How to Bulk Close Open Shifts Without Losing Pending Requests
Closing Multiple Open Shifts Safely
- Go to "Open Shifts" in the top bar to open the Vacancy Management panel
- In the "Open Shifts" tab, tick the checkboxes on two or more OPEN rows (hover over a row to reveal the checkbox) — use the Time of day filter (Morning / Afternoon / Evening / Night) alongside Stream, Craft Group, and Shift Pattern to narrow down the list first if needed
- A sticky action bar appears: "N open shifts selected" with Edit Selected, Close Selected, and Clear buttons
- Click "Close Selected"
What you see next depends on pending requests in your selection
| Your selection | What the confirmation shows |
|---|---|
| No pending requests on any selected shift | A simple confirmation — click "Close Open Shifts" to close them all |
| Every selected shift has a pending request | A warning that closing will expire all of those requests and notify the affected staff — you can still confirm with "Close All & Expire N Requests", or cancel and action the requests first |
| Some selected shifts have pending requests, some don't | Two options: the safe default "Close N Without Requests" (closes only the request-free shifts, leaves the rest open) or the explicit "Close All N (expires N requests)" danger action |
The safe option always closes only the shifts with zero pending requests — it never guesses which pending request you'd want to keep. If you want the shifts with requests closed too, you must explicitly choose the "Close All" option, which expires those requests and notifies the affected staff automatically.
Why this matters
Before this guardrail, "Close Selected" closed every shift in the selection regardless of pending requests, silently expiring anyone's request that hadn't been actioned yet. Now the check runs at the moment you close (not against a possibly-stale list on screen), so a request that arrived seconds earlier is still protected.
Tip: If you regularly close large batches of open shifts, use the Requests tab first to approve or decline any pending requests you care about, then come back to Open Shifts and close the rest with the safe "Without Requests" option — no danger action needed.