepted as the same time. Minutes can be separated from the hour using a ":", "," or space. e.g. "10:30am", "10.30", "10 30" are all accepted as the same time.
The time format displayed in these fields depends on your personal Rotaville settings.
Managers can use Rotaville as a direct replacement for their existing scheduling system.
New weekly rotas can be distributed to employees by printed hard copy and by email.
You can get more value out of Rotaville by inviting your employees to connect using their own Rotaville user accounts.
When employees connect they get to see a read-only "Employee view" copy of the rota and workplace information.
Employees can also choose to receive email notifications and reminder emails about their latest shift assignments.
Connected Employees can maintain their own profiles so that Managers always have access to up-to-date email and telephone records.
Employees with email addresses can be invited to connect by clicking on the invite button.
A unique code will be emailed to them inviting them to connect.
This code is only valid for 48 hours, so if the employee does not connect with that time you'll need to re-invite them again so that they get a fresh code.
Connected employees will be able to see the profile information of all their workplace colleagues. This includes all the details you've entered for all employees.
Managers can set whether they want to display the profile information supplied by connected users or their own workplace employee information.
This per-employee setting controls which name, email, telephone, and avatar is used on the rota displays and printouts.
Connected users are also able to indicate their availability for upcoming shifts.
This inclues already confirmed shifts, shifts to which they've been assigned, and future shifts currently with out any assignments.
How managers uses this availability information is up to them.
Rotaville does not enforce any specific workflow rules using this availability information.
Connected employees can also use Rotaville to submit holiday requests.
Connected employees can also be promoted to become a Rotaville Manager. Mangers can create/edit shifts, create/edit employees, and promote other employees to become Rotaville managers.
Rotaville shifts have one of two statuses, either they are "confirmed" or they have "draft" status.
All newly created shifts begin in "draft" status.
Draft status provides an indication to anyone else viewing the rota that the shift is still in it's planning stage and that it's times and staff assignments may change.
When the rota manager has finalised all the shift details they should click the draft icon to confirm the shift.
Confirmed shifts provide an indication to anyone viewing the rota that planning is finalised and the shift will be occurring as currently scheduled
On the manager's rota view, draft shifts are shown with the pencil icon and confirmed shifts with the sealed envelope icon.
Confirmed shifts also have a solid black title and draft shifts have faded grey italic title.
This difference can be seen on the employee Rota view, PDF printouts, Rotaville User homepage, and on the Rotaville mobile website.
When a shift is confirmed if any of the employees assigned are also connected to the rota on Rotaville they will be sent an email notification.
These email notifications are only sent when the shift has been confirmed. They are not sent for any changes or assignments made to new shifts that still have draft status.
A confirmed shift can not be edited or deleted.
Confirmed shifts can be reverted to draft status by clicking on the envelope icon.
This will cause cancellation notices to be sent to all the affected employees.
Assignment changes change be made at any time to confirmed shifts and email notifications will be sent immediately to any affected employees that are connected to the rota.
Depending on your shift scheduling policy, shifts might be confirmed 1, 2, 3 or more weeks in advance.
Rotas can be printed and emailed from the the main rota view. Clicking the "Print" tab button brings up the print options.
You can choose to print the rota, employee contact list or shift report.
You can print in full color or you can select "economy print" to print in black and white. Economy print is only available if the rota owner has upgraded their account.
You print protrait or landscape.
And you can select the page size, from standard sizes A4 and Letter or poster sizes A3 and Tabloid.
Click Generate PDF to generate the PDF ready for printing.
Change the date of the week that is printed using the drop down "For week starting..." select menu. You can also skip forward to future weeks using the calendar navigation buttons.
Each week starts on the week day set as the first day of the week by the manger in the rota settings.
Use the "Email" tab button to send a mail message. All users can send a message to themselves.
If the workplace owner has upgraded their account then managers can send emails to all employees with email addresses. This includes employees who are connected to the rota and employees that just have an email address entered by the manager.
A PDF copy of the rota can also be attached to email messages.
You may have received an email from your shift manager with a request to connect to your workplace and it's rotas on Rotaville.
Signup at http://Rotaville.com/ to create your own Rotaville user account. Then use that code in the add new job form.
After adding a new job you can access the rota and see all of the upcoming shifts.
You'll see both confirmed shifts (to which the manager problably won't be making any more changes to) and shifts with draft status which are still being planned.
You can indicate your availability for these upcoming shifts by clicking the link the title bar of each shift.
Shifts to which you've been assigned that are upcoming in the next two weeks will also appear on your Rotaville homepage.
You can also update your availability directly from the homepage.
Employees can subscribe to a personalised feed of their upcoming shifts. Use the webcal URL with your favourite calendar program on mobile device or desktop computer.
Please also see the chapter about 'Printing and Emailing' the rota.
Please also see the "Mobile Site" and "iPhone App" chapters.
Please also see the chapter "Edit Profile and Settings"
Access the Rotaville mobile site by following the link at the bottom of page or by going directly to http://rotaville.com/m . The mobile site is perfectly suited to work well on your iPhone or Android device.
On the mobile home page you'll see a list of you upcoming shifts for the next two weeks. Click on any shift to see the details of that shift including the names of other employees assigned to that shift. You can update your availability for all shifts shown, including shifts to which you are not yet assigned.
Click "back" or "home" to return to the home screen.
The work link will show a page listing the workplaces that you currently have access to on Rotaville.
For each workplace you can view it's rotas and upcoming shifts.
You can also view a list of the workplace employees and access their contact information.
From the list of employees you click each name to bring up that employees details.
Directly from your phone you can click to email them, call them, or sms them.
Or use the Skype application to call/sms them.
Mangers can:
- create/edit/delete employees
- create/etdit/detlete shifts
- assign/un-assign employees to shifts
- confirm/un-confirm shifts
Employees can:
- review their shifts
- update their availability
- access contact details of their colleagues
The Rotaville iPhone App is available to download from the Apple iOS app store. Search for 'rotaville'.
The iPhone App includes all the features of the mobile site and it also includes some additional features.
Managers can also take pictures of staff with their mobile and assign the picture directly as the Rotaville employee avatar.
You can use just one Rotaville account with the same profile and settings for all your workplaces.
You can edit your profile by clicking the "edit profile" button on your home page.
You can change your login name, full name, description, telephone and email.
Your telephone number should be entered in international format with a leading plus sign.
You have the choice to activate your public profile.
You public profile only shows your name, description, and avatar.
A public profile makes it easier for your friends to find you on Rotaville.
You can also change your password if you want to.
All Rotaville users are assigned a random picture as their avatar.
Click edit your avatar if you wish to add your own image.
If your image does not have dimension 4 by 3 it will be automatically cropped to this dimension.
You can change some Rotaville settings by clicking the "Settings" button from the home page.
Settings that you can change include:
- the default paper size
- whether to default to color or economy print
- whether to use 24hr or AM/PM time
- your timezone
- whether to show call and SMS links (depending on your computer or phone these links might allow you to quickly call or send smses your friends and fellow employees)
- whether to show Skype call and sms links (if your phone or computer has Skype installed and your have some Skype-Out credit these links allow you to quickly and cheaply make calls or send sms)
- email notification for your get a private message
- email notification for when you get a friend request
- email notifications of confirmed shifts
- a daily email notification of your shifts in the next 7 times and the time when to send that email
- whether to receive reminder emails of upcoming shifts ( you can set this to 1 day or 1 hour before your shift begins).
- whether to receive important news and announcements from Rotaville
- whether to show tooltips
Click update to update your settings.
You can delete your user account completely from Rotaville by clicking "edit your profile" and then "delete your account".
Please be aware that any workplaces (and their rotas, shifts and employees) that you own will also be deleted when you delete your account.
Rotaville accounts are free for all users, including all employees.
The free plan allows small businesses to create rota's with up to 1000 employee names totally free-of-charge. The maximum number of users that can connect to the workplace and rota on the free plan is 4.
Managers from larger businesses can upgrade their account by following the "Account Upgrade" link at the bottom of the page.
The account upgrade page shows what plan your account is currently on and what upgrades are available.
Upgrading your rotaville account is a super-simple process that takes just a minute or so.
Upgraded accounts add the ability for account owners and all connected users to
1. use the "economy print" option
2. subscribe to iCalender feeds of all shifts on the workplace rotas
and for managers to
1. use the "Email all employees" function.
2. invite/connect more Rotaville users to the rota.
Different plans are available to upgrade to, including the "Small Business", "Medium Business" and "Big Business" plans.
Even bigger plans are also available that can be tailored for any size organization.
Each plan increases the limits on:
- the number of users (i.e. your employees) that be connected online.
- the number of workplaces you can create
- the number of different rotas you can have for each workplace.
Account upgrades can be paid for using your local currency,
including Australian dollars, euros, British pounds, or American dollars.
Account upgrades can be paid for on a monthly subscription basis.
Or by paying a single payment for a 1 year upgrade.
All Payments are processed by PayPal.
If you don't have a PayPal account or don't want to use one, You can pay with just your credit card by following the credit card payment link on the PayPal payment page.
After payment is made your account is upgraded immediately.
Account upgrade subscriptions can be cancelled at anytime without notice. Your account will stay upgraded for the remainder of the month for which you've already paid.
The affliate programme is great way for all Rotaville users to earn some extra money when telling their friends and new employers about Rotaville.
To join the affiliate programme simply follow the Affliate Programme link at the bottom of the page.
You will need to read and agree with the programme terms and conditions.
Program members are known as affiliates.
You'll get an affiliate link that you can distribute on your social networks and to your friends who might be interesting in using Rotaville.
If anyone subsequently upgrades their Rotaville account plan after following your affiliate link, then you will receive an initial commission payment and possibly subsequent commission payments from subscriptions.
Some handy preconfigured bookmark links are available for you to post your affiliate link.
Commission payments will be paid via PayPal to your Rotaville email address.
We are constantly working to improve and evolve Rotaville and this Rotaville Manual. The latest up-to-date version of this manual can always be found at http://rotaville.com/public/documents/1-rotaville-manual.html
We welcome your feedback! Please email us at support@rotaville.com.
This manual was produced using the online manual document software that is now a part of Rotaville.com.
