ANTE User ManualAuto-assign Rules
An auto-assign rule enrols employees in an allowance, a deduction or a leave plan by themselves. Instead of picking employees one by one, you describe who should get it (for example every female employee in job grade G3 or G4) and what they get. The rule then keeps the plans up to date every time an employee changes, so a new hire, a promotion or a transfer never needs a manual follow-up.
Rules live inside the item they assign: an allowance (de minimis allowances included), a non-loan deduction, or a leave plan. A rule belongs to exactly one of them.
Where to Find Rules
Open the allowance, deduction or leave plan whose employees you want to assign. Its list of plans now has three tabs:
The Auto-assign rules tab lists the rules in priority order. Each row shows its Priority, Who (the conditions in plain words), Value (what they get), its status, how many employees it currently manages and when it was last synced.
The tab explains why when a rule cannot be used: loan deductions cannot use rules (every loan needs its own principal per employee); an allowance that already pays every graded employee automatically ("Applies to all graded") must have that turned off first; and an archived leave plan cannot be given rules.
Create a Rule
- Open the Auto-assign rules tab
Open the allowance, deduction or leave plan, switch to Auto-assign rules and click Add Rule.
- Name the rule and say who gets it
Enter a Rule name and build the conditions under Who gets it (explained below). While you type, a live line shows how many employees match, how many are new, changed or in conflict.
- Say what they get
Under What they get, choose Same for everyone or Depends on… and fill the values.
- Set the options
Choose what happens when someone stops matching and, optionally, an Effective from date.
- Save, then preview and activate
Click Save Rule. A new rule is a Draft and changes nothing until you preview and activate it.
Conditions
Each condition is a field, an operator and a value. Add Condition adds one to the group (AND); Add Group adds another group (OR). Pick Everyone to match every active employee; the preview then warns you, because every employee would receive the plan.
| Field | Operators | What it looks at |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone | (none) | Every active employee. |
| Gender | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | Male, Female or Other, from the personal details. |
| Civil status | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | Single, Married, Widowed, Separated, Divorced, Annulled or Other. |
| Age | is between, is at least, is at most, is set, is not set | Age in whole years today, from the date of birth. |
| Job grade | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | The job grade the employee holds as of today. |
| Position | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | The employee's position (role). |
| Position rank | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | Executive, Director, Manager, Senior or Staff. |
| Department | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | The employee's department. Include sub-departments is on by default: a rule on a parent department also covers everything under it. |
| Branch | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | The employee's branch. |
| Employment status | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | Regular, Contractual, Probationary, Trainee, Project-based, Part-time, Intern or Consultant. |
| Payroll group | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | The employee's payroll group. |
| Schedule | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | The employee's work schedule. |
| Months of service | is between, is at least, is at most | Whole months since the start of the employee's first contract. |
| Date hired | is between, is at least, is at most, is set, is not set | The start date of the first contract. |
| Employee tag | is any of, is not any of, is set, is not set | The tags on the employee's record. See Employee Tags. |
| Your custom fields | depends on the field type | Dropdown and multi-select fields use is any of / is not any of; number and date fields use between / at least / at most; yes/no fields use is; text fields can only be tested for is set / is not set. See Employee Custom Fields. |
is not any of also matches employees who have nothing recorded for that field. Add an is set condition to the same group when you only want people who have a value.
What They Get
Choose Same for everyone to give every matching employee the same values, or Depends on… to pick one attribute that decides the values, then add a row for each value: When [attribute] is one or more values, the row's amount applies. The attribute can be job grade, position, position rank, department, branch, employment status, payroll group, gender, civil status, schedule, a custom dropdown or a custom yes/no field. A table can have up to 200 rows. For department, an employee in a sub-department uses the row of the nearest parent that has one.
The values themselves depend on what the rule assigns:
A Worked Example
The company pays a Rice Subsidy allowance. HR creates the rule Female G3/G4: the condition group is Gender is any of Female AND Job grade is any of G3, G4; the value depends on Job grade with the rows G3 → ₱1,000.00 and G4 → ₱1,500.00; employees with no matching row are skipped. Four employees are in the company:
| Employee | Gender | Job grade | Existing Rice Subsidy plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| EMP-0001 | Female | G3 | None |
| EMP-0002 | Female | G4 | None |
| EMP-0003 | Male | G3 | None |
| EMP-0004 | Female | G3 | Manual plan, ₱800.00 |
| Employee | Matches the rule? | Result | Rice Subsidy afterwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| EMP-0001 | Yes (female, G3) | Add | ₱1,000.00, made by the rule |
| EMP-0002 | Yes (female, G4) | Add | ₱1,500.00, made by the rule |
| EMP-0003 | No (a man in G3) | Not touched | No plan |
| EMP-0004 | Yes (female, G3) | Conflict: already assigned manually | ₱800.00, still the manual plan |
| Employees who matchEMP-0001, EMP-0002, EMP-0004 | 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| New plans (Add)EMP-0001 and EMP-0002 | − | 2 |
| ConflictsEMP-0004 keeps her manual plan | − | 1 |
| Plans the rule will write₱1,000.00 and ₱1,500.00 a period | = | 2 |
Preview and Activate
A rule never starts silently. Click Preview (or Activate on a draft) to see exactly what activation would do, grouped in tabs:
Each row shows Before → after and a Why link that explains which group and conditions matched. You can search by employee. The line at the top states how many employees match and how many are already up to date.
The preview also warns you about:
- This rule matches everyone, when a condition is Everyone.
- Some values are not recognised, when free-text personal details (such as gender) hold a value the rule cannot read; the warning names the value and how many employees have it.
- Mass removals: when more than 20 employees and more than a quarter of the rule's current plans would be removed, the preview says "N employees will lose this plan" and you must tick I understand N employees lose this before you can activate.
- Review each tab
Open the tabs that matter, especially Remove and Conflicts.
- Click Activate and Apply
The rule becomes Active and the plans are written. You see "Rule activated and applied".
Activation applies exactly what you previewed. If employee data changed while you were reviewing, ANTE refuses with "Employee data changed while you were reviewing" and shows the updated list; review it and activate again. If a colleague edited the rule meanwhile, the preview is refreshed.
Editing a Running Rule
You cannot save changes straight onto an Active rule. Edit it, and the dialog shows "This rule is running. Your changes apply only after you review who is affected" with a Review and Apply button instead of Save. It opens the same preview, and your changes take effect when you apply them. A draft or paused rule is saved normally with Save Rule.
After Activation It Runs by Itself
Once active, nobody needs to press anything:
- Within seconds of an employee change: a changed job grade, department, position, branch, contract or employment status, personal details, custom fields or tags; a new hire, an import or a rehire. Changes made in quick succession are grouped into one pass. Changes to a department or a position, and deleting or merging tags, re-check everyone.
- Every night at 2:30 AM: this catches what time alone changes, such as an employee reaching an age or a number of months of service, and changes dated in the future.
- On demand: Sync Now re-runs the rule immediately.
A new plan starts on the date the triggering change took effect, for example the start date of the new job grade, and never earlier than the rule's Effective from date. Without a triggering date it starts today. When you first activate a rule that has an Effective from date, the initial plans start on that date.
Employees who have separated are out of scope. Their plans are left exactly as they are.
When Someone Stops Matching
| Rule option | Their plan | If they match again later |
|---|---|---|
| Deactivate their plan | Turned off (reason: no longer matches) | Turned back on automatically |
| Keep their plan | Stays active as a rule-made plan | Nothing changes |
When an allowance or deduction rule's value changes for someone who still matches, the plan's value is updated (preview: Change). Leave plans are different: see Leave and Allowance Specifics.
Manual Plans and Rule-Made Plans
Every plan is either Manual or made by a rule. The two never mix:
- A rule never changes a manual plan. If an employee already has one, the rule reports a conflict and leaves it.
- A rule-made plan cannot be edited by hand. To change one yourself, first use Detach to manual on the Auto-assigned (rules) tab. The plan becomes a manual plan, the rule stops managing it, and you can edit, deactivate or delete it like any manual plan. Confirm with Detach; you see "Plan is now manual".
Delete a Rule
Click Delete on the rule. The dialog says how many plans the rule manages and asks what should happen to them:
Click Delete Rule to confirm.
Priority: Several Rules on One Item
An item can have several rules. They run top to bottom: when more than one active rule matches an employee, the higher one (nearest the top of the list) wins and owns that employee's plan. If the winner cannot give the employee a value (no matching row), the next matching rule is tried. The employee then shows under Handled by a higher rule in the lower rule's preview, with "Also matched, but lost on priority" in the explanation.
Use Move up and Move down to reorder. The new order is applied immediately ("Order saved. Rules were re-applied right away"), because it can change who owns an employee's plan. A rule that takes over a plan from another rule shows as Taken over in the history.
Leave and Allowance Specifics
- Leave credits are given once, when the plan is created. A rule never changes an existing balance. If the value row changes later for someone who still matches, the existing plan is not rewritten.
- On a tenure-based leave plan, set Credits given upfront to 0 so the plan works out the opening grant from service. On a flat plan at least one of the credit fields must be above zero.
- An allowance that pays by grade takes no amount from the rule: the value is "Amount follows the grade rate table", and a rule on such an allowance cannot use a typed amount. If the allowance later switches to or from paying by grade, its rules go to Needs attention.
- Loans cannot use rules. Only non-loan deductions can.
Rule Status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved but never activated. It changes nothing. |
| Active | Running. It creates, updates, deactivates and reactivates its plans automatically. |
| Paused | Switched off with Pause ("Existing plans stay as they are"). Its plans are frozen: nothing about them changes until you activate the rule again, which shows a fresh preview. |
| Needs attention | Frozen like Paused. Either something the rule refers to was deleted or changed (a job grade, department, tag, custom field and so on, or the allowance's pay-by-grade setting), or an automatic update would have removed many employees at once. Edit the rule to fix a missing reference, then activate it again. For a held mass removal, review it and press Sync Now. |
The rule list shows "Last synced" (or "Never synced") and a needs-attention banner explaining the reason.
History
History on a rule opens a dated log: Date, Employee, Action, Reason and the Value before and after. Actions are Added, Value changed, Taken over, Deactivated, Reactivated, Conflict, Skipped and Detached to manual. Reasons include "Already assigned manually", "Turned off by HR", "No row in the value table for this employee", "No longer matches", "Value was changed outside the rule" and "Could not be written". Conflicts and skips are logged once per employee, not every night.
How It Connects
Set up first
- Allowance — a rule assigns one allowance type, so the type must exist first.
- Deduction — a rule assigns one non-loan deduction type, so the type must exist first.
- Leave Types and Plans — a rule assigns one leave plan, so the plan must exist first.
- Job Grades — conditions and value tables can use the job grade each employee holds today.
- Employee Tags — conditions can test the tags on an employee.
- Employee Custom Fields — conditions and value tables can use your own fields.
Gets its data from
- Employee Records — department, position, branch, contract, personal details, tags and custom fields on the record decide who matches.
Feeds into
- Payroll Center — allowance and deduction plans made by rules are paid and deducted like any other plan.
- Leave Filing — leave plans made by rules give employees the credits they file against.