Cirrus Calm is simple once you understand one thing.

There are three layers:

• Setup
• Shift templates
• Daily schedule

If you mix these up, planning becomes messy fast.

The three layers explained

1. Setup

This is your foundation.

You do this once at the start.

Here you define:

• Skills – what work exists
• Employees – who can do the work
• Staffing templates – how many people you need

This is the logic behind everything.

If your setup is wrong, your schedules will always need fixing.

2. Shift templates

This is your base plan.

Think of it as your default schedule that repeats over time.

You use shift templates to:

• Build standard working patterns
• Assign shifts across teams
• Use automatic scheduling based on demand

You can:

• Create from scratch
• Copy an existing template
• Generate automatically

Once published, this becomes the schedule your team sees.

3. Daily schedule

This is where real life happens.

Things change every day:

• Someone calls in sick
• Demand spikes
• Shifts need adjusting

The daily schedule lets you:

• Edit shifts quickly
• Apply bulk changes
• Add notes
• Notify employees

These changes sit on top of your shift template.

They do not replace it.

How they work together

Here is the flow:

1. You set up your data
2. You create a shift template
3. You manage daily changes

Simple.

But important:

• Setup feeds the template
• The template feeds the schedule
• The schedule handles exceptions

When to use each layer

Use Setup when:

• You are onboarding
• Roles or skills change
• New employees join

Use Shift templates when:

• You need a new schedule pattern
• Your operating hours change
• Staffing demand shifts long-term

Use the Daily schedule when:

• You are making short-term changes
• Handling absence
• Fixing gaps in coverage

Common mistakes

People usually get this wrong in three ways:

1. Editing the schedule instead of the template. You fix the same problem every week.
2. Skipping setup. The system cannot plan properly, so everything is manual.
3. Overcomplicating templates. Too many changes make them hard to manage.

Keep it simple

• Set up clean data
• Build a strong template
• Use the schedule for quick fixes

Do this, and planning becomes easy.

Next step

👉 Key Concepts

Get familiar with the core terms before you start building.