Guidelines for Using the Scheduling Policy Commit Mode

This is a Field Service managed package feature.

Various conflicts can occur in the schedule during an optimization run. For example, while optimization is running, a dispatcher pins a service appointment, a customer cancels an appointment at the last minute, or an emergency service appointment is created and scheduled automatically. These actions can result in discrepancies between the schedule at the start of optimization and the schedule upon completion. If a scheduling change during optimization creates scheduling conflicts, you can commit the optimization recommendations despite the conflicts or roll back to the original schedule without making any changes.

• Always Commit (default for Salesforce orgs created before Summer ’23): If a user tries to make a potentially conflicting change to the schedule while optimization is in progress, a message is shown to warn the user that their change can conflict with the optimization results, but lets them opt to save the change. If the conflicting change is made by automation or a user outside of the Classic Dispatch Console, no message is shown.
• Rollback (default for Salesforce orgs created from Summer ’23): If a potentially conflicting change is made to the schedule for the dates being optimized—with a buffer day before and after—don’t complete the optimization. This choice is a conservative scheduling option that helps you avoid possible conflicts. For example, if you begin a scheduled job to optimize from April 2 to April 5, changes made to the April 1 to April 6 schedule cause the optimization to be rolled back. Changes include creating and deleting resource absences and service appointments, any resource absence updates, and updates to the service appointment assigned resource, Scheduled Start or Scheduled End.

The default when you’re using Enhanced Scheduling and Optimization is Rollback, but consider selecting Always Commit during global optimization. Rollback is recommended with in-day optimization schedule policies due to a high chance of conflicts. During night-optimization, where conflicts are limited, consider selecting Always Commit.

Note In rare cases, a service appointment can incorrectly have two assigned resources even if the scheduling policy is set to Rollback. This can occur if a dispatcher manually assigns a service appointment on the Gantt at the exact same time an optimization request is about to commit its results. The rollback check (which looks for Gantt changes) can finish right before the manual drag-and-drop action completes. Because the check detects no change at that moment, the rollback isn't triggered, and the optimization results are committed, resulting in the duplicate assignment.

Here are examples of potentially conflicting schedule changes and what happens depending on the selected Commit Mode.