Patriot provides a temporary schedule feature for use on occasions when a client requests, in advance, temporary changes to the standard schedule. The typical use case is a business client requesting shorter, longer or no opening hours leading up to or following a public holiday period. Temporary schedules always take priority over both the standard schedule (and the public holiday schedule in cases where a public holiday period overlaps the temporary schedule period).
Because we do not want to make permanent changes to the standard scheduled hours for the client, we must be able to temporarily override them with a temporary schedule. Once set a temporary schedule will override the standard schedule hours for the duration specified. Once the defined temporary schedule period is over Patriot will automatically revert to enforcing the standard (or public holiday) scheduled hours.
For example if the client is a retailer and for the week building up to the Christmas public holiday they will stay open until 10 p.m. each night instead of their usual closing time of 5 p.m. To avoid a late to close or unset out of hours alarm being activated a temporary schedule should be inserted in advance using the quick set Add Change to Regular Schedule function.
Another example is a client which is a school and some areas will be closed completely leading up to and following a public holiday period. In this scenario the Add Extended Closing quick set function of Patriot's temporary schedule features should be used.
Temporary Schedule
In cases where Temporary Schedule times across multiple areas of a client are the same, the schedule should be entered once in the client base area and the Share Temporary Schedule checkbox checked. This means that temporary schedule updates can be made for a number of client areas in one place.
This
function is the quickest way to insert the most common types of temporary
schedules. In cases where the client has complicated temporary schedule
requirements, the quick set function should still be used but some
supplementary editing with the New Group, New/Change
Open/Close Time Pair may be required to fit the quick set temporary
schedule to the client's requirements.
Add Change to Regular Schedule
This quick set mode is used when a client advises that they will be modifying their standard scheduled hours over a particular temporary schedule period.
Add Extended Closing
This quick set mode is used when a client advises that they will not be opening at any time over a temporary period.
As well as being useful for quickly inserting a temporary schedule for an individual client and areas, the add extended closing function can also be accessed via Patriot's advanced client search bulk update tool which means that you can quickly insert an extended closing period temporary schedule for selected clients in bulk.
When entering a new Temporary Schedule group it must be specified whether the group is to begin with a closing time (which means no access is permitted until the next opening time) or to begin with an opening (which gives free access until the next closing).
A New Group must be added before a New Open/Close time can be added. The dates set for this group will enable standard open/close times to be overridden for this time frame. Once the group has been set up additional Open/Close times can then be entered within the group.
Temporary schedule changes which curtail access around a public holiday period will normally begin with a Closing (No Access). When entering the initial close time, this should be set to the final expected close time before the holiday begins. For example, if a site is normally open Mon-Fri, 8am - 8pm, but Friday is a public holiday, then set the initial close time to be Thursday at 8pm. If the site is open late or closing early on the day before the holiday, update the close time as required.
An example of a case where a temporary schedule might begin with an opening is a factory with a standard schedule which follows regular working hours. If the factory calls in to advise that they will be working round the clock for the next three weeks you could begin a new temporary schedule group with an opening that would allow access for the desired period.
To enter a new group:
Click the
New Group button to bring up the Update Temporary Schedule setup
New Holiday Schedule Group
The New Open/Close
button allows individual open/close time pairs to be entered within a Temporary
Schedule Group.
The delete button function depends on which type of temporary schedule is
selected. If you select the first open/close time in a group (marked by the
group start icon) then you will be asked if you wish to delete all open/close
time pairs in the selected group. If you select any other open/close time in a
group then you will be asked whether you wish to delete the selected open/close
time pair only.
Note: if the Group Closing time is highlighted when the New Open/Close button is pressed the new open/close will begin with an opening time. If the Opening time of the group is highlighted when the New Open/Close button is pressed the new open/close will begin with a closing time.
No Tag Name is required. All open and close times within a group share the same tag name. The first record of a Temporary Schedule group is highlighted by an icon. In the Temporary Schedule section the open/close times are shown within the group times, they are Opening at 0900 hours on the 26/12 and Closing at 1500 hours on the 26/12.
Highlight the record you wish to alter and then click
the Edit button. This will bring up the popup to change open/close records.
Make any necessary changes then click Save to save the changes.
Delete All Groups button deletes all Temporary Schedule groups setup for
this client.
Click the Copy From button to display the Copy Temporary
Schedules form. Select the client you want to copy from and then save to copy
Temporary Schedules.
Note: You can only use the copy command if no entries exist for the client you wish to copy to.