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Why Isn't an Employee Assignable?

A new employee is set up, but they do not show on the schedule. Or the opposite problem: an employee with approved time off is still sitting on a team's jobs. Both come from the same underlying rule: in Pulse, jobs are assigned to teams, not to individual people. A person appears on the schedule through their team, and a person's day-by-day status controls whether they count as available on that team — not which jobs the team has.

This article walks through what actually controls whether an employee shows up as schedulable, why time off does not remove anyone from a job, and where to look when someone is missing.

Why doesn't a newly added employee show up on the schedule?​

Adding the employee record is not enough. For a technician to appear on scheduling views, several things must all be true. Check them in this order — the first two cause most cases:

  1. The record must carry the "Scheduled" tag. Pulse only shows employees on the scheduler when their record has the tag named Scheduled. Its own description says it plainly: it adds the employee to the employee scheduler. A brand-new employee without this tag is invisible on the Daily Schedule, the Default Schedule board, the Master Schedule availability view, and route views — no matter how complete the rest of their setup is. If a new employee is missing everywhere, ask your administrator to confirm this tag is on their record.

  2. The employee needs a default team. The Default Schedule board only lists employees who have a default team set. An employee with no default team does not appear there at all — not even in the Unassigned Technicians sidebar. Once a default team is set, the employee shows on that team's row on the schedule for days where nothing says otherwise.

  3. The employee must not have a termination date. Any employee with a termination date on file is treated as inactive and filtered out of all scheduling views.

  4. The team itself must be active. A disabled team does not appear on the schedule, and neither do its members.

  5. The default schedule needs working hours. Each technician has a default weekly schedule — which days and hours they normally work. Without hours for a given weekday, the Daily Schedule sidebar lists the person under Not Scheduled for that day instead of placing them on a team.

One thing that does not matter: the hire or start date. Pulse does not hold a new employee off the schedule until their start date arrives, and it does not block you from placing them on earlier dates. If a new employee "could not be scheduled until several days later," the cause was one of the setup items above — most often the Scheduled tag or the default team — not a waiting period.

Why is an employee with approved time off still assigned to a job?​

Because approving time off marks the person as off — it does not touch the team's jobs.

Here is exactly what happens when a time off request is approved:

  • The employee's day status for the approved dates changes from Available to the matching off status (Paid Time Off, Time Off, or Sick).
  • On the schedule, the person now counts as off for their team on those dates.
  • The team's jobs stay exactly where they were. Pulse does not automatically unassign the employee from jobs, move jobs to another team, or recalculate job times when time off is approved.

So there is no hidden step that "created a conflict." The conflict is simply that the team still holds its jobs while one of its members is now off. It is the office's job to react — move jobs, adjust the team for the day, or bring in coverage.

Pulse also does not currently warn you at assignment time. When you place a team on a job, there is no popup that says one of its members has approved time off for that date. Automatic schedule conflict detection is not currently available.

Where the gap does show up​

You are not completely blind — two Dashboard cards surface the consequences each day:

  • Schedule at risk today — lists jobs with no team assigned, and teams where nobody is available to work. A team whose only member is on approved time off shows here as "has nobody available."
  • Cleaner callouts today — lists teams affected by same-day absences and whether each route is covered. Note this card counts unplanned absences (Sick, Excused, Unexcused). Approved vacation and time off are planned absences and deliberately do not appear here — check Schedule at risk today for those.

One common misconception to clear up: the technician-preference flags in the Timeline's alerts sidebar (Tech Pref alerts, or Employee Preference Flags in Classic Experience Mode) do not check employee availability. They are about the customer's preferred, required, or avoided technicians — not about whether an assigned technician is off that day. See Flagged Jobs Panel.

How do I check what's blocking an employee from being scheduled?​

Go to Office > Technicians and use these views:

Daily Schedule tab — the fastest diagnosis for a specific date. The sidebar groups everyone who is not placed on a team into four sections:

SectionWhat it means
UnassignedWorking that day but not placed on a team
Time OffOff that day with an approved absence
Time Off RequestsHas a pending request for that day
Not ScheduledNo working hours set for that weekday

If the sidebar shows All Clear, everyone with hours that day is placed.

Default Schedule tab — shows the recurring weekly pattern for every employee with a default team. The Unassigned Technicians sidebar lists employees who still need a team placement. Remember: an employee with no default team at all does not appear on this board — that absence is itself the clue.

Technician profile — open the employee from the All Technicians tab and use the Time & Attendance section:

  • Schedule & Attendance — the day-by-day record, where each day shows a status: Available, Paid Time Off, Time Off, Sick, Excused, Unexcused, or Holiday. Any status other than Available means the person is off that day, and that overrides their default team placement.
  • Default Schedule — the weekly working-hours pattern.
  • Time Off Requests — pending and approved requests.

A quick checklist​

When someone is missing from the schedule, verify in order:

  1. No termination date on the employee record
  2. The Scheduled tag is on the record
  3. A default team is set
  4. That team is active
  5. The default schedule has hours for the weekday in question
  6. The day's status is Available (check Schedule & Attendance)

If all six check out and the employee still does not appear, contact support with the employee's name and the date you expected them to show.

Does changing an employee's team update their upcoming days?​

Setting a new default team changes where the employee appears going forward by default, but days that already have an explicit day status recorded keep pointing at the old team until they are edited. If an employee switched teams and their upcoming days still show the old team, correct those days on the Daily Schedule tab or in the employee's Schedule & Attendance view.