System settings
System settings hold the organization-wide defaults that every scheduling run starts from. Getting them right means your everyday scheduling needs as few manual tweaks as possible.
Who can change settings
Section titled “Who can change settings”System settings are edited by a MainUser. A Manager can plan and schedule work, but cannot change these organization-wide defaults — see Signing in & user roles.
mainuser, who can edit, permissions, admin, general settingsWorking days: weekends and public holidays
Section titled “Working days: weekends and public holidays”Switches control whether Saturday, Sunday and public holidays count as working time for the whole organization. If a day is switched off, no tasks can be scheduled on it, even if a worker happens to have working hours there — so a shift left on the wrong day by mistake does no harm. If a day is switched on (for example a public holiday you treat as a normal working day), Allocator will schedule onto it like any other day.
saturday, sunday, weekend, public holiday, bank holiday, working day, no tasksScheduling defaults
Section titled “Scheduling defaults”Two defaults pre-fill every scheduling run so you don’t set them each time:
- Shorten working hours — a fixed amount trimmed from each day to leave room for breaks, phone calls, documentation and other work that isn’t in the task durations. Set a value that suits everyone here; you can still override it per run — see Optimization rules.
- Allowed overtime maximum — this does not grant paid overtime. It governs how late the day’s last task may start. With a 30-minute value, a task may start up to 30 minutes before the shift ends even if it finishes after it. A typical value of around 30 minutes averages out close to the intended day length over a week or a month; set it to zero and days always end short. It can also be overridden per run — see Optimization rules.
Where the working day is measured
Section titled “Where the working day is measured”These settings decide how Allocator counts shift length when a worker’s start or end point matters — for example when their start address is their home rather than the depot:
- whether the working day starts when the worker leaves (e.g. from home) or only when they reach the first stop / the depot;
- whether it ends at the last stop, at the depot, or only once they reach home;
- whether the commute to the first stop and from the last counts as working time.
If your workers leave from and return to the depot, you will normally want the working day measured from the depot.
work time start, end, depot, warehouse, home address, commute, measured fromMulti-day routes
Section titled “Multi-day routes”For long logistics tasks that span several days, Allocator can plan routes that run across multiple days and still try to return the worker home each evening. Most organizations keep everything within a single day and do not need these settings.
multi-day, long routes, overnight, tour, return home each eveningAppearance and units (General settings)
Section titled “Appearance and units (General settings)”A separate General settings page holds organization-wide appearance and reporting-unit options that apply everywhere in Allocator. It is open to a broader set of roles than System settings, which is admin-only.
- User interface — upload a favicon (PNG or SVG; Allocator resizes it to the correct favicon size automatically) and set the primary color. This is also where entity terms are renamed — for example calling Location something else across the whole product.
- Statistics — the distance unit (kilometer or mile), the currency symbol, and the per-distance (kilometer) cost used to value travel. These feed the figures in Statistics.