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How to Send a Staff Member Home

Census dropped and you are staffed above target for the shift. Send home ends a staff member's shift early without counting it as a call-off — attendance stays clean, and Veras records the reason and the hours.

Before you start

  • You need Scheduler or Administrator permissions. If you don't see Send home in the shift menu, ask an Administrator to update your role.

  • The shift has to already be on the Schedule. Send home works the same in the day, week, and month views.

  • Send home is not a call-off. The staff member's attendance record stays clean. To record a real call-off instead, see Adding and Managing Call-Offs.

  • Send home takes effect as soon as you click Send Home — the shift's paid hours are cut and, if Send notification is on, the staff member gets the message right away.

Send a staff member home

Use these steps when you are staffed above target, census is low, or you need one person to leave early for another reason. Send home takes effect as soon as you click Send Home, so check the time and the reason before you confirm.

  1. In the left sidebar, click Schedule.

  2. Click the shift you want to end early. The Shift details panel opens.

  3. In the Shift details panel, click the three-dot menu.

  4. Click Send home.
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  5. Check the staff member named at the top of the Send home staff window. The tag next to the name (e.g., 3rd priority) shows where this person falls in your send-home order.

  6. Set Send home at to the time the staff member is actually leaving. It defaults to the start of the shift.

  7. Review the paid and unpaid hours under Send home at, plus the Shift budget and PPD (per patient day) line below them.

  8. Open the Reason list and pick one — Overstaffed, Low census, Disciplinary, or Other.

  9. Add an Internal note if you want context on the send-home report. The note is not sent to the staff member.

  10. Leave Send notification on to send the staff member a message in the Veras mobile app. Turn it off to skip the message.

  11. Edit the Message if the default wording doesn't fit.

  12. Click Send Home.
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The Send home staff window closes. On the Schedule, the shift shows a house icon and the shift text is crossed out. Hover the shift and you'll see "Staff is to be sent home." The paid hours on the shift drop to the hours the staff member actually worked, so the Shift budget and PPD figures for that day update too.

Change who goes home

Veras suggests one person, ranked by your send-home policy. The suggestion is only a suggestion — you can pick anyone else on the same shift and position.

  1. In the Send home staff window, click the pencil icon next to the staff member's name.
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  2. Under Priority order, select the staff member you want to send home. The person Veras ranked first is tagged Recommended.

  3. Click Save.
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The window goes back to the send-home details with the staff member you picked at the top. The paid and unpaid hours, Shift budget, PPD, and the default Message all update to match the new person.

Set your send-home priority order

The order Veras suggests comes from your Send-home Policy. You set that order once, and every send-home across the community follows it.

  1. In the left sidebar, click Setup.

  2. Click Settings.

  3. In the Settings menu, click Policies.

  4. Click Send-home Policy.

  5. Under Send-home priority, drag the criteria into the order you want. Veras ships with Agency (external staffing) first, then PRN (as-needed staff), Overtime (staff at or over your overtime threshold), Picked-up shifts (shifts grabbed beyond a normal assignment), and Fair rotation (longest since last sent home).
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  6. Click Save Changes.

The new order applies right away. The next send-home you open ranks staff by the order you saved.

Require advance notice before a send-home

Some states and some union contracts require you to give staff a set amount of notice before you send them home. Turn on advance notice and Veras warns you whenever a send-home falls inside that window.

  1. On the Send-home Policy page, turn on Advanced notice required.

  2. Under Minimum hours notice required, choose 1 to 5 hours.

  3. Click Save Changes.
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The change applies right away. From then on, any send-home scheduled inside your notice window shows a warning and asks for a written justification before it will go through.

Send home with less notice than your policy requires

You can still send someone home inside your notice window — Veras does not block it. A send-home with less notice than your policy requires is recorded as a compliance override on the audit log. Use it for situations you can defend in writing, and check your state rules and your community's contract first.

  1. In the Justification box inside the amber warning, write why the shorter notice could not be avoided.

  2. Open the Reason list and pick one.

  3. Click Send Home.

The send-home goes through and the audit log records it as a compliance override, along with your justification. To change the notice requirement instead, click View policy settings in the warning.

Common questions

Q: Does sending someone home count as a call-off?
A: No. Send home does not count against the staff member's attendance. If the staff member chose not to come in, record it as a call-off instead — see Adding and Managing Call-Offs.

Q: How does Veras decide who to send home first?
A: By your Send-home Policy order. The default order is Agency, PRN, Overtime, Picked-up shifts, then Fair rotation (longest since last sent home). You can drag the criteria into a different order under Setup > Settings > Policies > Send-home Policy.

Q: Can I send home someone other than the person Veras suggests?
A: Yes. Click the pencil icon next to the name, pick a different staff member under Priority order, then click Save. The suggestion is tagged Recommended, not required.

Q: Does the staff member get told they are being sent home?
A: Only if Send notification is on. When it is on, the message is delivered to the staff member in the Veras mobile app. Veras fills in a default message and you can edit it before you send.

Q: Can the staff member see the internal note?
A: No. The internal note appears on the send-home report and the audit trail only. Anything you want the staff member to read goes in the Message box instead.

Q: What happens to the hours on the shift?
A: Veras splits the shift at the time you set. Hours before that time stay paid, hours after it become unpaid. The window shows both counts, plus how the change moves the Shift budget and PPD for the day.

Q: Why am I seeing a warning when sending someone home?
A: Your community has Advanced notice required turned on and the send-home falls inside that window. The send-home is recorded as a compliance override on the audit log. You can still go ahead, but you have to write a justification first.

Q: Where do I see that a shift was sent home?
A: On the Schedule. The shift shows a house icon and the shift text is crossed out, and hovering it shows "Staff is to be sent home."

Q: Do I need to publish the schedule again after a send-home?
A: No. The send-home applies to a shift that is already on the Schedule. To change other details of the same shift, see Edit Shifts.

Q: Why is the Send Home box gray, and I cannot click on it?
A: You need to select a Send-home Reason before you can Save.

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