Collecting caregiver availability¶
Goal: "I need to know who can pick up shifts next month." Ask everyone at once, and let CareQB record the answers.
Where: Caregivers → Request Availability (many caregivers), or a caregiver's side panel → Recurring Availability (one caregiver)
Quick paths¶
| I want to… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Ask a group of caregivers to update their availability | Caregivers → select → Request Availability |
| Record what a caregiver told me | Side panel → Recurring Availability → Input availability |
| Ask one caregiver | Side panel → Request availability |
| Add a one-off day off or extra availability | Calendar → schedule events → Planned availability / Add unavailability |
| Send availability to the scheduling software | Push to Schedule |
| Undo a bad update | Rollback to older availability? |
Ask many caregivers¶
- In Caregivers, filter and select caregivers (for example, active non-A-Tier caregivers in one city).
- Click Request Availability.
- Edit the message. It must include
{{caregiver_availability}}, which CareQB fills with each caregiver's current availability so they can simply confirm or correct it. - Leave Listen for responses and auto-update data? on so CareQB records replies.
- Send, or Save as draft.
Track it on Requests → General: Caregivers asked, Availability in, No reply, and Flagged an issue. Adding a caregiver to a sent request messages them straight away.
How CareQB records the reply¶
A caregiver might reply "Weekdays 8–3, no Fridays, weekends after the 15th." CareQB:
- Turns their recurring weekly availability into structured time blocks used for matching.
- Keeps a description in their words, which is shared back with them in future messages.
- Flags anything unclear or unusual for you to review.
Check or correct it in the side panel → Recurring Availability (Adjust?), or Rollback to the previous version.
Recurring vs. date-specific: the availability description is for weekly patterns. Add one-off dates (vacation, a single extra day) on the caregiver's Calendar as Planned availability or Unavailability.
How availability is used¶
- Matching: caregivers with conflicts are left out of fill-in requests unless you choose to ignore availability conflicts.
- Calendar: Overlay Schedule shows availability alongside shifts.
- Scheduling software: Push to Schedule sends availability to your scheduling software (where supported).
- Unavailability: by default, unavailability in your scheduling software counts as a hard conflict. Admins can change this in agency settings.
Coming soon: an Availability Check In recurring workflow that asks caregivers for availability on a schedule.