ROSTER MANAGEMENT · PUBLISHING
Publishing a Roster
What happens when you click Publish — what locks, what notifications go out, and the checklist to review before you commit.
FORMAT · How-to guideDURATION · ~5 min readAUDIENCE · Roster admins
What you'll learn
The publish process, pre-publish checklist, and what employees experience after publish.
Key principle
Publish locks the schedule as the attendance reference. Changes after publish are tracked as overrides with their own notifications.
Pre-publish checklist
Before clicking Publish, run through this list:
- Coverage view is green — no red gaps in the heat-map (see Using the Coverage View).
- No conflict cells — no red-bordered cells from leave overlaps or duplicate assignments.
- Correct date range — the roster covers the period you intend; no accidentally included extra days.
- All employees included — no one who should be on this roster is missing from the grid.
- Shift allowances verified — spot-check a few cells to confirm the right allowances are attached to templates.
⚠ Important
Once published, every subsequent change triggers a fresh employee notification. Publish once, publish correctly.
Publishing the roster
- Open the draft roster and complete your pre-publish check.
- Click the Publish button in the top-right corner of the roster grid.
- A confirmation dialog shows a summary: number of employees, date range, and any remaining warnings.
- Resolve any blocking warnings (red). Amber warnings can be acknowledged and overridden.
- Click Confirm Publish.
What happens immediately after publish
- The roster status changes from Draft to Published.
- All scheduled employees receive a push notification and email with their shift schedule.
- The roster becomes the attendance reference — the Attendance module now measures on-time, late, and no-show against these shifts.
- The grid cells become read-only; changes now go through the Override workflow.
- The roster appears in My Shifts on the employee portal and mobile app.
Scheduling publication in advance
You can schedule a roster to publish at a future time — useful when you want to prepare the schedule in advance but release it on a specific day. In the confirmation dialog, choose Schedule for later and set the date and time.
💡 Pro Tip
Many organisations publish rosters 5–7 days before the period starts. This gives employees enough notice while leaving time to handle last-minute swap requests.
Frequently asked questions
Can I un-publish a roster?
There's no 'un-publish' button — the roster stays published and remains the attendance reference. Use overrides to make corrections, or contact your Zoho Desk admin if a full rollback is needed.
What if I publish the wrong roster?
Immediately use the Override workflow to correct individual shifts. For widespread errors, consider creating a corrected roster and using bulk overrides to update all affected cells.
Do all employees get notified at once, or can I stagger it?
All employees in the roster are notified simultaneously. Staggered notifications aren't supported natively.
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