Scheduling & Assignment Types

SOPHIE's scheduling system gives you precise control over when and how SOPs appear on your team's task lists. Instead of a simple "daily" or "weekly" label, you can build flexible recurrence rules and choose how tasks are assigned within each role.

Recurrence Rules

Every SOP has a schedule that tells SOPHIE how often to generate tasks. You configure this when editing a SOP by clicking the Schedule button in the details panel, which opens the scheduling modal.

Available Frequencies

Frequency	What it means
Daily	A task is created every working day.
Weekly	A task is created on the same day(s) each week. Pick one or more days (e.g., Monday and Thursday).
Bi-Weekly	A task is created every other week on the specified day(s).
Monthly	A task is created once per month. Pick a specific date (e.g., the 15th) or a relative date (e.g., "last Friday of the month").
Quarterly	A task is created once per quarter. Pick the month within the quarter and the day.
Yearly	A task is created once per year on the specified month and day.
As Needed	The SOP exists for reference but does not generate scheduled tasks. Team members can still open and complete it when the situation arises.
Custom	Build a custom recurrence pattern when none of the standard options fit.
Days After	A task is generated a set number of days after a triggering event. Useful for follow-up procedures.

The Scheduling Modal

When you click Schedule, a modal opens with a calendar preview so you can see exactly which days tasks will be generated. The modal lets you:

• Choose a frequency from the list above
• Select specific days, dates, or intervals
• Pick the time of day for each schedule (Beginning of Day, During the Day, or End of Day)
• Preview upcoming task dates on the calendar

This gives you confidence that the schedule matches your practice's actual workflow before you save.

Examples

• Daily instrument sterilization — Set to Daily, Beginning of Day and End of Day. Your team gets a task first thing in the morning and another before close.
• Weekly supply order — Set to Weekly on Monday, Beginning of Day. Every Monday, the responsible team member sees the order task.
• Monthly fire extinguisher check — Set to Monthly on the 1st, During the Day. A task appears on the first of each month.
• Quarterly OSHA training review — Set to Quarterly, 1st month, 15th day. Every January 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15.

Split Schedules (Per-Role Scheduling)

Sometimes different roles on the same SOP need different schedules. For example, a "CLEAN treatment rooms" SOP might need to run:

• Daily for Dental Assistants (they clean between patients)
• Weekly for the Office Manager (who does a deep-clean inspection)

With split schedules, you create schedule groups within a single SOP. Each group has its own:

• Recurrence rule (frequency, days, times)
• Assigned roles
• Assignment type (see below)

To set up a split schedule:

1. Open the SOP and click Schedule.
2. Configure the first schedule group (e.g., Daily for Dental Assistants).
3. Click Add Schedule Group to create a second group.
4. Configure the second group with its own frequency, roles, and assignment type.

Each group generates tasks independently. The Dental Assistant gets daily tasks while the Office Manager gets a weekly inspection task — all from the same SOP, keeping your procedure documentation in one place.

Assignment Types

Assignment types control how SOPHIE distributes tasks when multiple team members hold the same role. You choose an assignment type for each schedule group.

Everyone

Every user with the assigned role gets their own task. All of them must complete it.

When to use it: The procedure must be performed by every individual — such as reviewing a new policy, completing a training acknowledgement, or sanitizing your personal workstation.

Example: "REVIEW updated HIPAA policy" assigned to All Staff with the Everyone assignment type. Every team member gets their own task and must mark it complete individually.

Round Robin

SOPHIE rotates the assignment between team members in the role. One task is created per time slot and assigned to one person. Next time, someone else gets it.

When to use it: The task only needs to be done once, and you want to share the load fairly across the team. No one person gets stuck doing it every day.

Example: "RESTOCK treatment room supplies" assigned to the Dental Assistant role with Round Robin. Monday it goes to Sarah, Tuesday to Marcus, Wednesday back to Sarah (if there are two assistants), and so on.

How rotation works: SOPHIE tracks who was assigned last and moves to the next person in order. If someone is out of the office (their work schedule or out-of-office is set), SOPHIE skips them and moves to the next available person.

Workload

SOPHIE assigns the task to the team member with the most capacity — specifically, the person with the fewest pending tasks at the time the task is generated.

When to use it: Similar to Round Robin, but instead of strict rotation, you want SOPHIE to balance the load based on who is least busy. This is especially useful when team members have different workloads or part-time schedules.

Example: "PROCESS insurance pre-authorizations" assigned to the Front Desk role with Workload. On a day when Taylor already has 8 pending tasks and Jordan has 4, SOPHIE assigns it to Jordan.

How auto-assign works with multiple roles

This is an important detail: When a SOP has multiple roles on the same schedule group with Round Robin or Workload, SOPHIE picks one person PER ROLE — not one person across all roles.

This is intentional. Roles represent different responsibilities, and both teams need coverage. The rotation tracks within each role independently.

Example: "PREPARE morning huddle materials" is assigned to both the Office Manager role and the Lead Hygienist role with Round Robin. SOPHIE assigns one task to an Office Manager AND one task to a Lead Hygienist. Both roles are responsible for their part of the preparation — SOPHIE does not pick just one person from either role.

If you want only one person from any role to handle a task, use a shared parent role (like "All Staff") or assign to a single role that covers everyone who could do it.

tip

Choosing between Round Robin and Workload:

• Use Round Robin when fairness matters and tasks take roughly the same effort each time. Everyone gets an equal turn.
• Use Workload when you want SOPHIE to account for busy days. A team member who already has a full plate will be skipped in favor of someone with more bandwidth.

Carry-Over Behavior (If Not Completed)

Every schedule has a carry-over behavior that controls what happens when a task is not completed in its window. You set this in the schedule modal alongside frequency and time of day.

This setting is deliberately controlled by the SOP author, not the team member doing the task. That matters: a team member can't decide on their own that yesterday's HIPAA attestation doesn't apply anymore. You, as the schedule-setter, decide whether missed work should linger, age out on a grace period, drop at end of day, or be superseded by the next occurrence.

The Four Options

Each schedule picks exactly one.

Option	What happens	Best for
Keep until completed	The task stays on My Day as "Late" forever, until someone marks it done.	Compliance SOPs that must be completed no matter how late. HIPAA attestations, OSHA training, signed acknowledgements.
Keep until next is due	The task stays as "Late" until the next occurrence of the same schedule is generated. When the new task appears, the stale one auto-cancels.	Recurring operational work where the next occurrence supersedes the old one. Weekly supply orders, daily huddles, bi-weekly equipment checks.
Expire after days	The task stays as "Late" for a number of days you choose, then auto-cancels.	Work that matters for a short window but isn't critical forever. Follow-up calls, short-lived reminders.
Drop at end of day	The task auto-cancels as soon as the day ends. It never carries into tomorrow.	Strictly day-bounded work. Morning opening checklist, end-of-day closing routine, same-day patient prep.

Concrete Examples

Keep until completed — "SIGN updated HIPAA policy"

A one-time compliance sign-off. Every team member must acknowledge it. The task stays on their My Day as "Late" every day until they sign. There is no "next occurrence" because it's an As-Needed SOP, and we cannot let someone miss it.

Keep until next is due — "PLACE weekly supply order"

Scheduled every Monday for the Office Manager. If Monday passes without the order going in, the task shows as "Late · Due Mon Apr 20" on Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. The moment next Monday's task is generated, Monday's stale task auto-cancels. You never see two "supply order" tasks competing for attention.

Expire after days (3 days) — "CALL back insurance pre-auth follow-up"

A time-sensitive callback. If it isn't done in three days, calling now is worse than not calling. SOPHIE auto-cancels the task on day four. The next pre-auth follow-up SOP that gets generated can stand on its own.

Drop at end of day — "COMPLETE morning opening checklist"

Unlocking doors, turning on lights, verifying the sterilizer is warm — strictly morning work. If it isn't done in the morning, it won't retroactively un-open the doors tomorrow. Drop at end of day keeps My Day focused on what's actionable right now.

Setting Carry-Over Behavior

1. Open the SOP and click Schedule (or edit the per-role schedule inline).
2. In the schedule modal, find the If not completed dropdown, below Time of Day.
3. Pick one of the four options.
4. If you pick Expire after days, a small number input appears. Set the grace period (1–90 days).
5. Save the schedule.

Each role schedule has its own carry-over setting. If your SOP has split schedules (e.g., Daily for Dental Assistants, Weekly for the Office Manager), each schedule group picks its own behavior. That means the Dental Assistant's daily task can drop at end of day while the Office Manager's weekly task carries until next due — both from the same SOP.

When Do Changes Take Effect?

Carry-over behavior is evaluated every time SOPHIE regenerates tasks. That includes:

• Any time a team member clicks Refresh on My Day
• Any time someone's role assignments change (triggers a regen for that user)
• The nightly task-generation run (applies across the whole workspace)

This means you can change the carry-over setting mid-week, and the next refresh applies it immediately to existing "Late" tasks. If you switch a SOP from Keep until completed to Drop at end of day, the old lingering tasks get cancelled on the next refresh — no need to wait until the next scheduled occurrence.

The Default

New SOPs and existing SOPs that haven't been touched default to Keep until completed. This is the safest default — nothing quietly disappears until you deliberately pick a different behavior.

When editing existing SOPs, revisit the default. Most operational work benefits from Keep until next is due (cleaner My Day, less clutter). Reserve Keep until completed for compliance work where a missed task must remain actionable.

How It Interacts with the "Late" Badge

Tasks that have carried over are shown on My Day with a Late · Due Mon Apr 20 badge so you can tell today's new instance apart from yesterday's carry-over at a glance. When SOPHIE auto-cancels a task under your carry-over policy, it disappears from My Day entirely — it's no longer actionable, so it shouldn't compete for attention.

The cancellation reason is preserved on the task (viewable in diagnostics): carry_over_day_only, carry_over_expired, or carry_over_next_due. This gives you a clear audit trail if you ever need to see why a task disappeared.

Frequently Asked Questions About Carry-Over

Can a team member dismiss a Late task themselves? No. Team members complete tasks; they don't cancel them. If a task doesn't apply anymore, the SOP author adjusts the carry-over policy on the SOP itself.

What happens to tasks that were already Missed before I changed the setting? The next refresh applies the new policy. Missed tasks that the new policy says should cancel will cancel; tasks that still qualify to carry over will remain.

Does Keep until next is due work for As-Needed or Days-After SOPs? There is no "next occurrence" for these, so this setting degrades to Keep until completed for them. In practice, As-Needed SOPs usually pair with Keep until completed or Drop at end of day.

Can I see a history of cancelled tasks? Yes — My Day Diagnostics shows cancelled tasks with their cancellation reason. See My Day Diagnostics.

Migrating from First to Claim

If your practice previously used First to Claim for SOPs, those SOPs have been transitioned to the new assignment types. First to Claim has been replaced by Round Robin and Workload, which achieve the same goal (not everyone has to do it) with less friction (no one has to race to claim it).

The key difference: with Round Robin and Workload, SOPHIE decides who gets the task at generation time. There is no claiming step. The assigned person simply sees the task on their My Day list, already assigned to them. This eliminates the problem of tasks sitting unclaimed because everyone assumed someone else would grab it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I mix assignment types in a split schedule? Yes. Each schedule group has its own assignment type. You could have one group set to Everyone (so the whole team does it daily) and another group set to Round Robin (for a weekly rotation among leads).

What happens if there is only one person in a role? Round Robin and Workload behave identically to Everyone when there is only one person — that person always gets the task. The distinction only matters when multiple people hold the same role.

How does SOPHIE handle someone being out of office? For Round Robin and Workload, SOPHIE skips people who are marked as out of office or whose work schedule says they are not in that day. The task goes to the next available person. If no one is available, the task is still generated but held until someone returns.

Can I see who will be assigned next? Yes — use My Day Diagnostics to check upcoming assignments. For future dates, SOPHIE shows you who is next in the rotation.

I want a task to be done once by anyone on the team, but I do not care who. Which assignment type should I use? Use Round Robin for fair rotation, or Workload if you want SOPHIE to pick the least-busy person. Both ensure only one person is assigned per time slot.