A workforce rule compares staffing or money with a requirement. It does not create an employee assignment or reserve a position. This exercise uses a separate department so its warnings cannot interrupt the main coordinator course.

Before you begin

Use a reserved Practice rule clinic department with exactly one active approved position of 1.0 FTE from January 1, 2027, and no other active workforce rules. The setup administrator prepares this separate department and position before the lesson, using Create your first position and Submit and review a position with the reserved practice names. No employee assignment is needed for a Position FTE check. Record the department and position numbers, and confirm the starting total before entering a target.

The rule administrator needs Manage workforce rules and View positions for the department. For the request exercise, the requester needs Manage positions and Submit position requests, and a different eligible reviewer makes the decision. The optional financial branch also needs Workforce Budgeting and the relevant financial access. Use a separate department if unrelated positions or rules would affect the result.

Create the first requirement

  1. Open Workforce rules > Rules and choose Add workforce rule.
  2. Name it Practice clinic FTE budget. Select Practice rule clinic, a start date of January 1, 2027, and an exclusive end date of January 1, 2028.
  3. Select Include in budget comparisons, then choose Continue to requirement.
  4. Set the first effective date to January 1, 2027. Choose Position FTE, At most, and a Target of 1.0000. Leave the job classification unrestricted.
  5. Set On submission, On approval, and When applying approved changes to Information only for the first check. Keep Check this rule from this date selected and include Approved records, Proposed changes, and Approval request under Information to check.
  6. Select Review requirement and compare the name, department, dates, measure, target, and all three responses with the values above. Select Save requirement.

If you saved only the rule details, its Setup incomplete status means no requirement exists yet. Choose Add first requirement and finish the remaining steps instead of creating a duplicate rule.

Run and save a met check

  1. Choose Run a check, select On a date, and enter January 1, 2027.
  2. Select Practice rule clinic and Budget targets only. Use Update rule choices if you changed the date or department, then select Practice clinic FTE budget.
  3. Choose Run a check and wait for the finished result. Expect 1.0000 measured Position FTE, a maximum of 1.0000, and no difference.
  4. Enter Practice clinic baseline in Check name and select Save check.
  5. Open Saved checks, search for that name, and reopen it. Confirm the department, dates, target, measured amount, and check time.

Saving keeps the finished comparison. It does not rerun the calculation. If information is missing, finish that setup and run a new check rather than interpreting Unknown as zero.

Change the requirement from July

  1. Open the rule and choose Add requirement change from July 1, 2027.
  2. Keep the Position FTE measure and At most condition, but set the target to 0.5000. Keep all three responses at Information only initially, review, and save.
  3. Run a check Over a period from June 30, 2027 through July 2, 2027 as the first excluded day.
  4. Read both applicable intervals. June 30 meets the 1.0 target. From July 1 the unchanged 1.0 measured FTE is 0.5 FTE above the new target.
  5. Save this as Practice clinic July target. Reopen Practice clinic baseline and confirm that it still records its original 1.0 target and result.
  6. Use the saved-check actions to compare the two checks. Identify the changed requirement and any result marked as not comparable rather than describing every difference as a staffing change.

Use Correct requirement only for a wrongly entered policy. Correcting a requirement can change a new check of an earlier date, but it does not rewrite either saved check.

Observe a warning and a block on a request

Use a separate approved practice position change and an eligible reviewer. Choose Add requirement change from July 2, 2027, keep the 0.5000 maximum, and set the submission response to Warn and allow, approval response to Block action, and application response to Block action. Review and save the intended requirement before continuing.

Propose increasing the position from 1.0 to 1.25 FTE on July 2. Run the offered workforce checks and read the result: 1.25 exceeds the 0.5 maximum by 0.75 FTE. Submission may continue with the warning, while approval must remain blocked. Ask the reviewer to Return for changes or Reject request according to the exercise. Confirm the approved position remains 1.0 FTE. Do not remove a real rule merely to force approval.

Finish the blocked request before the improvement exercise. Confirm that Returned for changes or Rejected has closed it. On the position, open Actions > Discard draft changes to remove the unused 1.25 FTE proposal, then confirm that the approved position is still 1.0 FTE.

On Practice clinic FTE budget, choose Add requirement change from July 3, 2027. Keep the 0.5000 target and set all three responses to Allow with warning if improving. Review and save. This changes the same rule’s response from July 3; do not add another rule alongside the earlier blocking requirement.

Create a new position proposal reducing 1.0 to 0.75 FTE from July 3, 2027. The target is still missed by 0.25, but the proposal improves the original 0.5 excess. Run the checks and read every checked interval. The earlier blocking response must not apply to the proposed July 3 change; another rule or a worsened interval still requires investigation. Submit the request and have the independent reviewer verify that approval is offered with the improvement warning. Finish this rehearsal with Return for changes, confirm that the request is closed, and use Discard draft changes on the position. The approved position should remain 1.0 FTE.

Try a financial period rule

In Workforce Budgeting, use a separate Practice budget clinic department containing exactly one approved full-time position for the complete year, with an annual budget of $84,000 and no additional adjustments. Create an At most rule scoped only to that department using Budget capacity cost for January 1, 2027 through January 1, 2028, with Total for rule period and a target of $84,000. Use Information only while learning. Run a check and inspect the dates beneath the result: the complete 365-day 2027 rule period is checked, so the expected period cost is $84,000.

Repeat with a separate rule whose target is $83,000. The same complete-year amount is $1,000 above that target. Selecting one overlapping day does not turn a complete-period rule into a daily cap. For a financial minimum, maximum, missing-rate result, or improvement example, continue with Workforce rule examples.

Follow, stop, and repeat

Add Rules and budgets to a practice dashboard and select the same department and date. Compare its budget target with the saved check. Changing the widget’s filter does not change the rule’s action responses.

Use Stop checking from a date to stop this practice requirement after the agreed exercise period. Review the carried-forward requirement with checking turned off and save. Run a check before and on that date to verify the transition. The stopped rule and saved checks remain available for review. Close unfinished practice requests, record which position changes were applied, and leave the original coordinator example unchanged.