Events also show up where your team already works. Caregivers see them on their schedule in the app. Schedulers see them on the shift calendar. And an event counts when Careswitch checks a caregiver’s availability.
Open Events
Select Events in the sidebar, under Operations.
The page has three tabs: Upcoming, Past and Calendar. You can filter by type or search by name. To schedule something new, click New event. To manage your list of event types, click Types.
Create an event
Click New event.
Choose a Type, such as Training class or Staff meeting, and enter a Name.
Check the Paid event switch. It starts out matching the event type. When it’s on, attendees are paid for their time.
Add a Description if you’d like. This is a good place for what to bring or how to prepare.
Enter the Date, Starts and Ends times. An event takes place on one day.
Choose the Venue:
Office uses your agency’s office address.
Other address lets you enter a different location.
Virtual asks for a Meeting link that attendees open to join.
Choose one or more Hosts. Hosts can mark attendance for the event.
Enter the number of Seats, or leave it blank for unlimited seats.
Click Create event.
Events don’t repeat yet. For a monthly meeting, create each one separately.
Add attendees
You’ll add people after you create the event. The Attendees card on the event page shows who’s seated, the waitlist and anyone removed.
On the event page, click Add on the Attendees card.
Select the people to enroll. You can search by name.
People who have a shift, time off or another event at that time appear under Unavailable, with the reason. You can still add them. Adding someone doesn’t change their shifts, time off or other events, so check for conflicts first.
Click Add.
When the event is full, new people go on the waitlist. Careswitch doesn’t move anyone off the waitlist automatically. When a seat opens, click Seat now next to their name. To seat someone beyond the limit, select Seat anyway (override capacity) before you click Add.
Before the event, you can open a person’s menu (⋮) to mark them Confirmed, move them to the waitlist or remove them. When you remove someone, choose a reason so your team knows what happened.
Note: Adding, removing or confirming attendees doesn’t send caregivers a message. If something changes, let them know directly. Canceling an event doesn’t notify anyone either.
Mark attendance
Attendance opens when the event starts. You or the event’s hosts can mark it.
Open the event.
For each person, choose Present or No-show from the attendance list. If everyone attended, click Mark all present.
Marking attendance matters for paid events. Until each person is marked, their pay can’t be approved, and it holds up your payroll run.
If an attendee also has a shift paid during the event, you’ll see a note under their name, like “Also paid for a shift.” Check their hours before you approve.
Approve event pay
For paid events, each attendee marked Present is paid for the scheduled time at their base hourly rate. Event pay is never approved automatically, so you’ll review it first.
Open the event after it ends.
Check each attendee’s hours and pay. To adjust someone’s time or rate, open their menu (⋮).
Click Approve next to each person, or click Approve Pay at the top of the page to approve everyone at once.
Approved pay appears on the caregiver’s timesheet and in your payroll export. To find past events that still need attention, open the Past tab on the Events page and turn on Needs pay review.
Manage event types
Event types label your events and set whether a new event starts as paid. Careswitch includes five built-in types: Training class, Orientation, Staff meeting, In-service and Other.
On the Events page, click Types.
To add your own, click Add type. Enter a Name, choose whether new events of this type start as Paid, and add a Payroll code if you use one. Then click Save.
To retire a type, open its menu (⋮) and choose Archive. Archived types stay on existing events, but you can’t choose them for new ones. The Other type can’t be archived.
Set your event pay rules and reminders
Your agency’s pay rules for events live in one place. Go to Settings, open Policies, then Events. These rules apply to paid events only.
Under Pay, choose whether to:
Count event hours toward overtime. Hours at paid events count toward daily and weekly overtime, along with shift hours.
Pay mileage to and from events. This uses the same mileage rate as the caregiver’s visits.
Pay travel time to and from events. This uses the same travel time rate as the caregiver’s visits.
Mileage and travel time are calculated once attendance is marked. They aren’t calculated for virtual events, or for an address Careswitch can’t find on the map. In those cases, you can enter them by hand from the attendee’s pay page.
Under Reminders, choose when attendees get their reminder. Each person holding a seat receives one reminder before the event, in the app, by push notification and by email. If someone is added after that time, they’re reminded within 15 minutes. If you change an event’s date or time, anyone who was already reminded gets a reschedule notice.
Click Save when you’re done. If your changes affect pay that’s already approved, Careswitch asks whether to update that pay or leave it as it is.
What caregivers see
Caregivers see their upcoming events on their schedule, in both the mobile app and on the web. Each event shows the type, date, time, location, host and details, with Directions or a Join link. If they need to make a change, they’ll be asked to contact your office.
Caregivers can turn event reminders off in their notification preferences.
How events affect scheduling
A seat at an event counts as time the caregiver isn’t available, much like approved time off.
When you assign a shift that overlaps an event, Careswitch warns you. You can still assign it.
Caregivers can’t claim an open shift from the job board if it overlaps one of their events.
When you approve time off, Careswitch offers to remove the caregiver from events during that time.
When you deactivate a caregiver, they’re removed from any upcoming events.
To see events on the shift calendar, group the calendar by caregiver, then turn on Events in the display menu.