Until now, Automatic shift planning only followed four fixed rules taken from each employee's contract. With custom rules, each company can describe its own scheduling constraints in its own words, such as "nobody works more than 5 shifts per week" or "no morning shift right after a night shift", and the planner will apply them automatically.

Overview

Custom rules let admins encode the working agreements, legal limits and team preferences that a manager would otherwise have to check by hand. You create them once with One, Factorial's AI assistant, and they are applied to every automatic schedule from then on.

There are two kinds of rules:

• Default rules: four rules that always exist and take their values from each employee's contract: agreement hours, rest days per week, rest hours between shifts, and maximum working hours per day. You only decide whether each one is mandatory or optional.
• Custom business rules: any additional rule your company needs. You describe it to One in plain language, review the draft, and save it.

Mandatory and optional rules

Every rule, default or custom, is either mandatory or optional:

• Mandatory: always enforced by the planner. It cannot be switched off when generating a schedule.
• Optional: the manager can enable or disable it for each scheduling run from the Run Auto-schedule pop-up.

How to create a custom rule

1. In your sidebar, go to Settings
2. Under Time, click Shift Policies
3. In Planning rules, go to the Custom business rules section
4. Click Add rule
5. A chat with One opens. Pick one of the suggested rules or describe what you need in your own words, for example "No one should work more than 5 days in a row"
6. One will ask any clarifying questions it needs, such as whether the rule is mandatory or optional
7. Review the draft rule that appears on the page
8. Click Save

You can also reach this page from the Run Auto-schedule pop-up by clicking Edit rules.

How to apply rules when scheduling

Custom rules are applied when you run Automatic shift planning. Before running it, make sure you have created the coverage for the week. If you have not, follow the steps in Automatic shift planning first.

1. In your sidebar, go to Shifts
2. In the top right corner, click Schedule
3. The Run Auto-schedule pop-up opens. Select the workplace and the employees to include
4. In the Rules section, review the rules that will be applied:
   • Optional rules have a toggle. Switch off any you do not want to apply for this run
   • Mandatory rules are always applied and cannot be switched off
5. Need to add or change a rule? Click Edit rules to open Planning rules in Settings
6. Click Run

What rules can you create?

Here are examples of rules that work today. Describe them to One in your own words.

Working time and limits

• "Max 40 hours per week"
• "Max 5 days per week"
• "Max 6 days in any 7-day window"
• "Max 5 days in a row"
• "Never more than 3 shifts back-to-back"

Rest and time off

• "At least 11 hours of rest between shifts"
• "At least 2 days off per week"
• "At least 2 consecutive days off per week"

Shift patterns

• "At least 30 minutes between shifts"
• "Keep the gap in split shifts small"
• "No morning shift right after a night shift"
• "Morning and evening shifts go together"

Fairness

• "Spread total hours fairly across the team"
• "Share weekend shifts fairly"
• "Balance morning, afternoon and night shifts fairly"

Skills and people

• "Only staff certified in X can cover X shifts"
• "Ana and Marc always work together"

Current limitations

• Automatic shift planning generates one week at a time. Rules that need to look across several weeks, such as "max 2 weekends per month", cannot be applied yet.
• Rules based on tenure, competencies or contract type can be saved but are not applied yet.
• Rules based on employee availability or preferences, labour costs, or demand forecasts are not supported yet.

FAQ

1. Does One decide the schedule?
   No. One only helps you write and save the rule. The schedule is generated by the planner, which applies your saved rules the same way every time.
    
2. Can a manager ignore a rule for a single week?
   Only if the rule is optional. Optional rules appear as toggles in the Run Auto-schedule pop-up. Mandatory rules are always applied.
    
3. Can I edit or delete a rule later?
   Yes, from Settings → Shift Policies → Planning rules. Changes apply to the next schedule you generate.
    
4. Why are some shifts still unassigned?
   Your rules, coverage and available employees cannot all be satisfied at once. Loosen a rule, mark it optional, or adjust coverage.
    
5. I cannot see the Schedule button or the Shift Policies page. Why?
   Automatic shift planning is available for Enterprise plans, and managing rules requires the permission to manage automation rules. Contact your admin if you should have access.