Shift Marketplace App Overview

Shift Marketplace

1. What it is

Shift Marketplace lets employees list shifts they can no longer work, pick up open shifts, trade shifts with coworkers, and send direct shift offers to specific people. Managers get a Pickup Requests page for the requests that wait for approval, and a Coverage Autopilot view that flags at-risk shifts and can send offers automatically.

• Enablement: requires a license. An admin enables it per tenant from Admin → Apps → All Apps; it is off by default.
• What it is not: Shift Marketplace does not create or publish schedules. Schedules are built in the Shifts & Scheduling app; the marketplace surfaces only shifts from published schedules that are either marked as open by management or listed by an employee.

2. Standing it up

1. Go to Admin → Apps → All Apps, find Shift Marketplace, and enable it.
2. Publish at least one schedule in Shifts & Scheduling. The marketplace shows only shifts from published schedules.
3. Go to Shift Marketplace → Admin → Settings and choose an approval workflow (see §5). The default is Manager Approves All Pickups, which means every pickup request waits under Pickup Requests until an approver decides it. Choose Auto-Approve All Pickups to assign pickups immediately, or Smart Approval to approve low-risk pickups automatically.
4. If your business uses scheduling teams, set the Swap Scope on each team. This controls who can pick up shifts listed by team members. The default is Same Team — only members of the same team see and can pick up the listing.
5. To allow cross-location pickup, go to Shifts › Settings › Location Staffing Defaults and unlock the locations where employees from other stores should be able to pick up shifts.
6. Grant access to users. Any authenticated user whose business has the app enabled can open the marketplace. The Coverage Autopilot tab and the Admin menu (Pickup Requests, Audit Log, Settings) are restricted by role — see §3.

Silent-until-paired: if no schedules are published, the marketplace is empty — only shifts from published schedules appear. If the approval workflow is set to Manager Approves All Pickups but no manager has shift-management permissions, pickup requests sit pending with nobody to approve them. And if cross-location pickup is needed, unlock the relevant locations in Shift Requirements before employees try to pick up shifts — the default is locked, and an employee at another store simply will not see the listing.

3. How it fits together

Listings and open shifts. Two kinds of availability appear side by side on the marketplace:

• Open shifts are created by management in Shifts & Scheduling. They have no current assignee and need someone to fill them.
• Listings are posted by employees from their own assigned shifts. An employee who cannot work a shift lists it so someone else can pick it up or propose a trade.

Example: a barista at the Downtown location is assigned the Saturday 7 AM–3 PM shift but needs the day off. They open the marketplace, choose that shift, and list it as Pickup or Trade. A coworker at the same location sees it and picks it up. Depending on the approval workflow, they are either assigned immediately or their pickup request is sent to Pickup Requests for approval.

Listing types. When an employee lists a shift they choose one of three types:

• Pickup Only — anyone eligible can pick it up: at once, or after approval, depending on the approval workflow.
• Trade Only — applicants must offer one of their own shifts in return. The lister reviews and accepts or rejects.
• Pickup or Trade — both paths are open.

Eligibility. Not every employee sees every listing. The marketplace filters on several dimensions:

• Swap scope — set per scheduling team. Same Team (the default) means only team members can pick up the listing. Same Location broadens it to anyone assigned to the shift’s location. Specific Teams broadens it to the members of the teams you choose; for two teams to trade both ways, each picks the other. Any removes the group and location gate entirely.
• Location lock — a per-location setting in Shift Requirements. When unlocked, cross-store pickup is allowed and overrides the team’s swap scope.
• Job function — a listing that requires a specific job function (e.g. “Staff”) is visible only to employees whose job function matches, or — when skill-based role matching is enabled for the business — to employees who hold the required skills.
• Shift conflicts — employees who already have an overlapping shift cannot pick up the listing.

Admins and managers see all listings regardless of eligibility, for oversight.

Approval workflows. When a pickup is not auto-approved, it creates a pending pickup request. The configured approval authority determines which managers see it under Pickup Requests (under Admin for admins; its own tab for other approvers).

Smart Approval auto-approves when any of these conditions is true: the shift is 48+ hours away, the employee has been with you 3+ months and either holds a Manager or higher role or has a Top Tier or Reliable MangoScore (or a reliability score of 75% or higher), the employee is already working that day at the same location or in the same team, or the shift covers a critical role and starts within 24 hours. All other pickup requests go to a manager.

Direct Offers. An employee can offer a specific shift to a specific coworker without listing it publicly. The recipient accepts or declines; the sender can cancel a pending offer. Offers can carry an optional expiration date; after that date the offer expires automatically. Direct offers do not go through the pickup approval workflow — accepting transfers the assignment immediately.

Coverage Autopilot. A view for managers, and for the team or location managers coverage gaps escalate to, that shows shifts starting within the next 7 days that still need coverage — admins and Shifts & Scheduling app admins see every store’s, everyone else the shifts at the stores they schedule, which are the shifts its buttons let them act on. From this view a manager can send offers to eligible employees or escalate an unfilled shift to another manager: the shift’s team manager first, then a manager at its location, then any other manager in your organization. Admins and Shift Marketplace app admins can also press Run Autopilot Now, which does what the autopilot’s 15-minute run does: it sends the offers and escalations its rules call for, and starts any other action switched on for it — some wait for an approver.

Gamification tie-in. When Levels & Badges is enabled, picking up an open shift and completing a shift trade each award XP automatically.

Audit trail. Every marketplace action — listing, pickup, application, trade transfer, admin action — is recorded in the audit log with the actor, timestamp, and details. The log is exportable to CSV.

Roles and visibility:

Surface	Who can see it
Dashboard, Listings, Applications, Direct Offers	All users with the app enabled
Coverage Autopilot	Managers and above, and the team or location managers coverage gaps escalate to
Pickup Requests	Anyone your Approval Authority setting names (a top-level tab for non-admins), plus admins and app admins who manage shifts
Audit Log	Admins, Shift Marketplace app admins, and anyone granted View audit log
Settings	Admin or above, or Shift Marketplace app admin

4. Running it

Reviewing pickup requests

1. Go to Pickup Requests (under Admin for admins; its own tab for other approvers).
2. Each pending request shows the shift, the requesting employee, and when the request was submitted. Approve or decline, with an optional reason.
3. Approving a request assigns the shift to the employee immediately and notifies them. Declining sends a notification with the reason you entered.
4. Which pickup requests a manager sees depends on the Approval Authority setting. Under Any Shift Manager (the default), every qualifying manager sees all pending pickup requests. Under Direct Manager, each manager sees only pickup requests from their direct reports.

Reviewing trade applications

1. When someone applies to trade for your listed shift, you see it in the listing’s detail page under Applications.
2. Review the offered shift (date, time, location). Accept to swap both assignments in one step, or reject with a reason.
3. Accepting a trade rejects all other pending applications on that listing automatically.

Using Coverage Autopilot

1. Go to Shift Marketplace → Coverage Autopilot.
2. The view lists at-risk shifts — those flagged as needing coverage and starting within 7 days.
3. For any shift, click Send Offers to notify eligible employees, or Escalate to alert another manager — the shift’s team manager first, then a manager at its location, then any other manager in your organization.
4. Admins and Shift Marketplace app admins can click Run Autopilot Now to run the autopilot at once instead of waiting for its 15-minute run: it finds new coverage gaps, sends the offers and escalations its rules call for, and starts any other action switched on for it — some wait for an approver.

Sending a Direct Offer

1. Go to Shift Marketplace → Direct Offers → New Offer.
2. Choose one of your upcoming shifts, then select the coworker you want to offer it to. Eligible employees are highlighted at the top of the list.
3. Optionally set an expiration date and add a note.
4. The recipient is notified and can accept or decline from their Direct Offers tab.

Exporting the Audit Log

1. Go to Shift Marketplace → Admin → Audit Log.
2. Filter by action type, user, or date range.
3. Click Export CSV to download the filtered log. Exports are capped at 10,000 rows, newest first.

5. Settings

All settings are at Shift Marketplace → Admin → Settings.

Setting	Default	What it changes
Enable Marketplace	On	Turns the marketplace on or off for the business. When off, marketplace matching and API access are disabled.
Enable AI Agent	On	Lets users ask the AI assistant questions about marketplace data.
Pickup Request Approval Process	Manager Approves All Pickups	How pickup requests are handled: Auto-Approve All Pickups (instant assignment), Smart Approval (auto-approves trusted employees and advance bookings, sends the rest to a manager), or Manager Approves All Pickups (every pickup request waits for a manager).
Allow trades between overlapping shifts	Off	Lets two coworkers whose shifts overlap or fall on the same day swap them. The shift each person gives up is not counted as a conflict, against the daily-hours limit or against rest time; location, team, role and any other overlapping shift still apply.
Pickup Request Approval Authority	Any Shift Manager	Who can approve pending pickup requests: any shift manager, the employee’s direct manager, the shift’s location manager, the scheduling team manager, or any relevant manager.
New Marketplace Listings	On	New listings, open shifts posted or marked urgent, and shift matches — off stops them on every channel, except the in-app alert for a shift marked urgent.
Shifts Picked Up	On	Tells listers their listing was picked up or traded, and managers that an open shift was picked up.
Pickup Request Approvals	On	Notify the employee when their pickup request is approved.
Pickup Request Declines	On	Notify the employee when their pickup request is turned down or closed.
Email Notifications	On	Send notifications via email.
In-App Notifications	On	Show notifications inside the application.
SMS Notifications	Off	Text messages for the events ticked below, urgent open shifts included.

Per-event email and SMS toggles are also available for ten events: New Listing, Listing Picked Up, Application Received, Application Status, Open Shift Filled (email only), Open Shift Posted, Open Shift Picked Up, Shift Matched To You, Pickup Request Approved and Pickup Request Declined. Every box is on by default; they layer on top of the switches above, so a box ticked there sends nothing while its notification type or delivery channel is off.

Cross-location pickup is not configured here. It is set per location at Shifts › Settings › Location Staffing Defaults.

6. More help

• Shift Marketplace FAQ — specific setup and operating questions.
• Ask AI — the assistant answers questions about Shift Marketplace from these articles.