It is important to note that scheduling meetings on future days may get overwritten. This can happen when generating a new schedule on a day that you scheduled a meeting.
Future activities help address this by allowing users to schedule and manage upcoming tasks in a more efficient manner. When generating a new schedule, the automatic schedule generator usually does not overwrite existing future activities. This ensures that your planned activities remain intact.
Future activities are supported only in multi-skill schedule generation. They are not available when generating schedules for single-skill configurations.
When using the partial-day future activity, keep in mind:
-
Open shift activity: The future activity always takes precedence and is not be overwritten.
-
Closed shift activity:
-
The activity with the higher priority takes precedence.
-
If the shift activity is of Break or Lunch type, and the shift and future activities have the same priority, then Break or Lunch type is given preference.
-
If the shift activity is not of Break or Lunch type, then future activity is given precedence in case of equal priorities.
-
Ideal times to use future activities are when:
-
You have already generated a schedule and don't plan to regenerate it.
-
You have not generated a schedule yet.
Use the automatic schedule generator when you have already created a schedule and plan to regenerate it.
Once generated, these future activities can only be edited or deleted using Schedule Manager.
To schedule a future activity:
- Click the app selector
and select WFM. -
Click Schedule Manager.
-
Click Settings
and select Future Activities. -
Select the Activity, and set the Duration.
-
Choose the Start Date and Time for the meeting, and define the Time Zone.
-
Select Repeat to set recurring meetings.
-
Select the Frequency. It can be Once, Daily or Weekly.
If you select a recurring meeting, you'll receive an email when scheduling is complete.
-
Select the recurrence pattern and End date. Meeting end date cannot be more than 3 months from the meeting start date.
-
-
Click Settings and select the employees for whom you are creating the activity.
-
Click Schedule. The activity will be added to the employees’ schedules.
Choosing Between Meeting Scheduler and Future Activities
Meeting Scheduler and Future Activities may appear similar in the user interface, but they serve distinct purposes. Understanding their differences helps you choose the appropriate tool for your scheduling needs.
Meeting Scheduler
Use Meeting Scheduler when shifts are already generated.
-
Enables you to manually schedule ad-hoc meetings either fixed or flexible on top of existing shifts.
-
Does not interact with the automatic schedule generator.
-
Meetings scheduled on days without shifts may be overwritten if automatic schedule generation is run later.
Use Meeting Scheduler when you already have generated shifts for next week and want to add a team meeting during one of those shifts.
Future Activities
Use Future Activities when shifts have not yet been generated.
-
Allows you to schedule activities in advance, even before shifts are created.
-
Integrates with the automatic schedule generator.
-
Applies activity priority rules to determine which activity is retained in case of conflicts.
-
Activities are protected from being lost during schedule regeneration.
Use Future Activities when you need to schedule training sessions for a future date where no shifts currently exist.
|
Feature |
When to use |
Works With Automatic Schedule Generation? |
Protected from Overwrite? |
Activity Priorities applied? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meeting Scheduler | When shifts already exist, and you want to add meetings on top of it. | No | No (Will be overwritten if shifts are generated later) | No |
| Future Activities | When no shifts exist yet, and you want to plan activities in advance. | Yes (Priorities considered) | Yes (Priority rules apply) | Yes |
-
If a shift exists, use Meeting Scheduler.
-
If a shift does not exist, use Future Activities.
Future Activities and Priority Handling
When a future activity overlaps with an existing shift activity after schedule generation, the system uses two factors to determine which activity is displayed:
-
Activity Priority
-
Open Attribute
Overlap Scenarios and Outcomes
|
scenario |
Future activity |
shift activity |
result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exact overlap | Not Break, Closed |
|
| 2 | Partial overlap, lower priority | Break, Higher Priority, Closed | Future activity partially visible; Break fully visible |
|
3 |
Exact overlap, lower priority | Break, Higher Priority, Closed | Future activity overridden |
|
4 |
Exact overlap, equal priority | Break, Closed | Future activity overridden |
|
5 |
Partial overlap, higher priority |
Break, Lower Priority, Closed |
Future activity fully visible; Break partially visible |
|
6 |
Partial overlap, equal priority |
Break, Closed |
Future activity partially visible; Break fully visible |
| 7 | Exact overlap (any priority) | Break, Open | Future activity not overridden |
| 8 | Exact overlap, higher priority | Break, Lower Priority, Closed | Future activity not overridden |
| 9 | Exact overlap (any priority) | Not Break, Open | Future activity not overridden |
| 10 | Partial overlap | Not Break, Closed |
|
| 11 | Overlap (any priority) | Break, Open | Future activity fully visible; Break partially visible |
| 12 | Overlap (any priority) | Not Break, Open | Future activity fully visible; Shift partially visible |
Key Considerations
-
Priority matters only when both activities are marked as Closed.
-
If the shift activity is Open, the Future Activity is always favored.
-
Partial overlaps may result in both activities being partially visible.