Pharmacy staff schedule: the team's shifts, week by week, on your iPhone
To try it out, Send Planning is free with no time limit, for 1 team member and 1 location. A pharmacy team of 3 to 8 people needs Pro, which you can try free for 14 days. You build the week on your iPhone, with lunch breaks and week A/B rotas, and each person gets only their own shifts.
Only for people who live in Switzerland.For information. This guide explains how to use Send Planning and summarises Swiss rules on work. It may contain errors or be out of date: always check the official sources (Fedlex, SECO, your canton's labour inspectorate) and, if in doubt, ask an official service for help. Not legal advice. Prices are in the App Store.
- Free: how far does it go?
- The team's week
- The day, with the lunch break
- Week A, week B
- How many people?
- Swapping a shift
- Send each person their schedule
- The app, and what is free
- Breaks and informing the team
- Questions
A free pharmacy staff schedule: what the free plan really does
To try it out, yes: Send Planning is free, with no time limit, for 1 team member and 1 location. That is enough to see how the app builds a week and sends a schedule. A team of 3 to 8 people needs Pro, which you can try free for 14 days on the subscriptions.
The idea is simple: you build the week on your iPhone and each person receives only their own shifts, by WhatsApp, SMS or email. No Excel, no computer, no account.
The team's week at a glance
A neighbourhood pharmacy opens from 8:00 to 18:30, plus Saturday morning. One person cannot cover all that: you need morning shifts, afternoon shifts and days off that rotate. Here is a week for four people.
In the app, each shift has a person, a location, a day, a start and an end time and a break in minutes. If there is no break, the app writes “no break”. Days off are entered separately: the reason is private and never appears in the message.
The day, with the lunch break
In a pharmacy, not everyone has lunch at the same time: the counter is never left empty. Over one day, each person has their own line and their own break.
The break, set per shift. The app writes it in each person's message (“60 min break”), so nobody has to ask.
Week A, week B: a series that repeats
Many teams alternate. One week Léa does Saturday morning; the next week it is Sofia. In the app, a repeating shift is created only once: you pick the days of the week and how often it repeats (every week, or every other week). You can add an end date.
If one day breaks the pattern (a public holiday, a day off), you move or delete just that day without rebuilding the series. On Pro, public holidays are imported by canton; on the free plan you type them in by hand.
How many people do you need to cover opening hours?
A quick calculation before you build the week. It leaves out holidays and absences: it is an order of magnitude.
Hours to cover per week
- Opening hours per week
- Staffed hours to cover
- Full-time people, roughly
With the lunch break, days off and holidays, you need a little more. A team of 3 to 8 people, with some part-timers, is a common case.
Swapping a shift in three taps
Sofia cannot come on Thursday afternoon. Rui would rather have Saturday morning. They agree between themselves and you make the swap in the app. The day, the hours and the location stay the same; only the people change.
If the shift was already sent, the person who loses it gets a notice in the next send.
- Long presson Sofia's shift
- “Swap shift”in the menu
- TapRui's shift
Moving a shift that was already sent adds an “amendment” to the next message, with the old time and the new one. The app does not ask team members to approve: you decide, after talking to them.
Send each person their schedule
Nobody has to install anything. Each person receives a message with only their own shifts, by WhatsApp, SMS or email. The format can be text, an image or .ics, the calendar file (by email and Share).
Mon (02 Nov): 08:00–17:00 (60 min break) • Corner Pharmacy Tue (03 Nov): 08:00–17:00 (60 min break) • Corner Pharmacy Wed (04 Nov): Day off
✓ SentMon (02 Nov): 09:30–18:30 (60 min break) • Corner Pharmacy Tue (03 Nov): 09:30–18:30 (60 min break) • Corner Pharmacy Thu (05 Nov): Day off
✓ SentMon (02 Nov): 08:00–12:30 (no break) • Corner Pharmacy Wed (04 Nov): 08:00–17:00 (60 min break) • Corner Pharmacy
✓ SentBy email, the message goes out from your own account (Google, with the send-only permission, or an SMTP account with an app password). The app has no email server. You can also schedule the send, for example on Thursday for the following week.
Send Planning: the app, and what is free
Send Planning is an app for iPhone and iPad. It makes the schedule for small teams, with no account and no server: the data stays on your device.
- The whole team's weekEveryone's shifts, days off, and flagged conflicts (two overlapping shifts, a shift on a day off).
- Repeating seriesDaily, weekly, every other week, monthly, yearly.
- Swapping shiftsOne long press and the people swap shifts.
- One schedule per personWhatsApp, SMS, email or Share, as text, image or .ics.
- Routes and costs (Pro)Kilometres and minutes from home to the location, with Apple Maps, handy for cover at another pharmacy.
- The PDF poster (Pro)From A6 to A3, for the day, week, month or year.
Free with no time limit, to try it: 1 team member, 1 location, 1 series, 1 theme, public holidays by hand, lock with Face ID or PIN. Each message ends with “Sent with Send Planning by Alpine Lynx”. A real team needs Pro: unlimited team members, locations and series, public holidays by canton, routes, reports, posters and no sign-off. Subscriptions start with 14 days free; there is also a one-time payment. The price is in the App Store.
Download Send Planning for iPhone and iPad. You make the team's rota and each person gets only their own shifts, by WhatsApp, SMS or email. Free to start, no account.
Breaks and informing the team
The app helps you plan and inform; complying with the law is the employer's job. Two rules of the Swiss Labour Act matter most for a pharmacy schedule.
Art. 15 ArG (Labour Act)Minimum breaks: a quarter of an hour if the day is longer than 5.5 hours, half an hour above 7 hours, one hour above 9 hours. They count as working time if the person cannot leave the workplace.Art. 47 ArGThe employer informs workers of the working hours schedule, by posting it or in another suitable wayArt. 69 ArGV 1Workers are consulted on planning and informed as early as possible of a new schedule, as a rule two weeks before
Check your own case. Pharmacies often have a collective agreement or cantonal rules with their own durations. Check your collective agreement (GAV/CCT) and your canton.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a pharmacy staff schedule that is really free?
Send Planning is free with no time limit, but for 1 team member and 1 location: it is meant for trying it out. A team needs Pro, which you can try free for 14 days on the subscriptions. The price is in the App Store.
How do I make a pharmacy team's schedule on an iPhone?
You add the team members and the location, then place each person on their shifts with a start time, an end time and a break. The app flags shifts that overlap. Then you send each person their shifts by WhatsApp, SMS or email. No Excel and no computer.
How do I organise lunch breaks?
Each shift has its own break in minutes. With staggered hours the counter is never empty, and the break shows in each person's message. The law sets minimum breaks: a quarter of an hour above 5.5 hours of work, half an hour above 7 hours, one hour above 9 hours (Art. 15 ArG). Check your collective agreement too.
How do I alternate Saturday morning between week A and week B?
You create a series that repeats every other week, with the days you pick, and a second series for the other person. If a day breaks the pattern, you move just that day without rebuilding the series. An end date is optional.
How do I swap a shift between two people?
Long-press a shift, choose “Swap shift”, then tap the other person's shift. The day, the hours and the location stay the same; only the people change. If the shift was already sent, the person who loses it gets a notice in the next send.
When and how do I tell the team the schedule?
The employer informs workers of the schedule, by posting it or in another suitable way (Art. 47 ArG), and as a rule two weeks before a new schedule (Art. 69 ArGV 1). The app sends each person their shifts and, on Pro, prints a PDF poster from A6 to A3 for the staff room.
Do my team members have to install the app?
No. They receive a message with their shifts, by WhatsApp, SMS or email. There is no app for team members, and the app does not do time clocking or payroll.
About this guide. Informational content, not legal advice: working-time rules depend on your contract, your collective agreement and your canton. Names, times and figures are invented examples. The articles cited are from the Swiss Labour Act (ArG) and its Ordinance 1 (ArGV 1); each links to the official text on Fedlex, which is available in German, French and Italian (the links open the German version). This guide may contain errors or be out of date: always check the official sources. Updated October 2026.
More guides on this topic
- Cleaning: note your clients and hours on the iPhone, and send each team member her schedule, with no paper and no Excel
- Send the café rota by WhatsApp – and what data protection says about it
- Restaurant schedule: lunch service, dinner service and breaks
- Print the team schedule as a PDF, from A6 to A3, to put on the wall
- Announce the shift schedule in time: plan and send two weeks ahead
- Visit scheduling for small Spitex teams: visits, routes and kilometres
- Swapping shifts in a team: swap two shifts and tell everyone
- A 7-day shift schedule without Excel: repeating shifts and days off
- Staff rota for a nursery on your iPhone: start free, no computer