Set Up Auto-Schedule for Checklists

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At a glance

Auto Schedule automatically distributes checklist assignments across your team for a shift. Instead of dragging each checklist onto a position, you click the Auto Schedule button and the system assigns based on who is scheduled, their age (minor restrictions), their permissions, and their history. Use it when you want fast, balanced coverage without manually placing every checklist. You can still override individual assignments manually after running Auto Schedule.

Before you start

1. You need a role with permission to auto-schedule checklists. [VERIFY: exact permission label.]
2. Today's shift layout should be filled with team members in positions. Auto Schedule distributes across whoever is on shift, so empty positions will be skipped.
3. Decide whether you want to preserve any manual assignments you have already made. Auto Schedule may redistribute them unless the specific section is marked Don't Auto-Assign in the Checklist Manager.
4. Estimated time: under one minute for the auto-assignment itself, plus any manual overrides.

Steps

1. Select Shifts from the left navigation menu.
2. Confirm your FOH or BOH toggle matches the side you are assigning on.
3. Confirm team members are placed in the positions you want covered. Auto Schedule can only assign to occupied positions.
4. Click Auto Schedule in the top action bar (between Lists and Collapse All). The system runs the assignment logic across all active checklists for today.
5. Review the results. Each position should now show one or more checklists assigned to it. The distribution considers age (minors are not assigned to adult-only checklists), permissions (leader-only checklists go to team members with the required permission), and history (the system avoids piling too many assignments on the same person).
6. Manually override any assignments that need adjustment. Drag a checklist from the Lists panel to a different position, or move an existing assignment by dragging it. Sections marked Don't Auto-Assign are skipped and can be assigned manually.
7. You should now see a fully distributed set of checklist assignments. Each team member can open Checklists on their device to see their assigned work.

Video

Video coming soon.

Common gotchas

Auto Schedule overwrote assignments I made manually. If you ran Auto Schedule after making manual assignments, the auto run may redistribute them. To preserve a manual assignment in the future, mark the section as Don't Auto-Assign in the Checklist Manager (the checkbox on the task row). Auto Schedule will skip it. Alternatively, run Auto Schedule first and do manual overrides after.

Minors ended up with adult-only checklists (or did not). Auto Schedule respects the minor flag per task. If a task is configured to exclude minors (via the Non-minor checkbox in the Checklist Manager), Auto Schedule will not assign it to a team member flagged as a minor. If you see unexpected distribution, check each task's Non-minor setting.

A leader is getting no checklists from Auto Schedule. By default, Auto Schedule may or may not include leaders depending on the setting "Include FOH Leaders in Auto-Assign" in Settings or Checklist Manager. [VERIFY: confirm the exact location of this setting and its default value.] Enable it if you want leaders to receive assignments, disable it if leaders should focus on oversight rather than running tasks.

Auto Schedule seems to concentrate work on the same team members each shift. The history factor should prevent this: the system checks whether a person has already been assigned a checklist today and whether they had it in the repeating timeframe (daily, weekly, monthly). If concentration is still happening, team members may be repeating shifts in the same positions, which narrows the distribution. Rotate position assignments or mark certain sections Don't Auto-Assign to force manual distribution.

Can Auto Schedule be disabled entirely? No. Auto Schedule is always available as a button. If you do not want to use it, simply do not click it. Manual drag-and-drop assignment works the same whether Auto Schedule has been run or not.

I clicked Auto Schedule and nothing visible happened. Refresh the page. Auto Schedule should populate assignments on position cards within a second or two. If nothing changes after a refresh, you may not have permission to auto-schedule, or no checklists are currently due to be assigned.

Related articles

1. Assign a Checklist to a Position (How-To Guides)
2. Edit a Checklist (How-To Guides)
3. Why a Checklist Is Not Appearing (Troubleshooting)
4. Create a Checklist (How-To Guides)

Still stuck

Submit a support ticket with your store number, a screenshot of the Shifts screen before and after clicking Auto Schedule, and a description of what you expected versus what happened.

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Pre-publish checklist

5 8e099f81-daca-416e-8700-48b5c4601211 complete Seven sections filled. No em dashes. Permission-based references. Step count within guidance.

6 48e710e6-9f59-4068-aa51-e673e68512c6 incomplete UI verified against Production.

7 1c1e7d3e-7969-4a3a-802c-c651f5a8be21 incomplete VERIFY blocks resolved (permission label, leader-inclusion setting location and default).

8 1c45d531-e9f2-4e45-8dfb-957b6ea01d13 incomplete Reviewed by Jared and Kevin.