Facility scheduling examples

Facility scheduling lets you book physical spaces—like repair bays, treatment rooms, or inspection lanes—and, when you need to, pair those spaces with the people who staff them. This article shows four common setups in order of complexity.

These examples assume you're familiar with the basics. If you're not, start with Schedule a facility, which covers facility resources, the booking steps, and how to pick the right facility setup. These examples build on a few core concepts. Learn more in:

• Work locations for scheduling requirements: what Work Location = Facility does.
• Add work hours: how Capacity lets one resource take concurrent bookings.
• Schedule resource pools: facility and people pools.
• Schedule multiple resources with requirement groups: requirement groups and Part of Same.

How resources relate to a facility

These scenarios connect resources to a facility in two different ways. Knowing which one a scenario uses helps you follow the steps:

• Resource children define what a pool contains—each bay is a child of its facility pool ("these spaces are part of this location").
• Bookable resource association links two separate resources that work together—a mechanic associated to a facility ("this person works at this place").

Scenario 3 uses children, Scenario 2 uses an association, and Scenario 4 uses both.

Before you begin

Keep these rules in mind for every scenario:

• For requirements that aren't part of a requirement group, the schedule assistant returns only facility or facility-pool resources when Work Location is set to Facility.
• A resource can't be related to two facilities (as a child or an association) at the same time.
• Manually scheduling a single requirement to a facility doesn't create bookings for the other resources related to that facility.

Compare the scenarios

Use this table to find the scenario that matches your situation, and then follow its steps.

Scenario 1: Schedule a facility with five generic spaces

Use this scenario when: your spaces are interchangeable and you only need to limit how many bookings happen at once.

What you're building: a single facility resource with a capacity of 5, so you can book it up to five times in the same time slot.

An auto repair shop has five identical bays and schedulers don't need to book each bay specifically. They must, however, ensure that no more than five repairs are booked across all bays during any one time slot.

1. Create a facility resource. On the Work Hours tab, enable Capacity and set it to 5. Learn more in Add work hours.

2. Create a requirement for the facility with Work Location set to Facility.

3. Book the requirements at the facility. The facility resource shows as available and can be double-booked up to the capacity limit (in this case, five times).

Scenario 2: Schedule a facility and a related resource

Use this scenario when: a booking needs both a space and one specific person who works there.

What you're building: a facility resource and a person resource, linked by a bookable resource association, then booked together as a requirement group.

An auto repair shop offers transmission repairs including luxury cars. They have a mechanic that specializes in luxury cars. Schedulers want to schedule the specialized mechanic at their facility. You can associate a resource (user, account, or contact) to a facility.

1. Create a facility resource for the auto repair shop.

2. Create a resource to represent the specialized mechanic.

   • Set the Resource Type to User, Account, or Contact.
   • Set the Start/End location to Organizational Unit Address and the organizational unit should be set to the same organizational unit of the facility resource (in this case, the auto repair shop). We recommend this setting, but it isn't required.

3. Associate the specialized mechanic resource to the facility resource.

   • From the facility resource, select Related > Bookable Resource Association (Resource 2). This related entity is called Bookable Resource Association (msdyn_bookableresourceassociation).
   • Select New Bookable Resource Association.
   • Enter a name, timeframe, and select the mechanic resource for Resource 1.

   

   Note

   You open the association from the facility, but the mechanic goes in the Resource 1 field. Double-check this—it's easy to reverse.

4. Create a requirement group with one requirement for the facility (auto repair shop) and another requirement for the mechanic resource.

   • Set Select to All so that all requirements must be met.
   • Set Part of Same to Resource Tree so that resources from different locations aren't recommended for work at this facility. As an example, a mechanic associated with Facility B shouldn't be paired with Facility A.
   • Set duration, characteristics, or other criteria.
   • For each requirement, set the Work Location to Facility and the latitude and longitude fields for the customer's location.

5. Book the requirement group. Scheduling the requirement group creates a booking for the facility resource and the mechanic resource.

   

Scenario 3: Schedule a facility with three specific spaces

Use this scenario when: you need to book particular individual spaces, not just any open space.

What you're building: a facility pool for the shop, with each bay as a child facility resource, booked through a requirement group.

An auto repair shop wants to schedule each individual bay at their facility. Create a pool of facilities to represent the auto repair shop and each individual bay.

1. Create a facility resource for the auto repair shop where the Resource Type is Pool and Pool Type is Facility.

2. Create multiple facility resources to represent each bay.

   • Set Resource Type to Facility on each resource.
   • Set the Start/End Location to Organizational Unit Address and select the same organizational unit as the auto repair shop.

3. Add each bay as a child resource to the repair shop facility resource pool.

   • From the auto repair shop facility pool resource, select Related > Resource's Children.
   • Select New Bookable Resource Group and add each bay resource as a child record to the parent facility pool.

   

4. Create a requirement group. In this example, you're looking for two specific bays within the same auto repair shop. Create two requirements in the group.

   • Set Part of Same to Same Location to ensure each bay is at the same physical address.
   • Set duration, characteristics, or other criteria.
   • For each requirement, set the Resource Type to Facility.
   • For each requirement, set the Work Location to Facility and the latitude and longitude fields for the customer's location.

   Note

   Latitude and longitude fields on all requirements within a group must be equal; updating the values on one requirement updates the others.

5. Book the requirement group. Two specific bays are recommended at the same location. The travel time and distance is calculated from the customer's location (latitude and longitude values on the requirement records) and the location of the facility resources (resource children organizational units).

   

Scenario 4: Schedule a facility with two specific spaces and two related resources

Use this scenario when: you need specific spaces and a pool of qualified people, without assigning a named person up front.

What you're building: a facility pool of bays and a pool of mechanics, linked by an association, booked together as a requirement group.

An auto repair shop wants to schedule specific bays at their facility to a pool of specialized mechanics who work at the facility. Create a pool of facilities and a pool of mechanics.

1. Create a facility pool resource for the auto repair shop where the Resource Type = Pool and Pool Type = Facility.

2. Create facility resources to represent each bay.

   • Set Resource Type to Facility on each resource.
   • Set the Start/End Location to Organizational Unit Address and select the same organizational unit as the auto repair shop.

3. Add each bay as a child resource to the repair shop facility resource pool.

   • Open the auto repair shop facility pool resource, and go to Related > Resource Children.
   • Add each bay resource as a child record to the parent facility pool.

4. Create a pool of specialized mechanics. By using a pool, schedulers can book appointments based on capacity without having to assign a specific mechanic at the time of scheduling.

   • Set Resource Type to Pool.
   • Set Pool Type to Contact, User, or Account.
   • Set the Start/End Location to Organizational Unit Address and select the same organizational unit as the auto repair shop.
   • Set Derive Capacity from Group Members to Yes so that the capacity of the pool is based on how many mechanics are associated to it.

5. Create resources to represent the specialized mechanics.

   • Set the resource type to User, Account, or Contact.
   • Set the Start/End Location to Organizational Unit Address and select the same organizational unit as the auto repair shop.

6. Add the mechanic resources as resource children to the mechanics pool.

   

7. Associate the mechanic pool to the facility pool.

   • From the facility pool, select Related > Bookable Resource Association (Resource 2). This related entity is called Bookable Resource Association (msdyn_bookableresourceassociation).
   • Select New Bookable Resource Association.
   • Enter a name, timeframe, and select the mechanic pool for Resource 1.

   

8. Create a requirement group for bays and mechanics.

   • Set Part of Same to Resource Tree to ensure bays and mechanics are related to the same facility resource through resource children or resource association.
   • Set duration, characteristics, or other criteria.
   • Create a requirement for each bay.
   • Create a requirement for the pool of mechanics. Set the Resource Type to Pool and Pool Type to Contact, User, or Account depending on how you set up your mechanics.

   

   Tip

   If you want specific mechanics to show in the results rather than the pool, set the Resource Type to Contact, User, or Account depending on how you set up your mechanics.

9. Book the requirement group.

   

   Note

   Use fulfillment preferences to display schedule assistant results in neat hourly timeslots.

Troubleshooting

If the schedule assistant returns no results:

• Confirm Work Location is set to Facility on every requirement.
• Confirm latitude and longitude are set and match across all requirements in a group.
• Confirm each bay and person shares the same organizational unit as the facility.
• For requirement groups, confirm Part of Same matches your intent (Same Location for one address, Resource Tree to keep resources tied to the same facility).
• Confirm associated resources or pool children aren't already related to a different facility.