Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the terms you'll come across in Shiftly. Each links to the guide where you'll use it.

Business setup

• Business: your organisation in Shiftly. A business can have one or more locations. See Set up your business.
• Location: a venue or site that belongs to your business. Each location has its own timezone, clock-in boundary and settings. See Add and set up your locations.
• Clock-in boundary: the area around a location that staff must be inside to clock on and off in Shiftly Me, unless the location lets staff clock in remotely. See Add and set up your locations.
• Position: a job type you roster against, like Bartender or Barista. See Set up your positions.
• Tag: a label for where a shift's labour cost is counted, such as a department or a venue job, so you can report on it and filter the roster by it. Tags sit in categories you name, like Department or Venue job, and each shift carries one per category, filled in from its position's defaults. Tags used to be called cost centres. See Track labour cost with tags.
• Award: the set of industry pay rules (for example the Hospitality award, MA000009) that define minimum rates, penalties and allowances. See Classify staff and set their pay rate.

Rostering

• Roster: your weekly schedule of shifts. See Find your way around the roster.
• Roster week: the day a location's roster week starts on. Each location chooses its own. It doesn't change how overtime is counted. See Add and set up your locations.
• Shift: a single rostered block of work for a position, optionally assigned to a person. See Creating & editing shifts.
• Open shift: a shift left unassigned so staff can request it. See Get a shift covered.
• Publishing: sending your shifts to staff so they can see them. Until you publish, staff don't see new shifts or changes. Publish all publishes every unpublished week, up to 12 weeks, at once. See Publishing a roster.
• Shift note: a note on a single shift, shown as a marker on the shift. Only managers can read it, unless the location turns on Share shift notes, in which case the person rostered on the shift can read it too.
• Day note: a note on a whole day of a location's roster, such as a function or a delivery. Only managers see day notes.
• Daily totals: the row under the roster showing each day's sales, labour cost and labour percentage (labour cost as a share of sales). It's green at or under the location's Target labour percentage and red when it's over.
• Volunteer shift: a shift at a location that uses volunteers. The hours are recorded but never paid or sent to payroll.

People & pay

• Employment: a staff member's working arrangement, including their basis, type, start date and pay. See Update an employee's details and sign-in.
• Employment basis: full time, part time or casual (or labour hire or non-employee for contractors).
• Onboarding request: an emailed link that lets a new starter fill in their own details, tax, bank and super. See Onboarding new staff.
• Classification: matching an employee to a level in their award to work out their pay rate. See Classify staff and set their pay rate.
• Allowance: an extra payment (uniform, first aid, meal and so on) added to an employee's timesheets, separate from their hourly rate. See Rate overrides & allowances.
• Rate override: a per-employee adjustment to a calculated category rate. See Rate overrides & allowances.
• Casual loading: the extra percentage casual employees are paid in place of paid leave.
• Pay week: the week your business's weekly overtime is counted across, set with Pay week starts on in Pay rules. It can differ from a location's roster week. See Customise your pay rules.
• Timesheet: the record of the hours an employee actually worked, from clocking in and out. See Review and approve timesheets.
• Approve as scheduled: approving a timesheet using the rostered start, finish and breaks, for entries within the location's Variance allowed. The times the employee clocked are kept on the timesheet. See Review and approve timesheets.
• Posted: a timesheet that has been sent to Xero. It's locked in Shiftly. See Send approved timesheets to payroll.
• Draft / Pending / Active: a staff member's status. Draft means saved but not onboarded, Pending means an onboarding request has been sent, and Active means onboarding is complete.

Leave

• Leave balance: how much leave an employee has built up. See Set up leave types and balances.
• Accrual: leave building up automatically from the hours an employee works. See Set how leave builds up.
• Entitlement rate: the rate at which a particular employee accrues leave. See Give an employee a different leave rate.
• Restricted leave block: a blackout window (peak season, stocktake) where leave requests need your sign-off. See Stop leave during a busy period.

Access & apps

• Owner: the account that owns the business.
• Manager: someone you've given access to help run the business, limited to the locations and areas you choose. See Inviting managers.
• The Shiftly web platform: the web app owners and managers use for rostering, staff, timesheets and pay.
• Shiftly Me: the phone app your staff use to see their roster, clock in and out, set availability and request leave. See Which Shiftly app do I need?
• Shiftly Kiosk: an app for a tablet at your venue. Staff tap their name and enter their PIN to clock on and off. See Set up a clock-in kiosk at your venue and Clock on and off at the venue kiosk.
• Kiosk PIN: the 6-digit number a staff member enters at a Shiftly Kiosk tablet. They set it in Shiftly Me under Account → Access, or a manager sets it on the Access tab of their profile. See Forgot your kiosk PIN, or never set one.
• Sign-in code: the 4-digit code Shiftly Me emails or texts staff so they can sign in without a password. A manager can also create one from the staff member's Access tab. See Staff member can't sign in.
• Xero: the accounting and payroll system you can connect to Shiftly. See Connect Shiftly to Xero.

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