New Roster View and Planning Tool

SupportAbility Web App v9.0 (May 2025) included the first iteration of the new Roster in SupportAbility, which includes the ability to view Shifts and Activities in either a Month, Week or Day layout. 

This functionality is being built upon in subsequent releases. 

The new Roster in SupportAbility serves two key purposes: 

1. View the shifts you have been rostered into

2. Used as a roster planning tool for Rostering Teams, Team Leaders and Managers

This article provides an overview of the available functionality from the perspectives of Support Staff viewing the Roster for the shifts they're rostered into and Team Leaders and Rostering teams viewing the Roster for scheduling purposes. It also discusses the features and functionality to expect next.

The SupportAbility v9.0 changes video provides a short overview of the new roster. You can view or share it from this link.

Audience: Authorised Customer Representatives, Team Leaders, Rostering Teams, Support Staff

Summary

The following list summarises the content within this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:

New Roster View - Support Staff

With the release of version 9.0, the new roster is available for all users in the SupportAbility Web App and is the default view upon accessing the Roster following this upgrade:  
The new Roster displays the shifts you have been rostered into, which are shown in a 'Month' period layout by default.  However, you can change the period you are viewing the Roster to 'Week' or 'Day' at any time, depending on your preference.  
The calendar in the top left allows you to navigate to different dates, and a grey dot is displayed against any of the dates where you have a rostered shift. 
Shifts for the current month are loaded upon opening the Roster. The arrows on either side of the word 'Today' allow you to navigate forward and back based on the period selected, i.e. Month, Week or Day. Selecting 'Today' will navigate you back to the current date. 

Filters

The filters can be used to display the shifts you are rostered into for particular Sites, Services or by Program (if your organisation is utilising Programs in Activities). You can also filter by the Client/s scheduled into the Activities you have rostered shifts for: 

Hover for more information

You can hover over any of the blue shift cards to see more information, such as the Site and Service of the Activity and the participating Clients: 
To open the Activity the shift belongs to in a new tab, select the Activity Name link in the shift card, e.g., 10 AM - Music Appreciation, noting that the Roster remains open in the previous tab. This method replaces the original version's 'Return to Roster' feature. 
When 'Week' or 'Day' is selected, more information is displayed in the blue shift cards, along with a blue line indicating the current time across the week/day:
In the Week or Day period layout, the length of the shift determines how much information is displayed on the shift card. More information is available when hovering over this in cases of a really short shift, e.g. 10 minutes:

Go to Old/New Roster

If you prefer to use the previous version of the roster, you can select ‘Go to Old Roster’: 

SupportAbility will remember this preference and apply it the next time you access the Roster in the Web App. You can toggle between versions as needed to monitor the changes:  

You will also notice a blue banner positioned at the top of the screen in both the new and old roster views. This banner highlights that the New Roster is available and includes a link to this article, which outlines the available functionality and upcoming changes.

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Alerts and icons

From SupportAbility v9.3 (August, 2025), handy icons are now displayed in the new roster, including Client Absence, Client Conflicts, and Staff Clashes. These shifts are highlighted with an amber alert stripe to catch your eye and keep your schedule running smoothly.

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New Roster View - Team Leaders

If you have the Team Leader privilege for a specific Site and Service, or all Sites and Services, your options will differ from those outlined above.

The new Roster displays the shifts you have been rostered into, by having your name selected in the 'Staff Members' filter by default, displayed in a 'Month' period layout: 

Once you have updated your filters based on the data in the roster you wish to view, SupportAbility will remember this and display these by default following this. 

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Filters

Depending on your preference, you can update the 'Calendar' view of the roster to display the data you wish to view by using the filters in combination with the 'Data' (Shift/Activity) and 'Period' (Day/Week/Month) options:   

The calendar in the top left allows you to navigate to different dates. The blue arrows on either side of the word 'Today' also allow you to navigate forward and back based on the period selected, i.e., Month, Week, or Day. Selecting 'Today' will return you to the current date. 

The filters allow you to change the Activity/Shift data displayed for the chosen period.

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Viewing Activities

To view Activities, select 'Activity' from the Data option, along with the relevant filters:

In the above example, we're reviewing Activities in the Roster for the Day Service and Community Access Service at the Melbourne Site, in the Week layout. 

When 'Week' or 'Day' is selected, more information is displayed in the green Activity cards, along with a blue line indicating the current time across the week/day.
Activity cards in the new Roster are currently displayed in green (Shifts are currently blue). We are reviewing options in future releases to give Team Leaders the choice of how they wish to view this data, e.g. different colours for Site/Service and for other priorities, based on what is important to you. 
To open an Activity, select the Activity Name link in the card, e.g., Music Appreciation, noting that the Roster remains open in the previous tab. This method replaces the original version's 'Return to Roster' feature. 
You can hover over any of the green Activity cards to see more information, such as the Site and Service of the Activity and the rostered Staff and participating Clients: 

Viewing Additional Activities or Shifts

When there are additional Activities or Shifts to view that cannot be displayed on screen, e.g. Tuesday the 20th of May, the total number of Activities or Shifts is displayed in a grey bar:

Select this to see more details: 

Or, switch to the Day view: 

To Be Filled

When an Activity includes To Be Filled shifts, these are displayed in both data views with a red stripe on the left-hand side of the card. 

Example of this in the Activity view: 

Example of this in the Shift view: 

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Overnight

When Shifts/Activities occur overnight, these are displayed in the 'Overnight' row at the top of the Roster: 

 Hovering over the card provides more information about the Shift/Activity.

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Newer Data Available - Click here to Refresh

When a change is detected, a refresh indicator appears, prompting you to refresh the data by clicking on it:  


Utilising this new feature loads the updated data much more efficiently than a browser refresh and has the added benefit of keeping you on the selected date. 

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Alerts and icons

From SupportAbility v9.3 (August, 2025), handy icons are now displayed in the new roster, including  Client Absence, Client Conflicts, and Staff Clashes. These shifts are highlighted with an amber alert stripe to keep you informed at a glance:

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Team Leaders - How to add Activities

SupportAbility v9.2 (July 2025) introduces the ability for Staff with Team Leader privileges to create Activities in the New Roster.

A video providing an overview of the changes and new functionality is available to view by clicking the following link: 

Activities can be added from the 'Activity' view. Your filters pre-populate key details such as Site, Service, Staff Member/s and/or Client/s, designed to save you time.

For example, suppose we create an activity for the community participation service at the Melbourne Site. This Site and Service are pre-populated in the 'Add a New Activity' set-up wizard when selected in the filters. If we'd selected any Staff Members, a Program or Clients in the filters, these details would also pre-populate.

To add an Activity, you can either single-click on the relevant date and time for a one-hour Activity, e.g. 10 am on Friday the 25th:

It is worth noting that if you clicked on 10:30 am, this will populate 10 am - 11 am, as it rounds to the hour.

Alternatively, you can click and drag to select the required duration, e.g. 10:30am - 11:30am. 

Here is an example of this in the Week Period view:

Or the Month Period view (useful for 24-hour or multi-day Activities): 

Once selected, the 'Add a New Activity' set-up wizard opens, allowing you to create an Activity:

Following the Activity Details being added, the next step is to add the relevant Client/s as needed: 

Followed by adding the relevant Staff, or 'To Be Filled' Shifts. 

If you don't know who will be rostered into this Activity as yet, or if there are multiple Staff Shifts that are required, the number of needed 'To Be Filled' Shifts can be added here: 

If the Shift times differ from the Activity time, they can be edited in the Activity record once created. 

If you know the Staff Member you wish to add, they can be selected here, or you can search by Name or Employment Type: 

When the Pay Period has been configured for your organisation, the Staff Member’s total ‘Agreed Hours’ and ‘Potential Overtime’ risk for their Agreed Period, i.e. Week or Fortnight, inclusive of the Activity Duration, is displayed.

This will mostly be useful if you are creating an Activity and the Staff Shift times align with this, and you are looking for the best match. 

However, if you are creating an Activity with multiple Shifts with times that differ from the Activity time e.g. camps or SIL, this information is more useful in relation to Staff Shifts, which are edited from within the Activity record. Please see the How to fill ‘To Be Filled’ Shifts and change a Staff Member in a Shift article linked below for reference. 

It is important to note that data will only be displayed in these new columns once the Pay Period has been configured. Please see the  Configuring the Pay Period for your organisation article linked below for more information. 

Once the required 'To Be Filled' Shifts have been added and/or the relevant Staff Member/s have been selected, select 'Next: Confirm':

After reviewing the summary and ensuring everything is correct, select 'Add Activity' and you will be able to navigate to this as needed by selecting the link, or you can 'Create Another' as needed, or select Close to navigate back to the roster: 

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Timeline view of shifts by day

A new Timeline view of shifts by day is being gradually rolled out from the release of Supportability v9.3 (27th of August 2025). We expect all providers to have access to this within two weeks of the release. A notification message will be displayed in the Roster when it is available for your organisation.
Select the link below to watch a video overview of the v9.3 release, including an overview of the new Timeline view:

This new view is designed to assist rostering teams and team leaders in filling 'To Be Filled' shifts and updating shifts on the day when needed, for example, if  someone calls in sick. More on this below.

Filtering the shifts and staff displayed

The filters allow you to change the Shift data displayed for the chosen day, for example, if you only want to view Shifts for specific Sites or Services. 

In the case where a Shift exists for a Staff Member in the 'Staff Without Visible Shifts' section, but you cannot see this due to the way the filters are set, the time that they are busy will show them as unavailable with diagonal grey lines, e.g. Anita:

Anita is scheduled into a SIL Shift, but we don't have the SIL house selected as one of the Sites we're viewing in the filters, hence she is showing as unavailable in this way. 

Unavailability will soon be extended to display when any of the 'Staff Without Visible Shifts' are: 

  • rostered into Shifts for any Sites/Services that Team Leaders may not have access to, or 
  • if they are unavailable based on how their Standard Availability has been configured in the 'Availability' tab of the Staff Account, or
  • if they are unavailable due to a leave exception.

In addition to controlling the data displayed in the roster, the 'Staff Member' filter also controls which Staff are listed in this view.

It is important to note that new filters, in addition to the above, are expected in this view in a future release  to provide greater control over which ‘Additional Staff’ are displayed. For example, to allow you to limit the 'Additional Staff' displayed to those who work in a particular Site or Service.

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Drag and drop to allocate 'To Be Filled' shifts, or change Staff Member
SupportAbility v9.3 introduces the first drag-and-drop functionality in this new view!  
To Be Filled shifts can be filled, or you can change a rostered shift from one staff member to another by dragging and dropping the Shift to the relevant Staff Member. 
It is important to note that when allocating Shifts using the new roster, the  Activity Replication Management settings are not triggered, even if they are enabled. This means that no Staffing changes are made to the remaining Activities in the Set when Shifts are filled or changed.
For example, if we drag the 'To Be Filled' Shift for the 'Social Group': 
To Staff Member Amanda, this allocates the Shift to Amanda and moves this to display it in the 'Staff With Shifts' section:
You will note that once a shift has been dragged and dropped to a staff member, there is no confirmation to allocate these shifts or undo the selection. This is because confirming every time an intentional change is made would drive rostering teams and team leaders mad. 
The only time confirmation of shift allocation is required is when allocating the shift will result in: 
  • recorded shift data being lost, or
  • Staff Shift Sign Off being removed, or
  • a Staff Clash 

Finding the most suitable Staff Member to fill/replace the Shift
The goal is that eventually, greater information will be displayed, similar to the 'Change Staff Member' and the 'Add a new Activity' creation wizards, to assist in finding the best Staff Member to fill or replace the Shift with. 
However, for now, the information about the 'best match' is not displayed, and filling or changing the Shift is reliant on you knowing who you are going to change this to. As the list of 'Staff Without Visible Shifts' is dependent on those you have access to, and the number of Staff in your organisation, this list can become very long and not ideal to drag and drop Shifts to without filtering this list down first. 
As mentioned above, new filters are expected in this view in a future release to provide greater control over which ‘Additional Staff’ are displayed. For example, these filters will allow you to limit the 'Additional Staff' displayed to those who work in a particular Site or Service. For now, the only way to limit the list of Staff displayed here is to change the 'Staff Members' selected in this filter. 
Should we wish to fill or change a Shift to a Staff Member who is not displayed on screen, we could use the 'Staff Members' filter to select either 'To Be Filled' or the Staff Member we are moving the Shift from, e.g. Abel, and the Staff Member we wish to change it to, e.g. Zoe: 

Once we have the relevant options selected, we can move the required Shift accordingly, e.g. Shopping to Zoe as Abel is double-booked: 
Then remove or adjust our filters as required. 

What's next?

Greater roster planning functionality is being developed for Rostering teams, Team Leaders, and Managers, which will be introduced in future updates. 

This includes the following: 

  • New filters in the ‘Timeline’ shift view to control which 'Additional Staff' are displayed
  • Availability enhancements
    • Standard availability - ability to configure multiple blocks per day
    • Standard availability - ability to set a 7 or 14 day pattern
    • Standard availability - visible in the Timeline shift view
  • Agenda view (similar to the List view in the old roster)
  • The ability to print the new Roster
  • The ability to synchronise the Roster with your calendar

We’ll continue to keep you informed as new features become available.

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