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      Schedule Templates - "Seasonal Schedules" (Duplicating and Alternating Schedule Templates)

      Learn how to swap out your pantry's regular schedule with a special schedule (for instance, a holiday schedule).

      Introduction

      All Schedule Templates are designated with a combination of Visit Type and Location. Only one Schedule Template with the same Visit Type + Location combination can be active at a time (see "Track" in the diagram above). Pantries who want a different pattern for the same "track" (different "seasonal" patterns on the same schedule) will need to perform the following actions:

      • Step A: Expire Current Template. Set one template to expire (Regular Jan-Oct Template above)

      • Step B: Create Alternate Template. Schedule an alternate template as its future replacement (Holiday Nov-Dec Template above)

      • Step C: Clone Original Template. Continue the pattern by retiring the Summer program in turn and replacing it with a clone of the original (Regular Jan-Oct (next year) Template above)

      This article describes how to perform this operation for your pantry.

      Procedure

      Perform the following steps to alternate between "Seasonal" schedule templates on the same "Track":

      Step A: Set a Retirement (End Date) for the Current / Regular Schedule. 

      Starting from the Schedule Template Index (Setup->Schedule Templates) Set the currently active template to expire by ensuring a proximate End Date:

      1. ID the Current Template
        Identify the current template for the "track" (Visit Type + Location) in question.

      2. Set End Date (Expiration)
        Edit the template (pencil icon). Set the End Date for the current template you're using to match the day prior to the start of the new seasonal pattern (and Save and Exit). 

      Step B: Create a New "Seasonal" Schedule Template for the same "Track"

      1. New Template
        Create a new Schedule Template entirely (in this example, we'll make a special "Holiday Season" template). 

      2. Start Date
        Set the Start Date for the first day after you set the current template to expire.

      3. End Date
        Set the End Date for the end of the season.

      4. Add Blocks and Slots
        Add blocks and slots for the seasonal template (see Scheduling Calendar/ Schedule Template Setup). Save and Exit.

      Start/ End Mid-Week? Although the calendar template screens are set up to show all the weekdays, this does not mean that schedule templates need to be crafter around entire weeks. The template's Start Date and End Date actually dictate upon which day the template will begin or end. This means that you can set up your "Back to School Days" to start on a specific Tuesday and end on a specific Thursday, and another template can be set to begin on the Friday of the same week. 

       

      Step C: Clone the Regular Schedule to Resume the "Regular" Season.

      For the final step, perform the following steps to clone the original seasonal pattern and set it to resume after the "special" season you just made in part B:
      1. Clone the Regular Template
        Clone the first schedule template (duplication icon).
        (This will create a brand new template with the same blocks-and-slots as the cloned template.)

      2. Set Start and End Date
        Set its Start Date for the first day after the template in part B. Set Set its End Date for the future (then Save and Exit).