Creating a Standard Bid Package

Creating a Standard Bid Package

To create a new standard bid package:

• Click the Bid Packages tab.
• Click the Create New Bid Package button
• RosterApps directs you to the Create New Bid Package page. Complete the sections on this page with information about your new bid package. Below is a list of the sections with descriptions.
  
  

  • Work Group: Select the work group that will use this bid package. There can only be one work group per bid package and one standard bid package per work group at a time in RosterApps.

  • Bid Package Name: The name of the bid package.

  • Effective Start Date: Select the date that the shifts in the bid package will begin. Standard bid packages cannot overlap with any other bid package for the same work group in RosterApps. It is best practice to start your bid package on the first day of the work week at your location. Please note: you cannot change this date once you create your bid package, so please be certain when setting this date.

  • Effective End Date: Select the date that the shifts in the bid package will end. Bid packages cannot overlap with any other bid package for the same work group in RosterApps. It is best practice to end your bid package on the last day of the work week at your location. Please note: you cannot change this date once you create your bid package, so please be certain when setting this date.

  • Seniority Rank Rule: Select the seniority rule that should be used to order the employees for assigning bid lines.

  • Days In Cycle Pattern: Enter the length (number of days) of your schedule that repeats. The default is a seven-day cycle pattern, or weekly repeating schedule, but you can enter a different number if needed. For example, if you have a bi-weekly repeating schedule, enter 14.

  • Bid Window Open: Select the date and time that employees can begin bidding on schedules in this bid package. You can set this date at a later time or edit it later if you set it now.

  • Bid Window Close: Select the date and time that the bid window closes. You can set this date at a later time or edit it later if you set it now.

  • Click the 'Employees Allowed to Bid Regardless of Skill for Select Skills' checkbox if you want to allow employees to bid on lines which they don't have the required skills.
  • Click the 'Employee Can Save Bid if They Selected All Available Lines' checkbox to allow employees to select and save all lines when submitting their bid preferences.
  • Select an option from the radio buttons:
    • Create empty bid package and manually add bid lines: Select this option button to create an empty standard bid package and manually add bid lines. More information on this option is provided below. 
    • Create bid package from open shifts: Select this option to create a relief shift bid.  More information on this option is provided below. 
    • Import bid package: Select this option button to import bid packages.  This is used for creating a standard bid package.  More information on this option is provided below.
• Once you finish entering information on this page, click the Create button to create your new bid package (or click the Cancel button to cancel).

Manually Add Bid Lines (Standard Bid Package)

Bid packages consist of bid lines, which are the schedules that employees bid on. RosterApps has two options for adding bid lines: manually adding bid lines or importing bid lines. If you have only a small number of bid lines to add, you will likely want to manually add bid lines. If you have a large number of bid lines to add, you will likely want to import bid lines—see the Import Bid Lines section of this user guide for more details.

To manually add bid lines:

• When you create your bid package select the option button ‘Create empty bid package and manually add bid lines.’ 
  

• After you create your bid package, click the Bid Packages tab.

• On the main bid package page, find the bid package you want to add bid lines to in the table of bid packages. Click the blue text link Edit in that bid package’s row.
  

• On the Edit Bid Package page, click the blue text link Edit Bid Lines.
  

• Click the Add Bid Line button.

• Complete the Bid Line Settings section at the top of the page. Below is a list of these settings with descriptions.
  

  • Bid Line Label: A label for this bid line, unique within the bid package. You can think of this as the bid line’s name. If you have similar bid lines grouped together, you might want to give them the same label with different numbers appended (for example: Cashier01, Cashier02, Cashier03, etc.).

  • Employees Required: The number of employees needed for each bid line. The default number is 1, but you can change it to however many employees you need for that line. When employees bid, this will show up as the number of ‘slots’ of this bid line available.

  • Employees Reserved: The number of slots of this bid line you want to reserve. Reserving means that the slot will not be visible to employees while bidding. You may want to reserve a slot for a specific employee or want to hide a slot for another reason.

  • Add shifts to your bid line.

    • Choose a day of the week that will have a shift in this bid line and click the blue text link Add Shift in that day’s row.

    • RosterApps expands that day’s row.
      

    • Complete this section with information about the shift.

      • Template (Optional): If you want to use a shift template for this shift, select the shift template in the Template drop-down menu. When you select a shift template, RosterApps auto-fills the rest of this section according to that shift template. Shift templates can save you considerable time when manually adding bid lines. For more information about shift templates and how to create them, please see the View/Add/Edit/Delete Shift Templates section of this user guide.

      • From: Select the time the shift begins.

      • To: Select the time the shift ends.

      • Break: Indicate whether the shift has a break or not. There are three options:

        • No break during shift: Select this option button if the shift will not have a break.

        • Floating break for…: Select this option button if the shift will have a break that the employee could take at any time during the shift. Use the drop-down selectors to select the length of the break.

        • Fixed break at…: Select this option button if the shift will have a break that the employee must take at a specific time. Use the first set of drop-down selectors to select the time that the employee must take the break. Use the second set of drop-down selectors to select the length of the break.

      • Required Skills: Check the box(es) of any skill(s) that an employee must have to work this shift. RosterApps lists all of the skills available at your company.

    • You can add multiple shifts in a day if needed. To do so, click the blue text link Add Shift in that day’s row again. If you need to remove a shift, click the blue text link Remove Shift underneath the shift.

    • Continue until you’ve added all of this bid line’s shifts for the week.

• Once you finish, click the blue Add button at the very bottom of the page to add the bid line (or click the blue Cancel button to cancel).

• The bid line appears on the main Edit Bid Lines for Bid Package page. Click the Done button at the top of the page to return to the Edit Bid Package page.
  

Import Bid Lines

Bid packages consist of bid lines, which are the schedules that employees bid on. RosterApps has two options for adding bid lines: importing bid lines or manually adding bid lines. If you have a large number of bid lines to add, you will likely want to import bid lines. If you have only a small number of bid lines to add, you will likely want to manually add bid lines—see the Manually Add Bid Lines section of this user guide.

To import bid lines, you need to have a correctly formatted Excel (or another spreadsheet program) file containing your bid lines prior to creating your bid package. If you have another existing bid package, an easy way to get a file with the correct format is to export the bid lines from that bid package to Excel, following the steps below. If you do not have an existing bid package to export bid lines from, you can create a sample bid package and add a few bid lines manually, then follow the below steps to export those bid lines to Excel to get a file in the correct format. For information about manually adding bid lines, please refer to the Manually Add Bid Lines section of this user guide.

To export bid lines to an Excel spreadsheet:

• Click the Bid Packages tab.
• Find the bid package you want to export bid lines from in the table of bid packages. Click the blue text link Edit in that bid package’s row.
• Click the Export Bid Lines to Excel Spreadsheet link.
  
• Open the Excel file. This file is in the correct format for RosterApps to use. Edit it to enter the correct bid lines for your new bid package and save the file. Below is an example of an Excel file with bid lines. The file must have these column headers in the correct order and with the correct text in order for RosterApps to read it.
  

• Below is a list of the columns in the Excel file with descriptions:

  • Label: A label for this bid line, unique within the bid package. You can think of this as the bid line’s name. If you have similar bid lines grouped together, you might want to give them the same label with different numbers appended (for example, Cashier01, Cashier02, Cashier03, etc.).

  • Slots: The number of employees needed for each bid line. The default number is 1, but you can change it to however many employees you need for that line. When employees bid, this will show up as the number of slots of this bid line available.

  • Column C: This column contains three different rows which you will need to fill out for each day of the week that the bid line has a shift:

    Shift: The start and end times of the shift.

    Break: The length of the shift’s break. Enter ‘Off’ in this row if the day does not have a shift.

    Skills: The skill(s) required to work this shift.

  • Columns D-J: Each day of the week has a column. If you have a cycle pattern other than weekly, you will have a different number of columns here (and you would name your columns Day 1, Day 2, etc. instead of day-of-the-week names). The day in the first column must be the day that your bid package starts on. Fill out the three rows (Shift, Break, and Skills) for each day of the week that the bid line has a shift. For days that do not have a shift, enter ‘Off’ in the Break row.

• Once you have the correct bid line information in your Excel file and have saved the file, you are ready to import your bid lines.

To import bid lines:

• When you create your bid package, select the option button Import bid package. For more information on creating a bid package, please refer to the ‘To create a bid package’ section of this user guide.
  

• Click the Choose File button.

• Search your computer’s files to find and select the Excel document with your bid lines. Click the Open button.

• Click the Upload File button to upload your file to RosterApps.

• If your file contains multiple worksheets, select the worksheet with the bid lines you want to add to this bid package in the Select Worksheet Containing BidLines drop-down menu.
  
• Your bid lines have now been imported. Once you click the Create button to create your new bid package, you can view the bid lines in your bid package by going to Location Admin > Bid Packages > Edit > Edit Bid Lines.