How shift swaps work in FlowRota

Shift swaps let employees exchange shifts with each other without managers having to manually edit the rota every time.

Depending on your team settings, swaps can either require manager approval or be approved automatically once the other employee accepts the request.

This guide explains how employees request swaps, how managers review them, and where each person can track swap activity.

1. Accessing shift swaps

Managers and employees access swap information slightly differently.

Managers can view staff swap activity by clicking Staff swaps in the top bar, or by opening the Tools dropdown on the Staff Rota page and selecting Swap requests .

The top bar includes Staff swaps for managers and My swaps for employees.

Managers can also open swap requests from the Tools dropdown on the Staff Rota page.

Employees can view their own current requests by clicking My swaps in the top bar.

2. Swap settings for each team

Shift swaps can be controlled at team level.

By default, swaps are enabled for each team. Managers can decide whether swaps are allowed at all, and whether they should require manager approval before the swap takes place once an employee accepts it.

Team-level swap settings let you enable swaps and choose whether manager approval is required.

3. Rules for making a swap

For employee A to request a swap with employee B, both shifts must belong to the same team .

This ensures the swap stays within the correct rota, approval structure and team permissions.

4. How an employee requests a swap

To begin a swap request, employee A opens employee B’s shift from the My Rota page and clicks Swap at the bottom of the shift modal.

Open the other employee’s shift and click Swap to begin the request.

A swap popup will then appear showing the shift employee A wants, and allowing them to choose which of their own shifts they want to offer in return.

Employee A can also choose No shift if they want employee B’s shift without offering a shift back.

The swap popup lets the employee choose a shift to offer, or request the shift with No shift in return.

Once the employee clicks the Request swap button , which appears once a shift or 'No shift' is selected, the request is sent to the other employee and, where relevant, to managers for approval.

5. Notifications and status updates

After a swap is requested, FlowRota can notify the other employee by email , push notification , or both depending on employee B's notification preferences.

If manager approval is required, managers of that team are also notified so they can review the request.

The employee who created the request can track its progress inside the shift modal. The status will usually show whether the other employee has yet to accept, or whether the request is waiting for manager approval.

The shift modal shows the current swap status, including whether acceptance or manager approval is still pending.

6. Manager approval

Managers can review swap requests inside the Staff swaps modal.

Managers can review incoming staff swap requests and approve or deny them.

From there, managers can inspect both sides of the proposed swap and decide whether to approve or deny it.

If the manager approves the request, the swap is carried out immediately and both employees are notified.

7. When the requesting employee is a manager

If employee A is also a manager of the team for the shift being swapped, the request is treated as already manager-approved.

In that case, the request only needs the other employee to accept it. Once they do, the swap is completed automatically.

8. Viewing historical swaps

To view past shift swaps, click the Historical button in the bottom-left corner of the swaps modal.

This makes it easy to review completed, declined or older swap activity when needed.

Summary

Shift swaps in FlowRota help teams manage rota changes quickly while keeping the right level of control.

• Employees can request swaps directly from the rota
• Swaps can be enabled or disabled per team
• Manager approval can be required or bypassed
• Employees can track the status of their requests
• Managers can review and action swap requests centrally
• Historical swap activity can be viewed when needed

This gives employees more flexibility while helping managers keep rotas accurate and under control.