Flexible Schedule on Vome, letting people create their own shifts

What is the Flexible Schedule option for shift reservations?

Overview

With Flexible Schedule enabled, people approved for an opportunity can create their own shifts, choosing the date and time slot that suits them, instead of picking from a schedule you built.

It is designed for opportunities with no predefined schedule of fixed meeting times, which is why it is most often used for remote and virtual work.

1. Who can create a shift this way?

Only people already approved for that opportunity. Enabling Flexible Schedule does not let the public add shifts to your calendar.

2. Do these shifts need my approval?

Yes, and this is the part most often missed. A shift someone creates arrives as a pending shift request awaiting admin approval, not as a confirmed booking.

One behaviour to watch: a pending request stays visible even after the shift date has passed. It does not quietly expire. So if nobody works the queue, you accumulate stale requests for shifts that already happened, and the hours behind them are never logged.

Worth building a habit of clearing that queue, the same way you would with any other approval list.

3. How do I enable it on one opportunity?

  1. Open the Opportunities module from the left-hand navigation.
  2. Click the opportunity to open its dashboard.
  3. Go to the Schedule tab.
  4. Find the Flexible Schedule section and click Edit.
  5. Select Enable and save.

4. Can I enable it on several opportunities at once?

Yes, which is much faster if you are setting up a batch of remote opportunities.

  1. Go to the Opportunities module.
  2. Select the opportunities you want to change.
  3. Click Actions.
  4. Choose Update Schedule Settings.
  5. Find Flexible Schedule, select Enable, and apply.

5. How do I tell which opportunities have it on?

By the blue calendar icon on the opportunity card in the Opportunities module. Highlighted blue means Flexible Schedule is on, dimmed means it is off.

The same icon marks individual shift cards in the Schedule, so you can tell a flexible shift from a fixed one at a glance.

6. What happens if I turn it off later?

People approved for the opportunity can no longer create their own schedule or submit upcoming shifts. Vome asks you to confirm, because it changes what everyone on that opportunity is able to do.

7. Should I use Flexible Schedule or fixed shifts?

  • Fixed shifts when the time matters: a site that must be staffed, an event, anything where people work alongside each other.
  • Flexible Schedule when the work matters but the hour does not: remote tasks, translation, calling, admin help, research.

If you find yourself creating shifts nobody asked for just so people have something to reserve, that opportunity is probably a Flexible Schedule candidate.

Summary

  • Flexible Schedule lets approved people create their own shifts around their availability.
  • It suits opportunities with no fixed schedule, typically remote or virtual.
  • Those shifts are pending requests that still need admin approval.
  • Pending requests remain visible after the shift date passes, so the queue needs clearing.
  • Enable it per opportunity on the Schedule tab, or in bulk through Actions and Update Schedule Settings.
  • A blue calendar icon marks both the opportunity card and its flexible shifts.

Where to go next