Hello, I am looking into The Shifts App as a possible scheduling tool for our tour business. But i have a few questions

Question

1. can i create shift templates to use in the calendar without having to create all the shift information every time
2. can the employees confirm/acknowledge a shift when assigned so we know it has been approved and accepted- and do i receive notice of that
3. we work on a 30 day rotation, so can my employees update their availability 3o days at a time with their available days, unavailable times, etc. a month at a time without restraint ( I see mention of a limit of 10 days for some issues)

Answer 1

Dear @Butch Sager, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.   

I truly appreciate the clarity of your questions, and I understand that you are evaluating Microsoft Teams Shifts to determine whether it can support the scheduling needs of your tour business. 

Scenario 1: Creating reusable shift templates 

Although Shifts does not include a dedicated “template” object, it does offer several features that work very much like templates and can significantly reduce repetitive work. 

• Option 1: Copy an entire schedule 

This is the quickest method when you have a recurring 30‑day or weekly pattern. 

Open the Shifts schedule > Select the date range you want to reuse > Choose Copy schedule. 

Paste it into the new week or month > Make any final adjustments > Publish when ready. 

• Option 2: Copy and paste individual shifts 

Useful when only certain roles or times repeat. 

Select one or multiple shifts > Copy > Select the target day or team member > Paste and save. 

• Option 3: Import a schedule from Excel 

This option is ideal when you already maintain a 30‑day rotation externally. 

Download Microsoft’s official Shifts Excel template. 

Populate the schedule for all staff > Import into Shifts > Review the preview before confirming. 

Scenario 2: Shift acknowledgment from employees 

I understand why a confirmation step is important in tour operations, especially when last‑minute changes impact service delivery. Shifts notifies employees automatically when a schedule is published or updated, but it does not provide a built‑in “Accept” or “Decline” button for assigned shifts. 

Here are practical alternatives that teams commonly adopt: 

• Use Open Shifts to require an acceptance action 

Employees must request an open shift, and you approve it. This effectively serves as a confirmation step. 

Post the shift as Open > Employees request the shift > You approve or reject. 

Notifications are sent to both sides. 

Scenario 3: Managing 30 days employee availability 

Availability in Shifts is structured in two ways: 

• Recurring availability: Employees set weekly patterns such as “Available Mondays” or “Unavailable Tuesdays”. This repeats automatically. 
• Specific‑date availability: Employees can add one‑off overrides, but there is a limit of up to ten dates per person at a time. 

Since your rotation works on a 30‑day cycle, here are approaches that align better with your workflow: 

• Option 1: Use recurring availability for general patterns 

Employees set their usual weekly availability. 

Open the Shifts mobile app > Go to Set availability 

Define available or unavailable times for each day of the week > Save 

• Option 2: Use time‑off requests for exceptions 

This avoids hitting the ten‑date limit. 

Employees open Shifts > Submit time‑off requests for the days they cannot work. 

You review and approve. 

Approved requests appear directly on your schedule. 

• Option 3: Build the 30‑day rotation centrally and import it 

This bypasses the need for employees to submit 30 individual availability entries. 

Maintain the rotation in Excel > Import into Shifts using the official template. 

Review and publish. 
Additional information is available in the following resource: 

As community moderators, we kindly ask for your understanding that our access to internal development details is limited. Our primary role is to guide users toward the appropriate resources and support channels. While we may not have visibility into performing deeper backend analysis, we’ll continue doing our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.  

I hope these explanations help you evaluate how Shifts aligns with your operational model. If you have any questions or need further support, please don’t hesitate to reach out at any time. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

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Answer 2

1. Shifts templates Shifts supports creating reusable shift patterns so the full details do not need to be rebuilt every time. A schedule can be created, edited, and managed with predefined shifts, and existing shifts can be copied and reused instead of re-entering all information each time.
2. Employee confirmation/acknowledgment Shifts includes a Requests and approvals model, but not an explicit “accept/decline” workflow for assigned shifts. The built-in request types are:

• Time off
• Pick up open shifts
• Swap a shift with a coworker
• Offer a shift to a coworker

Managers receive notifications in the Teams Activity feed when workers submit these requests and can approve or deny them. However, once a manager directly assigns a shift and publishes the schedule, there is no separate confirmation step where workers must “approve” an assigned shift; the acknowledgment mechanism is via workers requesting changes (time off, swaps, offers) rather than confirming.

3. Updating availability in 30‑day blocks Availability in the Shifts mobile app can be set in two ways:

• Recurring availability (ongoing pattern)
• Specific dates

For specific dates, availability can be added for up to 10 dates at a time. The workflow is:

• On Shifts home screen → plus icon → Set availability → Specific dates → Add a date.
• Up to 10 dates can be configured with available/unavailable times.

This 10‑date limit applies to the “Specific dates” feature. To support a 30‑day rotation, workers would either:

• Use recurring availability patterns where possible, and
• Use specific dates in multiple batches (each up to 10 dates) to override or fine‑tune availability.

There is no capability in the provided information to set a single, unconstrained 30‑day availability block in one step; the specific-dates feature is limited to 10 dates per configuration.

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References:

• What is Shifts?
• Schedule staff shifts
• Manage shift requests and time off in Shifts
• Set your availability in Shifts
• Get started in Shifts