Note: You will need to add in your individual staff members schedule before you can create your schedule. To learn how to add in an individual schedule, read the article here.
Apply Schedules for your whole team
Use this path when you're building the schedule for an upcoming period and want every eligible staff member's saved schedule rolled forward at once. This is the routine first step at the start of each scheduling period — run it once, since re-running it for the same date range will overwrite any manual edits, swaps, or reassignments inside that range.
In the left sidebar, click Schedule.
In the top right, click the Apply Schedules button.
In the dialog that opens, select one or more Positions to generate shifts for.
Choose the Date Range for the new shifts.
Under Choose an option, pick how Veras should generate the shifts:
Create shifts + Balance open shifts + AI coverage suggestions — Does both of the above, and uses AI to recommend who to assign to the open shifts based on staff availability and patterns.
Create shifts + Balance open shifts — Generates draft shifts and also adds open shifts wherever your staffing falls short of your target levels, so gaps surface immediately for filling.
Create shifts — Generates draft shifts only, using each staff member's saved schedule. No open shifts are added.
5. Click Apply to generate the shifts.
Note: The shifts will remain as drafts until you publish your schedule. To learn how to Publish Your Schedule, read the article here
You can also have your shifts automatically be published by turning on Auto Publish Shifts in your advanced settings on the Community Settings page.
Apply a schedule for one staff member
Use this path for one-off cases — for example, a newly onboarded employee whose schedule starts mid-period, or a staff member who was missed during the bulk run.
Find the staff member's row, then click the three dots to the right of their name.
Select Apply master schedule from the menu.
Choose the Date Range for the new shifts.
Click Apply.
Review and publish the drafts
Apply Schedules generates drafts only. To make the shifts visible to staff, you need to publish them as a separate step.
Review the generated drafts on the Schedule for accuracy. Edit any individual shifts as needed.
When the schedule is ready, follow How to Publish the Schedule to release them to staff.
If you want Veras to publish shifts automatically as they're generated, an admin can turn on Auto Publish Shifts in the advanced settings on the Community Settings page.
Common questions
Q: What's the difference between applying schedules and publishing them?
A: Applying generates draft shifts that only schedulers can see. Publishing releases those shifts to staff so they appear in the Veras app and trigger notifications.
Q: Do I need to apply schedules every pay period?
A: Yes — unless your community has Auto Publish Shifts turned on. Apply Schedules is the routine first step each scheduling period: it takes the recurring patterns saved on each staff member's profile and stamps them onto the dates you choose.
Q: I applied schedules again and lost all my manual edits. What happened?
A: Apply schedule overwrites every shift in the date range you select, replacing any manual edits, swaps, or reassignments inside that range. To avoid this, apply schedules only once per period to set the baseline, then make any further changes by editing individual shifts. If you need to add a new staff member's shifts mid-period, use the Apply master schedule option from the three-dot menu next to their name — that only affects their schedule.
Q: What's the difference between Apply Schedules and Master Schedule?
A: Apply Schedules generates draft shifts for an upcoming date range using staff members' saved schedules. Master Schedule is a separate view that shows the underlying recurring schedule pattern itself — useful for reviewing who's on what rotation. See How to use Master Schedule.