Scheduler app review: visual shift management

Introduction

If you're working the type of job that entails varying shifts on different work days, you will know the pain of having to keep track of and manage your schedule. Scheduler is an app that brings easy management and visualization of your shifts weeks and months in advance to the convenient and handy interface of your iPhone or iPad.

You can find this app located in the Productivity section of the App store, where it can be purchased for $7.99. Though this may seem like a steep price for a scheduling app, I want to give it a chance because if it truly does what it claims to do, for example, to bring uncomplicated visuals of schedules over the span of two years, then it should be well worth the investment.

Let's find out how it holds up.

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Built-In and Repeating Schedules

Scheduler only takes up 4 MB of space on your iPhone or iPad, which also makes it fairly swift and responsive thanks to its lightweight nature. This app is suitable for public-service employees including police officers, firefighters, and even health-care workers who have constantly changing schedules and shifts over the weeks. You'll find on this app your work schedule for the next two years beginning from the current date.

There are plenty of built-in shift schedules included in this app including the “Berkeley,” “48-96,” and “Dupont,” and even these schedules can be used as a template that can be further modified based on your needs. Repeating schedules can also be integrated to allow users to easily input all the data for an extended period of time.

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Shift Swaps, Trade Offers, and More

Further to simply inputting and viewing your shift schedule, you can also use Scheduler to keep track of your shift swaps, hours earned, and hours owed. These can be done on a person-by-person basis to ensure you know which of your colleagues you can call on for doing them a favor, or returning a favor for their help when you have some free time. You will also be able to format emails for sending out trade offers and approval requests from within this app.

If you have a spouse or partner with whom you'd like to coordinate your shifts and vacations, you can use beautiful overlays of a totally separate schedule for easy coordination of such events. This app is an organizer's dream as you can also use adjustable colors for shifts, vacations, holidays, and more.

This app does score low in ease of use, as it takes plenty of time to get used to utilizing all the functions and features. However, with a bit of time, patience, practice, and of course, the tutorial mode, all users should be able to figure out how to use this app to its full extent and start organizing their lives beautifully.

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Pros & Cons

Pros

• Displays your schedule for the next two years, including vacations and holidays
• Records trades (swaps)
• Tracks hours earned or owed on a person-by-person basis
• Formats emails for sending out trade offers and approval requests
• Overlays an entirely separate schedule for your spouse/partner to help you coordinate your lives
• Adjustable colors for shifts, vacations, holidays, and more
• Comes with a Tutorial mode that shows help and tips for every screen

Cons

• This app is fairly complicated to use but with good reason, as all the features and functions take some getting used to

Final Words

I think Scheduler is a truly fantastic app for those who wish to get a better hold of their lives and organize and schedule their shift work. It is definitely a good idea to get this app on your iPhone or iPad as you can have all your days mapped out for you at a glance.