Recent Enhancements
Basic user certification updates
Basic-level users can now add or edit their own certifications directly from their profile. When a basic user submits a certification change, it goes through an approval process — administrators and designated approvers are notified via email and text message and can review, approve, or reject the request from a new Pending Cert Approvals page or directly from the user’s profile. When a decision is made, the submitting user receives a notification with the result. Rejected requests include the reviewer’s reason. Agencies can enable this feature and optionally allow auto-approval in system configuration under the Profile section.
All certification changes — whether made by administrators or basic users — are now tracked in a full audit trail. Every add, edit, and delete is recorded with who made the change, when, and what was changed. For edits, the audit trail shows a before-and-after comparison of the values. Administrators can view the complete change history for any certification by clicking the history icon on the user’s profile.
Custom message for open shift notifications
When notifying members about an open shift, schedulers and administrators can now include a custom message with the notification. A popup dialog appears asking if they would like to add a message, which will be appended to the notification sent to members.
Career Type overrides for publish schedule dates
Schedule publish dates can now be set separately for each career type (Volunteer, Full Time, Part Time, Per Diem). Previously, all members saw the same publish date. Now administrators can publish schedules further out for some career types while keeping others restricted.
Account configuration updates
The Account Configuration page has been updated to include additional options administrators can control, including showing comments included with availability submissions on the schedule, displaying shift notes on the schedule for everyone or admins only, displaying shift times on the timecard, and displaying days of the week on the timecard.
Alternate position suggestion for bids
When approving a shift bid request, if the position has already been filled by another employee, the system will now automatically check for other open positions on the same shift with the same role. If open positions are found, a popup will appear listing them so you can select an alternative position for the employee. If no open positions are found, the popup will let you know and give you the option to reject the bid. This eliminates the need to manually search for and assign employees to available positions when their originally requested position has been taken.
PTO audit trail
As demonstrated in this month’s Quick Tips video, administrators can now view a dedicated audit trail for Paid Time Off configuration changes, showing who changed what and when for each member’s starting balance, accrual rate, and PTO group. The report is reachable from the PTO panel on a member’s profile (single-member view) and from the PTO Balances report (agency-wide view). Filters include date range, pay type, specific field, and a toggle to include, exclude, or isolate changes made by the automated & manual (by hours worked) PTO Accrual runs.
Timecard Summary reports updates
The Timecard Summary by Member report now offers optional Start and End date pickers as an alternative to the Year/Period dropdowns. The date pickers only allow selection of valid pay period boundary dates, making it easy to run the report for any custom range of pay periods.
Both the Timecard Summary by Member and Timecard Summary by Pay Period reports support agencies configured with bi-monthly pay periods (1st–15th / 16th–end of month), and those with 14-day bi-weekly pay periods.
When switching between the date pickers and the Year/Period dropdowns, the form now correctly submits using the most recently selected mode.
Mandated OT Report Enhancements
Several helpful updates and additions have been made to the Mandated Overtime report, including:
- Tabs for Queue and Force Out History views
- EMT Level filter dropdown to both views
- Phone column to display employee cell phone numbers
- Schedulers (in addition to Administrators) can now record force outs
- History tab with From/To date range filters
- Last Updated By column showing who recorded each force out
Document Storage Indicator
Administrators will now see a new document storage indicator at the top of the Account Configuration page. The indicator shows total disk space used against your account’s storage allotment. Clicking Show Breakdown will provide additional detail on the storage used across profile pictures, certifications, documents, email attachments, vehicle inventory and PTO imports.
Expired Certification Warning
Now when Administrators and Schedulers are scheduling members, they will receive a warning if the member has an expired certification. The warning will include the certification name and expiration date, and only applies to required certifications. Administrators and Schedulers can override the warning and proceed with scheduling the member.
Shift Bid Alternative Positions – Mobile App
As shared last month for the website, supervisors can approve bids for alternate positions if the requested position has already been filled by someone else. This functionality will be available with the latest release of the mobile app, which should be published this week. The app will offer other open positions on the same shift – matching the experience already available on the web. Supervisor can pick one of the offered alternatives and approve the bid onto that position, instead of having to reject and restart the process.
Schedule Template Editor
As shared in a special June 15th email to Administrators and Schedulers, we are excited to announce the rollout of the all-new Schedule Template Editor! This new tool is available now and allows you to make structural changes to your schedule without having to rely on the eSchedule support team!
With the Schedule Template Editor, you can:
- Add a shift – create a new shift with positions, times, and view assignments.
- Duplicate a shift – copy an existing shift’s settings to quickly create a similar one.
- Edit a shift – modify shift details, positions, times, or view assignments.
- Edit positions – manage positions across all shifts. Update prime status, departments, and rates.
- Manage views – create, edit, or delete views to organize which shifts appear together.
You’ll find the Schedule Template Editor under your Schedule menu. Once in the Editor, you will see video guides for each of the editing options to help you with navigating and using the new tool.
Please reach out to us anytime with any questions or feedback on this exciting new tool!
Dashboard Editor
Users can now customize the dashboard by using a new “Customize” button on the upper right side of the dashboard!
- Once in edit mode, users can select any non-required panels or widgets to show or hide on the dashboard.
- Messages and Quick Links are permanent and required for all users/agencies.
- Administrators can control which widgets are required to be shown to all users on the dashboard.
- Widgets can be moved via click+drag to one of 4 sections on the page: 1 full-length section at the top, or one of 3 split column sections on the bottom.
- Users will click the Save button to save. Pressing cancel, closing the browser, or navigating to any other page will cancel the changes and restore the previous dashboard experience.
- The Dashboard Editor will only be available for the website at this time. The mobile app dashboard will remain the same with all widgets in the same order.
Quick Links
Administrators can now publish their own set of custom links on the dashboard (e.g. protocols, payroll portal, county resources, internal forms) through the existing System Message page!
- Each link can be assigned custom background and text colors so important resources stand out.
- Links can be configured to be shown to any combination of Administrators, Schedulers, or Basic users.
- Edits to the links are logged in the audit trail, so Administrators can see who changed what and when.
- The Quick Links box does not show on the dashboard if your agency doesn’t have any links.
- To help with the setup process, upon release of the Quick Links feature each agency will be presented with an example link visible to Administrators, which will direct them to the System Message page where they can add their own, or remove the example.
- The Quick Links are included in the eSchedule mobile app dashboard as well.
Absentee and Late Report Absence Hours
The Absentee and Late Report now shows how many hours each absence lasted, in a new “Hours” column on the right side of the report. At the bottom of the report, a “Total Absent Hours” row adds up the hours for all absences currently shown. The total automatically reflects the filters you have selected, including date range, member, member type, department, status, or type, and changing any filter updates the total to match. Late clock-in entries continue to show minutes late and are not counted in the absent hours total. The hours and total are also included when you export the report to Excel.
Vehicle Maintenance Dashboard Alerts
Vehicle Maintenance Administrators can now see preventative maintenance alerts in a new dashboard panel. Alerts will appear in the panel for any service that is due within 30 days or 3,000 miles, and red highlighting will be added for services due within 14 days or 1,000 miles. There is also a link at the bottom of the panel to view all alerts in the Preventative Maintenance Alerts Dashboard.
Service Hours Reports Filters
The three Service Reports under the Schedule menu now offer more filtering options. On the Service Report Summary, Service Report by Position, and Service Report by Month, Administrators and Schedulers will see new Member Type and Career Type dropdowns alongside the existing Status filter. Select a value and click Refresh to narrow the report to just those members.
The Service Report by Month also has a new “Include Grand Totals” checkbox. When checked, the report adds a Grand Total column showing each member’s cumulative scheduled hours from the start of their service (including their beginning service hours) through the end of the selected date range.
Administrators can assign this role to any user who needs to look up vehicle information without making changes. Users without this role (or the existing Vehicle Administrator role) will continue to not see the Vehicle Maintenance menu at all, and Vehicle Administrators keep their full access.
A new user role called “Vehicle View-Only Access” is now available. Users with this role can see the Vehicle Maintenance menu with a single option of “Vehicles,” which opens a read-only list of all vehicles at their agency, including details like make, model, year, VIN, plate number, status, and mileage. These users cannot add new vehicles, change existing vehicle information, or open other vehicle maintenance features.
Shift Swaps/Covers Report Timestamps
The Shift Swaps/Covers report now shows more detail about each request’s history. For every swap or cover, the report now displays when the request was submitted, when the receiving member accepted or rejected it, and for agencies that require administrator approval, when and which administrator approved or rejected it. The existing “Date” columns have been relabeled “Shift Date” for clarity, and the report still sorts by shift date.
