Once you've got the basics of creating shifts down, the real power of Lupa's rota comes from recurring patterns, conflict detection, and the settings that shape how your schedule behaves. This article covers how to set up repeating shifts so you don't rebuild the rota from scratch each week, how Lupa catches scheduling conflicts before they become problems, and the rota settings that control default behaviour across your practice.

💡 In short: Use recurring shifts to automate weekly patterns, pay attention to conflict warnings when they appear, and configure your rota settings in Settings → Rota to match how your practice operates.

Recurring Shifts

Instead of creating the same shift every week, set up a recurring pattern once and let Lupa generate it automatically. Recurring shifts are the backbone of a well-managed rota — they handle the predictable 80% so you only need to manually adjust the exceptions.

Setting up a recurring shift

When creating or editing a shift, toggle the Recurrence option in the shift form (Step 2 of the creation flow). You'll see these settings:

Setting	What it controls
Frequency	How often the shift repeats — Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly
Interval	Every how many periods — e.g. every 1 week, every 2 weeks (for fortnightly patterns)
Weekdays	Which days of the week the shift occurs (for weekly frequency) — tick Mon through Sun
Start date	When the recurring pattern begins
Until date	When the recurring pattern ends — leave blank for indefinite

Example: A vet who works Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:00 to 17:00 every week would be set up as: Frequency = Weekly, Interval = 1, Weekdays = Mon + Wed + Fri, Start = next Monday, Until = blank.

Editing recurring shifts

When you click to edit a shift that's part of a recurring series, Lupa asks how you want to apply the change:

Option	What happens
This occurrence only	Changes only the specific date you clicked. The rest of the series continues as normal. Lupa creates an "override" for that one date.
All occurrences	Updates the entire recurring series — past and future. Use this to change the regular pattern (e.g. moving from 9-5 to 8-4 permanently).
This and future occurrences	Splits the series at the selected date. Everything before stays unchanged; everything from this date onward uses the new settings. Useful for "starting next week, the shift changes to..."

💡 Lupa handles the complexity of recurring shift edits behind the scenes. When you edit a single occurrence, the original pattern stays intact and an override is created for that specific date. Your recurring series is never lost.

Deleting recurring shifts

When deleting a recurring shift, you get the same three options:

Delete this occurrence only — removes just the selected date; the series continues
Delete this and future occurrences — ends the series from this date forward
Delete all occurrences — removes the entire recurring series

⚠️ Deleting all occurrences is permanent. The entire recurring pattern and all overrides are removed. If you only need to cancel one week, use "Delete this occurrence only" instead.

Copying Shifts

To quickly duplicate a shift pattern from one team member to another, use the Copy action.

Hover over a shift on the rota grid and click the Copy icon
In the copy dialog, select the employee (or room, if in room view) you want to copy the shift to
The shift's time, status, room assignments, and appointment type restrictions are all copied

💡 The copy dialog only shows employees or rooms that aren't already assigned to the source shift. If everyone is already covered, the copy option won't appear.

Conflict Detection

Lupa validates every shift you create or edit against the existing schedule and flags potential problems. Warnings appear in the shift form before you save.

Conflict types

Conflict	What it means and how to resolve it
Cross-store conflict	The employee has a shift at another store that overlaps in time. The warning names the other store and the conflicting times. Resolve by adjusting times at either location, or accept if the overlap is intentional (e.g. a travel/handover window). See for details.
Employee room conflict	The employee is already assigned to a different room at the same time within this store. Resolve by changing the room assignment or adjusting the times so they don't overlap.
Room double booking	The room you're assigning is already in use by another employee at the same time. Resolve by picking a different room or adjusting the time slot.
Out of hours shift	The shift start or end time falls outside your store's configured business hours. This is common for early-morning or late-evening shifts — the warning shows which dates and times are outside hours. Often safe to accept if your practice has irregular operating times.

💡 All conflict warnings are advisory, not blocking. You can always save the shift despite warnings. The purpose is to make sure you're aware of the issue.

Shift Details and Options

Each shift has several optional settings beyond the basic time and date. These are configured in the shift creation/edit form.

Shift statuses

The status determines how the time block appears on the rota and how it affects availability for appointment booking.

Status	Colour	When to use it
Available	Green	Normal working shift — the employee is available to see patients and take bookings
Vacation	Blue	Holiday / annual leave — the employee is off and not bookable
Sick	Orange	Sick leave — the employee is off and not bookable
Unavailable	Grey	Blocked time — the employee is not available for any reason (training, meetings, personal)
Custom	Indigo	Custom availability with specific hours — useful for half-days or reduced schedules
Break / Admin	Red	Admin time or scheduled breaks during the day — not bookable for appointments
Closed	Grey	The store or resource is closed — typically used on the room view for planned closures

Room assignments

When creating an employee shift, you can assign one or more rooms the employee will work in during that shift. This:

Determines which rooms are bookable for that employee during the shift
Triggers room double booking warnings if there's a conflict
Appears as a constraint when clients book online — they'll only see rooms the employee is assigned to

Appointment type restrictions

By default, a shift allows all appointment types. To restrict which services an employee can offer during a specific shift:

In the shift form, find the Appointment Types field
Select the specific visit types this shift covers (e.g. "Consultation", "Vaccination", "Surgery")
Only these appointment types will be bookable during this shift

💡 Leave the appointment types field empty to allow all types. Only set specific types when you need to restrict — e.g. a surgery-only afternoon block or a vaccine clinic.

The Add a new shift dialog showing Step 1 (Shift Details) with fields for staff assignment, all-day toggle, start and end dates, title, status (Available), appointment types, and bookable online toggle — Step 2 (Recurrence) is accessible via the Next button

Bookable online toggle

The Bookable online toggle controls whether clients can book appointments during this shift through your online booking portal:

On — the shift's time slots appear in the online booking system
Off — the employee is on the rota but their time is not available for online bookings (walk-ins, phone bookings, or internal use only)

Shift notes

Click the Note icon on any shift to add a free-text note — useful for reminders like "covering for Sarah", "surgery list only", or "training afternoon". Notes appear as a small indicator on the rota grid.

Custom colour

Each shift can have a custom colour override beyond the default status colour. This is useful for visual coding — e.g. marking all locum shifts in one colour, or highlighting shifts that need coverage.

Rota Settings

Company-level rota settings control how the schedule behaves across all your locations.

📍 Where to find it: Go to Settings → Rota (under company settings). You need the Rota permission to change these settings.

Default availability mode

This setting determines what happens when an employee has no shift defined for a given day:

Mode	Behaviour
Store Hours Fallback (default)	If no rota entry exists, the employee is treated as available during store opening hours. This is the more permissive option — useful when you're just getting started with the rota and haven't scheduled every team member yet.
Default Unavailable	If no rota entry exists, the employee is treated as unavailable. This is the stricter option — nothing is bookable unless there's an explicit shift on the rota. Best for practices that want full rota control.

⚠️ Choose the right mode before going live with the rota. If you switch to "Default
Unavailable" before all staff have shifts entered, they'll appear as completely off — and online booking slots will disappear. Start with "Store Hours Fallback" and switch to "Default Unavailable" once your rota is fully populated.

Permissions

Access to the rota is controlled by two permission levels:

Permission	What it grants
Rota (full access)	Create, edit, delete, and copy shifts. Change rota settings. Export CSV.
View Rota (read-only)	View the rota grid and shift details, but cannot make changes. The "Create Shift" button is disabled with a tooltip explaining the restriction.

Set these in Settings → Roles & Permissions for each role at your practice.

CSV Export

To export the current rota view as a spreadsheet:

Open the Rota and navigate to the week you want to export
Click the Download button in the toolbar (visible in employees view only)
A .csv file downloads with all visible shifts, including recurrence information The export includes shift times, statuses, employee names, and recurrence rules — useful for payroll processing, compliance records, or sharing with HR.

Tips for Rota Configuration

✅ Best practices from practices that run Lupa:

Set up recurring shifts for your core team first — this establishes the baseline week. Then add one-off adjustments as needed
Use "This occurrence only" for holiday cover and sick days rather than modifying the whole series
Always address conflict warnings before the shift starts — it's easier to resolve scheduling issues in advance than on the day
Use Break / Admin status for lunch breaks and admin time so those slots aren't accidentally booked
Restrict appointment types on surgery shifts so only surgical bookings are offered during those blocks
Turn Bookable online off for shifts reserved for walk-ins, emergencies, or internal work
Export the CSV weekly and cross-reference with your payroll system to ensure hours match

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Employee shows as available but has no shift	Your rota is set to Store Hours Fallback mode. The employee defaults to store hours when no shift exists. Either create an explicit shift or switch to Default Unavailable mode in Settings → Rota.
Recurring shift changed but only one week updated	You likely selected "This occurrence only" when editing. Edit the shift again and choose "All occurrences" to update the entire series.
Clients can't book online during a shift	Check the Bookable online toggle on the shift — it may be turned off. Also check that the shift's appointment type restrictions include the service the client is trying to book.
Room shows as double-booked	Two employees are assigned to the same room at overlapping times. Open each shift and either change the room assignment or adjust the times so they don't overlap.
Conflict warning shows but I can't see the overlapping shift	The conflict may be at another store. Enable the cross-store filter on the rota (see ) to see shifts from other locations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I set up a fortnightly (every two weeks) recurring pattern?

Yes. Set the frequency to Weekly and the interval to 2. Then select the weekdays the shift should occur on. Lupa will schedule the shift every other week. Then repeat for Week 2.

What happens to appointments if I delete a shift?

Existing appointments are not automatically cancelled when you delete a shift. The appointments remain on the calendar, but the employee's availability for new bookings is removed. You'll need to manually reschedule or cancel any affected appointments.

Can I have different appointment types for morning and afternoon?

Yes. Create two separate shifts for the same day — a morning shift (e.g. 9:00-13:00) with one set of appointment types and an afternoon shift (e.g. 14:00-17:00) with another. Each shift can have its own appointment type restrictions.

How do I handle bank holidays?

For a single bank holiday, edit the recurring shift for that date and select "This occurrence only". Change the status to Closed or Unavailable, or delete just that occurrence. The rest of the recurring series continues normally.

Can I copy a whole week's rota to another week?

There's no bulk week-copy feature. For repeated weekly patterns, use recurring shifts — set them up once and they'll generate automatically. For one-off weeks that don't follow the pattern, you'll need to create shifts individually.

What's the difference between "Unavailable" and "Vacation"?

Functionally they're the same — the employee is not bookable during either status. The distinction is for clarity on the rota: Vacation (blue) signals planned leave, while Unavailable (grey) is a general-purpose block for anything else (training, meetings, personal time). Use whichever communicates the reason best to your team.

Shift templates, conflicts and rota settings