eBrigade Availability module
Collect your teams’ availability by time slot, without chasing anyone
Each member ticks their available slots on a monthly grid — full day, half-days or named periods: morning / noon / evening / night. You get a real-time view by day, by month or by person, with absences already overlaid, and an Excel export ready for building your shifts and schedules.
These buttons are about the full eBrigade subscription: this module is included at no extra cost in every plan.
Illustration · sample data
What is the eBrigade Availability module?
Each staff member declares their availability by named time slots (full day, half-days, morning/noon/evening/night) on a monthly grid. The manager sees who is available by day, by month or by person, with absences overlaid, and exports everything to Excel. It is included at no extra cost in every eBrigade plan.
Who’s available on the evening of the 14th again?
Collecting a team’s availability by email, by text message or on a shared spreadsheet means chasing the same people every month and working with information that is out of date as soon as it arrives. A “half-day” hides the actual time slot, an absent staff member is still counted as available, and when it is time to build the roster, nobody knows any more who can really come, or for which slot.
An up-to-date availability grid, readable at a glance
Each staff member manages their own slots; you read an up-to-date monthly grid where every cell says yes or no for the exact slot, and where absent staff stand out automatically. You switch from a view by day to a view by person to spot gaps, then export the month to Excel. Data entry is no longer your job: it becomes the reliable raw material for your shifts and on-call duties.
What you can do with Availability
The day is declared as 1×24h, 2×12h, 3×8h or 4×6h. Each mode is based on precise time ranges (for example, in 3×8h: 04:00–12:00, 12:00–20:00, 20:00–04:00), which aligns declarations with your actual shifts.
Each period has a name and a short code that you define (morning, noon, evening, night, day, D, N…). Staff tick labels they understand, and the grid stays readable for everyone.
The By day view shows who is available on a given date, the By month view displays a team’s full grid, and the By person view lays out one member’s month. You switch between them without leaving the page.
Approved unavailability (leave, absences) is carried over onto the grid and into the export: an absent staff member stands out visually and is never counted as available, with no double entry.
Beyond forward planning, a staff member can declare themselves available or unavailable on the spot from My account, for a set duration. The status reaches the manager immediately, and the administrator can release it manually.
In one click, the displayed month exports to a dated Excel file (disponibilites_mois_année.xlsx), ready to send to management or the supervisory authority, or to reuse when building your schedules.
Step by step
In the settings, select the slot mode that suits your activity: 1×24h (full day), 2×12h (day / night), 3×8h or 4×6h. Each slot gets a name and a short code of your choice (morning, noon, evening, night…), so it speaks your organisation’s language.
From their own area, each member opens their monthly grid and ticks, day by day, the slots when they are available. Entry is immediate and covers their main section as well as their secondary sections, with no re-entry on your side.
Switch between the By day view (who is available today), By month (the full grid for a staff member or a team) and By person (a specific member’s month). Days of approved absence are highlighted, so an unavailable staff member is never counted.
Export the full month to Excel in one click, or go straight to the Duty roster module: the roster is pre-filled using only the staff who declared themselves available for the slot concerned.
Where this module really pays off
Volunteer firefighters: each volunteer firefighter (SPV) ticks the shifts they can do in 2×12h mode (day / night), and the station commander immediately sees under-covered nights before building the roster.
Civil protection associations: volunteers declare their half-days on first-aid posts, and the operations manager assigns each person where they said they would be.
Civil protection using time periods: a morning / noon / evening / night split (4×6h) makes it possible to pinpoint missing reinforcements over an event weekend.
Multi-section organisations: a staff member attached to two sections declares their availability separately for each, with no double counting in the schedule.
Reservists and sessional staff: the monthly grid replaces the shared spreadsheet and removes individual reminders before each period.
Management and supervisory authority: the monthly Excel export provides a dated availability report that can be archived and passed on as it is.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference from the Minute-level availability module?
Here, staff declare their availability by predefined slots — full day, half-days or named periods (morning / noon / evening / night) on a simple monthly grid to tick. The Minute-level availability module, on the other hand, is based on a calendar where each staff member enters time ranges to the hour and minute, with a title, activity type and recurrence. The slot grid is the quickest to fill in; the minute-level version covers needs for precise timing.
Can we change how slots are split to suit the way we work?
Yes. You choose the mode (1×24h, 2×12h, 3×8h or 4×6h) in the settings, and you name each slot with its label and short code. The change applies to the whole organisation and can be modified again.
Does a staff member attached to several sections declare separately?
Yes. Availability is held separately for the member’s main section and secondary section. A staff member can therefore declare themselves available for one section without being available for the other, which avoids any double counting in the schedule.
Are absences taken into account automatically?
Yes. Approved absences are overlaid on the grid and the Excel export: a staff member on leave or absent stands out visually and is not counted as available, with no re-entry on your part.
How does Live availability work?
It is a built-in real-time feature: from My account, each staff member can declare themselves available or unavailable immediately for a chosen duration. The information reaches the manager straight away, and the administrator can release a staff member manually. It complements forward declaration by slot.
Who can view or change other staff members’ availability?
Each member manages their own grid. Viewing and managing other people’s availability (By month and By person views) is reserved for managers with the corresponding rights over the section concerned.
Is this feature included in eBrigade?
Yes. Availability declaration by slot is one of eBrigade’s included features: it is enabled and set up from the configuration, with no paid option. Moving to minute-level declaration is covered by the Minute-level availability module.