Home Scheduling 3. Setting preferred hours

3. Setting preferred hours

Last updated on Aug 07, 2026

Preferred hours are weekly time windows used as a scheduling guide. They are not shifts — they do not assign staff or publish work.

There are two kinds:

  • Profile preferred hours — when a profile usually needs coverage. These drive coverage gaps on the profile schedule and Team Schedule.
  • Staff preferred hours — when a team member is usually available. These appear as gray bands on My Schedule and on that person's staff schedule. Managers see them when assigning people to shifts.

Profile preferred hours

Who can set them

Managers and Billing users can set preferred hours for profiles they can access.

A Manager can also turn on Set Preferred Hours for a Staff or Guest user (Manage Team → open the person → permissions). That lets them edit preferred hours on profiles they can access. It does not let them create or edit shifts.

Set the weekly hours

On the website:

  1. Open Scheduling.
  2. Select the profile.
  3. Select Preferred hours.
  4. Add one or more time windows to each applicable day.
  5. Leave a day blank if no preferred coverage is needed.
  6. Select Save preferred hours.

The windows repeat every week until someone changes them.

Each window must start and end on the same day. Preferred hours cannot run overnight; split overnight coverage into a late window on one day and an early window on the next.

Using more than one window

A day can have multiple preferred windows. For example:

  • 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM
  • 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Use separate windows when coverage is not needed for the entire period between them.

Coverage gaps

BEHCA compares profile preferred hours with scheduled shifts. Preferred time with at least 15 minutes uncovered appears as a Coverage gap.

A Manager can select a gap from the profile calendar or Team Schedule board to start a shift with the gap's date and time already filled in.

A gap means that preferred time is not fully covered by scheduled shifts. It does not automatically mean a staff member missed work.

Staff preferred hours

Staff preferred hours describe when a person is usually available to work. They are a guide for Managers when building the schedule.

Who can set them

  • Managers and Billing users can always edit a team member's preferred hours from that person's staff schedule page.
  • Staff and Guests can edit their own preferred hours on My Schedule only when a Manager turns on Set Own Preferred Hours for them (Manage Team → open the person → permissions).

Managers and Billing users always have both preferred-hours permissions.

Set your own hours (Staff / Guest)

If Set Own Preferred Hours is on for your account:

  1. Open your user menu and select My Schedule.
  2. Select Preferred hours.
  3. Add weekly time windows for the days you are usually available.
  4. Save.

Gray bands on the Calendar view show those windows. They do not create shifts. End time must be after start time on the same day (for example, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM).

Edit someone else's hours (Managers)

  1. Open Scheduling.
  2. Open Team Schedule, or open a staff member's week from there.
  3. Select Preferred hours.
  4. Adjust the weekly windows and save.

Staff preferred hours also show on the shift and rotation forms when you assign people, so you can see whether a proposed time overlaps their usual availability.

Change or remove preferred hours

Open Preferred hours again, adjust the weekly windows, and save. Remove a window from a day if it is no longer needed.

Changing preferred hours updates the gray bands and (for profiles) coverage-gap calculations. It does not change existing shifts.

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