Not every site operates on the same schedule, so Trail lets you update your business hours for either your whole organisation or a specific site.
Sites can also be closed for upcoming specific dates in the future, for example, when the site is closed for the holidays or for a refurbishment.
Business Hours Explained
Business Hours allow users to set up Trail to reflect a site's individual opening hours. This can be done by setting up different days of the week using the time slots.
Time slots are there to help take some of the work out of task scheduling and break down the day into sections and to reflect the working day of the site.
For example, the site 'London' opens at 12pm on Sunday:
However, on Monday, the London site opens at 8am:
When scheduling London's task 'Manager Opening Checks' - they have chosen for the task to begin using the time slot 'Before Open' and for the task to be finished by 'Open'.
This means the admin will not have to manually edit the task's schedule as the task is now set to appear at the correct time of day, whether the site opens at 12pm on Sunday or 8am on Monday. As the time slots are chosen for the tasks to appear during the correct business hours per day.
Before you begin here are some rules and tips for setting up your business hours...
Time slots can't overlap. The end of one time slot must be the same as the start of the next
It's not currently possible to rename timeslots. This doesn’t need to affect how you use them, it’s just a way of dividing up the day
Time slots can also be closed. This is useful for when you don’t want tasks to appear on certain days e.g. if you don’t serve lunch on weekdays. However, any task that is scheduled in the closed time slot on that day will not be created so handle it with care!
Time slots must cover the entire day. Even if certain time slots are closed, the day must run through an entire 24 hours with no gaps (including between days)
The beginning of the “Before Open” time slot should not start after 06:00. This is to ensure that time slots cover the entire day - it doesn't matter if you open much later than this as before open can run for a long time
How do I set up a site's business hours?
Note: Admins can update the business hours for all sites and managers can do so for any sites they are assigned to. Admins will be able to close timeslots, but managers will not be able to close time slots. Remember closing time slots may stop tasks from appearing.
Click on the company name in the top right corner of any page to open your admin navigation.
Select 'Site Settings'
Select the site that needs editing
Select the day of the week that needs editing
Starting at the 'Before Open' time slot, start sectioning out the business hours.
Note: The beginning of the “Before Open” time slot is when the new day of tasks will populate in Trail. For example, if you choose midnight - the new day will begin in Trail from 00:00
If there are days of the week that you’re closed regularly, e.g. the site is closed every Monday - select 'Closed All Day'. The site will then appear as closed every Monday & no tasks will populate. Similarly, you will not be able to add any ad-hoc tasks to the closed day.
Repeat this for all of the days of the week.
Save & close.
If the default hours have been set in the Company Settings, changing the business hours of an individual site will override this.
How do I update default hours for the whole company?
Note: Only admin-level users will be able to make these changes.
Click on the company name in the top right corner of any page to open your admin navigation.
Go to 'Company Settings'
Adjust the time slots to suit your business hours
If some sites operate on different hours, set the most common times here and you can adjust the others at a site level later
Any changes here will automatically affect all sites unless a site's business hours have been manually updated
How to close a day in Trail?
If this is for a specific date (e.g. a public holiday):
Note: It is good to close off any dates planned in advance the site will be closed for. E.g. Public Holidays or any planned works for the site.
Click on the company name in the top right corner of any page to open the admin navigation.
Select 'Site Settings'
Select the site you want to close the date for
Scroll to the bottom of the business hours section until you reach the calendar view.
Select the dates on the calendar the site is going to be closed for
The dates that have then been scheduled to close will appear at the bottom of the calendar in a list
Save & Close
A message will be displayed on the Complete Tasks page on the closed date chosen informing teams that the site is closed for the day
A site won't receive a score for any date that it is closed and will show as a blank on the dashboard
If this is for a regular day of the week (e.g. the site is closed on Sundays):
Note: Regularly closed days will appear as greyed out on the calendar.
Click on the company name in the top right corner of any page to open the admin navigation.
Select 'Site Settings'
Select the site you want to close the date for
Select the day of the week you’ll be closed regularly (e.g. Sunday if you don't open on Sundays)
Select 'Closed all day'
Save & Close
A message will be displayed on the Complete Tasks page on the closed date chosen informing teams that the site is closed for the day
A site won't receive a score for any date that it is closed and will show as a blank on the dashboard
Can I close today in Trail?
Trail tasks populate once per day at the beginning of the 'Before Open' time slot
Once tasks have been populated they will need to be completed and we’re unable to close the date
If the site has to close on the same day - we recommend marking tasks as 'Not Applicable' where possible & adding detail into the comments box of each task explaining what has happened before pressing the 'Done' button to close the task for the day
How do time zones work in Trail?
If teams are working in different time zones, select the right time zone from the drop-down in the site settings. The business hours will then accurately reflect the chosen time zone.
