Use this lesson after Outpatient Services, Patient Services Coordinator, and Weekdays are ready. Configure organization-wide rules carefully because later position and assignment forms follow them.

Before you begin

You need Manage position setup. Use designated practice records only. Do not alter the populated demonstration or create a second Patient Services Coordinator position if the administrator already prepared one for this exercise.

Configure and compare rules

  1. Open Settings, then Position settings. Read the current assignment rule before changing it.
  2. Choose the least restrictive rule that matches the agreed practice: Flexible, One position per employee, One employee per position, or One-to-one.
  3. Set the rule’s start date to the agreed practice date. A later date gives time to resolve existing overlaps.
  4. Open the position-number settings. If the team wants padded numbers, choose Position number padding digits. With four digits, position 132 appears as POS-0132; with 0, no zeros are added.
  5. Review the external position and assignment ID choices. Choose Optional unless the practice requires an identifier supplied by the instructor. Leave optional IDs blank for manual exercises when no identifier has been prepared.
  6. Open Fields and choices and confirm any assignment purpose used in the exercise, such as Regular or Job share, keeps its established meaning.
  7. On the designated practice position, confirm the allowed pattern: Avery Reed has one full-time assignment of 1.0 FTE to the full-time Patient Services Coordinator position.
  8. Use a separate designated practice record to try the disallowed pattern. For example, under One position per employee, try to give Avery a second overlapping assignment. Read the message and correct the dates or rule instead of forcing a save.
  9. If the practice permits shared positions, use a separate full-time position with two half-time assignments of 0.5 FTE each. Confirm that the assignment rule allows the relationship and that the total fits the position.

If learners will practice assignment imports, enable Optional or Required external assignment IDs managed by FTE Tree. Every assignment import row needs one, even when the setting is Optional. Use the fictional ID supplied by the assignment import exercise only in the separate practice organization. Skip that exercise if assignment IDs are unavailable or managed by a connected HR system.

Check your result

The intended assignment saves, while the disallowed overlap explains what must change. Check that you can find a position after its number display changes and explain that an identifier maintained by an enabled external connection may not be editable locally.

Ask: Does a Job share assignment purpose override the assignment rule? No. The dates, FTE, and organization rule still control whether the arrangement is allowed.

Distinguish workforce requirements

Position and assignment rules control allowed relationships. Staffing minimums and cost limits belong in Workforce rules. Use Workforce rule examples to compare a met requirement, an unmet requirement that warns on submission but blocks approval, and an informational target that does not block. Manage schedules in Workforce > Work schedules and shift classifications in Settings > Workforce setup.

Next task

Continue with Set up approvals and required documents.

Practice target comparisons

Use the school-demo walkthrough to compare the Help Desk’s 5 Position FTEs with its minimum, budget, and recovery targets. Check rules from the department summary, then try Budgets only. Read the saved improvement example and explain why 4.75 FTEs can be allowed with a warning against a 4.5 FTE target while an increase would block. Keep the original approved staffing unchanged.

Follow the targets afterward

Open the school demo’s Help Desk staffing targets dashboard. Read the summary’s multiple-budget message, then compare both budgets and the minimum requirements in Rules and budgets. Use Check rules to check the same rules. Explain why hiding a target on your dashboard does not change whether a request warns or blocks. The dashboard practice lesson also covers the dollar targets.