Availability, monthly caps, and blackout dates

The scheduler is only as good as what it knows about people's availability. Each minister can record a preferred Mass, a limit on how often they serve, and dates they cannot.

What can be set

• Preferred Mass — the Mass they usually attend; auto-fill leans toward it.
• Monthly cap — the most times they want to serve in a month. Set a number, or No cap.
• Blackout dates — a date or range they are unavailable, optionally for all ministries or a specific one, with a reason.

Who sets it

• The office can set any of these for a person from Ministries.
• Parishioners can set their own from the portal, if you enable it — which keeps the data fresh without office effort.

How the scheduler uses it

Auto-fill never assigns someone on a blackout date, never exceeds a monthly cap (counted across all schedules that month), and prefers people at their preferred Mass.

Tips

• A monthly cap counts every schedule, so someone capped at two will not be over-served by overlapping seasons.
• Encourage ministers to keep their own availability current in the portal — it is the single biggest thing that makes auto-fill produce a clean first pass.