Do you work with agency workers from agencies such as Weaver, Young Ones or Logistics Force? Then you create generic accounts. Do you have regular self-employed contractors who come back on a regular basis? Then you create personal accounts. This article explains both approaches.
Step 1 - Determine the type of temporary staff
There are two scenarios:
A) Staffing agency (rotating people)
Use generic accounts if: - You work with a staffing agency (Weaver, Young Ones, etc.) - Different people come each time - You have no personal contact with the flexible staff
B) Regular self-employed contractors (recurring regularly)
Use personal accounts if: - You have a self-employed contractor who comes back regularly - You schedule the same person again and again - You want direct communication with the contractor
Step 2 - Creating generic accounts (agency workers)
Create a number of generic employees per staffing agency. These are placeholder accounts for rotating people.
Field | What you enter | Example |
Name | Agency name + sequence number | Weaver 1 |
Email address | Fictitious, unique | |
Date of birth | Default date (the system requires this field) | 01-01-2000 |
Contract type | Payroll / Agency | Agency |
Availability | Set to 0! | 0 hours per week |
Tip: In Bas, agency and temporary workers fall under the contract type Payroll / Agency. Do you have on-call workers with a zero-hours contract? Enter them with contract type Variable with zero hours (see the article Setting the work schedule).
Repeat this for as many agency slots as you need. Three to five per staffing agency is a good starting point.
Examples of generic accounts:
Name | Contract | Availability | |
Weaver 1 | Agency | 0 hours | |
Weaver 2 | Agency | 0 hours | |
Young Ones 1 | Agency | 0 hours |
Step 3 - Why availability at 0?
This is the key point. If you set the availability to 0: - The agency worker does not appear in the planning by default - You manually add the agency worker to a job when they're actually working - After the job the agency worker disappears from the planning view again
If you don't do this, all your agency workers appear in the planning every day. With 20 Weaver accounts, your planning is then full of people who aren't there.
Note: Availability at 0 is crucial for a clear planning with generic accounts. This is different from permanent employees, where you do fill in a work schedule.
Step 4 - Making an agency worker available for a job
If you need an agency worker for a job:
Go to the employee (e.g. "Weaver 1")
Click Availability
Select the date the agency worker is working
Tick: Available
Save
The agency worker now appears in the planning for that specific day and can be scheduled on a job.
After the job:
You have two options: - Option 1: Make the agency worker unavailable again (planning stays clean) - Option 2: Leave it as is (they do appear in the planning, but that can be useful if you use that person more often)
Tip: For rotating agency workers: make them unavailable again after the job. For agency workers you use more often: leave them as is.
Step 5 - Creating personal accounts (regular self-employed contractors)
Do you have a self-employed contractor who comes back regularly? Then you can create a personal account. This works the same as a regular employee.
Field | What you enter | Example |
Name | Real name + "(Self-employed)" | Jan Bakker (Self-employed) |
Email address | Real email address of the contractor | |
Contract type | Self-employed / Agency | Self-employed |
Work schedule | Fill in when the contractor works | Mon-Fri 7:00-16:00 |
Sending the invitation:
After creating the account: 1. Send the invitation for the employee app 2. The contractor receives an email with login details 3. The contractor can now use the app themselves
Advantages of a personal account:
The contractor sees their own planning in the app
Direct communication possible via the app
More professional than a generic account
The contractor can register their own hours
Step 6 - Hours registration for flexible staff
Flexible staff must register their hours, so you can invoice them to the staffing agency. There are two ways:
Option 1: Foreman registers hours via the app
Foreman opens the employee app
Goes to the job
Starts and goes through all the steps to the last one
Can adjust the times per employee (including flexible staff)
This is the fastest way: the foreman registers everyone's hours in one go.
Option 2: Manual entry in the back office
Go to HRM > Hours overview
Select the employee (e.g. "Weaver 1")
Manually add hours for the relevant date and job
This is useful if the foreman hasn't registered the hours or if you need to adjust something afterwards.
Step 7 - Checking and exporting hours
To check and export the hours of flexible staff:
Go to HRM > Hours overview
Filter by:
Per employee (e.g. all Weaver accounts)
Per date/period (e.g. last week)
Check the hours
Export to Excel
Columns in the export:
Column | What it shows |
Employee name | e.g. Weaver 1 |
Date | Work date |
Job/file | Which job was worked on |
Hours worked | Number of hours |
Deviations | Any over- or under-hours |
Approval status | Approved or still to be checked |
You use this export to invoice the staffing agency.
Example: a typical temporary staff file
Below is an example of what a complete temporary staff overview could look like:
Name | Type | Availability | Use | |
Weaver 1 | Agency | 0 hours | Generic account | |
Weaver 2 | Agency | 0 hours | Generic account | |
Young Ones 1 | Agency | 0 hours | Generic account | |
Jan Bakker (Self-employed) | Self-employed | Mon-Fri 7am-4pm | Personal account |
Note that the generic accounts have an availability of 0. They only appear in the planning once you make them available for a specific day.
Tips
Use recognisable names for agency workers. "Weaver 1", "Weaver 2" works better than "Agency A", "Agency B" - you immediately know which agency they're from.
Create enough slots. Three to five per staffing agency is a good starting point. You can always add more.
Personal account for regular self-employed contractors. This is more professional and the contractor can use the app themselves.
Register hours via the foreman. This is faster than manual entry in the back office.
Export weekly. This keeps you organised and lets you invoice the staffing agency on time.
Note
Availability not set to 0 for generic accounts means your planning fills up with people who aren't there. Always set the availability to 0 for generic agency accounts.
No distinction between generic and personal causes confusion. Use generic accounts for rotating agency workers and personal accounts for regular self-employed contractors.
Not registering hours means you can't invoice the flexible staff. Make sure the foreman or back office always registers the hours.
Not exporting means you have no overview of the hours worked. Export weekly or monthly.
Want to know more?
Entering employees - Step-by-step guide for creating employees
Employee skills and their role in the planning - Explanation per skill and the impact on the planning
Next step: Understanding the storage structure - learn how storage works in Bas with the 3-level structure (only if you offer storage).