Make room for work.
And everything else.

Start with your settings

Open Settings and choose your currency, base hourly rate, work time zone, and pay period. Weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, and monthly periods are available. Choose the currency before adding shifts or payments: it is locked after you create those records so saved amounts cannot be relabelled.

Overtime is off until you configure it. If you use it, enter the daily or weekly thresholds and multiplier that you want Shift to apply. Shift supports one employment profile and does not infer employer, tax, union, holiday, or local payroll rules.

Add a shift and record your hours

Add a shift, choose Day, Night, or Custom, and enter its start, end, rate, and unpaid break. For overnight work, choose the following date for Ends. Review the times in your configured work time zone, then tap Save.

After working a shift, open it, change its status to Recorded, and check Actual start and Actual end. Only hours you explicitly record count as recorded work. A scheduled shift ending does not confirm that you worked it.

Reuse templates and preview rotations

Save templates for your usual shifts. In a rotation, choose the first day, arrange templates and days off into a pattern, and choose how many cycles to create. Tap Preview rotation and review it before tapping Apply.

Resolve overlaps or duplicates before applying. Each resulting shift can be edited individually. Changing or deleting a template does not rewrite shifts already on the calendar.

Understand the pay view

Open Pay to review the current period or move to another one. Recorded gross uses confirmed actual hours. Scheduled gross estimates unconfirmed work. Projected gross combines those with any additional overtime that would arise if unconfirmed shifts were worked.

Estimates are before taxes and deductions. Daily and weekly overtime premiums do not stack, and hourly differentials are added separately from the base-rate premium. Unpaid break minutes are removed from the end of a shift when allocating hours across dates or pay periods. Rates and rules are saved with each shift; changing defaults affects new shifts.

Keep payments received separate

Choose Record payment, enter the amount that arrived and the date received, and save. This is a manual receipt, which may be take-home pay. It does not mark shifts worked or reconcile against gross estimates.

Open History to see receipts from other periods. Changing period settings does not discard receipt history. Check estimates and receipts against your own pay statement.

Keep a to-do list around work

Tap Add to-do, enter a title, and choose a duration. Add optional notes, a due date, and a context under More details. Tap Add to save.

Filter by Before work, Days off, or Anytime, or search your list. Context labels do not schedule tasks or establish that an unscheduled day is free. Mark a task done when finished; completed tasks can be reopened.

Use widgets, Live Activities, and Shortcuts

Add a Shift widget from your Home or Lock Screen. Shift times and to-do counts can appear; shift names and pay estimates are hidden by default. In Settings → Widgets & Live Activities, choose what may be shown. These privacy changes apply immediately, even if you cancel Settings. Open Shift to refresh an unavailable or outdated widget.

Manually start a Live Activity from an eligible saved shift. It shows planned time only. Stopping it does not change hours or pay. Editing shift times ends the display; save and start it again if wanted. iOS may end long-running displays.

In Shortcuts, find Shift’s Add a to-do, Show next shift, and Check pay period actions. They open the app and require device authentication. Add a to-do opens a draft for review; nothing is saved until you tap Add. Apple’s Siri and Shortcuts settings govern their handling of your input.

Know where your information lives

Shift stores its data locally, with optional iCloud sync between devices running Shift. It never syncs with Daywright. It does not connect to device calendars, an employer, or a bank. Your device backup settings may include Shift data.

If Shift reports that its saved information cannot be loaded, stop making changes and contact support with the error wording. Keep the installation and existing information available while the issue is investigated.

Set up optional iCloud sync

Open Settings → Your Apple devices → iCloud sync, turn on Sync with iCloud, and confirm. Enable it in the same app on each device using the same Apple Account. Sync is off until you choose it; you can keep using local storage.

Shift syncs to-dos and saved places, shifts and recorded hours, templates, payment receipts, and pay settings. It keeps its own iCloud data separate from Daywright. It does not import calendars, employer records, or bank information.

Sync runs when the app opens and after saved changes while it is open. Tap Sync now to request an update. Offline changes wait locally. Check Waiting to sync and Last synced before relying on another device’s copy.

If the app shows Choose which version to keep, review the saved alternatives. A changed iCloud account pauses sync; follow the status message. Turning sync off pauses transfers, but does not erase data already in iCloud.

Use the Apple Watch companion

The Watch companion requires watchOS 10 or later and a paired iPhone. Open Shift on your paired iPhone to refresh it. View today’s to-dos, the next to-do, and a current or upcoming shift summary.

On Watch, enter a title in Capture and choose Add to inbox. On your phone, open Watch drafts, choose an estimate, then tap Add to-do. For example, capture “Book car service” now and choose 15 minutes when you review it.

Tap the checkmark to complete a to-do, or use Undo completion when offered. Actions remain Pending until the phone saves them. If the list is stale or shows Waiting for your phone, open the phone app to refresh it. A Watch tap is not confirmation that the phone has saved a change.

Add Quick capture or Next to a compatible watch face. Watch task titles and shift summaries may be visible there; the phone widget privacy switches do not hide Watch content. Nearby results on Watch come from the phone’s recent location, not a separate Watch location search.

Find to-dos nearby

In a to-do, open More details → Place. Enter an address or business and choose Search Apple Maps, then select a result. You can also enter coordinates manually. The place is part of the draft until you save the to-do.

Open Nearby to-dos from To-do or Settings. Allow location when asked, then use Refresh location if needed. The list shows saved to-dos within 5 kilometers. For example, save the parcel shop with “Return parcel” so it appears when you are nearby.

For an arrival alert, choose an Arrival radius, turn on Arrival reminder for that to-do, and use Allow arrival reminders. Location and notification permissions are controlled separately on each device. Alerts use the generic text “Nearby to-do available.”

Arrival alerts are delivered by the operating system and may be delayed or unavailable. Follow any limit or permission notice in the app. Saved places can sync with the to-do; your current location does not. Apple Maps receives a search only when you submit one.