When your veterinary group has more than one location, staff often split their time between clinics — a vet might work at your main branch Monday to Thursday and the satellite clinic on Fridays. Cross-location scheduling in the Rota lets practice managers see where every team member is across the entire group, spot conflicts before they happen, and manage staff assignments between stores — all from one screen.

💡 In short: Use the cross-store filter on the Rota to see staff schedules at other locations as a dimmed overlay. Lupa automatically warns you about conflicts when an employee is double-booked across sites.

Why Cross-Location Scheduling Matters

⚠️ Check the overlay before scheduling, don't assume availability. An employee's calendar at your location might look empty on Friday, but they could already be rostered at another clinic. Always enable the cross-store filter to see the full picture before adding shifts.

Benefit	How it helps your practice group
Full visibility	See every team member's schedule across all locations in one view — no need to switch stores to check availability
Conflict prevention	Lupa warns you when a shift overlaps with one at another location, so you never accidentally double-book a vet
Flexible staff deployment	Assign employees to multiple stores and schedule them wherever they're needed, week by week
Clear ownership	Each shift belongs to a specific location. You can edit your store's shifts while seeing (but not editing) other stores' shifts

How It Works

Cross-location scheduling has three parts:

Staff assignments — which employees are linked to which stores
The cross-store filter — the overlay that shows other-location shifts on your rota
Conflict warnings — automatic alerts when shifts overlap across sites

Step 1: Assign Staff to Multiple Stores

Before an employee can be scheduled at a second location, they must be assigned to that store. This is done from the enterprise Staff Assignments page.

Navigate to Settings → Staff Assignments (this is an enterprise/company-level setting)
Select a store from the list on the left
Click Assign Employees and select the team members who should work at this location
For each assigned employee, toggle Show in Calendar to control whether they appear on that store's rota grid

💡 An employee can be assigned to as many stores as needed. There's no concept of a "home store" — every assignment is equal. The Show in Calendar toggle simply controls visibility on the weekly grid without removing the assignment.

To remove an employee from a store, select them in the staff list and click the delete button. This removes the store assignment but does not affect their shifts at other locations.

Step 2: Enable the Cross-Store Filter

Once employees are assigned to multiple stores, you can see their schedules across the group.

Open the Rota (click Rota in the Apps section of the top navigation)
Click the filter icon (gear) in the toolbar at the top of the rota
In the filter popover, find the Stores section — this only appears if your account has access to more than one store
Select which stores you want to overlay:
All stores selected — see shifts from every location in your group
Specific stores — tick only the locations you want to compare The filter selection persists across sessions — you don't need to re-select it each time you open the rota.

Step 3: Read the Cross-Store Overlay

With the cross-store filter active, shifts from other locations appear on the rota alongside your store's shifts. Here's how to tell them apart:

Visual cue	What it means
Full colour, interactive	This shift belongs to your current store. You can click to edit, copy, or delete it.
Dimmed / reduced opacity with store badge	This shift belongs to another store. It's read-only from your view — shown so you can see where the employee is scheduled. The store name appears as a small badge on the shift.

💡 Other-store shifts are read-only from your rota view. To edit a shift at another location, switch to that store using the store switcher in the top-left corner.

The overlay also appears in the day/week detail calendar — click on any employee to open a zoomed-in view where other-store shifts appear as transparent events alongside your store's shifts.

Conflict Warnings

When you create or edit a shift, Lupa automatically checks for scheduling conflicts. If the employee is already rostered at another location during the same time window, you'll see a warning.

Types of conflict warnings

Warning	What it means
Cross-store conflict	The employee has a shift at another store that overlaps with the one you're creating. The warning shows the other store's name and the conflicting dates/times.
Employee room conflict	The employee is already assigned to a different room at the same time (within the same store).
Room double booking	The room you're assigning is already booked by someone else at the same time.
Out of hours shift	The shift falls outside the store's configured business hours.

💡 Conflict warnings are for information, they do not block you. You can still save the shift if the conflict is intentional (e.g. a planned handover period where someone is at two locations briefly).

When to Use Cross-Location Scheduling

Scenario	Who typically does it
A vet splits their week between two clinics and you need to see both schedules	Practice manager
A locum is covering shifts at multiple sites this month	Practice manager
You're planning next week's rota and need to check who's already committed elsewhere	Practice manager, head nurse
A nurse is moving from one location to another permanently	Practice manager, HR
You want to ensure no staff are accidentally double-booked across the group	Any rota editor

Tips for Multi-Site Scheduling

✅ Best practices from multi-site practices using Lupa:

Always enable the cross-store filter when planning the weekly rota — it takes two clicks and prevents double bookings
Assign employees to stores before you start scheduling them there — you can't create shifts at a store the employee isn't assigned to
Use the day calendar view (click an employee name) for the clearest picture of their day across all locations
When a vet permanently transfers to another clinic, update their store assignments first, then adjust future shifts
Set the Show in Calendar toggle to "off" for employees who are assigned, but not currently active at a location, or who you don't want on the rota/diary. — this keeps the rota grid clean without removing the assignment
Pay attention to cross-store conflict warnings — even if you override them, they serve as a reminder to coordinate with the other location's manager

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
I don't see the cross-store filter option	The filter only appears if your account has access to more than one store. If you're part of a single-location practice, cross-store scheduling doesn't apply. Ask your company administrator to check your store assignments.
An employee doesn't appear on another store's rota	They need to be assigned to that store first via Settings → Staff Assignments. Also check that Show in Calendar is toggled on for that store.
I can't edit a shift that appears dimmed	Dimmed shifts belong to another store. Switch to that store using the store switcher in the top-left to edit it.
Cross-store conflict warning shows but I don't see the other shift	Make sure the conflicting store is included in your cross-store filter. Open the filter popover and tick that store to see the overlapping shift on the grid.
I want to move an employee to a new store permanently	Go to Settings → Staff Assignments, assign them to the new store, then remove their assignment from the old store. Existing shifts at the old store remain until you delete them — clean up future shifts manually.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can an employee work at different stores on different days of the same week?

Yes. An employee can have shifts at Store A on Monday-Wednesday and shifts at Store B on Thursday-Friday. Each shift specifies which store it belongs to. The cross-store overlay shows both sets of shifts so you can plan without conflicts.

Do cross-store shifts affect online booking availability?

Yes. When a client books online at a specific location, the system checks the employee's availability at that store. If the employee is scheduled at another store during the requested time, they won't show as available for online booking — even if their local rota is empty.

Can I edit another store's shifts from my rota view?

No. Other-store shifts appear as a read-only overlay (dimmed with a store badge). To edit them, switch to that store using the store selector in the top-left corner of the app.

What happens if I ignore a cross-store conflict warning?

The shift is saved normally. Conflict warnings are informational — they highlight potential issues but don't prevent you from saving. The employee will appear as double-booked at both locations during the overlapping time. This is sometimes intentional (e.g. handover periods).

Does removing a store assignment delete the employee's existing shifts there?

No. Removing a store assignment only affects future scheduling — the employee won't appear on that store's rota grid going forward, but their historical and existing shifts remain in the system. Delete those shifts manually if they're no longer needed.

Is there a limit to how many stores an employee can be assigned to?

No. An employee can be assigned to every store in the company if needed. Each assignment is independent and includes its own Show in Calendar toggle.

Cross-location scheduling