Release 25.12.0.0 - December 2025

Parameters: Employee

Improvement

Support for Advance Block Period schedules for employees

SmartFind Express now supports the Advance Block Period schedules, where locations/schools can have different bell schedules and different schedules for different dates. The feature can be enabled by selecting the checkbox for the parameter: “Use location bell schedule and date-based calendar for block schedules”, which is a sub-parameter for the main block schedule feature parameter: “Enable block periods for employee schedules”. When this new parameter is enabled, the bell schedules and location-date based calendar (comprising bell schedules and cycle day definitions) can be defined on the location profile. (A user guide would be added to Help Documentation soon, explaining these concepts.)

The employee schedule, based on bell schedules and cycle days, can be defined through an import process on the employee schedule. The import template will be part of the Import layout guide.

After the employee schedule, bell schedule, specific block times, and location date-based calendar are defined, when the employee with block schedules creates an absence, they would see the exact block periods with times, applicable for the dates that they have selected for creating the absence, and can proceed with block period selection and absence creation.

If there is a need to have all employees defaulted to using block period schedules for their employee schedules and absence creation, then a new parameter: “Set Block period schedules as default types for all employees” can be selected. Checking this parameter will ensure that all users have an active employee role (including new employee users created) with block scheduled as the default schedule type on their profile. If there are certain exceptions for users who need to continue using the day-based schedule, the profile parameter for block schedules can be unchecked from their profile by the Administrators.