With this release several important features have been added, the company says. An employee's availability can now be entered at different times on different days, employees can use the software to request time off from their manager, and there is also now a monthly schedule view, the company adds.

Employee schedule administrators can save time by using Employee Scheduler to automatically generate optimal work schedules for their employees, the company continues.

The manual scheduling features are designed to be tweaked to show the schedules graphically after automatic scheduling takes place, and shifts can be optionally rotated. The software can even be set up to act as a time clock that records when employees arrive and leave for the day.

Employee Scheduler runs on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT 4.0, XP and 2003 server. System requirements: Pentium, 32MB RAM and 20MB hard disk space.

Employee Scheduler costs $100 for a single licence. Multi-seat and site licences are available. Time-limited trial versions can be obtained free of charge from cybermatrix.com.