Availability Rules

Availability rules define the times when a staff member or a room is unavailable for scheduling. The conflict detection engine checks these rules when evaluating sessions and surfaces clashes before publication, preventing planners from accidentally scheduling sessions during blocked periods.

How Availability Rules Work

When the conflict detection service evaluates a session instance, it checks every staff member assigned to the allocation and the room assigned to the session against the active availability rules for that date and time window. If a session falls within a rule's scope, the system creates a conflict record — hard for unavailable rules and soft for restricted rules.

Availability rules are checked in addition to actual session bookings. A room with no other sessions scheduled during a time window can still generate a hard conflict if an unavailable rule covers that window — for example, a room blocked for maintenance.

Note: Availability rules apply at the time of conflict evaluation. Adding or deleting a rule triggers a re-evaluation of all allocations involving the affected staff member or room. This re-evaluation runs in the background; check the conflict panel after a few moments to see updated results.

Rule Types

Unavailable

The staff member or room cannot be scheduled during this window under any circumstances. Sessions falling within an unavailable rule generate a hard conflict and will block publication unless the session is moved or cancelled.

Restricted

The staff member or room is available in principle, but scheduling during this window is discouraged or requires explicit justification. Sessions falling within a restricted rule generate a soft conflict (warning only). A planner with the timetable.manage permission can acknowledge the soft conflict and proceed to publication.

Recurrence Types

Weekly

The rule recurs on the same day of every week. Requires a day of the week to be specified. An optional end date can be set; if left blank, the rule applies indefinitely from the start date.

Date Range

The rule applies for a continuous block of dates, such as a two-week external commitment or a room closure for renovation. Requires a start date and an end date.

One-off

The rule applies to a single specific date. Useful for one-time events such as a staff member attending a conference or a room being used for an exam.

Staff Availability Rules

Staff availability rules record the times when a specific staff member is not available for teaching. Common uses include a fixed administration block on Monday mornings, a contracted hours restriction for part-time staff, or an external commitment on a specific date.

Staff members do not need a SIS system account to have availability rules. Visiting lecturers, external examiners, and casual tutors — who may not have a portal login — can all have availability rules managed by a planner, and the conflict engine will check them when evaluating sessions.

To view and manage availability rules for a staff member, open their staff profile in the Timetable module. The Availability tab shows a list of all current rules and a visual weekly availability matrix. Blocked time slots are shown in red (unavailable) or amber (restricted). Booked sessions for the current week are overlaid in blue.

Room Availability Rules

Room availability rules record when a specific room cannot be used for teaching. Common uses include maintenance windows, external event bookings, or restricted-access periods outside teaching hours.

Room availability rules are managed from the room's detail page, accessible either through Organization → Rooms or directly from the room picker in the Timetable planner. The availability tab and matrix work identically to staff availability.

Add an Availability Rule

1. Navigate to the staff member's profile (Timetable → open any allocation → click a staff member's name) or the room's detail page (Organization → Rooms).
2. Open the Availability tab.
3. Click Add Rule.
4. Configure the rule:
   • Rule Type — select Unavailable (hard block) or Restricted (soft warning).
   • Recurrence Type — select Weekly, Date Range, or One-off.
   • Day of Week — required for Weekly recurrence. Select the day this rule applies to.
   • Start Time / End Time — the time window within the day. Leave both blank and enable All Day to block the entire day.
   • Valid From — the date from which this rule takes effect.
   • Valid To — the date on which this rule expires. Leave blank for an open-ended rule (applies indefinitely for weekly and date-range types).
   • Reason — optional description shown to planners in conflict messages and the availability matrix tooltip.
5. Review the Preview section, which lists the first few dates this rule would affect, to confirm it is configured correctly.
6. Click Save.

Edit or Delete a Rule

To edit an availability rule, open the staff or room availability tab, find the rule in the list, and click the edit icon. Make your changes and save.

To delete a rule, click the delete icon next to it in the list and confirm in the dialog. Deleting a rule triggers an immediate background re-evaluation of all affected allocations. Check the conflict panels for those allocations after a few moments to confirm the conflicts have been cleared.

Important: Deleting a rule does not automatically resolve the conflicts it caused. The conflict records are replaced with fresh results during re-evaluation. If a conflict was caused solely by the deleted rule, it will disappear from the conflict panel after re-evaluation. If other issues still exist, those conflicts will remain.

Next: Schedule Views