Say you have a group of similar rules. Within that group, you know that some rules should have a higher priority than the others.

An exclusivity group bundles that group of rules together and lets you assign them a priority order.

A common example: staff assignment rules. Perhaps your database has 10 rules that assign students to different staff members based on the student’s state of origin. However, you want all transfer students to be assigned to one specific staff member, regardless of their home state. You can use an exclusivity group to give a higher priority to the transfer rule than any of the others.

Creating an exclusivity group

To create an exclusivity group:

1. When creating a new rule, select an existing exclusivity group, or select Other to create a new exclusivity group.

2. Number the Priorities in increments of five or ten. This lets you add rules to the exclusivity group at any time in the future.

📝 Note: All rules in an exclusivity group must use the same base, rule type, and trigger.

Example: Staff assignments

Imagine you have 6 populations of students (you very well may have more) in your Slate instance that will be assigned to 6 of your staff:

Some records need to be assigned to Leslie. Some records need to be assigned to Donbee. Some records have a staff assignment from a past entry term that should not change and more.

Automation will allow these students to be automatically assigned to staff based on the criteria you've defined. In this example, each student is assigned by their citizenship status, student type, or region (again, this may be an oversimplification of the process). It is possible that a student can meet the criteria for more than one rule, which is one example of why it is important to give order to the rules.

When a person is put through the rules, each rule will run based on the priority (1-6).

Example: Students from California

Imagine that all students from the Pacific region are assigned to Leslie. If the rule defines students who live in California are part of the Pacific Region rule. This student will not meet the criteria of rules 1-5. So, Leslie will be assigned that student.

Example: Student from Wisconsin

Imagine that all students from the Midwest region are assigned to Donbee. If the rule defines students who live in Wisconsin are part of the Pacific Region rule. This student will not meet the criteria of rules 1-3, 5, or 6. So, Donbee will be assigned that student.

Example: Transfer student from California

The student meets the criteria of two rules in this example. This is when exclusivity groups and priorities are put to the test. In this example, the student meets the criteria of rules 1 and 6. However, a priority of 1 is greater than 6. Therefore, this student will be assigned to Edain.

Example: International transfer student

In this example, the student again meets the criteria of two rules. The student meets the criteria of rules 1 and 2. However, a priority of 1 is greater than 2. Therefore, this student will be assigned to Edain again.