Collect availability with Google Forms — the complete Shiftaru form guide

The most tedious part of collecting shift preferences is building the intake form all over again, every time.
Shiftaru connects to your Google account once and then auto-generates the Google Forms for you. The period, time slots, areas and courses you configured become the form's questions directly.

This guide walks through connect → generate → share → import, with real screenshots.

🔧 Note
Shiftaru is in active development. Right now you can try the free practice mode (sample data, no signup). Google Form auto-generation unlocks after purchasing a license.
👉 https://shiftaru.com

The overall flow

Connect Google (first time only)
  → Configure the form content & preview it
  → Auto-generate the three forms
  → Share the response URLs with staff and customers
  → Publish the response sheet to the web
  → Paste the URL into the app and import

1. Connect your Google account

Open Settings → the "Form generation" tab and press ① "Connect".

The Form generation tab showing the "Google account not connected" card and the Connect button

Google's sign-in screen opens. Sign in with the account you want the forms created under and grant access.

⚠️ If you see an "unverified app" warning: Google Form auto-generation is currently under Google review, so the warning may appear the first time. Choose "Advanced" → "Continue" to proceed (up to 100 respondents). The warning goes away once the review passes.

2. Confirm you're connected

Once connected, you'll see the green "Google account connected" state. The "Google" chip at the bottom of the sidebar also flips to "Linked".

Green "Google account connected" banner

3. Configure the form content

In the same tab, set up what goes into the forms.

Settings for the form target period, closed days, and time slots

Form target period — the period you're collecting for (these dates appear in the form)
Closed days (excluded dates) — by weekday or by specific date. They are physically removed from the staff shift-preference grid
Time slots (comma-separated) — the shift slots. Always enter them as a start–end range (like 9:00〜10:00). A single time cannot be imported from the responses
Quick options (bulk check) — build options like "All day" or "Morning" so staff can answer several time slots with one check (much less clicking for them)

Areas, courses, certifications and so on are pulled automatically from what you registered in the "Basics" tab.

4. Check it in the form preview

Before generating, use the "Form preview" at the bottom of the screen to see the finished form. It has the same structure as the real Google Form and updates in real time as you change settings.

Form preview showing the questions of the staff shift-preference form

5. Generate the forms

When you're ready, press the generate buttons. There are three forms.

The three generate buttons: customer form, staff master registration, staff shift preferences

Form	What it collects	How often
Customer form	Preferred dates/times, course, area, etc.	Every period
Staff master registration form	Name, covered areas, certifications, etc.	Once
Staff shift-preference form	Available dates/times (a check grid)	Every week/month

6. Share the response URLs

After generating, each form shows a "Response URL (to share)" and an "Open editor" link.
Just send the response URL to your staff and customers by email or chat.

Generated forms with their response URL and editor link, plus the guide for importing responses into the app

💡 If the same person answers again, the latest response overwrites the previous one (matched by email address).

7. Publish the response sheet to the web (on Google's side)

Once responses come in, publish the sheet in a form the app can read. This is the one step you do on Google's side.

Three steps: create the sheet from the Responses tab → File → Share → Publish to web (CSV) → copy the URL

In the form editor, open the "Responses" tab → click the Sheets icon to create a response spreadsheet
In that sheet, go to File → Share → Publish to web, and be sure to choose the comma-separated values (.csv) format
Copy the published URL (…/pub?output=csv)

🔒 "Publish to web" means anyone with the URL can view it. If that bothers you, you can skip publishing entirely and instead download the CSV and drop it into the app.

8. Paste it into the shift import tab

Back in Shiftaru, go to Staff → the "Import shifts" tab. Paste the published URL into ① and press ② "Import". Done.

The Import shifts tab with the URL field and the Import button

Staff master responses go into the "Import master" tab
Customer responses go into the "Import Customers" tab, exactly the same way
The URL is saved, so from the second time on you just re-import

From here it's the same as the free trial guide: press "Run matching" and the shifts build themselves.

Summary

Settings → Form generation and connect Google (first time only)
Set the period, closed days and time slots, then check the preview
Auto-generate the three forms and share the response URLs
Publish the response sheet to the web (CSV)
Paste the published URL into the import tab — that's it

No more hand-building forms. No more retyping responses.

▶ https://shiftaru.com — free practice mode, no signup
▶ Read more: Shiftaru Blog