ROSTER MANAGEMENT · POST-PUBLISH
Editing a Published Roster
How to make changes after a roster is published — understanding re-notification behaviour and minimising disruption to employees.
FORMAT · How-to guideDURATION · ~5 min readAUDIENCE · Roster admins
What you'll learn
The override workflow for post-publish edits and how to manage employee notifications.
Key principle
Every change to a published roster notifies affected employees — plan edits thoughtfully.
Why post-publish edits require care
A published roster is the employee's committed schedule. When you change it, Workwisely notifies the affected employees — which is correct behaviour, but frequent changes create confusion and erode trust. Minimise post-publish edits by investing in a thorough pre-publish review.
Making a single shift override
- Open the published roster and click the cell you want to change.
- The cell pop-up shows an Override button alongside the standard edit tools.
- Select the new shift template, or choose Remove Shift.
- Enter a mandatory reason (e.g. "Employee on emergency leave — replacement arranged").
- Click Save Override.
The grid updates immediately. The affected employee receives a notification within seconds.
💡 Pro Tip
Group multiple overrides together and make them all in one session — employees receive one consolidated notification rather than several separate ones.
Bulk overrides
To override multiple cells at once:
- Hold Ctrl and click each cell to multi-select.
- Right-click and choose Override Selected.
- Select the new template or choose Remove.
- Enter a single reason that applies to all selected changes.
- Click Save.
Managing re-notification
Workwisely sends a notification for every override save action. To minimise notification fatigue:
- Make all your changes before saving — use multi-select and bulk override rather than editing cells one by one.
- Consider scheduling the override to save at the end of the working day rather than mid-afternoon when employees are on shift.
Viewing the override audit trail
Every override is logged in the roster's History tab. The log shows the original shift, the override, the admin who made the change, the reason given, and the timestamp.
⚠ Important
Override records are used by payroll and attendance for reconciliation. Always fill in the reason field — blank reasons create compliance issues during audits.
Frequently asked questions
Can I prevent employees from seeing changes before a certain time?
Not natively — notifications go out as soon as you save the override. Plan your timing accordingly.
Can a manager (not an admin) make overrides?
Only users with Roster Admin permission can make overrides. If you need managers to handle day-of changes, they must be granted this role under Setup → Users & Roles.
Is there a limit to how many overrides I can make on one roster?
No hard limit. However, if a roster has more overrides than original assignments, consider whether a new roster draft would be cleaner.
Related reading