Smart Copy takes the schedule from one week and copies it to another. It's the highest-leverage shortcut in Timely if your schedule is roughly stable week to week.
Pro plan and up.
How to use it
On /dashboard/schedule:
- Navigate to the week you want to copy to (the destination — usually next week).
- Click Smart Copy in the top-right.
- Pick the source week from the dropdown (default: previous week).
- Click Copy. Done.
If you have shifts already on the destination week, Timely warns you and asks whether to overwrite or merge.
What gets copied
- Every shift on the source week, with its times and break minutes.
- Per-employee SMS-alert toggle.
- The location and tags on each shift.
What doesn't get copied
- Approved time-off days — if Sarah has Wed-Fri approved off in the destination week, those days are skipped automatically. No manual cleanup.
- Holidays — the schedule on a holiday in the destination week is left empty.
- Pending time-off — pending requests don't block (they're not approved yet); the shift gets copied. You'll see the warning indicator once you go to publish.
- Employees who aren't on the destination week's roster — e.g., someone you removed since the source week. The shift just gets dropped.
Common use cases
- Stable week-over-week schedule — every Sunday afternoon, pick last week, copy to next week, tweak the few exceptions.
- Template a typical week — keep a "template" week somewhere in the calendar (e.g., the week of January 4) and Smart Copy from it whenever you want a fresh start.
- Recovering from a mistake — accidentally deleted half the week? Smart Copy from last week, fix the differences.
Multi-week copy
Not currently supported — Smart Copy is one source week to one destination week per click. If you want to schedule four weeks ahead identically, run it four times. (We're considering a "copy to next 4 weeks" option — file a feature request if it'd be useful.)
What if I copy from far in the past?
Tags and locations might have changed since then — Smart Copy uses each shift's current tag/location assignments at copy time, not the historical version. If you renamed a tag from Bartender to Bar Lead between the source and destination weeks, the copied shifts get the new name. Same for locations.