How to Set Up Shift Trades: Keeping Hours on Original Day Worked

This method allows your department to manage shift trades internally without affecting an individual's scheduled hours on their time card for payroll purposes. This means the time card will reflect the original schedule, even when a trade has occurred.

The Core Concept

The key to this workaround lies in creating two special "activities" within your scheduling system:

• "Trade Off": This signifies when an individual is not working their scheduled shift because someone else is covering for them.
• "Trade Worked": This signifies when an individual is working a shift for someone else, which is not part of their regularly scheduled hours. The "magic" of this activity is that it's set to accrue zero hours on the time card.

Step-by-Step Setup

Follow these steps to implement the Trade Off/Trade Worked method:

1. Create "Trade Off" and "Trade Worked" Activities

1. Add "Trade Off" Activity:
   • Activity: Go to Menu, then to Setup, and finally to Activities.
     • Create a new activity called "Trade Off."
     • This will be a normal activity
   • Shift Abbreviation: Go to Menu > Setup > Shift Abbreviations
     • Set up a Shift Abbreviation as a space " ", dash "-", or "TO" for Trade Off
   • Schedule Color & Style: Go to Menu > Setup > Schedule Color & Style
     • Set up a Color & Style. 
     • One suggestion is to set the background color to #64FF64FF (use the little arrows next to the color settings to change to the HEX value), set the text color to #000000, and optionally set the Font to Italicized. 
     • 
2. Add "Trade Worked" Activity:
   • Repeat the instructions above to do these steps
   • Activity: Create a new activity called "Trade Worked."
   • Shift Abbreviation: Assign an abbreviation (e.g., "TW" or "Trade").
   • IMPORTANT: enable the "On Call" option for this activity. This is the trick that allows you to set it to accrue zero hours.
     • Under the "On Call" settings, select "Select Overtime" (or any option) and set the hours accrued to 0. This ensures that anyone assigned to a "Trade Worked" shift will not have those hours counted on their time card.
   • Color & Style: Configure its display settings.
     • Set background to #B02715FF and text to #ffffff
     • 

2. Implement the Trade on the Schedule

These Shift Trades will have to be done by a supervisor, not the normal automated shift trade feature within Hero Schedule.

When a shift trade occurs:

1. For the Person Trading OFF:
   • Change their scheduled shift on the day they are not working (because someone is covering for them) to the "Trade Off" activity. This will visually indicate they are off, but their original scheduled hours will still appear on their time card for payroll.
2. For the Person Trading ON/Working:
   • Assign the "Trade Worked" activity to them for the hours they are covering the shift. Because this activity is set to accrue zero hours, these "ghost shift" hours will not appear on their time card or affect their payroll calculations.

How this works

• Time Cards & Payroll: The time card will continue to reflect the originally scheduled hours for all employees. The system records who was supposed to work for payroll purposes, regardless of who physically worked the shift.
• Visual Schedule: The schedule will visually indicate who is trading off (with the "TO" or space abbreviation) and who is working a "ghost shift" (with the "TRADE" abbreviation, or just the time span).
• Overtime Calculation: By using the "Trade Worked" activity with zero hours accrued, you prevent unintended overtime from being calculated for employees who are simply covering a shift for another employee.