Schedule management can be unforgiving. One missed save, one overlooked exception, one open shift that never gets filled.
Fortunately, Infor’s April CU addresses several of these pain points head-on with improvements to Multi-View Scheduler (MVS).
From smarter autosaving behavior to better visibility into scheduling exceptions, these updates are designed to reduce the manual burden on schedulers and give healthcare teams more ways to engage with open shifts.
RPI Consultant Erik Chaney will walk you through how to:
- Use the Time Save feature and explore rotation screen enhancements, including team name display, employee notes, advanced filtering, and start time interval improvements
- Post broadcasted shifts directly to billboards and manage open shifts more efficiently with new editing and shift history capabilities
- Navigate the updated Manage Schedule screen, including configurable data columns, time-off request management, and rotation publish exceptions
- Surface key employee attributes, scheduling data, and pay calculations directly within Manage Schedule to streamline decision-making
- See how these updates reduce manual intervention and improve visibility for a more efficient scheduling workflow
If the April CU is on your radar, and you’re wondering what changes are new to MVS, then you won’t want to miss this session.
Transcript
Erik Chaney
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Workforce Management Multi-View Scheduler April CU webinar. My name is Erik Chaney. I am a consultant with RPI Consultants, and today we are going to be going over the MVS module and the new releases for the April 2026 CU. We’ll cover new features in the Master Rotation and One-Time Schedule screen, the Open Shift Manager enhancements, and the enhanced Manage Schedule screen. We’ll walk through these topics, transition into the application for a quick visual of some of these features, answer a couple of questions, and then wrap up.
The first feature we’re going to talk about is the time save feature in the Master Rotation and One-Time Schedule screens. When planning large rotation schedules in dynamic environments, schedulers can be pulled away by matters requiring immediate attention, and any unsaved schedule changes could be lost due to a system timeout or the need to navigate away. A configurable time save mechanism is now introduced that will automatically save changes after a defined period of on-screen inactivity.
Users can enable automatic saving after a preset inactivity period on these rotation screens, and organizations can configure the default inactivity threshold. The benefit of this feature is to prevent data loss and reduce rework by preserving unsaved changes during schedule planning. It also eliminates reliance on users remembering to save, speeds up scheduling workflows, and enhances user trust in the system.
A few caveats: when time save is enabled, unsaved changes such as plotted shifts or row labor metrics will automatically be saved a defined number of seconds after the last modification. Any new edit will restart the timer. However, navigating out of the page without saving will not trigger an automatic save. The time save feature does not save while the user is actively interacting with the screen. The time save threshold must be at least 60 seconds. And if the session timeout is shorter than the time save threshold, unsaved changes cannot be saved automatically before the session ends.
The next feature is a new configuration key that allows the system to display either the team name, team description, or both. Depending on implementation and integration with HR systems, team names in WFM can sometimes be alphanumeric strings that aren’t easily understood by users. And while team descriptions can help distinguish teams, there are instances where descriptions are highly similar or even identical across different teams in an organization. This configuration key provides the option to display by team name, description, or both — improving visibility, reducing confusion, and making team identification faster on the Master Rotation and One-Time Schedule screens.
Next, employee notes in the Master Rotation and One-Time Schedule screen. Schedulers can now attach notes to employees being scheduled, providing a trackable and auditable communication channel. Previously, schedulers relied on outside communication channels such as paper notes or emails to manage staffing information. That information wasn’t trackable within WFM and could easily be lost between schedulers, leading to inefficiencies and miscommunications.
Now, notes can be added, viewed, and deleted by right-clicking on an employee or clicking the note indicator next to their name. Notes include effective start and end dates and are visible across the Master Rotation, One-Time Schedule, and Advanced Schedule View screens. Full audit logging of notes and comments is available in WFM. Notes are available throughout various stages of scheduling, ensuring informed decision-making. Importantly, notes are internal and not visible to regular employees.
The last new feature in the Master Rotation and One-Time Schedule screen is the start time interval. Currently, when coverage is set to display by time interval, intervals always begin counting from midnight. This new update introduces the option to define the starting time from which intervals will be counted and shown in the coverage panel. For example, if a user sets the start time to 7:30 a.m. with a one-hour interval, the coverage panel will display intervals such as 7:30–8:30, 8:30–9:30, 9:30–10:30, and so on.
The next module is the Open Shift Manager and its new enhancements. The first is broadcasting ability. When open shifts are sent to employees via IVR, employees may miss the call and lose the opportunity to accept the offered shift. Similarly, if an employee accidentally deletes the SMS notification, they lose that same opportunity. This new feature gives schedulers the option to place the open shift on the billboard when broadcasting via SMS or IVR, so employees can still attempt to accept via the billboard after missing the call or text. I won’t be able to execute a live broadcast today due to licensing limitations in our demo environment, but I’ll walk through the full process and highlight exactly where and how it’s performed so you can apply it in your own environment.
The next new feature in the Open Shift Manager is the ability to edit shift details directly from that screen. Previously, when editing shift details was required, schedulers had to navigate to the Advanced Schedule View or Manage Schedule, apply the edits, and then return to the Open Shift Manager to continue posting. That frequent context switching becomes expensive and inefficient when editing open shifts is a regular part of the workflow. Schedulers can now edit open shift details — times and shift attributes — directly from the Open Shift Manager, ensuring shifts have the correct attributes before being sent to employees. Benefits include improved efficiency, a simplified workflow for adding incentives, and an optimized shift pickup rate.
The last feature in the Open Shift Manager is the Shift History display. Schedulers can now access the audit history of open shifts directly within the Open Shift Manager by selecting the Shift History tab in the shift details. Previously, schedulers had to navigate away from the module to inspect audit history — again, expensive and inefficient context switching. This new tab provides clear visibility into the transactions performed on open shifts, empowering schedulers to apply the correct actions, such as reposting or re-offering shifts that were not successfully claimed in previous attempts.
The last module we’ll cover is the Manage Schedule screen and its new updates. First, the new data columns. The scheduling screen was previously limited to out-of-the-box totals — total hours and weekly hours — with no support for custom business logic, forcing manual calculations and a one-size-fits-all approach. This new feature introduces the ability to display different sets of data columns in the Manage Schedule view, including scheduled and employee information. It enables the display of static values from the employee profile — hours worked, shift counts within a certain time frame, absences, contract hours, employee balances, premiums — all configurable and displayable as data columns in the Manage Schedule screen.
This feature requires custom script extension creation, custom data columns, custom data groups, and schedule data. When you navigate to the application, if there is an error within your script for any of these data column options, you’ll see a red exclamation mark and may need to contact support to help debug the query. The benefit of creating custom data columns is having tailored KPIs that reflect each customer’s rules and industry needs, and enabling faster, more data-driven scheduling decisions at a glance.
The next new feature in the Manage Schedule screen is the ability to manage time off requests directly from the schedule. Previously, handling time off requests required context switching — leaving the schedule to approve requests and then returning to view the result. This led to limited visibility and slow or misinformed decisions. The Manage Schedule screen now includes the ability to approve or deny pending time off requests. Users can either address all requests at once or handle individual employee requests separately. Benefits include faster, more context-aware approval decisions, lower admin workload, and quicker turnaround for batch decisions.
The next feature is rotation publish exceptions. When mass rotation or one-time schedules are published, exceptions are handled automatically but schedulers previously had no post-publish visibility into exactly what decisions were made. This forced manual audits and guesswork. This new feature adds functionality to show and acknowledge exceptions arising from the rotation publishing process. Users can now view and acknowledge these exceptions by clicking the Schedule Exceptions button in the lower right corner of the Manage Schedule screen. If there are no rotation process exceptions or conflicts, this button remains disabled. The result is increased transparency into automated publishing decisions without switching modules, leading to fewer scheduling errors and greater confidence in automated publishing.
The next update is a UI change: both the name and description for teams and jobs are now displayed directly within the application, providing additional context at a glance and reducing the need to navigate into configuration or reference materials. For example, a team named 12345 doesn’t provide much context on its own, but paired with the description ‘Emergency Room West,’ it becomes immediately clear. This reduces confusion, improves accuracy when scheduling, and makes the overall user experience more intuitive.
The last feature before the demo is the ability to group unassigned shifts. With this update, unassigned shifts are displayed and organized at the top of the Manage Schedule screen, making them easier to identify and prioritize, with employees listed below for a clear overall view. You also have the flexibility to categorize unassigned shifts into secondary groupings by team, job, role, or other criteria. Additionally, employees can now be grouped based on their home teams and preferred jobs, regardless of the shift they’re currently assigned to, providing a more consistent and meaningful way to view and manage your workforce.
Now let’s jump into the application to demonstrate some of these features. The first thing we’re going to do is navigate to the Master Rotation and One-Time Schedule screen.
I’ll navigate to the one-time schedule. The first thing to show is the team name and description display. You can see at the top of the screen it shows both the team name and the team description, as well as the name of the rotation — all stored in the upper left corner.
Next, the time save feature. In the upper right corner above your schedule, if you hover over the time save toggle, you’ll see a message: ‘Unsaved changes will be automatically saved 180 seconds after the last edit.’ Right now I have it turned off. Toggling it on brings up a confirmation message indicating that unsaved changes will be automatically saved 180 seconds after the last edit, any edit will reset the timer, and exiting the page without saving will not trigger an autosave. I’ll click Acknowledge. Now, as I make changes to the schedule, you can see the status change to Unsaved. If I click the save icon in the upper right corner, the status returns to Saved. If I were to leave those changes in place without interacting with the screen, after 180 seconds the schedule would automatically save and display a confirmation message. For the sake of time I won’t wait for that, but that’s how the feature works.
The other feature to show in the Master Rotation and One-Time Schedule screen is the coverage start time interval. I’ll display the coverage with the time interval view. By default it’s set to 12:00 a.m., which you can see reflected in the coverage panel at the bottom. I’ll change the start time to 7:30 a.m. The times in the coverage panel update accordingly. With the interval set to one hour, it runs from 7:30 to 8:30, 8:30 to 9:30, and so on. I can change this to every two hours and the times update again. All of this is user preference — it’s just another way for schedulers to view their coverage while plotting shifts for a rotation.
The next module is the Open Shift Manager. I’ll filter to the team I was demoing with. The first thing to show is how to broadcast a shift. We don’t have the broadcasting licensing configured in our sandbox, but I’ll walk through the steps. I’ll open a shift, navigate to Post Shift, and select Broadcast Shift. From here you set your parameters — the team is already selected. If you have a call list to broadcast to, you’d select it here. You can also specify individual employees. I have the checkboxes set to show only employees who are available, qualified by job and skill, and team members only. I’ll click Next.
This returns the list of eligible employees for the shift. You can select them individually or use the checkbox in the upper left to select all. I’ll click Next — and this is where we pause, since we don’t have the individual employee licensing set up in this sandbox. In your own environment, you would continue from here to complete the broadcast. I’ll cancel out.
Next, editing shift details. Using the same shift — currently set from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. — I’ll click Edit. I can edit the time or the shift attributes. Clicking Edit Time lets me lengthen or shorten the shift, applied to either the beginning or the end, by specifying the number of hours or minutes. I can also open the full shift details to see the current shift parameters: time, shift, team, job, and activity.
Lastly in the Open Shift Manager, the Shift History tab. Clicking into one of these shifts, I can see the Shift Details tab and the new Shift History tab. This shift was pre-published on 4/14 at 11:05 a.m. from the Scheduled Template screen, then published in the Advanced Schedule View about 35 minutes later. You have a full audit trail for open shifts — whether they’re active posts or completed shifts, the shift history is available for all of them.
Now let’s navigate to the Manage Schedule screen. I’ll go to the Self Service Portal and load my schedule. The first thing to walk through is the custom data columns. In the upper right corner, I’ll click Display Options and go to Data Column Options. Out of the box, you have Total Hours and Weekly Hours available to check on and view. The Employee Data section is where custom data columns will appear — but these require custom scripting and custom data column configurations to be set up for your specific team before they’re available. Once configured, values like vacation balance, premium hours, and shift counts will all appear here.
Some other things to show in this screen: managing time off. Anyone who has a pending time off request will have a circular orange arrow on their employee row, and any day with a pending request will show that same icon in the upper right corner of that shift cell. Rather than going to each individual shift or row, you can manage all time off requests from the circular orange arrow button in the bottom right corner of the screen. Clicking it opens all pending requests across every employee and team you’re currently viewing. In this example, one person has three separate requests — on the 20th, 21st, and 22nd. I can click into their balances to see what’s banked, what’s remaining, and when the requests were submitted, including whether each request is a full day or partial day and the time off type. From here I can select all and approve or deny in bulk, or go one by one.
If there were any rotation publish exceptions or schedule conflicts, the Schedule Exceptions button in the lower right corner would be active. Right now it’s grayed out because this schedule has no exceptions — but if there were any, you’d manage them from there.
The last thing to show is the team and job name and description display. I’ll group my employees by team. You can see the team name and description displayed together in the upper left corner — no confusion about which team you’re viewing. I can further group by job and again see both the job name and description. My Nurse Manager, my RNs listed as Registered Nurses, my Techs — just another way to have clarity and visibility while viewing the schedule.
And lastly, grouping unassigned shifts. Grouping all unassigned shifts at the top of the screen gives you a clear view of exactly how many you have on any given day and makes it easy to manage and balance your schedule as you assign those shifts to employees.
Now let’s open it up to questions. The first question: can notes added in the Master Rotation and One-Time Schedule be deleted? Great question — yes, they can be deleted, and it is controlled by a configuration key. There may be instances where you want to enable the ability to delete a note in case a team member accidentally entered sensitive information. It can also be driven by security to control who has the ability to delete notes.
Second question: in the Manage Schedule screen, where can I see the coverage panel to get an overall view of shift count, and is there another way to view coverage? Yes — I’ll demonstrate. To show coverage in the Manage Schedule screen, click Display Options and under the Header section, check off Coverage Panel. By default it will show the last view you had. You can filter it by team or by job, and display the data as either shift hours or shift count. If you want the total shift count for a day, you can view it this way. Alternatively, you can view by shift hours. Expanding the coverage panel shows the jobs listed under each team — for example, seven hours of Nurse Manager scheduled on Monday the 20th, 240 hours for RNs, and eight for Techs. There are many ways to view coverage in this screen — it’s all user preference.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to email us at questions@rpic.com. Thank you so much for joining.
