# Set up your staff

Updated 2026-10-15 by the TicketPa team. Source: https://ticketpa.com/help/set-up-staff

Staff are the people who run your activities, like a kayak guide, a pottery instructor or an escape room game master. Tell TicketPa who they are and which activities they run, and once someone books a time slot, TicketPa puts free staff on it. Nobody is put on two time slots at the same time. Staff are optional.

Your plan sets how many staff you can have: 3 on Basic, 20 on Standard and unlimited on Pro. Appointments with your staff work on every plan. Putting staff on time slots comes with Standard and Pro.

## Switch on a team member

1. Go to **Staff** in the sidebar.
2. Under **Your team**, switch on **Can run activities** next to their name.

They can run every activity to start with. To change that, select **Choose activities** next to their name, choose **Only these**, tick the activities and select **Save**.

Team members who run activities see **Mine** and **All** above today's time slots on their dashboard, so they can see only their own. Someone who isn't on the team yet needs inviting first. See [Invite team members](https://ticketpa.com/help/invite-team-members).

## Add a person without a login

For freelance or seasonal staff who don't use TicketPa:

1. Under **People without a login**, select **Add person**.
2. Enter their **Name**.
3. Choose **All activities**, or **Only these** and tick the activities they can run.
4. Select **Add person**.

TicketPa can put them on time slots like anyone else, but they can't see them in TicketPa.

## Appointments

For an activity booked at a free time with your staff, each appointment books one person who runs it, and the **Staff** tab has **Guests choose who they book with** instead of the numbers below. See [Set up appointments](https://ticketpa.com/help/set-up-appointments).

## Say how many staff an activity needs

This comes with Standard and Pro. On Basic, the numbers show with a lock.

1. Go to **Activities**, open the activity and select the **Staff** tab.
2. Enter **Staff per time slot**. Use 0 when nobody needs to run it.
3. For bigger groups, enter **One staff member for every** so many guests. With 8, a time slot with 12 guests gets 2 staff. Leave it empty to keep the number above.
4. Select **Save**.

The tab also lists who can run the activity. Upcoming booked time slots get their staff straight away. If there aren't enough free staff, TicketPa says how many booked time slots are short.

## When staff are put on time slots

- A time slot gets its staff when someone books it, not before, so a long schedule never ties up your team.
- TicketPa picks staff who run the activity and are free for the whole time slot, in the order you added them.
- It never picks someone on time off, or outside their own hours when they have them. See [Set opening hours, staff hours and time off](https://ticketpa.com/help/opening-hours-and-time-off).
- When the time slot's bookings are all cancelled, its staff come off it again.

## See and change who runs a time slot

- A booked time slot short of staff shows **Needs staff** in the **Calendar** and on the **Dashboard**, where Owners and Managers also see the booked time slots of the next two weeks that need staff.
- The time slot's guest list shows its **Staff**, or **Nobody yet**, with how many are missing.

To choose the staff yourself:

1. Open the time slot's guest list, from the **Calendar** or your dashboard.
2. Next to **Staff**, select **Change**.
3. Tick who runs it. Staff on another time slot then show **Busy**, people who are away or outside their own hours show **Off or outside their hours**, and the ones who don't usually run the activity say so. You can still choose someone who is off, and TicketPa reminds you to check with them.
4. Select **Save**.

Staff you choose stay, whatever happens to the bookings. Only Owners and Managers can change staff; Hosts see who runs it.

## Hours and time off

Select **Hours** next to someone's name to give them their own working hours or add time off. Their hours and upcoming time off show under their name. See [Set opening hours, staff hours and time off](https://ticketpa.com/help/opening-hours-and-time-off).

## Remove someone from staff

Switch off **Can run activities** next to a team member, or select the trash icon next to a person without a login, then **Remove**. They come off their upcoming time slots, which look for other free staff. If none are free, TicketPa says how many booked time slots are short of staff now. Past time slots keep who ran them.