Rostering that shows its work
Build the week like a service, then fill the holes from your own people. Every assignment carries its score, the factors that produced it, and who else was considered.
What is automated employee scheduling?
Automated scheduling assigns staff to open shifts by applying your rules — availability, qualifications, hour caps, rest requirements — and then choosing between the people who remain eligible. The difference between tools is what happens next: whether you are shown why a person was picked, and whether you can undo it. Sofia is deterministic, meaning identical inputs always produce an identical proposal.
Hard rules first, preferences second
Auto-Fill runs in two phases. Eligibility removes anyone who cannot legally or practically work the shift; only then does scoring choose between whoever is left. A preference can never override a rule, because preferences are not consulted until the rules have already filtered.
Availability windows, merged across split shifts and overnight wrap-around Position qualification and required skills Approved time off, overlaps, and minimum rest between shifts Daily and weekly hour caps — both the org default and a personal limit Minor-labor age limits and maximum consecutive days
The score, in the open
Sofia publishes its weights rather than hiding them. Every assignment shows the factors that produced its score, and each factor names its own contribution.
Fairness
Workers below their target hours are favoured, weighted by how far under they are — so hours spread instead of pooling on the same few people.
Cost
Cheaper-to-staff candidates score higher, but only among those already eligible — cost never buys past a compliance rule.
Continuity
Someone who already works that position and pattern is preferred, so the week stays recognisable to the team.
Clopening penalty
A close-then-open pairing is penalised heavily, so it is chosen only when nothing better exists — and it is flagged when it is.
Hardest shifts first
Shifts are ordered by how hard they are to fill before any assignment is made. Filling the easy shifts first is what strands the specialised ones with nobody left who is qualified — so Sofia does the opposite.
Shifts with the fewest eligible candidates are placed first Anything unfillable is reported with a reason in plain language “Needs 8h rest between shifts” — not a silent gap in the grid Remaining gaps can be listed on Cover waitlist — demand only, nobody is sent
Reversible by construction
A proposal is not applied until you accept it, and accepting is not all-or-nothing. Every run is recorded, so a schedule you disagree with can be undone rather than manually unpicked.
Per-assignment checkboxes — take the eight you like, drop the two you do not Every run persisted with its inputs and outputs One-click undo of the last applied run Deterministic: the same inputs always produce the same proposal
Questions, answered
Is Auto-Fill AI?
No, and we will not call it that. Auto-Fill is a deterministic constraint-and-scoring engine: identical inputs always yield an identical proposal, every weight is published, and every assignment can be traced to the factors that produced it. A language model cannot offer any of those properties. The only generative-AI feature in Sofia is Ask Sofia, which answers questions and cannot change your schedule.
Can it schedule someone into a compliance violation?
Not through eligibility. Rest, hour caps, qualification, time off, overlaps, consecutive days and minor-labor limits are hard filters applied before scoring, so an ineligible person is never a candidate. A manager can still override manually — Sofia warns rather than blocks, because the manager is accountable, not the software.
What if it cannot fill a shift?
It says so, and says why. Unfillable shifts come back with a human-readable reason — needing rest between shifts, exceeding consecutive days, nobody qualified available — rather than being silently left empty. You can list those leftover gaps on the Cover waitlist. Nobody is sent; Cover is not a live pool.
Do I have to accept the whole proposal?
No. Each assignment has its own checkbox, so you can apply most of a proposal and reject individual suggestions before anything is written.
Can I undo it?
Yes. Every Auto-Fill run is recorded as a run record, and the last applied run can be undone in one click rather than reversed shift by shift.
Does it account for demand?
Yes. A recency-weighted forecast of staffed hours per weekday and position runs alongside the schedule, showing coverage against the forecast as you build. Forecasting is included rather than sold as a premium tier.
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