Overview
The Schedule tool in WashStacks lets you build, review, and publish a weekly staff schedule for a single car wash location. You add a shift for each employee on each day they work, WashStacks automatically totals the assigned hours and labor cost, and once the week looks right you publish it so the team can see it.
This guide walks through the full process from opening the tool to publishing a finished week.
The WashStacks scheduler (Talent → Schedules) has a redesigned, drag-and-drop grid plus several new tools that make it faster to build and adjust a week. This guide covers what's new on top of the basics.
Day View / Week View toggle — switch between the weekly grid and an hour-by-hour day timeline with one click.
Day View — see how many people you have scheduled for every hour of a single day.
Copy a shift — duplicate a shift anywhere on the grid with Ctrl/⌘ + drag (long press + drag on a tablet).
Move a shift — drag any shift to a different day, time, or employee, and its role updates automatically.
Reorder employees — drag employees into the order you prefer; WashStacks saves it.
Roles & shift templates — assign a role to each shift and build shifts from saved templates.
Announcements — post a message (or a "Business Closed" notice) that your crew sees on a given day.
On-screen tips — a reminder note at the bottom of the grid summarizes the drag-and-drop shortcuts.
Tip: If you ever want the old layout, use Switch to classic Schedules in the top-right corner. The features below apply to the new (default) scheduler.
Assigning a Role and Using Shift Templates
When you add a shift, WashStacks first offers to build it from a saved template.
Step 1: Start a new shift
Hover over the cell where an employee and a day intersect and click the blue + button (or add an Open Shift from the top row). The Create a Shift from a Template (optional) window opens.
Step 2: Choose a template or skip
Pick a Role (for example, General Manage, Manager, Team Lead, Guest Attendant).
Choose a saved Template (such as "GM opening shift – Spring/Summer [6:00 AM – 3:00 PM]"), then click Use Template to pre-fill the times.
Or click Skip to open a blank Create Shift form.
Step 3: Fill out the shift
On the Create Shift form, set the Employee (or leave it as -- OPEN SHIFT --), the Role, the Shift Hours (you can type shorthand like 7a, 730a, or 330p), Unpaid Break Time, and any Shift Notes. Check Save as a Template if you want to reuse this shift later, then click Save.
The shift appears on the grid labeled with its role and time — for example, MANAGER 7:00A – 12:30P.
Switching Between Day View and Week View
Two toggle buttons sit just to the left of the location selector in the top-right of the schedule:
The Day View button (left icon) switches to the hour-by-hour timeline for a single day.
The Week View button (right icon) returns you to the full weekly grid.
You can also open Day View by clicking the date at the top of any day in the weekly grid. The active view is highlighted so you always know which one you're in.
Day View: See Coverage Hour by Hour
Day View turns a single day into an hour-by-hour timeline so you can see exactly how many people are scheduled at any given hour and spot gaps or overlaps.
Step 1: Open Day View
Click the Day View toggle button (left of the location selector), or click the date at the top of the day you want to inspect. The title shows the date and shift count (for example, 8/12/26 (7 Shifts)).
Step 2: Read the timeline
The hours of the day run across the top, from 12:00A to 11:00P.
Each employee is listed down the left with their total hours for the day.
Every shift shows as a horizontal bar positioned by its start and end time and labeled with the role and hours (for example, TEAM LEAD 3:55A – 3:55P).
The Coverage row at the bottom is a bar chart showing how many people are on the clock during each hour — an easy way to confirm you have enough staff at your busiest times.
Step 3: Return to Week View
Click the Week View toggle button (right icon, left of the location selector) to go back to the weekly grid.
Copying a Shift
Copying is the fastest way to repeat a shift for another day, time, or employee without re-entering the details.
Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or ⌘ Command (Mac). On a tablet, use a long press instead.
Click and hold the shift you want to copy.
While holding, drag the shift to the cell where you want the copy and release.
The original shift stays put and an identical copy is created in the new spot. Repeat as needed to fill out recurring coverage quickly.
Moving a Shift
You can relocate any shift anywhere on the schedule — a different day, a different time, or a different employee.
Click and drag the shift to its new cell, then release. (Do not hold Ctrl/⌘ — that copies instead of moves.)
If you move the shift to an employee associated with a different role, the shift's role label automatically updates to match the new employee's role.
This makes it easy to shuffle coverage as availability changes without deleting and rebuilding shifts.
Reordering Employees
Arrange the employee list in whatever order works best for you — by role, by seniority, or however you read the schedule fastest.
Click and drag an employee's name up or down the left column to the position you want.
Release to drop them into place.
WashStacks remembers and saves this order, so the layout stays the same the next time you open the schedule.
Editing, Duplicating, and Deleting Shifts
Quick actions on a shift — Hover over a shift to reveal its inline toolbar (edit, copy, and delete icons) so you can act on it without opening a form.
Edit Shift — Click a shift to open the Edit Shift window, where you can change any detail and click Save, or click Delete to remove it.
Add another shift — From the Edit Shift window, use the Add another shift link to give the same employee a second shift on that day (useful for split shifts).
On-Screen Tips (Note Bar)
A quick-reference note now appears at the bottom of the schedule, just above the action buttons, summarizing the drag-and-drop shortcuts:
"Drag and drop shifts to move. Click on header dates for day view. Drag names to reorder people. Ctrl / Cmd + drag and drop to copy (long press + drag on tablet)."
It's a handy reminder of the gestures covered in this guide. On a tablet, use a long press + drag in place of Ctrl/⌘ + drag when you want to copy a shift.
Posting Announcements
Announcements let you push a message to your crew for a specific day — a reminder, an all-hands note, or a closure.
Step 1: Open the announcement window
Click the megaphone icon in the top-right toolbar to open Add Announcement.
Step 2: Fill in the details
Date — The day the announcement applies to.
Color — Optional color for the announcement, using the swatch next to the date.
Message — Your note to the team. Messages are limited to 280 characters.
Business Closed — Check this box to flag the day as closed.
Step 3: Save
Click Save. The announcement is marked on that day's column header (look for the flag icon) and is visible to crew members — including in their app.
Copying a Previous Week
On a week you want to build from last week's schedule, click COPY PREVIOUS WEEK at the bottom of the grid. WashStacks asks "Are you sure that you want to overwrite this week's shift data with shift data from last week?" — click Yes to bring every shift forward, then adjust as needed. Note that this overwrites the current week's shifts.
Publishing and Re-Publishing
A schedule starts as a DRAFT that only you can see. Click PUBLISH when it's ready so employees can view their shifts; the badge changes to PUBLISHED.
If you edit an already-published week, a red banner appears: "You've added unpublished shifts. You need to re-publish your schedule so employees can see them." Click RE-PUBLISH to push the latest version out, or UNPUBLISH to pull the week back to draft.
Tips & Best Practices
Use Day View before publishing to check the Coverage bar and confirm you're staffed for peak hours.
Copy (Ctrl/⌘ + drag) vs. move (drag) — remember the modifier key is the difference between duplicating and relocating a shift. On a tablet, long press + drag to copy.
Let roles follow the employee — when you drag a shift to a different person, double-check the auto-updated role is what you intended.
Set your employee order once — drag the list into your preferred order and WashStacks keeps it.
Build templates for shifts you schedule often to skip re-entering times.
Always re-publish after edits so the team sees the current schedule.
Quick Reference
Day View / Week View buttons — Toggle between the day timeline and the weekly grid (left of the location selector)
Click a date — Open Day View for that day
Coverage row — Bar chart of people scheduled per hour (Day View)
Ctrl/⌘ + click-drag — Copy a shift to a new spot (long press + drag on tablet)
Click-drag a shift — Move it to any day, time, or employee (role auto-updates)
Click-drag an employee — Reorder the employee list (saved automatically)
Hover a shift — Inline edit / copy / delete icons
Click a shift — Open Edit Shift (edit, delete, or add another shift)
Megaphone icon — Add an announcement (Date, Color, Message ≤ 280 characters, Business Closed)
Note bar — On-screen reminder of the drag-and-drop shortcuts, above the action buttons
Create a Shift from a Template — Pick a Role + Template, or Skip for a blank shift
COPY PREVIOUS WEEK — Overwrite this week with last week's shifts (confirm Yes)
Publish / Re-Publish / Unpublish — Release edits or pull a week back to draft
Switch to classic Schedules — Return to the old scheduler layout