At a glance
| Apply | Publish |
What it does | Creates draft shifts from each staff member's saved schedule | Makes existing draft shifts visible to staff |
Who sees it | Only schedulers (until you publish) | Assigned staff in the Veras app |
When to use it | Once per scheduling period, at the start — typically every 4–6 weeks | Whenever you want staff to see their shifts (or continuously, if Auto Publish Shifts is on) |
Can it overwrite manual edits? | Yes — running it again for the same date range replaces every shift in that range, including manual edits, swaps, and reassignments. | No. Publishing only changes visibility; it does not regenerate or replace shifts. |
Apply Schedules
What it does
Apply Schedules takes staff members' personal schedules (e.g., Fixed Days, Rotations, Flexible (PRN), or Non-active) and puts them on the schedule for the day, week, or month you want. This creates draft shifts: shifts that only Schedulers and Administrators can see. Staff members will not see these until you Publish them.
You can also tell Apply Schedules to add open shifts (shifts with no one assigned yet) wherever you don't have enough staff to hit your target. There's an extra option to have Veras suggest who to assign to those open shifts, based on staff availability and patterns. Both options live in the Choose an option picker inside the Apply Schedules window.
For step-by-step instructions, see Build the next schedule with Apply Schedules.
When to use it
What to avoid — running it twice for the same dates
If you run Apply Schedules on the same dates again, it will replace every shift in that range — including any changes you made by hand. Veras rebuilds the shifts from each staff member's personal schedule, so anything you changed manually is gone.
To protect your work:
Run Apply Schedules once per period to set up your starting point.
After that, change shifts one at a time — see How to edit a shift on your schedule.
If you need to add someone in the middle of a period (a new hire, or a staff member who was missed), use Apply master schedule from the three-dot menu next to their name instead. That only changes their shifts.
Note: To learn how to add fixed schedules or rotations to staff profiles, read the article here.
Publish Shifts
What it does
The Publish button changes who can see shifts that are already on the Schedule. Before you Publish, draft shifts show as grey "candy cane" stripes and only Schedulers and Administrators can see them. After you Publish, those shifts show up in each assigned staff member's Veras app, and they get a notification.
Publishing does not add, move, or remove any shifts — it only changes them from draft to published. You can choose to Publish:
Shifts assigned to staff
Open shifts
Or both
Publishing only applies to the positions you're looking at on the Schedule.
When to use it
Publish when you're ready to share the schedule with your staff — usually after Apply Schedules has built the drafts and you've made any edits.
You can also Publish one shift at a time. Open the shift, click the pencil icon, and switch Shift status to Published.
For step-by-step instructions, see How to Publish the Schedule.
Re-publishing is safe
If you Publish the same dates more than once, nothing gets changed or removed. Publish only sends out the shifts that are still in draft. Shifts that are already published stay as they are. If you Publish, then change a published shift by hand, that change stays put — publishing again will not undo it.
If you want to take a published shift back to draft, you can't do it by Publishing again. Use How to Un-Publish Shifts instead.
Auto Publish Shifts
If an Administrator turns on Auto Publish Shifts in your Community Settings (advanced section), Veras will Publish shifts on its own as they're added. You won't need to click Publish by hand.
You still run Apply Schedules once each period. Auto Publish Shifts only takes over the publishing step — it does not build the shifts for you. The once-per-period rule for Apply Schedules still applies.
How they work together
Here's the order to follow each scheduling period:
Run Apply Schedules at the start of the period to build the draft shifts.
Look over the drafts on the Schedule. Fill open shifts, reassign people if needed, and change start or end times where the personal schedule doesn't match what you need.
Publish when the schedule is ready to share with staff.
For the rest of the period, change shifts one at a time. Do not run Apply Schedules again.
Common questions
Q: Do I have to run Apply Schedules before I can Publish?
A: Only if there are no shifts on the Schedule yet. Publish works on any draft shifts, no matter where they came from — Apply Schedules, Manually Add Shifts to the Schedule, or shifts you copied from another week. Apply Schedules is the fastest way to get a full period's worth of drafts in one go, but you do not have to use it before clicking Publish.
Q: I ran Apply Schedules again and lost all my manual changes. What happened?
A: Apply Schedules replaces every shift in the dates you picked, building each one fresh from the staff member's personal schedule. Any changes you made by hand — including swaps and reassignments — get wiped out. To avoid this, only run Apply Schedules once per period to set up your starting point, and then change shifts one at a time after that. To add a new staff member in the middle of a period, use Apply master schedule from the three-dot menu next to their name. That only changes their shifts.
Q: Does Publishing the same dates twice cause any problems?
A: No. Publishing only changes who can see the shifts — it does not change or remove anything. If you Publish again, it sends out any shifts that are still in draft, and leaves the already-published ones alone.
Q: Does every Publish send staff a new notification?
A: Staff members get a notification the first time a shift is published. Editing or Publishing a shift that's already published does not send a new notification. See How to edit a shift on your schedule for what staff do and don't see after a shift is published.
Q: We have Auto Publish Shifts turned on. Do I still need to use Apply Schedules?
A: Yes. Auto Publish Shifts only takes over the publishing step — it does not build the shifts for you. You still run Apply Schedules once per period. Veras then Publishes the drafts on its own as they're added, instead of waiting for you to click Publish.
Q: Can I undo a Publish?
A: Yes. Use How to Un-Publish Shifts to pull a published shift back to draft. The shift is not deleted — staff stop seeing it in the app until you Publish it again.