When a request for a shift is received it can be filled or not filled. In this situation totalling up and reporting on fill rates is very simple. However life is not that simple. A shift request may be received, filled, the employee moved to another department or site, re-filled, then unfilled because the employee cancels, then re-filled and so on then cancelled by the requesting department or finally at the last minute unfilled because the employee cancels or fails to show.
In addition when a report is relating to workload – user activity or overall activity each process of booking, cancelling, moving shifts represents activity, this a shift that request that is taken, filled, cancelled, filled again will represent only one shift on one report and count for three, four (or more) on an activity centred report.
It is therefore important that cancelled shifts are correctly cancelled to reflect their status in various reports. Perhaps the most instructive example is the case where a (previously filled) shift is cancelled because the booked employee cannot make the booking. The department is then contacted and responds “ok well we now don’t need the requirement” In this case the shift should be cancelled as cancelled by employee and the requirement retained. The (newly) retained unfilled requirement should then be cancelled. AvaPA will then follow the process of this shift and report on it correctly. If the requirement is not retained, and subsequently cancelled, it will be treated purely as a missed shift and report will reflect this.
A design feature of AvaPA is that a description of a cancellation can be amended to provide greater detail (Grandmother died etc). This feature should not be abused by choosing a cancellation reason at random and appending the “real” reason. The reasons are categorised to contribute to reports correctly.