Short answer

Yes to both. A task can have multiple assignees — any of them can complete it. And you can reassign on the day from the web app without rebuilding the routine, which is the standard way to handle absence cover. The routine's default assignment carries forward for future days, so the reassignment is just for today.

Detail

Assignment lives at the task level, not just the routine level. There are three patterns in use:

Single assignee, single owner. The simplest. The routine assigns each generated task to one named operative; the operative completes the task on their phone. Good for routes where one person owns the route end-to-end.

Multiple assignees, shared ownership. The routine assigns each task to a list of people. Any of them can complete the task — typically a small crew that covers the same patch. This is the right shape when a council has, say, three operatives who together cover a bin route and any of them might pick up any bin on the day.

Within this multi-assignee pattern, two operational sub-patterns are worth distinguishing:

  • Work-as-a-team. Two or more operatives physically do the round together; either one marks each bin done as they go. Common for safety/efficiency reasons on driving routes. Example: South Swindon's bin route — Darren and John always run it as a pair, so assigning both to every bin is correct and one of them marks each done.
  • Split-on-the-day. Two or more operatives are eligible but only one of them actually does each round on any given day, decided in the morning. Example: Thetford Town Council has 2–3 operatives any of whom might be sent out to litter-pick or empty bins on a given day. Either way, both are assigned to the routine; the per-day reassignment to a specific person happens in the morning task list.

The data model treats them identically — both end up as multi-assignee tasks. The distinction matters for which name appears on the completion record (a team member or the assigned-this-morning operative) and for how supervisors think about audit trails.

Reassignment on the day. When someone's off, open the day's task list, filter to that operative's open tasks, bulk-select, and reassign to whoever's covering. The reassignment applies only to the tasks already generated for that day — tomorrow's instances revert to the routine's default assignment.

To reassign, you don't need to touch the routine. Reassigning the task is a per-instance change, not a routine change.

Watch-outs

  • Mass-reassignment is fine, but communicate it. The operative who's covering needs to know they've inherited the route; in-app notifications help, but a quick voice/text message is sensible for unexpected cover.
  • Multiple assignees can mean ambiguity — who actually went to the asset? The completion record captures who marked it done, so you still get a clear audit trail, but if accountability matters, prefer single assignment.
  • If you find yourself reassigning every day, the routine's default assignment is wrong. Edit the routine to match how the work actually flows.
  • For rotating or zero-hours shifts, assign the task to all the people who might do it — not just one. Operatives usually run with hide completed on, so a task disappears from the list the moment someone marks it done. If it's assigned to only one named person and a different person actually does it that shift, the assignee never sees it was completed (and may redo it), while the person who did it can't tick it off at all. Putting every eligible operative on the task means it shows for whoever's on shift, and once any of them completes it, it drops off everyone's list. Example: a council's caretakers are on zero-hours contracts cleaning the Town Hall — the cleaning task is assigned to the whole pool, and whoever's working that shift swipes it done.
  • Operatives who have left are removed by deleting them — there is no deactivate option (delete/bin icon on the Manage Users list). Reassign any outstanding jobs to the covering operative before you delete the leaver, and if a successor is taking the route, set their account up first. See How do I migrate a Civic.ly user to a new email address?.