What it does
Smootables keeps the resource model small and honest. A teacher is a name, a code, and two limits: "Weekly max hours" and "Yearly max hours" (or "No limit set"). A room is a name, a code, and a "Capacity". Equipment is an inventory item with a "Quantity" and a list of "Compatible rooms". There is no room-type taxonomy to maintain; where a course can run, you say so directly with an allowed-room list, "Any room" or "Specific rooms", set per course and overridable per placement.
Everything else is a rule about people and time: which teachers can take which study units ("Teaching eligibility"), and when a teacher or room must not be scheduled at all. These rules live in the plan that timetable generation reads, so the timetable respects them instead of merely recording them.
How it works in Smootables
- Set the limits once: "Weekly max hours" and "Yearly max hours" per teacher. In generation the weekly limit is a hard constraint, and the solver never double-books a teacher, a room, or a student group.
- Declare who can teach what in the Teaching eligibility matrix: pick teachers, tick their study units. The settings are optional ("you can always choose teachers manually on the planning page too") and they power Auto-assign teacher in planning, which picks the "Least busy eligible teacher this period". The solver never chooses teachers; it schedules the assignments you made.
- Record when a resource cannot be scheduled, school-wide: full-day blocks under "Dates when unavailable (full day)" and repeating windows under "In-day time settings (repeating weekly)", each with dates and an optional reason. Saving a rule that collides with the current timetable surfaces "Conflicts with existing timetable entries". Teacher rules are enforced in generation; room rules are enforced for lessons pinned to a specific room.
- Attach equipment where lessons need it: quantities and "Compatible rooms" travel with placements and lessons through planning, the timetable, and its filters.
- Watch the load while you decide: the Teacher Workload panel shows week and year hours against each teacher’s limits ("Over limit", "All within limits"), a per-period table ("Allocated (period)", "Year tot."), and hours the teacher carries on "Other campuses". The period header adds "Period hours total" and "Estimated teaching cost", computed from one school-wide average hourly rate that only planners see.
Key capabilities
Hour limits with teeth
The weekly maximum is enforced by the solver: a timetable that would push a teacher over it is not produced. Yearly totals run against the yearly limit in the workload panel as you plan.
Eligibility without lock-in
The eligibility matrix powers auto-assignment and never blocks a manual choice. You stay free to assign any teacher; the tool tells you who is eligible and least loaded.
Unavailability as plan data
Part-time days, sabbaticals, and booked-out rooms are dated rules rather than spreadsheet notes. Rules apply across campuses and report conflicts with the existing timetable the moment you save them.
Rooms without a taxonomy
Each course lists the rooms that actually work, or allows any room. Placements can override the list, and capacity and allowed-room choices are validated around every solve.
Decisions you can defer
Teacher and room can be marked "To be decided later", so a draft timetable can be generated before every assignment is settled. Workplace learning placements run without a school-assigned teacher.
Cost in view
Set an average cost of a teaching hour in school settings and planning estimates teaching cost per period and per school year. Only planners see these figures; teachers do not.
Where it fits
This page is the resource half of academic-year planning: limits, eligibility, and rooms meet periods and placements there. Timetable generation enforces the teacher constraints and validates room choices, and the teacher workload guides cover the planning thinking behind hours and fairness.