SchedulePro, brought to you by Front Office Applications (http://www.foapps.com), is a tool to streamline the tedious task of writing a department schedule. This document will teach you how to set up SchedulePro, how to use its features, and how to get support.

Note: SchedulePro is designed to be extremely easy to set up and use. This guide purposely breaks down the steps to their most simple forms. In reality, installation should take no more than 5 minutes.

Setup
Setup is extremely fast. Simply save the file, SchedulePro.xls, to whatever folder you want to access it from, and open it from there. If prompted by Excel, choose to enable macros.

Next, go to the “Settings” tab. First, you will need to choose the start of your work week (i.e. what day does your schedule normally start?).

Next, you need to define your staffing levels. Minimum staff is the number of staff you would have if less than 10% of your rooms were occupied. For example, if you are scheduling the Front Desk, you need to have at least one employee scheduled at all times.

Maximum staff is the number of staff you would have if your hotel was at full capacity. At the Front Desk, this would be equal to the total number of terminals you have.

“Add 1 PM per ____ arrivals” asks how much your occupancy your hotel has to increase for you to add another staff member. Generally the number of PM staff is determined by the number of arrivals. AM staff is determined by the number of departures.

Availability
Navigate to the “Availability” tab to enter the times that your staff is available to work. “AM” means that an employee can only work the AM shift. “PM” means that an employee can only work the PM shift. “AM/PM” means that an employee can work either shift. If an employee has a blank cell for a particular day, it means that they are unable to work.

To add a new employee, click “Add New Employee.” The number of shifts you enter is the maximum number of shifts the employee can work each week. When you have entered that employee’s availability, click “OK.”

To delete an employee, click “Delete Employee,” select the employee you want to delete, and click “Delete.”

To edit an employee’s name or availability, simply click on the cell containing that information and change it to your preference.

Create a Schedule
Once you have entered all of the settings and availability, go to the “Schedule” tab. Choose the schedule’s start date from the dropdown menu. Then enter the number of departures, arrivals, and occupancy percentage.

Finally, click “Run SchedulePro!” and the application will begin trying various schedules. Be patient, as this process can take up to 3 minutes. When the application is finished running, the best possible schedule will appear.

Note that this application does not take the place of a manager’s insight. The application does not know which shifts each employee prefers or which employees work well together. It is suggested that you take the final product and then edit it to your liking.

Support
For technical support, feature requests, or feedback, please go to http://www.foapps.com.