Owners and admins: set up your workplace and publish the first roster

Before you start

About an hour, 10 steps. The same journey, with a picture of each screen, is in the stand-alone guide, ready to print.

1. Start your workplace

Your account is made with your work email. There is no password to remember.

1. Go to etime.my/start.
2. Type Your name and Work email, then press Email me a code.
3. Type the 6-digit code from the email. It works once, for 10 minutes.

More: Sign in

2. Answer the setup questions

Five short steps give eTime what it needs: your workplace, the roles people work in, the shifts you run, your people and when the first roster starts.

1. Workplace: name it and the team you roster, pick your country, and say how the work runs (Around the clock, Set opening hours or Start empty).
2. Pick the kind of workplace, like Nursing home. eTime fills in typical roles and shifts for you to change.
3. Roles: check the job roles. Add pay if you have it.
4. Shifts: check times, days and how many of each role every shift needs. Tick Always covered for places that must never be empty.
5. People: add your team. You can paste names, one per line.
6. First roster: pick the Monday it starts and how long it is (4 weeks is the default). Press Create workplace.

More: Your first week

3. Check the rules

eTime checks every change against these rules. Make sure they match how you work before you build a roster.

1. Open Rules in the menu.
2. Read The law for your country.
3. Press Add a company rule for anything stricter you agreed, like 12 hours rest between shifts or no more than 3 nights in a row.
4. Choose who approves swaps in Shift swaps.

More: Rules

4. Add pay to your roles

With pay, eTime shows what every roster costs and picks the cheapest one that follows the law. Without it, every hour counts the same.

1. Open Roles and click a role.
2. Under Pay, choose Per hour or Monthly salary and type the amount.
3. Press Save role. Change a person's own rate on People.

More: Create or edit a role

5. Invite your team

Once people join, they see their shifts, get offers and clock in on their phone.

1. Open People, pick a person and go to Profile.
2. Under Invite to eTime, type their email and press Send invite. Or press Make invite and hand out the QR code or link yourself.
3. For managers, schedulers, payroll and admins, use Invite a manager at the top of the People screen.

More: Invite someone to eTime

6. Generate the first roster

Generate fills the whole period in seconds, and everything it fills is legal.

1. Open Roster. The green card says Fill the roster.
2. Choose what matters most in the list, like Balanced or Fairest.
3. Press Generate roster.

More: Generate

7. Check it and make it yours

You know your team. Look it over and move what you like; eTime checks every move.

1. Step through the weeks with the arrows.
2. Look for red rings (a rule is broken) and red dashed tiles (must-cover places still open).
3. Drag a shift to someone else, or select it and press Move or swap.
4. Made a mistake? Press Undo.

More: Symbols and colours

8. Publish

Publishing sends the roster to your team. Each publish is kept as a version you can compare later.

1. When every must-cover place is filled and no rule is broken, the card says Publish the roster.
2. Press Publish.
3. Later changes show as Unpublished changes until you press Publish changes.

More: Publish

9. Choose a plan

You start with 30 days of Pro and no card. Up to 10 people stay free for good.

1. Open Settings → Billing (owners only).
2. Check how many active people you have this month.
3. Press Choose … under a plan, or carry on with Free.
4. Invoices, your card and plan changes are under Manage billing.

More: Billing

10. Connect your own tools (optional)

Most workplaces skip this. If you use scripts or an AI assistant, an API key lets them use eTime as you.

1. Open Account, press Create a key under API keys, and copy the key.

More: API keys