Swap Shifts with a Colleague – Shift Swaps and Approval Rules
Shift swaps are everyday in a restaurant – a child gets sick, a wedding clashes, a university exam comes up. Vendion has a structured process where employees initiate swaps themselves, the system checks the rules and the manager approves.
Two types of swaps:
| Type | Description | When used |
|---|---|---|
| Direct swap | Two people swap shifts straight across | "I'll take your Saturday, you take my Friday" |
| One-way coverage | Someone takes your shift, you take nothing in return | "Can anyone cover my Saturday?" – replacement sought |
Send a swap request (direct swap):
- Open Staff portal → Schedule
- Click on the shift you want to swap
- Click Swap shift
- Choose Direct swap
- Choose which colleague to swap with:
- List shows colleagues with shifts the same week
- Filters: same role only, only with competency for station, etc.
- Choose which of your colleague's shifts you'll take instead
- Write a note (optional): "Thanks! I have an exam Friday"
- Click Send request
Next steps:
- Colleague gets a notification in portal and app
- Colleague opens the request and clicks Approve or Decline
- If colleague approves, it goes to the manager
- Manager sees both people's shifts, rule checks and any conflicts
- Manager approves or declines with justification
- If approved: shifts are swapped automatically in schedule, both get notified
One-way (someone takes my shift):
- Open the shift you want to give up
- Click Swap shift → Find replacement
- Choose:
- All colleagues (system asks everyone who can take the shift)
- Specific person (targets one colleague)
- By role (only chefs, only servers)
- Enter justification: "Can someone cover Saturday 15-23? Sick relative"
- Send
The system sends notifications to all relevant people. First to accept takes the shift (after manager approval).
Automatic rule checks:
Before the manager reviews, the system automatically checks:
| Check | Warning if violated |
|---|---|
| Daily rest | If new person gets < 11h rest between shifts → red warning |
| Weekly rest | If weekly rest becomes < 36h → orange warning |
| Overtime | If swap causes someone to exceed 40 h/w → orange warning |
| Competency | If person lacks competency for station → orange warning |
| Employment rate | If full-time becomes underbooked or part-time overbooked → info |
| Approved absence | If receiver has approved vacation/sick → blocks swap |
| Minor after 22:00 | Blocks if person under 18 takes night shift |
Manager sees all warnings in a clear list and can choose to approve anyway (with justification for red warnings) or decline.
Manager view (approval):
Go to Staff → Shift Swaps:
- Pending – requests to review
- Approved – archive
- Declined – archive with reason
Per request, manager sees:
- Who wants to swap what
- All rule checks (red/orange/green)
- Cost impact (if OB changes)
- Staffing impact per station
- Notes from both employees
Approve:
- Click Approve
- Choose whether to send a message to both (default)
- Shifts swap automatically
Decline:
- Click Decline
- Enter justification (shown to employees)
- Shifts remain unchanged
Rules you can set for the swap process:
Go to Staff → Settings → Shift Swaps:
| Setting | Options | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Allow shift swaps | On/off | On |
| Require manager approval | On/off | On for safe swaps |
| Minimum notice | 0, 24h, 48h, 72h, 1 week | 48h |
| Allow same-day swaps | On/off | Off (use absence request instead) |
| Auto-approve if no warnings | On/off | Off (always require manager approval) |
| Max swaps per employee/month | Unlimited / 2 / 5 / 10 | 10 |
| Allow swap across roles | On/off | Off (a chef can't take server shift) |
"Auto-approve" can save time if colleague accepts and no rules are broken – but requires high trust. Not recommended for the first year.
Employee view:
In the staff portal → Shift Swaps there are three tabs:
- My requests – swaps you've sent (pending / approved / declined)
- Incoming – requests from colleagues (approve / decline)
- History – all old swaps
Notifications:
- When you get a request
- When colleague has responded
- When manager has approved/declined
- Reminder 24h before a shift if you haven't confirmed swap
Common scenarios:
1. Erik has a party Saturday, wants to swap with Anna
- Erik sends direct-swap to Anna (Erik takes Anna's Friday, Anna takes Erik's Saturday)
- Anna approves
- Manager checks: Erik has right competency for bar (Anna's station Friday) ✓. Anna has right competency for floor (Erik's station Saturday) ✓
- Manager approves. Swap done.
2. Sara gets sick the day before the shift
- Instead of swap: Sara sends sick leave (absence request, type: Sick)
- Manager approves the absence
- Shift becomes open – manager sends broadcast to all staff: "Need replacement for Saturday 15-23"
- First to respond gets the shift
3. Johan wants to get rid of Friday shift but nobody has responded
- Johan sends one-way (seek replacement among all)
- After 24h without response: system escalates to manager
- Manager can force a replacement or approve closing the shift
Important to know:
- Salary impact – on swap, each person keeps their own salary per contract. Manager sees cost impact before approval
- OB calculation – recalculated automatically on swapped shifts, per each person's contract
- Tips – tip distribution is based on actual hours worked, not original schedule
- Staff register – not affected by swaps, only logs actual clock entries
- Declined swaps – create no debt or conflict, just a notification to the employee with reason
This feature is part of Vendion Staff.
Curious how it looks in practice? Read more about the product or book a short demo.
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