Step 7 is dedicated to setting up your Auto Scheduling Rules for your workflows. These settings will determine how your automated workflows will auto-populate inside your Breezeway account.
You can watch a short video on this process, here.
What are Automated Workflows?
Automated Workflows allow you to automate the scheduling of tasks based on a established set of criteria.
Accessing Automated Workflows
To access automated workflows:
1. Go to the Settings in the bottom left corner and go to the Scheduling tab on the left menu.
Scheduling Days Ahead
Automated Workflows allow you to select how far in advance you would like your tasks to populate.
Timing can be adjusted by clicking the dropdown menu to the right. The schedule can be created as far as 60 days in advance.
Examples:
If the timing is 30, the auto-scheduler will look out 30 days from today each day, and place the respective workflow based on the reservation event that is found (check-ins, check-outs, and turns).
If the timing is 7 days, the auto-scheduler will schedule on any events in the next 7 days. If a check-in is in 5 days and the checkout is in 10 days, we will only schedule on the check-in. The checkout will be scheduled 3 days later.
What happens if a new reservation comes in after the auto-scheduler has run?
If a new reservation is added after automated workflows has scheduled tasks, and it alters the existing schedule we will send a notification to any Admins or Supervisors that have the 'Reservation Update' notification selected. These will be important to track as the schedule changes and last-minute reservations are added.
Example: A new reservation comes in and the Check-out becomes a Turn. This will remove the Check-out/Check-in tasks since the Turn workflow will replace those.
Draft vs. Commit
Draft: Automated workflows can be drafted, which means that your staff will not receive assignment notifications until you commit the schedule.
You will have to make sure you commit the schedule in order for your team to know what they have been scheduled for the week. You can commit multiple tasks in a workflow in bulk.
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Commit: Automated workflows can be committed when they are created, meaning your staff will be automatically notified of any assignment as it gets added to the schedule.
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Some things to note about auto-commit:
Any default worker (if automatically assigned) will be notified immediately once the task is scheduled by the system.
The default worker will also be notified of any future task. This is determined by the timing - if the feature is set to schedule for 21 days, any default worker will receive notifications for any tasks - as far in advance as 21 days.
Assign Tasks to Default Workers
If this feature is turned 'off', all tasks will populate as unassigned. You will eventually need to both assign and commit this task for it to be carried out.
If default cleaners, inspectors, or maintenance workers should be automatically assigned to the drafts, then turn this feature 'on'. This will automatically assign the tasks to both drafted and committed tasks.
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Note: Drafted tasks will still need to be committed to send out the assignments and the proper notifications.
Dynamic Scheduling: Automatically Move Workflows
If this setting is enabled, then workflows will move with changing reservations. If the check-in or checkout date of a reservation is extended or shortened, then the workflow will move based on the change.
Examples:
Reservation extension: A Check-out date extends from Friday to Sunday, and creates a Turn on Sunday. The auto-scheduler will re-assess, remove the Check-out workflow (if it's different than the Turn), and schedule the Turn workflow.
Shortened reservation: The reservation shortens, and the check-in date changes from Thursday to Friday. The auto-scheduler will move the workflow's due date from Thursday to a due date of Friday. The assignees will remain the same.
Cancelled reservation: If the reservation is cancelled/removed from Breezeway, the workflow will also be cancelled. This will automatically alert the assignee (if task is not in draft).
Please keep in mind that any task changes that are made while a task is committed (not in draft), the assignee will be notified of the change automatically.
Editing your Automated Workflow
Automated Workflows will populate your reservations with the corresponding template(s) based on custom rules set by you and your team.
You can create and/or edit existing ones at the bottom of the Scheduling page. It should look like this -
To start editing the existing workflow to match your own processes, click on the workflow. In the example above, this would be the Departure Clean.
This should bring you to this following page where you can customize the automated workflow based on your preferences:
To edit the existing workflow, click on the blue, Edit, button in the top-right hand corner of the screen.
You'll find explanations below on what each section of the automated workflow means and how to customize it.
Conditions
This section allows you to set the criteria for when the automated workflow should apply to those new reservations.
What type of guest does this rule apply to?
This enables you to specify if you want this workflow to apply to Guest Reservations and/or Host Reservations and/or All guest types.
To edit this, hover over the All guest types option where you'll see the option to +Add Filter. This will allow you to specify which guest types you want this workflow to target
Which stays do you want to target?
This option allows you to specify a length of reservation this workflow should target.
To edit this, hover over the All stays option where you'll see the option to +Add Filter. Clicking on this will allow you specify the length of stay this workflow should target.
Which properties do you want to target?
This allows you to specify if this workflow should target All Properties or those subset properties attached to a particular Group or Tag. For more information on Properties Groups or Tags, see this Groups article or Tag Article.
To edit this, hover over the All properties option where you'll see the option to +Add Filter. Clicking on this will allow you specify if the workflow should target a Group or a Tag, and you can designate which one that is.
Schedule these Tasks
This section allows you to specify when the automated workflow should schedule the template(s) of your choice.
As illustrated above in the reference photo, the section allows you to specify if the workflow should be scheduled on Checkout or Check-in. It'll also give you the flexibility in determining if it should happen on the same day or up to 5 days before or after the check-in or checkout.
In the box underneath, you can select which templates you want added to the workflow. Here is where you would specify what particular template you want your staff to complete for this workflow. If you want to switch out a template, click on the drown down arrow next to the Departure Clean.
If you want to add multiple templates to the workflow, click on + Add template. This will allow you to add more than 1 template to the template.
Note:
As the example above illustrates, there are two separate rules for Checkout and Checkout (turn). It's important to note that the system recognizes a standard checkout (or check-in) as distinct from a Checkout (turn) or Check-in (turn). If you want your workflow to apply to both standard reservations and same-day turnover reservations, please make sure you have a rule to schedule the workflow on either the Checkout (turn) or Check-in (turn) as shown above.