An exclusion rule overrides all other staff assignment rules for a given record, preventing reassignment. Use this pattern to lock a staff assignment in place — for example, to preserve a portfolio or caseload assignment across terms and cycles, or to retain an assignment after a record's attributes change.

Create a staff assigned locked field

First, create a new field to indicate whether a record should be eligible for staff reassignment.

1. Select Database in the top navigation bar and select Fields.

2. Select New Field.

3. Enter the following configurations in the popup window:

   • Status: Active

   • Scope:  Person

   • ID:  staff_locked (or advisor_locked, coach_locked, etc.)

   • Name:  Staff Assigned Locked (or Advisor Assigned Locked, Coach Assigned Locked, etc.)

   • Field Type:  Single Value

   • Prompt:  Bit (Yes/No)

4. Select Save.

5. After saving, refresh your fields using the link in the Fields tool sidebar. See Refreshing Field and Prompt Caches if you need help with this step.

✨ Best Practice

Add both the staff assignment field and the locked field to a Custom Tab on the person record. This lets you view and manually set assignments and locks directly from the record.

Create a staff assigned locked exclusion rule

Add an exclusion rule to your staff assignment exclusivity group. This rule runs at priority 1, before all other assignment rules. Any record with the locked field set to Yes matches immediately and is excluded from all subsequent rules in the exclusivity group — leaving its staff assignment unchanged.

1. Select Database in the top navigation bar and select Rules.

2. Select New Rule.

3. Enter the following configurations in the popup window:

   • Name: Staff Assignment - Locked (Do Nothing) (or Advisor Assignment - Locked (Do Nothing), etc.)

   • Base: Configurable Joins - Person

   • Type: Field

   • Trigger: Upon Update (Deferred)

   • Folder: Staff Assignments (or the folder that matches your other rules)

   • Exclusivity Group: Staff Assignments (or the exclusivity group used by your other rules)

   • Priority: 1

   • Status: Preview

4. Add a filter for your locked field: select IN Yes.

5. Action: Select Do nothing and skip processing of other lower-priority rules in this Exclusivity Group when filter criteria are met.

6. Select Save. Unlike most areas of Slate, the Rules Editor does not save automatically.

7. When the rule is finished, select Edit in the top right-hand corner of the Rule Editor interface, then change the status from Preview to Active and Save.

💡 Tip

You can extend this pattern by adding additional filters to the exclusion rule — for example, to exclude records from a previous term. See Getting Started with Configurable Joins for general querying guidance, or Rule Efficiency and Query Building Best Practices for guidance on building healthy rules.