Patent ID: 8762190

Claim:
A method for managing schedules using a network computer that communicates over a network, comprising: wherein the network computer is arranged to performactions, including: providing information for editing an existing schedule having at least one layer that includes at least one of a team member, a start time, a precedence value, and a shift duration; generating a edited layer based on an existing layer of the existing schedule and provided information, wherein the edited layer includes at least one of the team member, the start time and the shift duration of the existing layer that is edited by the information; generating a plurality of epochs based on each equivalent time period within the existing schedule where a same allocation of team members in the existing schedule repeats; determining a virtual start time for the edited layer based on an overlap of an actual start time of the edited layer and an end of the shift boundary for the existing layer, wherein jumping forward in time by each repeated epoch at least provides reduced computation of at least the virtual start time; generating at least one schedule entry for the edited layer based on the virtual start time, wherein the schedule entry includes a team member and a time range; discarding each portion of the time range that is disposed between the virtual start time and the actual start time; generating a layer preview based on the at least one schedule entry and a view port that is employable to display at least a portion of the edited layer; comparing each schedule entry to each other schedule entry for all layers of a new schedule that is based on an ordering of each precedence value for each layer; determining at least one final schedule entry based on at least one compared schedule entry that corresponds to a layer having a highest ordering; and generating a final schedule preview based on the at least one final schedule entry, wherein the view port is employable to display at least a portion of the final schedule preview.