Unassigned Shifts

Overview

The Unassigned Shifts functionality allows you to quickly identify and allocate shifts that are not yet assigned to a Support Worker. This helps ensure roster gaps are filled promptly, while giving you a clear view of staff availability and potential scheduling impacts.

Accessing Unassigned Shifts

• Go to Scheduling from the left-hand menu.
• Select Unassigned Shifts.
• A number next to the menu option indicates how many unassigned shifts currently exist.

Viewing Unassigned Shifts

• The list displays unassigned shifts for the selected date range.
• Use the date picker to filter and select presets for quick date range changes.
• Shifts are shown with headings for Date, Day, Shift Type, Duration, Start Time, and End Time.

Shift Details

Click on a shift to view more information, including Participant Details, Tags, and Information Items. You'll also be able to see if the support is recurring by the frequency indictor under the shift date.

Scroll down to view a list of available Support Workers.

Astalty displays a list of potential Support Worker, including the following details:

Name

Name of the Support Worker.

Phone

This is the stored number in Mobile (Astalty will use the number from the Phone if there is nothing in Mobile)

Preferences

Any preferences that may impact on shift.

Skills

How many of the Participant's desired skills this worker holds, shown as a chip such as 2/3 skills (or 2 of 3 Participants on a group support). Hover over it to see which skills matched and which are missing. This column only appears if your account has the Skills feature enabled, and the chip is left blank where the Participant has no desired skills recorded. A skill match never prevents a worker being assigned.

Last visited

The date when staff last visited that Participant

Past Shifts

Details of any past shifts

Availability

Availability for the current and future shift/s. Hovering over the Unavailable tag within the Availability column will display further context about their unavailability, like:

• Shift Clashes

• Unavailability

• Unavailability, but may have availability on request.

Filtering the Support Worker List

When the list is long, you can narrow the suggested Support Workers using the filters above the list. These filters combine with each other and with the search box:

• Availability – show only workers who are Available or Unavailable for the current shift.
• State – filter by the worker's state (ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, or WA). You can select more than one.
• Team – filter by the team a worker belongs to, including Unassigned for workers not in a team. This filter is only available if you use Teams.

Assigning a Shift

In order to assign a Support Worker, open the Support, scroll to the Support Workers section, and then select the preferred Support Worker by clicking on their name. This opens their schedule in relation to the shift:

• Blue – the shift being assigned.
• Light grey – existing shifts.
• Pink – times the worker is not available.

This view also provides a visual comparison of the Support Worker’s agreed Total Hours and the hours scheduled for the week, as shown in the image below.

If you are satisfied that the Support Worker is able to provide the necessary support, click on the Assign button This view helps you assess potential impacts such as travel, meal breaks, and broken shifts (particularly relevant for Community Access supports).

Confirming the Assignment

After you have selected Assign you can choose whether to:

• Update only the selected shift.
• Update all shifts in the sequence.
• Update all future repeating shifts.

Selecting Update All Future Shifts rosters the worker on for all future occurrences of that shift.

Notifications

Once assigned, the Support Worker receives a notification in the Support Worker app informing them of the new shift.

Unassigned Shifts Functionality Overview

This video provides an overview of the unassigned shifts functionality.

Reassigning a Support Worker

When a worker can no longer do a shift and you already know who is covering it, you don't need to unassign them first. Reassign Support Worker swaps the worker in a single step, so the shift never passes through the Unassigned Shifts list.

• Go to the Scheduling page and click on the support you want to change.
• On the right-hand side, find the name of the assigned Support Worker, click the three dots next to their name, and select Reassign Support Worker.

Reassign Support Worker only appears once a shift already has a Support Worker on it. On an empty shift you'll see Assign Support Worker instead.

Choosing the Replacement

Reassigning opens the same Support Worker list you get when assigning an unassigned shift, so you have the full picture before committing — Availability for this and future shifts, Preferences, Phone, Last visited and Past Shifts, plus Qualifications, Skills and Award Alerts where your account uses those features. The filters and search described in Filtering the Support Worker List work here too.

Some workers can't be selected at all. Their row is greyed out with a chip explaining why — for example Shift Clash - Selection Blocked, Award Alert - Selection Blocked, Qualification - Selection Blocked or Incompatible - Selection Blocked.

Click the worker you want and Astalty opens a Reassign Shifts preview — the same schedule comparison as a normal assignment, showing the shifts to be reassigned against their existing shifts, unavailability, and any time or travel conflicts, alongside their agreed hours for the week.

Confirming the Reassignment

Click Reassign and you'll get a confirmation step summarising exactly what's about to change, along with an optional Reason for reassigning box. The reason isn't required, but anything you enter is recorded against the shift in the Support Audit Log alongside the change of worker, so it's worth noting why the swap happened.

Reassigning Across a Recurring Series

If the shift is part of a recurring series, the preview lists every later occurrence with a checkbox beside it, and Astalty works out the scope from what you tick:

• Tick nothing else — only the shift you opened is reassigned.
• Tick every occurrence — that shift and all future shifts are reassigned.
• Tick some occurrences — that shift and just the ones you selected are reassigned.

The confirmation message spells out which of the three you're about to do before you commit. The occurrences offered are the ones still held by the worker you're replacing, and only those starting at or after the shift you opened. Use the Select dropdown for shortcuts such as All without clashes or Every [Weekday] — see Recurring Shifts.

If some occurrences in your selection can't be changed, Astalty highlights those rows rather than failing silently, so you can open each one and deal with it separately.

Notifications

For a published shift, both workers are notified in the Support Worker app automatically — the incoming worker gets a new shift notification, and the outgoing worker is told the shift has been unassigned from them. The outgoing worker's notification doesn't name their replacement or include the reason you entered, so let them know yourself if the context matters.

On an unpublished shift nobody is notified, because the shift isn't visible to workers yet.

When Reassign Isn't Available

The option is greyed out, without explanation, when the shift can no longer change hands:

• The Support Worker has clocked in or out of the shift.
• The shift is in a timesheet batch.
• The support has been cancelled.
• The shift is an unpaid break.

Reassigning is controlled by the same permission as assigning and unassigning, so anyone who can already do those can reassign. Past shifts can still be reassigned, as long as none of the above apply.

Unassigning a shift

• Go to the Scheduling page and click on the support you want to unassign a Support Worker from.
• On the right-hand side, find the name of the assigned Support Worker. Click the three dots next to their name and select Unassign Support Worker.
• The user will be prompted:
  • if it's a recurring support, would they like to Update all future shifts in this schedule,
  • provide a Reason for unassign - why you removed the Support Worker.

• The support will now be unassigned and will appear in the Unassigned Supports list.

How to Unassign a Shift

This video demonstrates how to unassign a shift.