Every feature, step by step.
Short walkthroughs for everything Callwell does — from your first import to your first auto-build. Narrated video guides are coming; until then, here's exactly what to tap.
1. Getting started
What it does: sets up your first team, adds your roster, and decides who's actually in the call rotation.
- From the welcome screen, tap Create a Team and give it a name.
- Add each person to the roster — name, initials, and color.
- For each person, mark them in the call pool (they take call/shifts) or viewer only (they just see the schedule).
- Set your own identity as Coordinator so the app knows who's driving the schedule.
- Repeat for additional teams if your group covers more than one service.
Tips: only people in the call pool count toward your plan's provider cap — add viewers freely, they're always free.
2. Import your current schedule
What it does: brings your existing Excel or CSV schedule in and reads the layout for you.
- From Import, upload your Excel or CSV file.
- Callwell auto-detects the layout and paints the sheet with color-coded guesses.
- Tap any row or column to correct what it means: Dates, People, Shifts/Call, or Ignore.
- Transposed sheets (people across the top, dates down the side) and multi-row person bands are both supported — tap to remap if the auto-detect misses one.
- Review the People Detected list and merge any duplicates (e.g., "J. Smith" and "Smith, J.").
- Choose Replace (start clean) or Merge (add to what's already there) if you're re-importing.
Tips: import schedules only — never enter patient information anywhere in Callwell, including in an imported sheet.
3. Usual days off
What it does: teaches Callwell each person's standing days off so auto-build never schedules around them.
- Open a person's profile and go to Usual Days Off.
- Pick a mode: By Count (e.g., two Tuesdays off a month), By Pattern (e.g., Week 1 vs. Week 2 rotation), or By Week (specific weeks of the month).
- Mark each rule Required (a hard rule the engine must honor) or Flexible (the engine tries, and flags it if it can't).
- Save — the rule applies to every future auto-build until you change it.
Tips: use Required sparingly for true must-haves; Flexible rules keep the schedule fair without boxing the engine into a corner.
4. Auto-build
What it does: builds a fair, rule-safe month — or a whole year — in one tap.
- Open the month (or year) and tap Auto-build.
- If you've already placed some people manually, check Keep my manual placements on the build sheet.
- Callwell fills the rest, balancing call across everyone — including holiday equity.
- Five hard rules are always enforced, including: never on call on a day off, and never on call the day before a day off.
- Review any flagged conflicts and adjust as needed.
Tips: manual placements are pinned 📌 — auto-build always keeps them, builds around them, and still counts them toward fairness.
5. Holidays
What it does: splits the major holidays fairly across your group, automatically.
- Callwell seeds the 7 majors most groups observe: New Year's, MLK Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day (with observed dates), Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
- Go to Observed Holidays and check off only the ones your group actually observes.
- Unchecked holidays never come back into future builds.
- Add any custom holiday your group observes that isn't in the default list.
- Auto-build splits observed holidays fairly across the call pool over time.
Tips: set your Observed Holidays list before your first auto-build of the year — it drives holiday equity from day one.
6. Requests, swaps & approvals
What it does: lets members request time off and trade call without breaking the schedule.
- Members submit a request in their open window, choosing a leave type (VL, ET, EL, Out, or another type your group uses).
- To trade call, either provider proposes a swap.
- The admin approves — Callwell re-covers the call automatically as part of the approval.
- Every request and swap is logged with who made it and when.
Tips: approvals are the only step that changes the live schedule — nothing moves until the admin signs off.
7. Cloud groups
What it does: keeps one schedule in sync across every phone in your group.
- As admin, create a cloud group — Callwell generates an invite code.
- Share the code with your team.
- Members join from the welcome screen or from Profile using the invite code.
- From then on, changes sync to every joined phone automatically.
Tips: Coordinator-level access on a joined device is PIN-gated, so joining a group doesn't hand out admin control by accident.
8. People & Access
What it does: controls who can see what, and who can edit what.
- Open People & Access and assign each person a role: Chief/Coordinator, Editor, On call, or View-only.
- Tap a person to edit their initials and color.
- Set a profile passcode for anyone who needs one.
- Tapped the wrong profile? Cancel returns you to the profile list without changing anything.
Tips: give Editor — not Chief/Coordinator — to people who should help build the schedule but shouldn't manage roles or billing.
9. Backup, restore & export
What it does: protects your schedule and gets it out to Excel, PDF, or Apple Calendar.
- Make a one-tap backup file anytime from Settings.
- To restore, choose the backup file — Callwell shows a preview (teams, people, date span) before it replaces anything.
- Export to Excel, PDF, or CSV whenever you need a document to share.
- Turn on Apple Calendar sync to give every provider a live, always-current on-call calendar on their iPhone.
Tips: always check the restore preview — it's your chance to confirm you're restoring the right teams before anything is overwritten.
Still have questions?
Check the FAQ, or talk to a human — either way, we'll get you unblocked.