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Shifts are used to identify the non-working, working, and other activity times for production units and may be thought of as similar to shop calendars. A shift contains all standard working time in a 24 hour period. This is true even with multiple lunch breaks or a change in the employees who are working at that location.  

Shifts are linked to Activity Codes. By default Visual APS is installed with a number of pre-defined Activity Codes. Additional activities can be created if the defaults do not suit the requirements of the company. 

This article explains how to create new shift patterns using the default Activity Codes.

How to create a new shift code

1.   From the Home Menu, select the Shifts command to open the Edit Shifts window.  
      This window displays all of the shifts defined in the system.
2.   Select the Add New button to open the Edit Resources window.
3.   Enter a Shift Name
4.   Enter a Shift Description
5.   Click OK to save shift and return to the Edit Shifts window.


How to set Shift Activity start and end times

1.   From the Edit Shifts window select the Edit Shifts button alongside the shift created to open the Edit Resources window
2.   For the first working day, left click and drag on the time bar for that day to open the Activity dialogue box.
      See example below:



3.   Drag the left or right side of the block that appears to adjust the start and end times for that activity block.
4.   You can enter the Start Time and End Time once the Activity dialogue box appears.
5.   Select an Activity code from the drop down list.
6.   When the Activity dialogue box contains the desired Activity Code, Start Time and End Time, select Apply.
7.   Continue to create further activity blocks for the day (Lunch Breaks for example)


How to Copy Shift Pattern to another day

1.   Whilst it is possible to repeat steps 1 to 7 above, there is a useful Copy Shift Pattern function
2.   To use this function, click AND drag the Copy Shift Pattern button alongside the created pattern down to the next day.
      See example below:



3.   Release the mouse click to drop the copied pattern into the next day
4.   Continue the process above to complete the shift patterns for the week.
5.   Click OK to save daily patterns to the shift.