Open and close the shift diary

The shift diary has two “gates”: at the start you open it (the diary is created for your shift), and at the end you close it (the diary is finalised and its PDF is produced). In between you do not need to save — every change is saved automatically. This article covers the two gates; filling in the middle is what the other diary articles are about.

Before you start

• You open and close the diary for your own shift — the system knows which one from your login and the shift schedule.
• Closing is time-bound: the Close button is only active in the last minutes before the shift ends (a time set by your organisation, typically a few tens of minutes) — so the diary stays open throughout the shift.

Steps

The right-hand Actions rail. It stays in view as you scroll: the save status and the Close button live here. “Close” is dimmed while it is still too early to close.

1. Open the diary. If there is no diary yet for your shift, you get an empty form; fill in the basic fields and click Open shift diary. This creates your shift’s diary and opens it for editing.
2. Fill it during the shift. You can edit the diary’s elements (data points, events, tasks, orders, roster) at any time during the shift. There is no “Save” button: the Actions rail on the right shows “All saved” to confirm your changes are recorded (it briefly switches to “Unsaved changes…” while you type, then back).
3. Close it at the end of the shift. In the Actions rail, click Close. The button is only active in the last minutes before the shift ends — until then you see: “The diary can only be locked within 30 minutes of the shift end.”
4. Fill in the required fields if asked. On close, the system checks the required fields; if something is missing you get “Fill in the required fields before closing.”, and it jumps to the missing field.

No manual save — by design

You do not save during the shift: the diary saves your changes on its own. Close is not a “save” but a finalise — from then on the diary is locked.

Closing is final

On close it tells you: “On close, all required fields must be filled; after that the diary can no longer be edited.” A closed diary can only be viewed (and its PDF downloaded), not edited. Make sure everything is recorded before you close.

If it worked

You get the “Diary closed” confirmation, the diary’s status turns to closed, and in the Actions rail the edit buttons are replaced by Download PDF. The diary’s PDF goes out to the recipients automatically at the configured time; you can download it from the archive at any time.

Common problems

What you see	Why	What to do
The “Close” button is dimmed / not clickable	It is too early — the diary can only be closed in the last minutes before the shift ends.	Wait for the time window (the text under the button prints how many minutes). Keep the diary open until then.
“Fill in the required fields before closing.”	A required field was left empty.	The system jumps to the missing field — fill it in, then close again.
“Start the shift diary to acknowledge.”	You tried to acknowledge an order but have not opened the diary yet.	Open the diary first (step 1); acknowledgement then works.
I do not see the “All saved” status	Either you are viewing a non-editable diary, or you have no edit permission.	A closed/archived diary has no save. For a live diary, ask your admin for edit permission.

Worth knowing

• The diary is alive while your shift is “open”. After opening it stays editable, and closing is tied to the end of the shift — so the diary always covers the whole shift.
• The close produces the official document. The PDF (auditable, with signed traces) is generated from the closed content, and the closed data is what feeds the Reports tabs.
• If you find a mistake after closing, the diary can in some cases be amended with an admin permission, in a separate “correction” mode with an audit trail — but that is no longer ordinary editing.

Related

How the shift diary worksWhat the diary is made of, and how open–close fits the daily flow.

Log an event in the diaryOne of the things you record in the opened diary during the shift.

Acknowledge a management orderThis needs the diary opened first — here is how.