Build my month: how Capillary fills a month of shifts
Updated November 1, 2026 · 3 min read
Build my month fills the open shifts in a draft month by your rules: role, rest, approved time off and each person's limits. It then evens out hours, nights, weekends and the month's holidays, and grants as many requests as it can. Your team sees nothing until you publish.
From an empty month to a draft
- 1
Add the month's shifts
Start from a department template, or add shifts by date range.
- 2
Press Build my month
It takes up to 30 seconds, and the draft fills in on screen. Anyone already on a shift stays there, including people from an earlier build, unless you uncheck Keep people already on shifts.
- 3
Read the results
A panel shows whether every shift has someone, how hours, nights and weekend shifts spread across each staff group, and which requests it could not grant. You can undo the whole build in one step.
- 4
Change what you like, then save
Change any shift by hand, then save. Saving runs the usual rule checks on role, overlap, rest and approved time off, and a shift that fails stops the save.
- 5
Publish
Build my month never publishes.
The rules it never breaks
- The person has the shift's role.
- Nobody works two shifts at once, here or against anything published at their other sites.
- Everyone gets the department's minimum rest. Rest is counted in real hours, including the night the clocks change, shifts just before and after the month, and published shifts at the person's other sites.
- Nobody works during approved time off or on a day marked must be off. That includes a night shift that runs into time off.
- Nobody works a shift they marked unavailable in their weekly preferences, so check those before you build.
- Nobody goes past their personal max for shifts a month, nights a month, shifts a week, days in a row, nights in a row or weekend shifts.
- Nobody goes past the department's max shifts a week or days in a row. These start at 5 and 6, and you can change them.
- If you set who can work which shift, only those people work it.
- Rest isn't checked before or after a shift marked home call, and its hours aren't counted. A week of home call won't trip the limits on shifts a month, shifts a week or days in a row. It does count as a night or weekend shift, for each person's limits and when those are evened out.
What it aims for after that
Filling shifts comes first. Among schedules that fill the same number of shifts, it looks for the best mix of even shares and granted requests. It tries to keep whoever is on home call out of the next morning's shift.
- It evens out hours, nights, weekend shifts and this month's holiday shifts within each staff group. Friday evening and night shifts count as weekend shifts.
- Time off lowers a person's share. If someone has an ideal number of shifts, it aims for that.
- Nights and weekend shifts from the last 3 published months count, so the same people don't carry them every month.
- It avoids time off you haven't approved yet, most strongly, then days off if possible and shifts people rated low. It tries to give people the days they want to work.
- It avoids a day shift right after a night and long runs of days.
The results list any time off you haven't decided yet, and whether the draft has that person working those days.
How to read the results
| It says | What that means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Every shift has someone | It filled every shift without breaking a rule. | Check how the work is shared, then save. |
| 12 of 248 shifts can't be filled | No schedule under your rules fills more. The list says what stops each one: time off, a limit or too little rest. | Add someone, change a rule or move someone off a neighboring shift. Then build again for what's left. |
| 12 of 248 shifts are still empty | Time ran out, so a fuller schedule may exist. | Press Look longer. It searches for up to 2 minutes. |
What it does not do
- It follows only the rules you enter. It doesn't know a contract or a leave policy until you enter it as a limit or as time off.
- It places single shifts, not blocks. Assign 7 on, 7 off blocks and call weeks yourself, and it fills around them.
- It doesn't remember who worked which holiday in past years, so place the holidays you rotate yourself.
- It uses each person's max in a row. It ignores a minimum or ideal run.
- Two builds of the same month can differ, so save a draft you like before you build again.
Common questions
- Does Build my month publish anything or tell my team?
- No. It changes your draft on screen. Nothing is kept until you save, and your team sees nothing until you publish.
- Can I build just the nurses, or just the physicians?
- Yes. Pick a group above the schedule, and the button builds only that group. The other groups stay as they are.
- Can I assign someone past a limit?
- Yes. Max shifts a week, max days in a row and personal limits stop only Build my month. Role, overlap, rest and approved time off are checked on every save, however a shift was filled, and a shift that fails stops the save.
- How large a month can it build?
- A month holds up to 3,000 shifts. If a month is too large to build in one go, the page asks you to build one staff group at a time.
Build your ED schedule with rest checked on every save.
Capillary checks role, overlapping shifts and rest, including shifts at other sites, before anything is published or traded.
Sources
Related
- Scheduling for hospitalsHospitalsPut a department's physicians, APPs and nurses on one schedule.
- Shift schedulingWhat is checked each time you save or publish a schedule
- Shift schedulingSchedule requests and time off for the ED
- Shift schedulingScheduling preferences: shift counts, rest and a weekly grid
- Shift schedulingBuild the month as a private draft, then publish it