Lunch scheduling

Lunch scheduling makes sure each agent takes a lunch break before a deadline, while the team keeps enough people working. It plans each lunch around the people already away, reminds the agent as the deadline comes closer, and tells dispatchers and managers when a lunch is overdue. It is available when it is turned on for your organization; an administrator sets the rules on the Lunch scheduling settings page.

Before you start: your sign-in must be linked to your agent, so QuantumOps knows whose lunch it is. Agents use the side panel of the browser extension; dispatchers and managers also see lunch on the Dispatch board and on the Approvals tab.

How the deadline works

Your lunch has to start by a deadline. The deadline is a set number of hours after your work starts, which is 5 hours unless your administrator chose another number. Work starts when you clock in, when you go Online, or at your shift start, whichever QuantumOps sees first. A shift that is no longer than that number of hours needs no lunch, so nothing is asked of you.

• Your lunch is 60 minutes unless your administrator set another length for your organization, your team or you. The panel, Slack and Teams all use that one length.
• A lunch counts however it starts: the Going to lunch button, a Lunch Start punch on the timeclock, /lunch in Slack or lunch in Teams. Starting it one way ends the reminders everywhere.
• A lunch cannot start earlier than your administrator allows after your work starts, and a time that overlaps an appointment or approved time off is not offered.

Pick your lunch

Early in your shift the panel offers Pick your lunch. It shows a team timeline over your shift, with a line for now and a line for your deadline. Your own row is first, then your team, then the rest of the people who count against the same away limit. A teammate's row shows only their lunch; an appointment or time off is shown only on your row. Where the limit is reached, the band under the timeline says so, for example "2/2 away". The Only my team box narrows the timeline to your team. For dispatchers, when no number is set for Max Dispatchers Allowed Away, a time is open only if at least one other dispatcher is scheduled to be working for all of it. The list is about later times, so who is signed in when you open it does not matter, and a dispatcher who is scheduled but not in yet counts.

1. Select a start time from the open times. Only times you can take are listed, and each shows when the lunch would end. QuantumOps pre-selects the one it suggests and marks it Suggested.
2. Select Plan lunch (the button names the time).
3. If someone took that time a moment ago, the list refreshes with a note such as "Someone just took 12:30. Here are the open times." Choose again.

How firmly the panel asks depends on the prompt your administrator chose:

• Remind: the picker is a sheet you can close with Close. It comes back at the first warning before your deadline.
• Required: the picker covers the area under the tabs until you pick, ask for a different time or ask to skip lunch. It never covers the header or the Clock tab, so you can always punch. Decide in 15 min puts the picker off, as often as your administrator allows.
• If you do not pick, QuantumOps can reserve a time for you shortly before your deadline and tell you which.

The lunch chip

A chip under the panel header shows your lunch on every tab. Select it to open Your lunch.

A dot on the chip means something waits for your answer: a moved lunch or a swap request.

Go to lunch and come back

On Your lunch, select Going to lunch when you leave and I'm back when you return. If you are clocked in, these record a Lunch Start and a Lunch End punch on the timeclock, so payroll stays exact; if your organization asks for a PIN, the panel asks for it. If you are not clocked in, your status changes instead. See Clock tab and Agent status commands.

Change your lunch

• Change (or Pick a time before you have planned one) shows the open times again. Moving your lunch to an open time needs no approval.
• Request a different time is for a time that is not on the list, such as a doctor's appointment or a site visit. Choose a reason, the time you would like and a note, then Send request. Dispatchers and managers who may move lunches decide it (a time past your deadline needs an approver), and you are told the answer. While it waits, the required picker steps aside, and you can select Cancel to take it back. Asking for something else replaces the earlier request, and a request lapses when your shift ends.
• Swap with a teammate: on the team timeline, select a teammate's planned lunch, then Ask to swap. If the swap cannot work, the button is off and says why, for example that the time is past your deadline. Your teammate gets a card with Accept and Decline. You can cancel a swap that has not been answered.

If you cannot take lunch today

Select I can't take lunch today, choose a reason, write a note of at least 10 characters and select Send to my manager. The reminders and the cover stop at once, and the chip says Skip request sent. A manager decides; you are told the answer. If they decline, the picker returns so you can plan a lunch. Select Cancel to take the request back while it waits. A request nobody answers by the end of your shift lapses, and the day is recorded as a missed lunch. Nobody approves their own request: if you are an approver yourself, another approver decides it.

If a dispatcher moves your lunch

A dispatcher or manager can move your lunch with a reason. A band above the tab content says who moved it, to when, and why. Select OK to accept it, or Ask to change to send a note, or a time you would rather have, back to dispatch. A moved lunch you do not answer counts as accepted once the new time arrives. If a manager approves a start after your deadline (a doctor's appointment, for example), the deadline becomes that time: nothing counts as overdue before it, and the warnings, the alarm and the escalation to leads and e-mail contacts start over for the new time. Dispatch cannot move its own lunch this way; people plan their own.

When your lunch is overdue

When the deadline passes with no lunch started, the panel shows a red banner: Your lunch had to start at 13:00 (7 m ago). Take it now to stay within the break rules. On the Clock tab it is a band above the controls instead, so punching is never blocked. A two-tone alarm sounds and repeats every couple of minutes.

• Go to lunch now starts your lunch (a Lunch Start punch if you are clocked in).
• Emergency: keep working needs a reason. The alarm and the banner go quiet for a while, and leads and approvers are told right away why. It can be used a limited number of times a day.
• Request to skip today is the skip request above. The banner softens to Waiting for approval and the sound stops.

With the side panel closed, the extension still plays the alarm (in Chrome and Edge through a hidden audio page, in Firefox from the extension itself) and shows a card on your HaloPSA page, or a desktop alert if you turned those on in Options. If your browser will not play sound, the card and the alert still appear. The alarm is off when your administrator turns off the alarm and banner.

For dispatchers

On the Dispatch board, a red banner across the top names everyone past their lunch deadline and for how long, for example "2 people are past their lunch deadline: Jane (7 m), Raj (2 m)". Next to each name:

• Send to lunch asks the person to go now. They see a banner with a Go now button; nothing changes until they press it.
• Open opens the agent's lens.

Under the banner, a lunch strip shows who is on lunch, who goes soon and who is overdue, and cards show the change and skip requests waiting for a decision. The buttons are for the people who may decide them: Approve and Decline appear on a skip request only for an approver, so a dispatcher who is not one sees the card on the board, is not alerted about it and cannot decide it (a decline needs a note). Your own request never has the buttons, even if you are an approver: it says Another manager decides this. A different-time request past the deadline or the end of the shift can only be decided by someone who is also an approver; a dispatcher who is not one is told so. People whose sign-in role may move lunches can move someone's lunch with a reason; the person is told and can answer. The overdue banner is shown only to the roles that use the Dispatch board; other people never see who is late.

For managers and approvers

Skip and different-time requests wait on the Approvals tab in a Lunch section, and on the Dispatch board. Approve or Decline each one; a decline needs a note, and the agent is told either way. Your own request is never in your list: another manager decides it. A skip request is announced only to approvers, and a different-time request only to the roles that may move lunches, so a dispatcher who is not an approver is not alerted about a skip request. You are told about a request once, not again each time the agent edits it. Approvers can also be told by e-mail and by a direct message in Slack or Teams. The people who hear about an overdue lunch, and by which route, are set on the Lunch scheduling settings page. Lunch numbers per agent and per team, including how often each dispatcher moved a lunch, are on the Breaks & lunch card of the Agent Performance Hub.

In Slack and Teams

The commands follow the same rules. /lunch in Slack and lunch in Teams start a lunch of your length now; a lunch after the deadline is never refused for the away limit. /lunch schedule 1pm plans a lunch and is checked like the picker: a time that is not allowed is refused with the reason and three times that are. /lunch slots lists the open times and your deadline. /lunch skip <reason> sends the skip request. A service delivery manager who names themselves with /sdm sets their own lunch the same way /lunch schedule does, under the same checks. If you have the panel closed, QuantumOps can send a chat message when your deadline passes. See Agent status commands.

Related pages

• Lunch scheduling settings lists every rule an administrator can set.
• Clock tab explains the punches that lunch uses.
• Agent status commands explains the Slack and Teams commands.
• Dispatch queue and agents explains the Dispatch board.
• Approvals tab explains where requests wait.