Guide: Team Manager – Richhill Rota Testing

For people who run a team – e.g. Sound, Slides, Coffee

Richhill Methodist Church · Covers plugin version 5.85.5

The rota is at: https://richhill.glenmeth.church

A team manager looks after one or more teams. You can fill in your team’s part of the rota and manage who is in your team. You sign in to the church website to do this.

Note: You are a manager of a team, not of an area. Your team covers one or more areas (the rota columns), and you can edit those columns. If your team covers two areas, you can edit both.

1. What you’ll see

Rota – the full rota. You can look at every area, but only type into your own.
Teams – your team(s) only.
Groups – shortcuts for people who usually serve together.
Away – who in your team has told us they are not available, and where you can record it on their behalf.
Reports – how your team’s areas are being covered: gaps, serving load, who’s been asked most, and so on (section 7).

Other pages (People, Areas, Settings and so on) belong to the rota administrator and won’t appear for you.

Note: If your administrator has also given you rights to add or delete rota dates – a separate thing from managing a team, and something they would tell you about directly – you’ll additionally see Add row, Add dates… and Delete on the Rota page. Add dates… shows a Preview of exactly which dates it would create before anything is added – nothing appears on the rota until you press “Add dates” itself, which only becomes available once you’ve previewed. Everything else here works exactly the same either way.

2. Filling in the rota

On the Rota page you can see everything, but only your team’s columns accept typing. Everything else is read-only.

There are two ways to look at it, chosen with the View buttons. The choice is kept in the browser you are using, so the same computer or phone opens the way you left it – a different device starts on Cards again:

Cards – one service per card. This is what you get by default, on any size of screen. Tap a card’s date bar to open it, edit, then Save this card or Close. Best on a phone, and best when you want to concentrate on one service.
Table – the familiar grid, every service on a row. Better on a wide screen when you want to see several weeks at once, or compare who is on across dates.

Note: Everything works the same in both – the same cells, the same saving. It is only a choice about how much you see at once.

The page opens on your own columns rather than every column in the church. In the Area list you will see “My areas” ticked at the top, alongside any area sets your administrator has set up.

The Slot list narrows to match – if your areas are only used in the morning, AM is all you are offered. Tick more areas, or press Show all, and the Slot list widens with them.

Note: Your own columns come back the next time you open the page. Nothing is hidden permanently – it just starts where you usually work.

Adding someone

Find the date you want. Use Date start/end (a month, a quarter, or tick Custom dates for an exact range) or search if the list is long.
Tap your team’s column on that row. In table view you can type straight into the cell; in card view, tap the date bar to open the card first.
Start typing a name – matching people appear as you type. Choose from the list rather than typing a name out in full, so the entry stays linked to that person.
Press Save row (or Save this card) to save just that service, or Save rota to save everything at once. Either way, if somebody would end up in two areas at the same service you are told before it saves – asked to confirm, or stopped outright, depending on how those areas are set.

Note: Names stack one per line, with the box to add another underneath. There is no separate Edit button – the cells are ready to type into.

If the people you have put in a cell are exactly one of your saved groups, the group’s name appears underneath with a star – for example “★ Rosemary and Brenda”. Nothing changes: the names stay as they are and the star is only telling you what they add up to. Add or remove someone and it disappears, because they are no longer that group.

Note: Only people in a team that covers the area will appear in the list. If someone is missing, they need adding to your team first – see section 4.

Marking a slot as not needed

Some services don’t need one of your areas. Tick the N/A box at the top of that cell instead of leaving it blank or typing something like “n/a” yourself.

The cell greys out to show it has been deliberately marked, rather than simply forgotten.
It is left out of reports such as Coverage gaps and Over-serving alerts – a slot marked N/A is not a gap, and nobody is credited with serving it.

Two ways to fill lots of dates at once

Both live in the “Print & fill” button on the toolbar – open it and you will find Fill by rotation and Fill by Sunday, along with the printing options. It stays folded away until you need it. (Add row and Add dates are in there too, if you have rights to add or delete rota dates – see section 1.)

Fill by Sunday only ever fills EMPTY slots. Fill by rotation does too, unless you untick “Only fill empty cells” – leave it ticked and anyone already on the rota stays exactly as they are.

Fill by rotation – for a rota that simply rotates through the same people or pairs in turn: counting teams, coffee, and so on.

Choose your area.
Tick the people and/or groups taking part. A group counts as one turn, so a pair stays together.
Put them in the right order with the arrows – that’s the order they’ll take turns in.
Set the date range, which services, and “every N services” (use 2 for fortnightly).
Press Preview to see exactly who lands on which date, then “Apply and save” – that writes it and saves in one go.

Note: “Only fill empty cells” is ticked by default, so you can safely re-run it after adding more dates without disturbing anything already set by hand. It fills existing rows only – the dates need to be there first.

Fill by Sunday – for someone who is always on a particular Sunday of the month, e.g. “Music = Soak Night on the 3rd Sunday (PM)”. Pick N/A instead of a person if one of your areas is never needed on a given Sunday, e.g. “Sound = N/A on the 2nd Sunday” if Sound only ever covers the 1st and 3rd. Add the rule, set the date range, then Preview. Press Apply and save and it goes straight into the rota – there is no separate save step.

Note: Both tools stop if the rota has unsaved changes on screen, so a fill never runs against a half-edited page. Both then offer a “Save my changes, then apply” button, which saves your edits and runs the fill in one go. Your edits stay on screen either way – nothing is lost.

Note: If someone the fill would use is away: Fill by Sunday leaves that slot empty and says so in the preview (“left empty because the person is away”) – a slot quietly passed over would look like the tool failing, so it is left for you with the reason attached. Fill by rotation asks instead: its preview flags anybody away on the date they would be given and offers leave empty (the default) or roster them anyway. Press Apply without previewing and it stops and tells you to look first, rather than choosing for you.

When a name appears that you didn’t put there

Some areas are linked, so filling one fills another – for example putting a band on for an evening may also set the Sound crew for that service. If that happens in your area you will see the name flagged for review.

Check it, then either leave it (it is fine) or change it to whoever should actually be on. Nothing has been forced on you: the flag is there so you get the chance to look.

Note: These links are called “associations” on screen, and the filter “Association exceptions” shows every row where someone differs from what the link expects. Your rota administrator sets them up – if one is consistently wrong for your team, ask them to change it rather than correcting it every week.

Notes, Theme and the other written columns

Some columns are for writing rather than choosing people – Service Notes and Theme to begin with, plus any other column your administrator has set up as a text column on the Areas page. Tap one and a proper editing box opens over the page, big enough to actually write in and easy to use on a phone.

Press Save to keep what you wrote, or Cancel, Escape, or a tap outside the box to leave it alone.

These columns keep your line breaks, so a note can run over several lines and will look the same on the printed and public rota.
Press Enter for a new line. Typing HTML such as <br> will not work – tags are removed when the note is saved, so it simply disappears.

What the colours mean

Names carry a colour. A short reminder of all three sits above the rota itself:

Green – a person from the rota list. This is the normal case.
Amber – typed text that does not match anyone on the list. Fine for a one-off such as a visiting speaker; if an amber name keeps appearing, ask your rota administrator to add them properly.
Blue – put there by an association rather than typed by anyone, for example Sound filled because Revive Band is on Music. Hovering over it says so.

Note: The colour is per NAME. If you add someone alongside a blue name they stay green – one blue and one green means “the rule put that one there, I put this one there”.

Whole cells can also be highlighted, but only while “Association exceptions” is ticked in Filters – that is why you will not normally see these:

Purple – an association filled this cell and it has since been changed. Labelled “exception — review required”. It can be put back to what the rule expects, or accepted as it is.
Red – the same, but the change was made by hand rather than by a rule, so it is flagged for a person to look at rather than fixed automatically. The cell is labelled “exception — set manually”.
Light green – an exception someone has already accepted, labelled “exception — accepted”. Nothing more to do.

Note: A cell can show both at once: the colours describe different things. A blue name on a purple cell means a rule put that name there and the cell has since been changed.

Your team’s calendar link

On the Teams page you’ll see calendar (iCal) subscription links for the area(s) your team covers. Share one with your team so their rota turns up in their own calendar and updates itself.

Each area has one link box, and a “Full names” tick box above the table switches every box between the everyday initials address and the full-names one – unticked by default, so it’s your choice each time. The line beside the box always says which it is currently holding. “Copy sharing text” writes a ready-to-send message carrying ONE link for whatever address is currently in the box – tapping it opens a page that shows the right next step for whatever it’s opened on: a Subscribe button on an iPhone, iPad or Mac, and on Android or Google Calendar, the address to paste plus the calendar’s proper name to rename it to (Google often names it after the web address instead), each with its own Copy button.

Note: The link is read-only here. If it ever needs replacing, ask your rota administrator – doing so stops everyone’s existing subscription, so they would all need the new link.

Your team’s members do not have to be given the link at all: the same calendars are listed on each person’s own preferences page, under their teams. Pointing someone there is usually easier than forwarding an address.

Note: A calendar app decides for itself how often it re-checks. Apple and Outlook are usually prompt; Google can take many hours to show a change. If someone says the rota “hasn’t updated”, check the rota on the website first – that is what is actually true, and their calendar will catch up.

If someone else is editing at the same time

The rota can be open on more than one screen at once, and that is fine – two people working on different Sundays, or on different columns, will both be saved.

If you and someone else change the SAME entry while you both have the page open, pressing Save shows a short warning naming those entries and what each of you put. Nothing has been saved at that point and your work is still on screen, so you can choose:

Save mine – your version is used for those entries. Everything else you changed is saved either way.
Discard mine and reload – the page reloads showing their version.

Note: You will only see this when the very same entry has been changed by both of you. Working on different dates, or on different areas of the same service, never causes it.

If the plugin itself is updated while your page is open, pressing Save shows a different message instead: your work is still on screen, but this page can no longer be trusted to save correctly, so only Reload is offered – there is no “save mine anyway” here. Reload, then re-enter anything you had not already saved.

An entry that appeared automatically, then lost its reason

An association can fill your area automatically – for example Music = Soak Night filling Sound. If someone later removes the entry that caused it, the names it added are deliberately left in place: they may still be needed.

Those entries now appear in Association exceptions marked “added automatically, but the entry that caused it has since been removed”, with two choices:

Clear it – empties the slot, so it is genuinely free again.
Keep it – accepts the names and stops it being flagged.

The exceptions panel has a dropdown: Needs review is where it starts, Accepted lists the ones already dealt with, and All shows both. It follows the month filter and the “Show past” tick box, so you only ever see exceptions for the period you are looking at.

Note: You see exceptions for the areas you manage. Your rota administrator sees them all.

Working on a phone

Card view is now what you get by default, on any size of screen: each service is a card. Tap the date bar to open a card, edit it, then use Save this card or Close at the foot.

If you prefer a grid, switch to Table with the View buttons – that browser will open on Table next time.

There’s also Collapse all to dates and Expand all if you want to scan quickly.

Services and events at other times

Where a service runs at a non-standard time – Christmas Day, for instance – the time appears next to AM or PM, like “AM 09:30–10:30”.

You may also see rows marked “Event”: one-off occasions on any day, with their own start and finish time. You fill them in exactly as you would a normal service, if your area applies to them.

You can’t change dates, slots or times yourself; ask your rota administrator.

Double-booking warnings

If you put someone in two different areas at the same service, you may see a warning – or the save may be refused. That is set per area by your rota administrator: some areas say nothing, some ask you to confirm, and some refuse. Areas that legitimately double up, such as Sound and Stream, are normally left to say nothing.

Note: Two areas are only checked against each other for the part of the service they actually overlap – an area only used before or after the service (see “Serves” on the Areas page) is not flagged against one that only runs during it, even at the same service. Your rota administrator sets this per area; ask them if a warning looks wrong.

What you can’t do

Add or delete services, or change a date or AM/PM slot.
Set a one-off service time.
Edit another team’s columns.
Change your team itself – its name, description and whether it is active are shown read-only, and the areas it covers appear only as a summary line on the team’s card. Adding or removing a team is an administrator job too.
Turn rota emails on or off – that’s the rota administrator’s job (though you can send the ones waiting for your own areas – see section 6).

Ask your rota administrator for any of these.

3. Time away

People can record when they are not available, from their own preferences page. You see it where it matters rather than having to remember it.

On the rota

A name whose person is away on that date is outlined in red and struck through, with a tooltip saying so. Nothing is blocked – plans change, and you may well have agreed it with them.
Tick “Only clashes” in Filters to show just those services. It covers both kinds: somebody rostered while they are away, and somebody in two areas at the same service. It combines with the month, slot and area filters, and follows your area picker – narrow to your own columns and it narrows too.
A notice at the top of the Rota page lists clashes for the year ahead in the area(s) you manage. It stays until the clash is dealt with, so it also catches somebody marking themselves away for a date they were already on – which no warning at save time could ever catch.

The Away page

Sunday Rota → Away lists who is away from today onwards, for the people in the team(s) you manage. Underneath, “Record time away for someone” lets you enter it on their behalf – for when you are told in person. Choose the person, the first and last day, and optionally a reason.

Note: The list and the person chooser only ever show your own team’s people. Whole days only; for a single day put the same date in both boxes. How the fill tools treat someone’s away dates is covered in “2. Filling in the rota” above.

Note: None of this appears on the public rota. Who is serving is public; who is on holiday is not.

4. Managing your team

On the Teams page you’ll see only your own team(s). You can:

Add or remove members – anyone you add becomes selectable for the area(s) your team covers.
Add or remove other team managers – useful so you’re not the only one who can fill the rota in. Only people with a website login appear in that list; if the person you want is missing, ask your rota administrator to link their account.

Remember the chain: people → teams → areas. Adding someone to your team is what makes them pickable – there’s no way to add a person straight to an area.

Note: Being a manager doesn’t put you on the rota. If you also serve, make sure you’re added as a member as well.

Which areas your team covers is shown on the team’s card but cannot be changed here. How double-booking is handled is set per area by the rota administrator, on a page you do not see – ask them if an area is flagging something you think it should not.

Commitment limit – the Over-serving alerts report (section 7) normally flags anyone serving more than the site’s default limit in a month. If your team genuinely needs people to serve more often than that – a small team drawing on few people, say – set a higher number here so it stops flagging what is normal for you. Leave it blank to use the site default.

5. Groups

If some people almost always serve together – a prayer pair, say – set them up as a group. In the rota, picking the group adds everyone in it in one tap.

People must already be in a team covering the area before they can be put in a group for it.

Note: A group can also be set to show its own chosen name on the public rota, in print, and in the PWA app – e.g. “Welcome Team A” – whenever a cell exactly matches that group’s members. It’s off by default, and your rota administrator turns it on per group on this page.

6. Area update emails

As a team manager you can opt in to a summary email whenever a name changes in the area(s) you manage – including changes made by other managers of the same team. It saves checking the rota to see if anything moved.

Turning it on

Ask your rota administrator to send you an area update invite (or watch for one arriving).
Open the personal link in that email.
On your preferences page, find Area updates and press Subscribe or Confirm.

You can unsubscribe from the same page at any time.

Which email is which?	What it tells you
Own rota emails	When you personally are added to or removed from a service.
Area update emails	When anyone’s name changes in the area(s) your team covers.

These are separate subscriptions – you can have either, both, or neither. If you manage more than one team, you get a single email covering them all rather than one per area.

Note: Nothing is emailed the instant you save. Changes wait until someone reviews and sends them – and you can do that yourself for your own areas (see below). If nothing ever arrives, ask your rota administrator whether rota emails are switched on at all; that setting is theirs.

Sending the waiting notices

When something changes in your area, a banner appears at the top of the Rota page listing who would be emailed. Review it and press “Send pending notices”. You only ever send notices for the areas you manage – changes elsewhere stay waiting for their own managers, so you cannot email the whole church by accident.

7. Reports

Reports, in the menu alongside Rota, Teams, Groups and Away, gives you a few different views of how your area(s) are being covered, without you having to read back through weeks of the rota by eye. Everything on it is scoped to your own team’s areas – you never see other teams’ people or numbers.

Each report is its own collapsible card; open the ones you want and leave the rest closed. Most share a Period control at the top (how far back or forward to look) and remember whether you left them open or closed the next time you visit.

Coverage gaps – upcoming services where one of your areas is still empty. The quickest way to see what still needs filling, without scrolling the whole rota.
Team serving load – how many times each of your people has served recently, so you can see at a glance whether the load is spread fairly. A Direction control lets you look at what has already happened, what is coming up, or both; it opens on Upcoming. A breakdown shows which of your areas each count comes from. If you manage more than one team, a Team dropdown appears here too, so you can look at one team at a time instead of everyone mixed together.
Over-serving alerts – for your people, but counting their commitments in every area they serve, not just yours: if one of your people is also over-committed partly through another team’s area, that is exactly what this is meant to catch. The limit itself is normally set site-wide, but your team can have its own, higher one – see “Commitment limit” in section 4 – and the report names the area whose team override raised it, so it is clear why the number looks unfamiliar.
Last served – the most recent date each of your people served, area by area, so you can see who has gone quiet without checking each week by hand.
Serving history – a plain list of who served when, filterable by date, area, or a person’s name – useful for answering “when did I last do this?” questions.

Note: A slot marked N/A (section 2) is never counted as a gap and never credited to anyone in these reports – it is treated as genuinely not needed, not as an oversight.

8. Printing just your columns

The rota has a lot of columns, so printing all of them is rarely useful. Open the area picker, tick the columns you want – or one of the ready-made sets at the top of that list, such as “Tech team” – and then print. Only the chosen columns are printed, and they get the full width of the page.

Printing always produces a table, one row per service, whichever view the screen is showing – and the Date column always stays, with AM or PM printed underneath the date, so a printed sheet still makes sense.

Note: The printed page is stamped with the date and time it was printed, so nobody has to guess how fresh a paper copy is.

9. Getting help

If something looks wrong, or you need one of the administrator-only changes above, contact your rota administrator rather than working around it – some fixes affect everyone using the rota.