Custom On-Call Scheduling
Schedules are the base of your team’s on-call calendar in your on-call management software. Add as many team members as you like to each schedule. Create different schedules for different days and times of the week to share the burden of on-call equally amongst team members.
My Team's Weekly On-Call Calendar
Sandra M.
Michael B.
How on-call scheduling works in All Quiet
Setting up on-call in All Quiet takes four steps: invite your team, create a schedule, choose who is in it and how often it rotates, and save. After that, the team runs it. Rotations hand over automatically. Team members swap shifts and arrange cover for vacations and sick days themselves with overrides, from the web app or the All Quiet mobile app, and everyone can sync their shifts to Google Calendar or Outlook.
What the team handles itself
- Shift swaps and cover: mark yourself offline and pick the colleague who covers ("I'll be offline"), or take over a colleague's shift ("I'll be covering")
- From your phone: the mobile app's Calendar tab shows your shifts, who is on call with you and the coverage, and you can create, edit or delete overrides there
- Calendar sync: generate your own iCal link for Google Calendar or Outlook
- Shift reminders: by email or push notification before your shift starts
- Gaps: with the fill-up safety net, someone from a higher tier covers a gap until the regular person is back
- Who is on call right now: the calendar's effective view shows it after every override, and you can check it in Slack
What the administrator sets once
- Coverage: 24/7, or specific days and times, including overnight windows
- Rotation: automatic, daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly or custom. Change the order by drag and drop. People who join or leave are adjusted automatically
- Handoffs: a handoff day for weekly rotations, a handoff time for 24/7 schedules
- Time zone: one per team. Every schedule follows it
All Quiet is built for lean teams where nobody owns scheduling as a full-time job. Alerting by push, SMS, voice call, email and Slack is part of the same product, so there is no separate paging tool to run. Schedules are unlimited on every plan, from $4.99 per user per month.
To decide who gets alerted when nobody answers, see on-call escalations. Our escalation policy examples show six complete setups, including how to run them without a dedicated admin. Step by step in the docs: schedules and rotations.
Use Cases Of Different On-Call Schedules
Below you can find some examples of typical on-call setups you can create with All Quiet. Find the one that suits your organization best or customize your own solution.
The "Lone Wolf" 🐺
Classic setup when starting your own software business. One person in charge, 24/7/365. All alerts come straight to your phone. If you have more than one person capable fixing bugs, we recommend other setups.
Learn how to set it upOn-Call Schedule
☀️ Everyday 00:00 - 24:00
Sandra Mayer
"Weekday 👔 - Weekend 💃"
Great, simple set-up if you want to have specific team members in charge on the weekends. You can add unlimited team members per schedule. You can also add rotations to reduce the on-call times for Sandra and Micheal on the weekends.
Learn how to set it upWeekday
Monday 08:00 - Friday 17:00
James Watson
Weekend
Friday 17:00 - Monday 08:00
Sandra Mayer
Michael Brown
🌅 "Follow-The-Sun" 🌃
Smart setup for teams with people distributed globally. Team members share the daily on-call duties by handing over on-call shifts based on their timezones. As the workday ends for one team, the work is handed over to the team in the next time zone, allowing operations to continue without interruption. Looking at our example, we have 3 schedules from 3 different timezones. Team Hongkong hands over to Team London once they finish work at 16:00 (UTC+8). Team London, then, hands over to Team L.A. before they hand back to Team Hongkong once they finish their work. This way, there’s someone on call 24/7 whilst nobody has to do night shifts and everyone can recharge effectively.
Learn how to set it upHongkong
UTC +8
08:00 - 16:00
00:00 - 08:00 UTC
James W.
Jimmy A.
London
UTC
08:00 - 16:00
08:00 - 16:00 UTC
Sandra M.
Michael B.
Los Angeles
UTC -8
08:00 - 16:00
16:00 - 24:00 UTC
Jessica S.
Rohan R.
There are many more ways to create your on-call schedule setup. For example you can also Combine the “Weekday-Weenkend” and the “Follow-The-Sun” setups. Learn how to effectively create your team’s on-call schedules with our documentation.
Optimize Your Team’s On-Call Scheduling
🔁 On-Call Rotations
Give team members well deserved breaks. Add rotations to your on-call schedules. Customize rotation frequencies and handoff times.
🔀 Overrides
Make temporary changes to your teams on-call rotations, whether that’s for planned abstinences like vacations, unplanned sick days or general maintenance.
⬇️ Escalation Policies
Make you on-call calendar more resilient. Use escalations to automatically inform additional team members if an issue wasn’t addressed after a certain time. You can also use escalations to build a “safety net”, preparing for the unexpected.
Supporting the world's best tech teams
From emerging startups to established enterprises
New to the concept? Read our What is an on-call schedule? glossary entry.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Which on-call scheduling tool is easiest to set up and run without a dedicated admin?
In All Quiet, one team administrator sets up the schedule and the team runs it: rotations hand over automatically, team members swap shifts and arrange cover themselves with overrides, from the web app or the mobile app, and shifts sync to Google Calendar or Outlook. Schedules are unlimited on every plan, from $4.99 per user per month.
Can team members swap shifts or cover vacations without an administrator in All Quiet?
Yes. Shift swaps and cover are done with overrides, which team members create themselves. They can mark themselves offline and choose colleagues in a shared team to cover, or take over a colleague's shift. Overrides can be created in the web app from the dashboard, the account settings or the calendar, and in the iOS and Android app.
What does an administrator need to set up for on-call scheduling in All Quiet?
Once per team: who is in the schedule, when it applies (24/7 or specific days and times), how the rotation works and the team's time zone. After that, handovers, reminders and absences run without an administrator.
How can I create or modify on-call schedules in All Quiet?
You can easily build, edit, or duplicate schedules via the web app or our Terraform provider. Assign team members, define shifts, and let All Quiet handle time zones and handovers automatically.
Can schedules automatically rotate between team members?
Yes. All Quiet supports automatic rotations, ensuring fair and balanced on-call coverage without manual changes, while giving you flexibility to override schedules if needed.
Does All Quiet send reminders before on-call shifts begin?
Absolutely. Team members receive pre-shift reminders via their preferred channel, whether that’s email or a push notification to ensure they’re always prepared.
Can I export my on-call shifts to my personal calendar (Google, Outlook, etc.)?
Yes. All Quiet allows you to export your personal on-call shifts directly to Google Calendar and Outlook via iCal format so your on-call times appear alongside your existing events.
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