--- title: "Shift swaps · BlastoClean docs" description: "Ask a coworker to take one of your visits or trade it for one of theirs, and approve swaps as an owner or manager." url: "https://www.blastoclean.com/docs/staff-shift-swaps" --- # Shift swaps Running the company · Web and mobile · 5 min read · Updated October 18, 2026 **On Pro and Business, team members ask a coworker to take a visit or trade visits. The coworker accepts and, by default, an owner or manager approves before any crew changes; swaps within the same team can approve automatically.** Shift swaps let your team sort out "can you take my Tuesday?" in the app instead of by text message. A team member asks, a coworker accepts, and by default you approve before anyone's schedule changes. You can instead let swaps between members of the same team approve themselves. Shift swaps are included with **Pro and Business**. ## Ask for a swap Asking is for team members with the **Crew** role, from **My jobs**. Owners, managers and other office roles see their visits in **My week**, which has no **Ask for swap**; reassign those visits on the schedule instead. 1. Open **My jobs** and select the visit you cannot make. 2. Select **Ask for swap**. 3. Under **Who should take it?**, pick a coworker or **Anyone available**. The list only shows people at the same location who are free at that time and have no approved time off. 4. Under **Swap type**, choose **Give it away**, or **Trade for one of their visits** and pick the visit of theirs you would take. Trades need a named coworker. 5. Add a **Note (optional)** and select **Send request**. Follow your request in **Staff** › **Shift swaps**, under **Your requests**. To withdraw it, select **Cancel request**. Swaps close a set number of hours before the visit starts (the earlier visit, in a trade; 24 hours unless your owner changed it). After that, ask the office instead. ## Answer a swap request Swaps go to team members at the same location with the **Crew** or **Estimator** role. When a coworker asks you, you get a notice in the notification bell. Open **Staff** › **Shift swaps** and look under **Asked of you**. You see what you need to decide: the visit's date and time, the client's name and the area (the city, never the street address), who is asking and their note, and the same details for the visit you would give in return for a trade. Nothing else about the visit is shown until it is yours. - Select **Accept** to take it. BlastoClean checks again that you are free and not on time off. - Select **Decline** if you cannot. A request to **Anyone available** goes to every Crew member and Estimator at the location who is free then and has no approved time off. The first person to accept takes it, and anyone else who tries is told it has already been taken. If you cannot take it, you can ignore it. What happens next depends on your company's swap setting: - **You approve every swap** (the default): accepting does not change your schedule yet. The swap shows **Waiting on owner** until an owner or manager decides. - **Automatic between people on the same team**: if you and the person asking are on the same [saved team](/docs/saved-teams), the swap is approved as soon as you accept and shows **Approved**. Otherwise it waits on an owner or manager as above. ## Approve or decline as an owner or manager Owners and managers get a notice and an email with an approve link when a swap needs them, except on a swap they are part of: nobody decides their own swap, so another owner or manager does. Swaps waiting on you also show on **Home** under **Needs attention**, and as a **Swap requested** badge on the visit in **Schedule**. The approval card shows, for each visit: - the crew **Before** and **After** the swap, - the result of the conflict check: whether everyone is still free and nobody has approved time off, and - a warning when the swap breaks a recurring client's usual crew. Add a **Note (optional)** and select **Approve** or **Decline swap**. You can do this from **Staff** › **Shift swaps**, under **Waiting on you**, or from the visit in **Schedule**. When you approve a give-away, only that visit changes. When you approve a trade, both visits change together, in one step, or neither does. The person swapping in takes the same place on the crew, so the lead position stays the lead: if the person leaving led the visit, the coworker coming in leads it. Helpers keep their places. Both people see the change the next time their visits load: in **My jobs** for the Crew role, in **My week** for an Estimator, and pay and hours reports count whoever ends up doing the visit. If the check finds a conflict or time off, **Approve** is not available and the card tells you why. Declining changes nothing. The approve link in the email works once. It asks you to sign in and shows the same card, even if you are working in another location today. After the swap is decided, the link shows that it was already decided. ## Swap settings Owners choose how swaps work in **Settings** › **Employees & Teams** › **Shift swaps**: - **Who approves swaps**: **You approve every swap** (the default), **Automatic between people on the same team**, or **Off**. With the automatic option, a swap between two members of the same [saved team](/docs/saved-teams) is approved as soon as the coworker accepts. BlastoClean still records who swapped and when. - **No swaps within this many hours of a visit**: from 0 to 168 hours, 24 by default. Swaps nobody decided by then expire. ## When a swap is canceled or expires - If the office reschedules, reassigns or cancels one of the visits, open swaps on it are canceled and everyone involved gets a notice. - If nobody decides before the cutoff, the swap shows **Expired**. - Either way, the visits keep their current crews. ## Good to know - Each visit can have one open swap at a time. - Swaps stay within one location. To let someone from another location take swaps here, add them to this location in **Settings** › **Employees & Teams**. - Owners and managers approve swaps, so they are not offered visits through them. A swap is refused when no owner or manager at the location could approve it, for example when nobody with that role works at the location, or the only one left it before the coworker accepted. - Nothing is sent to your customers. See also [Staff time-off requests](/docs/staff-time-off), [Offer an assigned visit](/docs/staff-visit-offers) and [Staff communication](/docs/staff-updates). ## Where swaps work The website supports asking, answering and approving swaps and also works in your phone's browser. Native versions with shift swaps support the same workflow: Crew ask from **My jobs**, Crew and Estimators respond, owners and managers approve, and owners manage the approval policy. Plan and location rules still apply. See [Native version availability](/docs/the-mobile-app).