The spreadsheet records a schedule. ShiftPilot builds one.
Most groups arrive from a sheet that works until the person who understands it is away. This is what changes when the rules live in software, and what does not have to change at all.
Where the sheet stops working
- 01
The rules live in one person
Colour codes and conventions carry the rules. When that person is away, the schedule waits or the rules bend.
- 02
Checking is manual
Rest, licensing, coverage and fairness are verified by eye, cell by cell, every time anything changes.
- 03
Publishing is the end
Once the sheet is sent, swaps, confirmations and sick calls happen in group chats, and the sheet drifts from the truth.
The rules come out of the colour code
Everything a sheet encodes in colours and conventions becomes a sentence the solver has to satisfy. Nothing depends on memory.
Rules as sentences
- Only people credentialed at a site are scheduled there.hard
- At least 12 hours between shifts.hard
- Every site keeps its minimum coverage every day.hard
- No more than 3 consecutive nights.hard
- Spread weekends and holidays evenly across the year.soft
- Prefer each person's usual sites.soft
- Licensing
- Coverage at 6 sites
- Back-to-back limits
- Weekend fairness
- Opener and closer pairs
- Availability honoured
All 14 hard rules satisfied. 3 soft preferences traded off.
View trade-offs
One solve. No violations.
A constraint solver places the whole period at once, then shows which soft preferences it traded to get there.
Side by side
| Capability | Spreadsheet | ShiftPilot |
|---|---|---|
| Building the month | Typed by hand over days; rules checked by eye. | Solved in one pass under every rule; the unsatisfiable rule is named. |
| Licences and credentials | A colour or a note in a cell. | A per-site matrix the solver and every swap are checked against. |
| Fairness | Counted at the end, argued about after. | Counted by the solver across the period you choose, visible per person. |
| Availability | Emails and messages copied into cells. | Sent as a text in plain language, parsed onto the calendar. |
| Reminders and confirmations | Group chats and hope. | WhatsApp, SMS and email with one-word confirmation and configured escalation. |
| Swaps | Agreed in chat, updated later, sometimes wrong. | Requested in the app, checked against the rules, applied instantly. |
| Who is on right now | Whoever has the latest version of the file. | One live schedule read by Avery, site logins, calendar feeds and the app. |
| Keeping the sheet | It is the system. | Optional. ShiftPilot syncs two-way with a Google Sheet if you want to keep one. |
What the sheet never did
The month after publishing is where most of the work was. ShiftPilot does that part too.
WhatsAppReminders and confirmations
WhatsApp, SMS or email, one word to confirm, escalation when nobody answers. No more scrolling a group chat to see who saw it.
Swaps with the rules attached
Members trade and give away shifts in the app. The rules are checked before the swap goes through, credits stay balanced, and the schedule updates itself.
Who's on at Lakeside tomorrow?
Three people cover Lakeside General on Wednesday, Oct 7.
| Radiologist | Site | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Dr. Okafor | LG | 07-15 |
| Dr. Bergeron | LG | 15-23 |
| Dr. Haddad | LG | 23-07 |
All three confirmed.
Answers instead of lookups
"Who is on at the east site Thursday?" Avery answers from the live schedule on any channel, and can propose a change for approval.
Moving off the sheet without a cliff
- 1
Import the sheet you have
Your current month, roster and sites come in as they are. The colour code becomes written rules you can read and edit.
- 2
Run both for a month
Generate the next month in ShiftPilot and compare it with the sheet. Keep the Google Sheet in two-way sync for as long as you like.
- 3
Let the sheet become a view
When the group trusts the schedule, the sheet is a mirror of it rather than the source, and reminders, swaps and Avery take over the month.
Questions before you switch
Short answers about shiftpilot vs spreadsheets scheduling in ShiftPilot. Anything else, ask on a demo.
Do we have to give up our spreadsheet?
No. ShiftPilot syncs two-way with a Google Sheet, so groups can keep the sheet as a view of the live schedule for as long as they want.
How long does it take to move a group off a spreadsheet?
Most groups start with a demo on their own month, then run a pilot month in ShiftPilot beside the sheet. The rules are written during the first session.
What if our rules are unusual?
Rules are plain-English sentences with editable values, and rules that do not fit a sentence can be written as small custom rules. Both run in the same solve.
Is this a general staff-scheduling app?
No. ShiftPilot is built for healthcare teams whose rules are numerous and interacting: radiology, physician groups, on-call teams and residency programs. It is not a retail or hospitality tool.
Your next month, already scheduled.
See ShiftPilot on your own rules and roster. Thirty minutes, no slides.