In What Order does the Auto-Scheduler Work?

As you are adjusting activity settings, it is important to understand the order in which the auto-scheduler works to schedule activities. Keep in mind, the auto-scheduler will work in a matter of seconds, but this outline should help you grasp an understanding of why certain activities may show up more or less in any given group schedule.

1. Meals: The system will always first check to see if you have marked any activities as a meal, listed as the 5th option on the activity setting.
2. Activities with Guaranteed Slots: Think of this as your jumping off point, determining which activities your schedule will be built around. It will look to activities with guaranteed slots and an importance of 10 first, then nine, eight, seven ... etc.. 
   1. You can find guaranteed slots at the far right of the activity settings under "Eligible Groups" below "#/week". The numbers you enter for each group in that column will determine how many times that activity will be scheduled for each group in a given week.
3. Primary Activities: Once all activities with guaranteed slots have been scheduled, the auto-schedule will begin scheduling the primary activities. You would have ranked each activity with a certain level of importance (1-10, 10 being the most important). Higher numbers are weighted more and thus there is a greater chance of those activities being scheduled.
4. Secondary Activities: These are the final activities to be scheduled with the auto-scheduler. The secondary activities essentially fill in the holes within a group schedule and round out their day/week.

Note that we have mentioned Importance level many times, as it is a factor in each of these steps. By setting the importance it helps the scheduler understand what it needs to prioritize over other activities. The default setting for importance is 5.