Maximum Schedule Budget rule

The Maximum Schedule Budget rule is used to ensure that generated schedules do not exceed the location budget. Shifts are only assigned if the cost of the shift can be paid for by the budget. When the budget is too low to fully cover the staffing requirements, the number of shifts that can be assigned is reduced.

When this rule is used with other rules, there are conditions where the schedule cost may exceed the budget. When Maximum Schedule Budget is set to a constraint, the budget is exceeded when it is required to satisfy a hard constraint rule. For example, if employees must be assigned a minimum number of hours a week as a hard constraint, the budget may be exceeded to pay for the minimum hours. When following a constraint rule costs more than the budget, either rule may be broken. The constraint may be broken to keep costs within the budget, or the budget may be exceeded, depending on the schedule scenario.

When Maximum Schedule Budget is set as a hard constraint, the budget is not exceeded under any circumstances. In the example above, schedule creation would fail if the cost of scheduling employees to their minimum hours is higher than the budget. It is recommended to use this rule as a constraint to avoid scenarios where the budget makes it impossible to find a schedule solution.