Automation · Shift and working time

Automating shift scheduling means the plan tells you itself where it violates the rest period.

A shift schedule is not a calendar, it is a rulebook: eleven hours of rest between two shifts, maximum working time on average, minimum staffing per line, and only those with valid safety training may stand at the equipment. We build the check for these rules into the planning itself, instead of leaving it to the shift supervisor as mental arithmetic. Before publication, you see which assignment is not permitted, and why.

Free initial analysis Use cases

The problem

At 5:40 a.m. someone calls in sick, and the shift supervisor phones through the contact list.

The plan lives in an Excel file that one person maintains and everyone prints differently. Whether the early shift is even permitted after yesterday's late shift, nobody knows for sure, and whether the stand-in colleague is allowed to drive the forklift only becomes clear once he is standing in front of it.

01Whoever worked the late shift until 10 p.m. yesterday is standing in the early shift at 6 a.m. today: the eleven hours of rest under § 5 para. 1 ArbZG are broken, and nobody noticed because both rows sit on different spreadsheet tabs.
02Which qualification is mandatory at which station is something the shift supervisor keeps in their head. If a safety briefing or a certification expires, it only becomes apparent once someone asks about it.
03Minimum staffing is only checked once the line has already stopped: two sick-leave notices in the same shift still add up to enough heads on paper, but not a single one with the required qualification.
04Shift swaps happen over WhatsApp between two colleagues. The shift supervisor finds out sometimes, payroll never, and the next month the night-shift premiums do not add up.

Use cases

What we specifically automate in shift scheduling.

Five chains that look almost the same in shift operations everywhere and are still run by hand. These are typical workflows from our projects.

Rule check before the plan is published

Every assignment is checked against the working-time rules while the plan is being made, not afterward: eleven hours of uninterrupted rest under § 5 para. 1 ArbZG, eight hours on a working day and at most ten, provided the average returns to eight within six calendar months or 24 weeks (§ 3 ArbZG), rest breaks of 30 minutes after more than six hours and 45 minutes after more than nine hours (§ 4 ArbZG). For night workers the narrower balancing period of one calendar month or four weeks applies (§ 6 para. 2 ArbZG), and that is exactly the one nobody calculates in daily practice. The plan flags the conflict at the cell where it arises, together with the rule.

Wirkung Verstöße fallen vor der Veröffentlichung auf

Qualification matrix with expiry date

It records who is allowed to operate which station, plant, or machine, with proof and validity: safety briefing, forklift license, first aider, fire safety helper, welding certification, equipment clearance. If a certificate is due to expire in the coming weeks, the workflow notifies the shift supervisor and the person themselves before the assignment becomes invalid. Anyone without the qualification cannot be assigned to the station in the first place.

Wirkung Keine Zuweisung ohne gültigen Nachweis

Minimum staffing per shift, not per headcount

The workflow checks minimum staffing not as a sum but as a requirement profile: two people on the line, at least one of them with equipment clearance, one first aider per shift, one person with a forklift license on site. If the shift falls short of the profile, the plan turns red, even if the headcount adds up on paper. That is the distinction that gets lost systematically in the Excel plan.

Wirkung Besetzungslücke sichtbar statt gerechnet

Morning sick-leave notice and a structured stand-in cascade

When the sick-leave notice comes in, the workflow searches for the eligible stand-ins itself: who has the right qualification, whose rest period is intact, who would not break the average with this shift, who is scheduled as a stand-in and not on leave. The request goes out in order, the first acceptance closes the plan, and the shift supervisor no longer has to phone around blind. The decision stays with you: the workflow proposes, the assignment is made by approval.

Ersparnis 30–60 min pro Ausfall

Shift swaps with approval and handover to payroll

Two employees request the swap themselves, the workflow checks it against the same rules as the plan and only then submits it to the shift supervisor for approval, instead of letting it disappear into WhatsApp. At month-end the verified statement goes to payroll, and that is where the detail trips people up: the night hours under the Working Hours Act run from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. (§ 2 para. 3 ArbZG), while the tax-privileged night work under § 3b EStG runs from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Two different windows from one shift plan, handed over cleanly separated, in the format DATEV expects.

Ersparnis 2–4 h pro Monatsabschluss

Tools

Digitizing shift scheduling with what you have already licensed, in most cases.

Most businesses do not need shift-scheduling software with a fee per head and month. We are not tied to any vendor: if Microsoft 365 fits, we build there; if it does not, we use n8n. This decision is made in the initial analysis, based on the use case, not on a partner program.

Microsoft-Standard

Power Automate

Shift swaps and stand-in requests run through the Approvals connector, a standard connector: the license for it is included in the common Microsoft 365 plans, and approvers need no additional license. To be honest about it: as soon as we need a database or a time-tracking system via a premium connector, this is no longer covered. We tell you in advance which path needs which license.

View Power Automate

Ihre vorhandene Umgebung

Microsoft 365: Teams, Shifts, SharePoint list

The plan lives where the shift already works: qualification matrix and staffing profiles in a SharePoint list with clean permissions, the plan and swap requests in Teams, including on the phone on the line. No additional portal with its own password that nobody opens after four weeks.

View Microsoft 365 automation

Über Microsoft hinaus

n8n for time tracking, ERP, and payroll

If time tracking, ERP, or payroll do not come from the Microsoft ecosystem, n8n connects the systems, pulls the actual hours, and hands shift and premium types over to payroll. Self-hosted on German servers on request, so that personnel and health data never leave your premises.

View n8n

How we work

The 30-day model.

From the first conversation to a running shift plan in 30 days, at a fixed price agreed in advance instead of an open-ended timesheet.

Free initial analysis

60 minutes: we go through your shift rhythm, look at the Excel file the plan currently lives in, and clarify which rules from law, collective agreement, and works agreement actually apply to you. Afterward you know which steps are worthwhile and which are not.

Concept and fixed price

You get the rulebook in black and white: shift models, rest and balancing rules, qualification matrix, staffing profiles, stand-in order, interfaces to time tracking and payroll. Plus a fixed price and a statement of which licenses the chosen path actually needs.

Implementation

We build the automation in your environment and test it with real plans from a shift group, including the unpleasant cases: two absences on the same morning, a swap across the month boundary, an expired safety briefing, a special shift on the weekend.

Handover and control

Your shift supervisors learn to maintain rules, qualifications, and staffing profiles themselves, without having to call us. You keep control over every rule and every assignment, and we remain reachable as a point of contact on request.

Taking it further

A shift plan is only as good as the absences it knows about.

Who works when depends on who cannot work when: leave, absences, and time accounts belong in the same data basis, otherwise the shift gets planned against leave that was approved long ago. The mechanism behind it is always the same, which makes it the most cost-effective extension.

View process automation

Free initial analysis

Do you know today whether next week's shift plan keeps the rest period?

In the free initial analysis, we go through your shift scheduling in 60 minutes and show which steps can be automated and which are better left with the shift supervisor. No obligation, no sales pressure.

Book a meeting kontakt@nordflux.de

60 minutes, free and non-binding
Fixed price instead of an open-ended timesheet
You keep control over every assignment

Frequently asked questions

What managing directors and shift supervisors often ask about shift scheduling.

Do we need dedicated shift-scheduling software to automate shift scheduling?

No, in most businesses the existing Microsoft 365 environment is enough, with Power Automate, a SharePoint list for qualifications and staffing profiles, and Teams for the plan and swaps. That saves the ongoing fee per employee and month that shift-scheduling software usually costs. If you already use HR or time-tracking software, we do not replace it, but use it as a data source and build the missing checks around it.

Does the works council have to co-determine if we automate shift scheduling?

Yes, when it comes to the arrangement of working time there is no way around co-determination: under § 87 para. 1 no. 2 BetrVG, the works council has a right of co-determination over the start and end of daily working time including breaks, as well as the distribution of working time across the individual weekdays. A shift plan is exactly that, and nothing changes because a workflow creates it instead of a person. We therefore build the rules from your works agreement as an auditable rulebook that the works council can review, and we involve it early. For the legal structuring in your specific case, please ask your lawyer; we build the technical workflow.

Can the shift plan automatically check whether the rest period is being kept?

Yes, that is the core of it: under § 5 para. 1 ArbZG, at least eleven hours of uninterrupted rest must lie between two shifts, and this check runs with every assignment, not only when someone recalculates afterward. The plan shows the conflict at the point where it arises, together with the rule. There is an important special rule: in hospitals and care facilities, restaurants, transport companies, broadcasting, and agriculture, the rest period may be shortened by one hour under § 5 para. 2 ArbZG, provided every shortening is offset within one calendar month or four weeks by a rest period of twelve hours. We store exactly these exceptions on a business-specific basis, instead of imposing one standard rule.

Do the night-shift premiums automatically end up correctly in payroll?

Yes, but the separation of the time windows is the point where it gets stuck in practice. The Working Hours Act defines night hours as 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. (§ 2 para. 3 ArbZG, in bakeries and confectioneries 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.) and requires under § 6 para. 5 ArbZG an appropriate premium or paid time off, unless a collective agreement contains a compensation rule. A different window applies for tax purposes: night work within the meaning of § 3b EStG is the period from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., the tax-free premium is 25 percent of the base wage and rises to 40 percent for the period from midnight to 4 a.m. if work started before midnight. We hand over the hours separated by these windows, and you release the submission.

Does an AI then create the shift plan entirely on its own?

No, and that is by design. The workflow checks rules, proposes permissible staffing, and ranks stand-ins by qualification and rest period, but you approve the assignment. Who works when is a decision that takes people, agreements, and workplace harmony into account, and your shift supervisors make that call better than any model. You keep control: the workflow takes the recalculating off your hands, not the deciding.