Published and Unpublished Shifts

Overview

By default, when you create a support in Astalty, it is created as an unpublished shift. Shifts must be published before they are visible to Support Workers in the app.

You can identify the status of a shift by its appearance:

Unpublished Shift - The event uses a dashed border.
Published Shift - The event uses a solid border and fill. Its colour depends on your organisation's Schedule Colours.

Publishing Shifts

There are several ways you can publish shifts:

Individually:

Open a specific support, then open the three-dot menu beside the Support Worker's name and select Publish Shift.

From the Actions menu in a Direct Support or Group Support, select Publish Shifts.

By Day: Switch to the Daily View, select the date, and publish all shifts scheduled for that day.

By Week: Switch to the Weekly View, select the week, and publish all shifts scheduled for that week.

By Fortnight: Switch to the Fortnight View, select the fortnight, and publish all shifts scheduled in that period.

By Date Range: Use the date range filter to review unpublished shifts and publish them in bulk.

When you publish shifts from the calendar view, a pop-up will appear showing all shifts that are about to be published. Any unassigned shifts will be listed first so you can review and address them before proceeding.

Publishing Every Shift That Matches Your Filters

Use Unpublished Shifts when you need to publish more than one page of results without selecting each page separately:

Open Scheduling > Unpublished Shifts.
Search or apply filters until the table contains the shifts you want to publish.
Tick the checkbox in the table header to select the current page.
Select Select all [number] matching shifts in the selection bar.
Select Publish, review the number of shifts and the count for each assigned worker, then confirm.

The review also lists unassigned shifts. Publishing makes those shifts active, but there is no worker to notify until someone is assigned. Assigned Support Workers are notified immediately and see the shifts on their schedules.

You can publish up to 2,000 matching shifts at once. If more than 2,000 match, narrow the search or filters and publish smaller batches.

Unpublishing Shifts

You can also unpublish a shift before making changes. For example:

Adjusting travel details
Unassigning and reassigning a Support Worker
Editing other shift information

Open the support, open the three-dot menu beside the Support Worker's name, and select Unpublish Shift.

Once changes are complete, you can republish the shift.

You can also select Actions > Unpublish Shifts on a Direct Support or Group Support. It only appears while the support has a published shift still to come.

Bulk Actions from the All Shifts Page

In addition to publishing and unpublishing shifts from the calendar view, you can publish, unpublish, and delete shifts directly from the All Shifts page. This is useful when you want to manage shifts across multiple days or workers in one place. The page also shows cancelled shifts and lets you filter by cancellation status - see How Cancellations Appear on Shift and Support Lists.

Bulk Publishing

To bulk publish shifts from the All Shifts page:

Navigate to the All Shifts page.
Select the shifts you want to publish using the checkboxes.
Click Publish in the selection bar above the table. It is only available when every selected shift is unpublished.

A confirmation pop-up will appear listing the affected Support Workers and their shifts. Review the list to ensure everything is correct, then confirm to proceed. Assigned Support Workers will be notified immediately once the shifts are published.

Bulk Unpublishing

To bulk unpublish shifts from the All Shifts page:

Navigate to the All Shifts page.
Select the shifts you want to unpublish using the checkboxes.
Click Unpublish in the selection bar above the table. It is only available when every selected shift is published.

A confirmation pop-up will appear listing the affected Support Workers and their shifts. Review the list before confirming. Assigned Support Workers will be notified immediately that the shifts have been removed from their schedule.

Bulk Deleting

You can delete several shifts from the All Shifts page in one step, instead of removing a roster one shift at a time.

Navigate to the All Shifts page.
Select the shifts you want to delete using the checkboxes. A shift already sitting in a timesheet batch can't be ticked.
Click Delete in the selection bar above the table. When the bar also shows Publish and Unpublish, Delete is under the ... (More actions) button.

A Delete Shifts dialog opens, summarising what will be removed (for example This deletes 3 supports) and listing every affected Support Worker with their shift dates and times. Tick I understand and would like to proceed, then click Delete.

A shift can't be deleted when:

The Support Worker has clocked in or out of it.
It's in a timesheet batch.
Its Support or Group Support has invoiced or voided charges.
Its Support belongs to a Group Support and deleting it would leave a gap in another Participant's coverage.

If any selected shift fails one of these checks, nothing is deleted - Astalty lists which shifts failed and why, with a Deselect Blocked Shifts button so you can remove them from the selection and retry with the rest.

Deleting notifies the assigned Support Worker only if the shift was already published - an unpublished shift isn't visible to them, so there's nothing to notify.

Published and Unpublished Notifications

When you publish a support, the assigned Support Worker will receive a notification in the Support Worker app. The type of notification will depend on how the shift is published - whether you publish an individual shift or publish shifts in bulk from the scheduler using the daily, weekly, or date range view.

If you unpublish a support, the Support Worker will also receive a notification to let them know the support has been removed from their schedule.

Key Points

Shifts are unpublished by default when created.
Published shifts use a solid border and fill.
Unpublished shifts use a dashed border.
The colour itself can be changed in Schedule Colours.
You can publish or unpublish shifts individually, by day, by week, or by a selected date range. You can also publish every shift matching the current filters from Unpublished Shifts.

Publishing Workflow

See Publishing Workflow for a suggested review and publishing process.

Published & Unpublished Overview

The following video provides an overview of published and unpublished supports.