Getting started

Import your schedule

If your schedule already lives somewhere else – a spreadsheet, a PDF, even a photo of the whiteboard – you don't have to retype it. Schedio has two ways to bring it in: AI import for files that are not in a fixed format, and a CSV import for structured data.

AI import

AI import is a one-time setup tool, linked from the Get started card on the dashboard. It accepts a wide range of file formats and turns them into people and shifts.

Upload your schedule. Drop in a file: a spreadsheet (XLSX, CSV, TSV), a Word document (DOCX), a PDF, a text file (TXT), or a photo or screenshot (PNG, JPEG, WEBP, GIF) – up to 5 MB. You can also add instructions, for example "the second column is the job title" or "ignore the bottom row".

Review extracted data. Schedio reads the file and proposes:

Employees – name, department, role, email.
Shifts – person, date, times.
Open shifts – shifts the file shows with no one assigned yet, such as an open-shifts row in the schedule or a separate open-shifts sheet: department, position, date, times and how many people are needed.

Every row is editable, carries a confidence marker, and has an include checkbox so you can leave out anything that looks wrong. If the extraction missed something, describe what to change and click Revise with AI – the AI reads your file again with your note, instead of you editing row by row.

Open shifts have a review step of their own and are added to the schedule as open shifts, ready for you to assign someone. Each one needs a department and a position. If the position doesn't exist in that department yet, Schedio adds it there first.

Create schedule. When the data looks right, click Create everything. The "Setup complete" summary shows what was created – open shifts are counted on their own line – lists anything Schedio couldn't apply and why, and gives you a View the schedule button to see the result on the Schedule page.

CSV import

For structured files, open the Schedule page, click the ⋯ menu and choose Import from CSV…. A 4-step wizard walks you through:

Upload your CSV file.
Map columns – tell Schedio which column is which.
Preview – every row is checked, and problems are flagged per row.
Import – the valid rows are imported.

Each import handles up to 1,000 rows. Rows with problems are skipped and listed so you can fix and re-import just those – everything else imports normally.

What the files should contain (these are the names the Map columns step shows):

Employee files – Name, Department and Job role are required. Email, Phone, External ID and Hire date (YYYY-MM-DD) are optional. The department must already exist at the location you're importing into – see Departments and job titles.
Shift files – Date (YYYY-MM-DD), Start (minutes or HH:MM) and End (minutes or HH:MM) are required. To assign a shift, its row needs Employee email or Employee name to match someone already on the team at that location, so import new people before their shifts. Department, Position and Note are optional. If the position isn't one of that person's job roles, their main role is used.
Open shifts in a shift file – a row with no employee becomes an open shift: a shift nobody is assigned to yet. Give it a Department and a Position – a job title that already exists in that department – and it appears on the schedule as an open shift, ready for you to assign someone. To ask for two people in the same window, list the row twice. A name that doesn't match anyone on the team is reported as an error rather than added as an open shift.

Importing the same file again – here or through AI import – doesn't add anything twice. A shift or an open shift that is already on the schedule, and time off that is already recorded, are skipped, and each skipped row says why. That makes it safe to fix a few rows and import the file again.

Which one should you use?

Use AI import when your schedule is in a format designed to be read by people: a formatted spreadsheet, a PDF, a printout, a photo.
Use CSV import when you have plain tabular data, for example an export from another system.

Either way, check the People page afterwards – see Add your team for inviting the imported people to the app.