Before you start building schedules, you need to understand a few core ideas.

These show up everywhere in Cirrus Calm.

If you get these right, everything else becomes easier.

Skills

Skills define the work that needs to be done.

Examples:

• Calls
• Live Chat
• Email
• Back Office

Skills are used to:

• Assign work to employees
• Build schedules
• Set staffing requirements

If a skill does not exist, it cannot be scheduled.

Employees

Employees are the people doing the work.

Each employee has:

• Skills they can perform
• Working hours
• Availability

The system uses this to decide who can be scheduled and when.

Staffing Templates

Staffing templates define demand.

They answer one question: How many people do I need, and when

You set:

• Minimum staffing
• Maximum staffing
• Per skill
• Per time block

This is what drives automatic scheduling.

No staffing template means no real planning logic.

Shift Templates

Shift templates are your base schedule.

They define:

• Who works
• When they work
• What they do

They are built using:

• Skills
• Employees
• Staffing templates

Once published, they become the live schedule.

Schedule

The schedule is where you manage the day-to-day.

It shows:

• Who is working today
• What they are doing
• Where gaps exist

This is where you:

• Fix issues
• Adjust shifts
• Handle absence

Bulk Changes

Bulk changes let you update multiple people at once.

Use them to:

• Assign the same shift to a group
• Apply temporary changes
• Fix gaps quickly

This saves time and keeps things consistent.

Breaks

Breaks are scheduled periods where employees are not working.

They can be:

• Added manually
• Generated automatically

Breaks help:

• Keep schedules realistic
• Maintain coverage

Absence Requests

Employees can request time off.

You can:

• Approve
• Reject
• Adjust

Approved absence updates the schedule automatically.

Shift Mutations

Shift mutations track changes.

Every time you edit the schedule, it is logged.

This helps you:

• See what changed
• Track who made the change
• Notify employees

Adherence

Adherence shows how closely employees follow the schedule.

It compares:

• Planned work
• Actual activity

This helps you spot:

• Gaps in performance
• Process issues
• Training needs

Forecasting

Forecasting predicts demand.

It uses historical data to estimate:

• Call volumes
• Workload
• Staffing needs

This feeds into your staffing templates.

Keep this in mind

Everything connects.

• Skills define the work
• Employees do the work
• Staffing templates define demand
• Shift templates create the plan
• The schedule manages reality

If one part is wrong, the rest will struggle.

Next step

👉 Skills

Start building your setup from the ground up.