Scheduling
MaxProviders and lanes
One queue per member of staff, side by side, with customers routed to whoever frees up first.
Setting up a lane
- 1
Add a provider
A provider is a person or a station — a doctor, a chair, a service desk. Give them a name and a colour. The colour is how you will find their lane at a glance. - 2
Set their shift
Start and end times for the day. Outside the shift, the lane takes nobody, so a queue cannot quietly assign customers to someone who has gone home. - 3
Override their service time if needed
Leave it alone and the lane inherits your business-wide average. Set it when one person genuinely works at a different pace, and their estimates will reflect that. - 4
Let customers arrive
New walk-ins are routed automatically to the lane that can see them soonest. You do not assign people by hand unless you want to.
Per-lane controls
Close to walk-ins
Stops new walk-ins being routed to this lane while everything already assigned continues. For someone finishing up or catching up.
Extend shift
Pushes the end time later without disturbing anything already scheduled. For a day that overruns.
End shift
Closes the lane for the day. Anyone still assigned is dealt with rather than stranded.
Assignment strategy
By default customers go to whoever is free soonest. Round-robin instead spreads them evenly, regardless of who is quickest.
Closing a lane to walk-ins is the gentle option
Reach for it before ending a shift. It stops the flow of new work immediately while letting someone finish what they already have, which is almost always what you actually meant.
How routing decides
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Soonest available | The default. A new walk-in goes to whichever open lane can see them first, accounting for the queue and each lane’s own service time. |
| Round robin | Customers are dealt out evenly across open lanes in turn. Use it when fairness between staff matters more than raw speed. |
| Not routed at all | A lane that is closed to walk-ins, outside its shift, or inactive receives nobody. |
Soonest available
The default. A new walk-in goes to whichever open lane can see them first, accounting for the queue and each lane’s own service time.Round robin
Customers are dealt out evenly across open lanes in turn. Use it when fairness between staff matters more than raw speed.Not routed at all
A lane that is closed to walk-ins, outside its shift, or inactive receives nobody.
Common questions
Lanes become a real timetable when you turn on Dynamic Scheduling.