Seniority order
Call-outs go by your seniority list within the eligible pool. The order is visible, not remembered.
Staff scheduling for emergency shelters.
Avover builds the rotation for every site, posts it to staff, and when someone calls in sick it texts the relief pool in seniority order until the first yes. Every offer and answer is logged. For shelters with up to 39 scheduled staff it is $199 a month, flat.
Canadian-hosted
Audit-ready
Union-compliant
A Tuesday morning at a two-site shelter
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The relief list is a spreadsheet
Days, evenings, overnights, weekends, holidays. No set schedule. The relief workers who can cover are on a sheet the shelter manager keeps, and it is out of date the day after it is printed.
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5:40 a.m. and the phone tree starts
An overnight worker calls in sick for the day shift. The manager starts at the top of the seniority list and calls one person at a time. Ten to twenty minutes per call-out, on a good morning.
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Minimum staffing decides everything
Forty beds and an overflow room need two people on the floor. Below that, intake stops and the front door is locked. Coverage is not paperwork; it is whether the building opens.
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Nobody wrote down who was called
When a relief worker asks why they were skipped, the answer lives in the manager's memory. If it is challenged, there is nothing to hand over.
How it works at a shelter
Build the schedule once. Coverage and the record follow from it.
1
Build the rotation once
Set each site's shifts, the two-week or four-week cycle, and who is on it. Avover fills the schedule ninety days ahead and staff see it on their phone.
2
A sick call goes out by text
The shift opens, Avover texts eligible relief workers in seniority order, and the first YES takes it. Nobody is skipped, and nobody is called at 5:40 a.m. by a person.
3
The record writes itself
Who was offered the shift, in what order, who declined, who accepted, and when. Exportable for a grievance, a funder, or the board.
Built for how shelters actually run
Every rule below is checked before an offer goes out, and every override is logged.
Overtime threshold, with an allowance
Set the weekly hours and a small allowance. Avover skips anyone it would push over; a manager can override, and the override is logged with a reason.
Rest between shifts
A minimum rest period is checked before every offer, so an overnight worker is not offered the next morning.
Required certification per shift
Mark a shift as needing a certification, such as naloxone or first aid, and only staff who hold it are offered it.
Rotations of any length
Two weeks of days then two weeks of afternoons, or any cycle you run. Set it per site.
Time off that clears the schedule
Staff request vacation from their phone. Approval removes them from their shifts, and the gaps show on the schedule.
What it costs a shelter
Up to 39 scheduled staff is $199 a month, flat. Unlimited sites, texts included, no setup fee. Forty to seventy staff is $299. Month to month, cancel on 30 days' notice, export your data any time. See all seven bands.
What managers and relief workers told us
From our 2026 interviews with managers and frontline staff in Canadian residential services. Anonymized.
Managing the scheduling is basically most of what a manager does, making sure there's a body in every shift.
Program manager, residential services, BC
If someone challenged the call-out order later, it may be difficult to prove what happened.
Manager, community living agency, BC
Just a series of Excel sheets that aren't even in a central folder.
Frontline support worker, on how call-outs are organized
What Avover does
Three modules, one record: scheduling, sick-call coverage and audit trails.
Scheduling
Rotations per site, availability, swaps and time off. Built ninety days ahead.
Explore schedulingSick Call Coverage
An open shift goes to eligible staff by text in seniority order. The first yes takes it.
Explore sick callsAudit Trails
Every offer, answer and change, timestamped and exportable.
Explore audit trailsQuestions we get asked
Does it follow our collective agreement's call-out order?
Yes. Call-outs go by seniority within the staff who are eligible for the shift, and the log shows who was offered it, in what order, and who declined.
Can it stop someone going into overtime?
Yes. Set a weekly threshold and an allowance. Anyone the shift would push over is skipped. A manager can override, and the override is recorded with a reason.
Can it do two weeks of days, then two weeks of afternoons?
Yes. Set the cycle length for each site. Avover builds the rotation ninety days ahead and keeps it going.
What happens if nobody accepts?
The offer moves to the next group of staff, then Avover texts the on-call manager. Every step is timestamped, so you can see exactly where the morning went.
Do staff need to install an app?
No. Staff reply YES or NO to a text. The schedule and time-off requests are a web page that works on any phone.
What does it cost a shelter?
Up to 39 scheduled staff is $199 a month, flat, with no setup fee. Forty to seventy staff is $299. Unlimited sites, texts included, month to month.
See it with your own shelter's schedule.
Book a 20-minute demo. Bring one week of your rotation and your relief list; we will build it live.
Book a demo →