Adding grace period to schedules

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This article is about: scheduling checklists with both a soft and a hard deadline. A grace period gives the users a second chance to complete the checklist before it is removed from the user's inbox. Furthermore, you can require a checklist to have a timely answer and allow the user to explain why the checklist is completed after the expected deadline and then require an administrative sign-off before the report is approved and finalized.

 

The grace period is giving the checklist a second change

When scheduling a checklist, you set an end time which is the deadline. If a checklist is not completed within its deadline it becomes a missing result. You can turn this deadline into a soft deadline, by ticking the box “Allow grace period”. This will allow you to add a period after the deadline, where the checklist still can be completed.

When the checklist becomes active it will appear with the soft deadline as it's deadline. If the checklist is not completed within the soft deadline it enters the grace period. This makes it appear as overdue by changing the deadline to the grace period's deadline and marking the new deadline in red.

The end time of the grace period will act as a hard deadline, and if the checklist is not completed within the grace period, the checklist will disappear from the user's inbox and be registered as a missing result.

You can use the first, soft deadline as an expected deadline, where you expect your staff to be finished with the checklists. The grace period can act as a second chance for your staff to complete the checklists.

 

How to add a grace period

The grace period is configured in scheduling and can be applied to all schedule types except continuous schedules.

It is applied in the configuration of patterns from either the schedules tab, calendar tab or when configuring ad hoc slots.

1. Fill out the regular start and end time (the expected deadline).
2. Tick off ‘allow grace period’ and set the end time of the grace period (the hard deadline).
3. Fill out the rest of the settings and press save.

Note: you can add reminders within the grace period as well.

If a schedule has a grace period it will visually appear with a "jagged tail" on the timeslot in the web app.

 

 

If you – as an administrator – want to know why the checklist is delayed, you can tick the require timely answer box. If a checklist is answered within the grace period, the user will be asked to explain why the checklist is answered after its expected deadline the explanation is entirely optional and can consist of text and images. Furthermore, enabling this option will have results be put into the 'awaiting validation' state if they're completed after the expected deadline, requiring a reviewer to handle it.

You can enable the requirement for a timely answer in the settings for the schedule. 

 

 

Note: You can also add a grace period and require timely manner when rescheduling a missed result.

Note: You can get an overview of the amount of overdue checklist by adding the widget ‘Overdue Checklists’ to your dashboard.

 

In the mobile app

Users in the app will only see the expected deadline. If the expected deadline is passed, the grace period deadline will overwrite the initial deadline, and be marked in red. Furthermore, a notification will be sent to users when the expected deadline has been passed, informing them that their checklist is overdue.