---
title: 'Tempus schedules'
summary: 'A recurring presence-status schedule for a department: a weekly time grid where each employee picks their status per slot. Not the same as a work shift.'
section: features
tags:
  - crud
  - tempus
  - scheduling
  - status
updated: '2026-09-29'
---

> A **Tempus schedule** is a recurring presence-status schedule for a department: a weekly time grid where each employee picks what they will be doing in each slot, expressed in [statuses](../telephony/tempus_statuses.md) rather than appointments.

Tempus schedules are not [work shifts](tempus_work_shifts.md). Work shifts say how many hours you are expected to work this week. A schedule says which status each person is showing on the team calendar during those hours. The two coexist.

## Overview

Schedules are per department, and a department can have several (core hours, an on-call rotation, a training week). Each renders as a calendar where rows are employees and columns are slots within the daily window, and each cell shows the status that employee chose. Cell choices are a visibility surface only and do not become time-tracking entries.

## What it does

A schedule covers a weekly window of days and a daily time range (default Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00), divided into slots of a fixed length. **Slot duration** sets that length and is the grid step of the calendar: one row per slot, and slot start and end times snap to it. Changing it on a schedule that already has slots leaves those slots off the new grid until their times are edited. Two further settings shape its behavior:

- **Status filters** is a whitelist of statuses cells can hold. Left empty, employees can pick any status including sensitive ones like Sick leave, so restrict it to what fits the schedule.
- **Default status** pre-fills empty cells, typically Available.

Employees click cells to change their status, managers can edit any cell, and the calendar refreshes in near real-time so colleagues see updates immediately.

> [!CAUTION]
> Deactivating a schedule hides it but does not delete the cell data. Reactivating it shows the old, possibly stale values from before deactivation.

## Emails

Assigning shifts sends no email. Employees receive two kinds of schedule email:

- **Roster emails**: when a schedule is sent, each employee on it gets one email with their shifts attached as a PDF.
- **Status emails**: when a shift moves an employee onto the schedule's status, and again when it moves them back.

Both are on for every employee. Either one can be turned off per employee on the [employee](tempus_employees.md) form, with **Send schedule roster emails** and **Send schedule status emails**. The choice applies to every schedule the employee is on.

## See also

- [Statuses](../telephony/tempus_statuses.md), [Sub-statuses](../telephony/tempus_sub_statuses.md) - the values picked in each cell.
- [Departments](tempus_departments.md) - the scope of a schedule.
- [Work shifts](tempus_work_shifts.md) - the expected hours concept (different from this status calendar).
- [Time points](tempus_time_points.md) - the actual time-tracking entries (also different).