A rule on an address (see Add a service rule to an address) keeps it out of certain dispatches, caps how often it is visited, or changes its price for a period.
When rules are checked
Rules are judged against the dispatch's planned time:
- when a dispatch is created, of any kind, including a manual registration of past work;
- when your dispatch is collected into the day's existing one;
- when addresses are added, the planned time is edited, or a work type is changed on the dispatch or on a stop.
They do not run while the dispatch is driven: checking in or completing a stop never re-applies a rule, and a rule added after the dispatch was created does not touch it.
What happens to a stop a rule catches
The stop stays on the dispatch, marked removed with the rule's name: it shows Excluded by rule and the name, and the message after creation says 2 location(s) were excluded by location rules. Nobody else is told. The stop is neither driven nor invoiced.
You can override a rule by restoring the stop; it is then serviced and invoiced normally, and stays restored even if a later edit would catch it again. If the rules could not be checked, the dispatch still goes out, with Warning: location rules could not be checked for this dispatch.
How a max-count rule counts
A Max count rule allows so many visits per Period. It counts planned visits, not performed ones: every stop on another dispatch planned inside the period counts, started or not. Stops marked unable, removed or cancelled do not count, nor does the dispatch being checked.
- Per day: the calendar day of the planned time.
- Per week: Monday 00:00 to Sunday midnight.
- Per month: the calendar month.
- Per season: the season dates of the business that dispatches, set under Settings. With no season set, or a planned date outside it, the rule is skipped, not treated as unlimited.
The work types ticked on the rule share one budget: Max 2 Per week with snow clearing and salting is spent by two visits of either kind. No work type means every work type.
Past the limit: do not dispatch, or pay for work
On an address with a season price, a max-count rule offers a choice under Past the limit:
- Do not dispatch (the default): the visit past the limit is taken off the dispatch, marked as removed by the rule, and nothing is billed for it.
- Pay for work: the visit stays on the dispatch and is invoiced on its own. A price table appears for the ticked work types; enter the price (and cost) a single visit past the limit is worth. With Max 10 Per season and a season price, visits one to ten are covered by the season price and visit eleven onwards each become an invoice line at the price you entered, per work type as usual. A work type left at 0 is not billed.
Which visit is "past the limit" is decided by the planned time: the visits of the period are counted in planned order, and the rule's name shows on the invoice line so you can see why it was billed. The rule list shows such rules as "Max 10 per season · Pay for work".
Minimum snow depth
The minimum is not a rule condition: it is the address's own number, Only dispatch when snow exceeds on the Prices tab's Snow depth rules panel. It is judged against the dispatch's snow depth rather than its planned time: below the minimum, the address's plowing stops are removed with the threshold as the reason, while salting-only work types always go out. Unlike the rule conditions it is also re-checked when the depth on an open dispatch is edited: held-back stops come onto the dispatch when the new depth reaches the minimum, and unworked stops come off when it no longer does. A stop restored by hand, or with work already recorded, is not touched. Being below the minimum is not an error and raises no warning; the whole depth model is in Pricing by snow depth.
Days, hours and holidays
A Day changes rule matches the weekday of the planned time; with Restrict to specific hours the time must also fall inside a slot (a slot ending before it starts runs overnight). A Period change rule matches a window from one weekday and time to another, wrapping past Sunday. The Holiday chip also matches your business's holidays: your country's calendar plus those you added or switched off.
A matching price rule sets the stop's price on the invoice, named on the line; it never removes the stop.