Automatic contracts

What are automatic contracts for?

In industries where schedules change from week to week (hospitality, catering, retail...), generating a contract for every work period is a huge administrative burden. Automatic contracts remove that burden: Shyfter creates the contracts for you, fills them in with the collaborator's data and sends them directly for signature.

There are two trigger modes, chosen per collaborator:

• Automatic contract based on schedule: the contract is created as soon as you publish the collaborator's shifts.
• Automatic contract based on clockings: the contract is created when the collaborator clocks in, for that working day.

The schedule mode fits when work is planned ahead. The clocking mode fits when actual attendance is what counts, for example for extras who are not always on the schedule or whose planned shifts do not always take place.

Step 1: enable the feature

1. Go to Settings ⚙️ → Documents → Settings.
2. Enable the option Enable automatic contracts.

This setting applies to the whole workplace. Without it, no automatic contract is created, whatever mode is selected on the collaborators' profiles.

Step 2: prepare a contract template

Automatic contracts are generated from a template in which the collaborator's information (name, dates, salary...) is filled in automatically.

Go to Documents → Contracts → Templates to create or edit a template. See the dedicated article on contract templates for the details of this step.

Each template includes a Gross cost field and a Salary period (hour, day, week, month). This cost plays a key role in the salary shown on the generated contract: see the section "Which salary ends up on the contract?" below.

Step 3: choose the mode for each collaborator

For each collaborator concerned:

1. Open their file via Team.
2. Go to the Profile tab, then the Settings sub-tab.
3. In the Automation and default data section, Contract block, pick from the dropdown:
   • Manual contract: no automatic contract for this collaborator.
   • Automatic contract based on schedule.
   • Automatic contract based on clockings.
4. Select the Default contract template to use. Without a selected template, no contract is generated.
5. Save.

If your account does not use the clocking module, the dropdown is replaced by a simple Automatic (based on schedule) checkbox.

Schedule mode: how it works

Contracts are generated when shifts are published. Shyfter creates them at the next full hour after publication.

Example: if you publish at 1:42 pm, the contracts are created at 2:00 pm. If you publish at 2:01 pm, they are created at 3:00 pm.

A few rules to keep in mind:

• Only shifts that are published, approved and assigned to a collaborator generate a contract.
• If an active contract already covers the shift's period, no new contract is created.
• Shifts published before the feature was enabled do not generate contracts retroactively.

Once created, the contract is sent directly to the collaborator for signature.

Clocking mode: how it works

The contract is created at the moment the collaborator clocks in, whether the clocking comes from the Shyfter Staff app, the Shyfter POS tablet or a manager's entry.

A few rules to keep in mind:

• The contract covers the day of the clocking: it starts and ends on that same day.
• If an active contract already covers that day, no new contract is created.
• The contract is approved automatically and sent for signature, with no action needed on your side.
• Only a same-day clocking triggers the creation: a clocking recorded afterwards for a past date does not generate a contract.

Clocking also acts as a safety net for collaborators in schedule mode: if a collaborator clocks in while no contract covers their day, Shyfter creates one.

Which salary ends up on the contract?

An important point of attention: the salary written on the generated contract depends on the Gross cost entered in the contract template.

• If the template's gross cost is greater than zero, that amount is used on the contract, together with the template's salary period (hour, day, week, month).
• If the template's cost is zero (or empty), Shyfter falls back to the gross hourly cost entered on the collaborator's profile. If the profile has none either, the default gross cost of their user status (user category) is used.

So double-check your templates: a gross cost left in a template used by several collaborators would give them all the same salary, whatever their profile. Conversely, leave the template's cost at zero if you want each contract to use the collaborator's own hourly rate.

Track the status of contracts

Go to Documents → Contracts list to check the status of each contract: awaiting signature, signed, expired. You can resend a contract for signature or create one manually if needed.