ShiftScheduleUp Guide
Everything you can do with the free shift schedule maker, in one place. Build a rotation in a minute, then go deeper with teams, events, holidays, statistics, reports, and exports.
Get started
Overview Quick startBuild a schedule
Preset patterns Custom patterns Reading the calendar Editing a dayOrganize
Events & notes Public holidays Teams & coverageInsights & output
Statistics Export & share Insights reportYour account
Saved schedules Dashboard SettingsPlans & more
Free vs Pro Mobile & offline Tips & tricks FAQ TroubleshootingWhat is ShiftScheduleUp?
ShiftScheduleUp is a free shift schedule maker for anyone who works a rotating shift: nurses, firefighters, police, factory, security, and healthcare workers. Pick a rotation, set your start date, and get a clean, color-coded calendar you can read, edit, print, export, and share.
Instant, no sign-up
Start building right away. Nothing is required to generate, print, export, or share a schedule. An optional free account lets you save your work across devices.
16 rotations + custom
Choose from 16 built-in patterns like 2-2-3, DuPont, Pitman, and 24/48, or build your own rotation from scratch with the custom builder.
Your data stays yours
Schedules live in your browser and, if you sign in, in your private account. There is no ad tracking of your shifts, and everything works on mobile and offline.
Read the Quick start below to build your first schedule in about a minute, then come back and explore the deeper sections whenever you need them. You do not have to read this guide top to bottom.
Create your first schedule in a minute
The fastest path from zero to a finished calendar. Every step here is explained in more detail later in this guide.
- 1
Open the tool and pick a pattern
Go to the shift schedule maker and choose a rotation from the visual pattern picker. Not sure which one? Use the search box or the Schedule Finder for a recommendation by industry.
- 2
Set your start date and team
Pick the date your rotation begins and, for multi-team patterns, choose your team (A, B, C, or D). This anchors the whole calendar to your real shifts.
- 3
Generate and fine-tune
Your color-coded calendar appears instantly. Choose how many months to show, then click any day to swap a shift, edit hours, or add an event or note.
- 4
Export, print, or share
Open the Export center to download a PDF or image, print it, add it to your phone calendar, or copy a share link that reproduces your exact schedule for anyone.
Changing the pattern, date, or team simply regenerates the calendar. Experiment freely: you can always switch back, and your day-by-day edits are kept where possible.
Preset shift patterns
A shift pattern is a repeating cycle of work days and days off. ShiftScheduleUp ships with 16 of the most common rotations, each already set up with the right cycle length, shift hours, and number of teams.
Choosing a pattern
In the pattern picker you can search by name, filter by shift length, and click a card to select it. Each card shows a mini preview of the rotation so you can see the rhythm of work and rest at a glance. If you are not sure what your workplace uses, the Schedule Finder asks for your industry and suggests a match.
Every pattern also has its own explainer page with history, pros and cons, and examples. For instance, see the 2-2-3 (Panama) schedule or the DuPont schedule.
All 16 patterns at a glance
| Pattern | Rhythm | Cycle | Shift | Teams | Common in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-2-3 (Panama) | 14 days | 12h | 4 | Police, manufacturing, healthcare | |
| DuPont | 28 days | 12h | 4 | Chemical plants, refineries, factories | |
| Pitman | 14 days | 12h | 4 | Police, dispatch, public safety | |
| 4 on 4 off | 8 days | 12h | 2 | Security, warehousing, small teams | |
| 24/48 (Firefighter) | 3 days | 24h | 3 | Fire departments, EMS | |
| 48/96 (Firefighter) | 6 days | 24h | 3 | Fire departments (extended rest) | |
| Continental (3-shift) | 28 days | 8h | 4 | European manufacturing, utilities | |
| 4 on 2 off | 6 days | 10h | 3 | Hospitality, retail, healthcare | |
| Kelly Schedule | 9 days | 24h | 3 | Fire departments (large crews) | |
| 5-5-4 | 15 days | 12h | 3 | Law enforcement, utilities | |
| DDNNOO | 6 days | 12h | 3 | Healthcare, emergency services | |
| 3-2-2-3 (Southern Swing) | 28 days | 8h | 4 | Utilities, power plants | |
| 7 on 7 off | 14 days | 12h | 2 | EMS, oil & gas, nursing | |
| 3 on 3 off | 6 days | 12h | 2 | Care homes, small operations | |
| Fixed Days | Weekly | 8h | 1 | Standard Monday to Friday day work | |
| Fixed Nights | Weekly | 8h | 1 | Permanent night shift, weekends off |
Custom patterns
If your rotation is not one of the presets, build it yourself. Switch to the Custom tab in the pattern picker and describe your cycle in your own words.
Two ways to build
Blocks
The fast way. Add rows that each say how many days you work and how many you are off, in order. Row one runs first, then row two, and the whole sequence repeats. Great for regular rotations.
Day by day
Full control. Set the length of your cycle and tap each day to mark it as day, night, evening, morning, or off. Perfect for irregular rotations that do not follow a simple block rule.
Say you work 2 days on, 2 off, then 3 on, 3 off. In Blocks, add Row 1 = 2 work / 2 off and Row 2 = 3 work / 3 off. That gives a 10-day cycle, and the tool handles all the date math for you. Give each row a label and color so the segments are easy to tell apart on the calendar.
When custom mode is active, look for the built-in help button. It opens a short interactive guide that explains the difference between Blocks and Day by day and walks you through your first custom rotation. Once you are happy with your pattern, you can name it and reuse it, and it travels with your share links and saved schedules just like a preset.
Reading your calendar
The calendar is the heart of the tool. Each month is a card, each day is a colored tile, and the colors tell you at a glance whether you are working a day shift, a night shift, or you are off.
Color legend
You can rename and recolor every shift type, and turn on evening and morning shifts too, so these are the defaults rather than fixed rules. Small icons and labels on each tile reinforce the color for anyone who finds color alone hard to read.
Views and KPIs
Above the calendar, a live summary shows your work days, days off, night shifts, and total hours for the whole range, plus your next shift. Switch between views to see the same schedule in the way that suits you:
Need more room? Use Expand for a full-screen, calendar-only focus mode, and switch how many months you generate (from one month up to a full year) to match your planning horizon.
Editing a day
Real life rarely follows the pattern exactly. Click or tap any day to open the day editor and change just that day without disturbing the rest of your rotation.
Change the shift
Use the status control to mark a day as day, night, evening, or off. This overrides the pattern for that single day, which is ideal for a swap, an extra shift, or a booked day off.
Set exact times
Enter a start and end time for the day. The hours update automatically and flow through to your statistics, earnings, tooltips, and calendar exports. Handy for partial shifts, overtime, or training days.
Track earnings
When the salary calculator is on, the day editor shows what that shift is worth, so you can see the pay impact of a swap or some overtime before you commit to it.
Apply to a range
Booked a week off? Apply the same change across a range of days in one action instead of editing each day separately. You can always reset an edited day back to the pattern.
Your day-by-day changes, events, and notes are saved with the schedule and included in your share links, so a coworker who opens your link sees exactly the same calendar, overrides and all.
Events and notes
Your calendar is more than shifts. Add events and notes to keep everything about your working life in one view.
Events
Mark days with categories like vacation, sick, training, on call, and more. Events appear as small colored dots on the day tile, with a tooltip on hover, and they carry their own colors so you can spot them instantly.
Notes
Add a short personal note to any day for appointments, reminders, or context. Notes show on the tile and are included in your reports and exports.
Events and notes are not just decoration. They flow into your calendar exports, your PDF and image files, and the Insights report, so the schedule you share always tells the full story.
Public holidays
See at a glance when you are scheduled to work a public holiday. ShiftScheduleUp includes official holiday dates for close to 100 countries.
- 1
Pick your country
Choose your country in the settings. Holidays for the years you are viewing are added to the calendar automatically.
- 2
Spot working holidays
Holiday days are tinted so you can immediately see which of your shifts land on a public holiday, which matters for holiday pay and time-off requests.
- 3
Fine-tune the list
Use Manage Holidays to review the dates for your country, complete with flags, and tailor which holidays appear. The holiday color is fully customizable to match your calendar.
Want to browse holidays on their own? The holiday calendar lists public holidays by country for the current years in one place.
Teams and coverage
Rotations are built around crews. The Team tools help you see who is on, plan coverage, and share the roster with the people who need it.
Who is on
The Team view lays out every crew across the rotation so you can see, for any date, which teams are working days, which are on nights, and which are resting.
Build a roster
Add team members and bring people in from a schedule. Each member keeps their own copy, so updating one person does not shuffle everyone else.
Find cover
The cover finder highlights gaps and suggests who is free to fill a shift, so short-notice absences are quicker to solve.
Publish a read-only team page that anyone can open without an account, and give each member their own calendar feed so their shifts appear in their phone calendar automatically.
Statistics dashboard
Open Statistics to turn your schedule into insight: how many hours you are working, how the shifts are distributed, and how each month compares.
The full picture
Summary cards, a monthly hours chart, a shift-distribution breakdown, work streaks, a month-by-month comparison, and a holiday summary, all in one dashboard.
Per-month detail
Each month header carries its own quick stats: the work and off split, total hours, night shifts, and how much weekend work it includes.
The charts respect your accessibility settings and use patterns as well as color, so night shifts stay distinct even when printed in black and white or viewed with color-vision differences.
Export and share
The Export center gathers everything in one place. Get your schedule onto paper, into your phone, into a spreadsheet, or into a coworker's inbox.
Add your shifts to Google Calendar
- 1
Open the Export center and choose Add to calendar. You can subscribe with one tap, or download an .ics file.
- 2
In Google Calendar, click the plus next to Other calendars, then choose Import.
- 3
Upload the .ics file. Your shifts appear as events. The same file works in Apple Calendar and Outlook.
An imported .ics file is a snapshot: later edits will not update it. Per-member team feeds are live subscriptions and do keep in sync. Choose the option that matches whether you want a fixed copy or an always-current calendar.
Shift Insights report
A dedicated, print-ready report that reads like a summary of your working life: a narrative overview, an earnings highlight, key metrics, and charts, on top of the calendar itself.
The Insights report is separate from the calendar export. Calendar exports give you the month grid; the Insights report adds an analytics summary page designed to be shared with a supervisor, kept for your records, or used when planning overtime and time off. Preview it before you export, then download the PDF or print it.
The Insights report is part of ShiftScheduleUp Pro. Basic calendar PDF, image, print, .ics, and share exports remain free for everyone. See Free vs Pro for the full breakdown.
Saving your schedules
You can use everything above without an account. Create a free account when you want your schedules to follow you across devices and stay backed up.
Save and name
Give each schedule a name and save it to your account. Saving under a name that already exists lets you replace it or save a fresh copy, so you never overwrite by accident.
Version history
Every save keeps a history. Preview an earlier version and restore it if you need to roll back a change.
Faithful restore
A saved schedule captures the whole picture: pattern, dates, team, day edits, custom labels, holidays, events, notes, and pay settings. Reopening it puts everything back exactly as you left it.
No account and no save? Your current schedule still lives in your browser, and a share link is a permanent, account-free way to keep or hand off any calendar.
Your dashboard
Signed-in users get a dashboard: a home base for your saved schedules, your earnings, your team, your plan, and your account settings.
You can sign in with email or a social account. If you started with a social login, you can add a password later from the account settings without being signed out. Pro members also get a priority support option right inside the dashboard.
Settings and preferences
Tailor the tool to the way you work. Most settings live in the sidebar next to the calendar and update the view instantly.
Colors and labels
Rename and recolor each shift type, including evening and morning shifts, and choose an icon. A single Show text switch turns the labels on the tiles on or off.
Shift hours
Let the tool detect hours from the pattern, or set them yourself. Hours drive your statistics and your pay estimates, and can be overridden per day.
Salary calculator
Enter your hourly rate, a night differential, and overtime rules to see estimated earnings per month and year, with a full breakdown in the Earnings workspace.
Calendar options
Name your schedule, start the week on Monday or Sunday, choose how many months to show, and turn monthly stats on the calendar on or off.
Use the theme toggle in the header for a comfortable dark view, and the language switcher to use the site in English, German, or Russian. Your choices are remembered.
Free vs Pro
The core tool is genuinely free. Pro adds power features for people who live in their schedule and want to go further with earnings, reports, and unlimited saves.
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| All 16 patterns and the custom builder | ||
| Calendar PDF, image, and print | ||
| Add to calendar, email, and share links | ||
| Events, notes, holidays, and statistics | ||
| Watermark-free exports | — | |
| Unlimited saved schedules | — | |
| Shift Insights report | — | |
| CSV and Excel export, priority support | — |
Free exports may carry a small watermark. Basic single-person exports are never blocked.
Mobile and offline
ShiftScheduleUp is built mobile-first. The whole tool, including editing, statistics, and exports, works on a phone, and you can install it like an app.
Install as an app
After a little use, you may see an install prompt. Add ShiftScheduleUp to your home screen for a full-screen, app-like experience with a launch icon.
Works offline
Once loaded, the tool keeps working without a connection. Check your shifts on the train or in a basement break room with no signal.
Made for thumbs
On small screens the layout stacks, the day editor opens as a sheet, and a compact summary bar keeps the essentials within reach.
Tips and best practices
Small habits that make the tool work harder for you.
Not sure which pattern?
Let the Schedule Finder recommend one from your industry, then tweak from there.
Share instead of re-explaining
The share link carries everything. Send it to family or coworkers and they see your exact calendar with no setup.
Sync to your phone
Add your shifts to your phone calendar to get a reminder before every shift start.
Check the pay impact
Turn on the salary calculator before you accept a swap or overtime to see what it is worth.
Print a year at a glance
Generate 12 months and print the year poster for the fridge, locker, or break room wall.
Frequently asked questions
Is ShiftScheduleUp free?
Yes. You can generate schedules, edit days, add events, view statistics, print, and export without paying or signing up. A free account adds saving across devices, and an optional Pro plan unlocks watermark-free exports, unlimited saves, the Insights report, and spreadsheet exports.
Do I need an account?
No account is needed to build, print, export, or share a schedule. Create a free account only if you want your schedules saved to your profile and available on any device.
How many patterns are there?
There are 16 built-in rotations, including 2-2-3 (Panama), DuPont, Pitman, 4 on 4 off, 24/48, 48/96, Kelly, Continental, DDNNOO, 5-5-4, 3-2-2-3, 7 on 7 off, 3 on 3 off, and fixed day or night weeks. You can also build any rotation yourself with the custom builder.
Can I build a rotation that is not listed?
Yes. Switch to the Custom tab and either add work and off blocks, or set a cycle length and mark each day yourself. Custom patterns behave just like presets: you can save, export, and share them.
How do I add my shifts to Google or Apple Calendar?
Open the Export center, choose Add to calendar, and either subscribe or download the .ics file. In Google Calendar, use the plus next to Other calendars, then Import, and upload the file. The same file works in Apple Calendar and Outlook.
Is my schedule data private?
Your schedule stays in your browser, and in your private account if you sign in. It is not sold or used to track you. Clearing your browser data resets local settings, so use a saved schedule or a share link to keep a permanent copy.
Does it work on my phone and offline?
Yes. The tool is fully responsive and can be installed to your home screen. Once loaded it also works without a connection.
What languages are available?
The full site is available in English, German, and Russian, and the tool interface supports additional languages. Use the language switcher in the header to change.
Troubleshooting
Quick fixes for the questions we hear most.
My shifts are on the wrong days
Check the start date and the team first: these anchor the rotation. Set the start date to a day you know your cycle began, and pick the team you belong to. For fixed day or night weeks, start on a Monday for a standard Monday to Friday week.
My changes did not save
Without an account, schedules live in your browser, so private or incognito windows and clearing browsing data will reset them. Sign in and save to keep your work, or copy a share link as a permanent backup.
An imported calendar is not updating
An imported .ics file is a one-time snapshot and will not reflect later edits. Re-export and re-import after changes, or use a live team feed, which stays in sync automatically.
I do not see the latest features
Because the tool can work offline, an older version may be cached. Refresh the page, and if needed do a hard refresh, to load the newest version.
Still stuck?
Reach out through the contact page and we will help. Pro members also have a priority support option inside the dashboard.
Ready to build your schedule?
Everything in this guide is free to try right now. No sign-up, no credit card.
Open the shift schedule maker