Exclusivity Groups

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 ensure the transfer rule is evaluated with higher priority than 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 makes it easier to add additional rules to the exclusivity group in the future.

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

Example: Staff assignments

Imagine you have 6 populations of students in your Slate database 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. It is possible for a student to meet the criteria for more than one rule, which is why it is important to assign a priority that determines the order in which the rules are evaluated.

When a record is put through the rules, each rule will run based on its priority.

Example: Students from California

Imagine that all students from the Pacific region are assigned to Leslie. If the Pacific Region rule defines students who live in California as part of this group, then any student from California who does not meet the criteria for Rules 1–5 will be assigned to Leslie.

Example: Student from Wisconsin

Imagine that all students from the Midwest region are assigned to Donbee. The Midwest Region rule defines students who live in Wisconsin as part of this group. Therefore, any student from Wisconsin who does not meet the criteria for Rules 1–3 will be assigned to Donbee.

Example: Transfer student from California

A transfer student from California will meet the criteria for rules 1 and 6. In this case, exclusivity groups and priorities determine the outcome. Because rule 1 has a higher priority than rule 6, it is evaluated first, and the student will be assigned to Edain based on their transfer status.

Example: International transfer student

An international transfer student will meet the criteria for rules 1 and 2. Because rule 1 has a higher priority than rule 2, it is evaluated first, and the student will be assigned to Edain based on their transfer status.