A blank week is the slowest way to build a rota. Suggest a week asks Paddy to draft one for a site as open shifts, which you then fill, edit and save. Nothing it drafts is published, and nobody is told anything until you publish it yourself.
Asking for one
On the rota, choose the site and an empty week. The empty week offers three starts, and Suggest a week is one of them; the Suggest button in the toolbar does the same and is only there while the week is empty. A panel opens with the proposed week: how many shifts and hours, the labour share against expected takings if you can see sales, a line per day, and the labour target it worked to. Change the target and press Recalculate until the size looks right, untick any day you do not want, then press Add as drafts.
Or type it into Ask Paddy: Draft next week for the Anchor. You get a confirmation card first that says which site, which week, how many shifts and hours, and what it worked from. See Confirming and cancelling Paddy actions.
What it works from
The demand band. Cover follows the shape of the day, so the busy hours get more people and the quiet ones fewer.
Your labour target. From Settings > Sales, or 30% if you have not set one, against the expected takings for each day.
The shift lengths you usually run. The median published shift length per weekday over the last eight weeks, so a site that runs sixes gets sixes.
Opening hours and breaks. Shifts stay inside the site's hours and carry the break the working-time rules require.
What you get
Shifts appear in the grid greyed, as open drafts with nobody on them, exactly as if you had typed them without a name. Drag people in as usual; eligibility warnings apply the moment a name goes on, so nothing is hidden by being suggested rather than typed.
Editing it
Move, shorten or delete as normal, then save what you want to keep. The size is set before the drafts land, with the target and Recalculate in the panel; once they are on the grid the panel is gone, because the week is no longer empty. If the whole thing is wrong, delete the drafts and the offer comes back.
What it will not do
Publish. That is always you.
Pick the people. Every shift it drafts is open, and the names are yours to put on.
Touch a week that already has shifts. Both the rota and Paddy refuse until the week is empty; there is no adding to a half-built week.
Draft for a site with no demand band. It says there is not enough takings history yet; four weeks of takings is the bar.
Treat it as a first draft. It is right about the shape of the day. It does not know that Jo has asked for more hours or that the new starter should not be alone on the bar yet. That is what the names are for.