What is Rota Approval & Snapshot Functionality?
Snapshot Functionality is the term used to describe the process of Rota Approval and the use of the Weekly Overview report. The process is designed for Managers to be able to set their rotas ‘Ready for Review’ by a certain point in the week, and then for Operations Managers to check that rota and approve or decline it.
If the rota is Approved, the system takes a ‘snapshot’ of the forecasted costs (revenue, wage cost and hours scheduled) to then compare with the actual costs for that day and week. These costs are seen in the Weekly Overview report to analyse that week, and to improve forecasting.
Please note: Approval must happen before the week commences. E.g. for Monday to Sunday rotas, the last point of approval is the Sunday before, if this isn't done before the new week starts it will not display in the relevant reports - and also won't appear in Fourth Analytics.
Setting up Snapshot Functionality
Weekly Overview Report Set Up
Fourth Customer Success Managers can be contacted to arrange to have Version 2 or Version 3 of the Weekly Overview report switched on for a portal. Examples of these can be seen in the article How to Use Snapshot Functionality.
Global Settings
- Go to Rotas > Administration > Global Settings > Edit (against Rota Settings)
- Tick the setting called Allow Creation of Rota Snapshots
- If using the Weekly Overview Report Version 2, select Labour Extract from the snapshot version drop-down on the next line.
- If using the Weekly Overview Report Version 3, select Wage Function

Fig.1 - Global Settings of Rota Snapshots & Snapshot Versions
- Whilst in Global Settings please check that the setting Rota Report version to use for Analysis page is Version 5.
- If using any other version please speak to your Customer Success Manager before changing
To label the Rota Approval Levels in the Rota Status Summary:
- Go to Rota > Global Settings > (bottom of the page) Ability to Record Review Rota Work Flow > Review Rota Workflow

The top box is for the Ready for Review level. The bottom box is for the Approval level.
- Amend/rename as appropriate
Permissions
To enable Managers and Operations Managers to see the approval levels, the Weekly Overview Report, and the Rota Status Summary, a System Administrator will be able to amend the permissions for their access.
In the permissions templates in the rota module there will be three Rota Review Levels
- Tick the relevant permissions for the access level/template
Fig 3 - Permissions on the Rota Template for the Approval Levels
- Rota Review Level 1 - This is Ready for Review and should typically be given to managers who create and forecast the rotas
- Rota Review Level 2 - This is Approved and should typically be given to Operations Managers
- Rota Review Level 3 - This is Declined and should be given to the Operations Managers if they require the option to decline rotas
Under the ‘Reports’ section assign access to the following reports:
- Rota Status Summary
- Weekly Overview Report v2 or Weekly Overview Report v3 (based on the version selected above)
Process & Communication
It is essential that the process of setting the rota ‘Ready for Review’ after the managers have forecasted the rota, and setting the rota ‘Approved’ once the Operations Managers have reviewed the rota is communicated through the business.
The system will only take a snapshot of the forecasted costs when the rota is marked ‘Approved’ and saved. If no forecasted costs are taken there will be limited information within the Weekly Overview Report.
Changing Weekly Overview Reports
If changed from one version to another, the new report’s “approval” values will be blank.
The current version's report can be exported for the current week and referenced to the new report version for that week.
Once the following week is approved at the normal time in the approval process, the approved values will appear in the new version for that week and any future weeks if approved.
E.g. If the approval deadline is on Thursday, run the report on the Friday and make the changes afterwards.
Please Note: If both reports are available on the portal, one of them may not give the expected figures due to the snapshot version they are on.
- Go to Rotas Module > Rota > Administration > Global Settings > Edit Rota Settings > Select snapshot version > Select required option > Save
V3 - Wage Function
V2 - Labour Extract
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