You can create new master schedule templates that are based on your vehicles' itineraries if you have both Comparative Analysis (CA) and Time and Attendance (TAA) — and if you have a nightly import set up as part of your CA package.


To set up an import that will convert all your routes to master schedule templates, follow these steps:


  1. Click  >> TAA System Settings.
     
  2. Click the Schedules tab.
      
  3. Select the Update Master Template with Job Definitions radio button (if it's not already chosen).
     
  4. Under that, select the Update Employee Schedules with Nightly Route Imports toggle.
     
  5. Click  at the top right.
     
    Options for the new template will be displayed.
      
  6. In the Template Name field, type the name you want to use for the master schedule template, such as Regular Route or Driver.
     
  7. In the Prefix field, type a few letters to use as a prefix for the names of the imported schedules, such as RR or DR.
     
    This will help differentiate the imported templates from other templates your school district may already have in use. The names of the master templates that result from your next import will be your route names, plus this prefix in front; for example, route 100 will produce a schedule template named "RR100."
     
  8. Click Add under the Prefix field.
     
    The template name will appear in the grid.
      
  9. Click  in its row.
     
    Options for the new template will appear.
      
  10. Click the Tier Start After time picker and select the first hour of the day you want to include in this schedule.
    Note: You might want to leave this at its default setting of midnight and set Tier Start Before in the next step to 11:59 p.m., which of course means an entire day. What these do is set the times of day you want the template to include from your routes; if you choose the whole day, all your routes will be imported as templates (because they fall within that time bracket). Remember that drivers can have only ONE schedule assigned to them, so you need to make sure that each schedule will include all their morning, mid-day, and afternoon shifts. (In other words, you can't create separate schedules for morning and afternoon shifts, thinking you will be able to assign both to a single driver.)
  11. Click the Tier Start Before time picker and select the last hour/minute of the day you want to include in this schedule, or you can select the value and type the time to use (or a combination of the two, which is the easiest way to specify 11:59 p.m.).
     
  12. Click the Job Name drop-down arrow and select the job type to use for the schedule, such as Regular Route.
    Note: The job type is the primary differentiator between the master schedule templates that will be the result. If you have multiple job types you will need to create schedules for, first complete all these steps for the first type. Then create another set of imported schedules by repeating this procedure, using the other job type as its name and prefix, such as a template name of Aide and a prefix of AI; in this example, for the second set of master schedule templates, you would apply the Aide job type.
  13. Optionally, you can add minutes before/after the time the routes begin/end to the schedule by clicking the PreTrip Minutes and/or Post Trip Minutes drop-down arrows and selecting the values.
     
    For example, if you want to include 10 minutes before the route time (such as if the drivers normally will take that amount of time to complete an inspection) as part of this schedule, choose 10 for the PreTrip Minutes field.
     
  14. Click  on the far right of the row.
     
    A success message will appear at the top right of the screen.
     
  15. Click  at the top right of the screen.
     
    Another success message will be displayed.
     
    When your routes are next imported via the CA nightly import, they will all be copied as master schedule templates, using the naming scheme you set above.
     
  16. You can view your new schedules on the Master Schedule Templates screen (accessible via the TAA Time Cards menu).

Caution: This procedure is only the first step of implementing imported schedules, as outlined in the second section of The Process of Using Schedules. You will also need to assign each schedule to each employee and make any personalized edits individually that are needed. (You won't need to assign the vehicles because those will come in from the routes.)

UPDATING YOUR IMPORTED MASTER SCHEDULE TEMPLATES

If you need to make changes to a master schedule template that has been imported, DO NOT follow the steps in the article Editing a Master Schedule Template, unless you copy and rename the template. (If the name is the same as it was previously, your next nightly import will overwrite your template with the previously existing data.) If schedule changes are actually ROUTE changes, instead, work with your route planning system to make the modifications. When they change the file that is imported into CalAmp K-12, the template will be updated.

If employees have already had the master template assigned to them, your updates will not carry over to their work schedules; their schedules will have the shifts exactly as they were before. You'll need to assign the schedule to them again for the modified template to appear on their time cards, as shown in Assigning Schedules to Employees.