Self-Scheduling in Smart Square, Explained: Windows, Pre-Posting, and What the S and P on Your Calendar Mean

Two phrases cause more confusion in Smart Square than everything else combined: self-scheduling and pre-posting. They sound like the same thing, they both involve picking shifts before the schedule is final, and they leave two mysterious letters — S and P — sitting on your calendar. Here is what each one actually means, how the windows work, and why the rules are different at every hospital.

Two ways of choosing shifts early

Both features exist so staff can shape their own schedules instead of being handed a finished rota. The difference is what you are choosing from, and whether a manager has to approve it.

Self-scheduling is how core schedules get built. In symplr's own marketplace description, it is the "selection of shifts to build core staff schedules": during your department's self-scheduling period, you pick the shifts that will form your regular schedule for the coming period.

Pre-posting is about open shifts. The same vendor description defines it as the "posting and selection of open shifts requiring manager approval": shifts the unit still needs covered are posted, you select the ones you want, and a manager approves them. The term is entrenched enough that union contracts define a formal "Pre-Posting Period" — noted in one as "formerly known as the Original Needs List" — with open-shift offers following after it.

How you know a window is open

None of this is always-on. If your department has activated self-scheduling or pre-posting, the option appears in the Smart Square menu, and the menu indicates when a window is open. In the Smart Square Go app, self-scheduling and pre-posting selection are listed among the standard features, so the same windows can be worked from your phone.

While a window is open you choose from what is offered, and you can narrow the list with filters — by shift or by skill, for example — instead of scrolling everything. When the window closes, selection locks until the next period. That deadline is why experienced staff treat the opening time seriously: a nurse reviewing the app described how, after her alert settings changed, she "would have almost missed the window to self schedule". If your windows matter to you, the notification settings are worth five minutes — we covered them in our guide to Smart Square notifications.

What the S and P on your calendar mean

Once you have picked shifts, the calendar marks where each one came from:

• S — a shift you self-scheduled while building your core schedule.
• P — a shift you claimed through pre-posting, selected from posted open shifts and subject to manager approval.

The letters are bookkeeping, not grades. They let you, your scheduler and your manager see at a glance which shifts you chose during self-scheduling, which came through pre-posting, and which were assigned or picked up later — useful when there is a question about how a shift landed on your calendar. You will see the same markers in the calendar view covered by our schedule viewing guide.

The rules are your hospital's, not the software's

Here is the part that explains most of the conflicting advice online. Symplr's own guidance states it plainly: "Your organization determines which types of requests are allowed to be submitted and when." Smart Square provides the machinery; your hospital or health system sets:

• whether self-scheduling, pre-posting, or both are switched on for your department;
• when each window opens and closes, and how long a scheduling period runs;
• any order of picking — seniority-based or otherwise — and any minimum or maximum shift requirements;
• how quickly pre-posted shifts get approved, and by whom.

To show how specific this gets: one hospital's staff training material for its departments works around a window that opens at 12:01 AM and six-week scheduling periods. That is that hospital's rulebook, not a Smart Square default — your window may open at a different hour, run for a different period, or not exist at all if your department has not activated the feature. When a colleague at another hospital describes a completely different process, you are probably both right.

Where pre-posting ends and open shifts begin

Pre-posting deals with gaps before the schedule is final. Once the schedule is posted, the shifts still unfilled become the open shifts anyone eligible can request — that side of the system is covered in our open shifts guide, and moving a shift after the fact is a swap or trade. Self-scheduling builds your base, pre-posting fills early gaps with approval, and open shifts mop up what is left.