Skip to main content
Assignment Rules distribute work to team members based on configurable strategies. When combined with the Automation System, assignments happen automatically as work arrives, helping balance team workload and reduce manual routing.

​
Prerequisites

Before using Assignment Rules, your app must have two specific field types. You can add these through the Layout Builder.
  • Assignment Group field (group type) — Defines the pool of users who can receive assignments
  • Assignee field (user type) — The individual user who receives the assignment
The Assignment Group field must be populated with users before running a Make Assignment automation. An empty Assignment Group causes the automation to fail. This is the most common cause of assignment issues.

​
Assignment Strategies

Assignment strategies determine how work is distributed among team members.

​
Distributed Work

Evenly distributes assignments across all available team members to balance workload. Best for:
  • Teams with similar skill levels
  • Work that requires consistent distribution
  • Preventing uneven assignment loads
  • Customer support and general task routing
Example: Support tickets are distributed among all available agents so that no single agent receives a disproportionate share.

​
Set Up an Assignment Rule

  1. Open your app and select Assignment Rules in the left navigation
  2. Click + Rule to create a new rule
  3. Enter a Title — use a descriptive name (e.g., “Support Ticket Assignment”)
  4. Optionally add a Description explaining when the rule applies
  5. Select an Assignment Strategy (e.g., Distributed Work)

​
How Assignment Rules Execute

Assignment Rules run through the Make Assignment action in the Automation System:
  1. An event occurs (e.g., a new record is created or a status changes)
  2. An automation containing the Make Assignment action triggers
  3. The action checks that the Assignment Group field contains users
  4. The configured Assignment Rule applies its strategy to select a user
  5. The selected user is written to the Assignee field
The Make Assignment action will fail if the Assignment Group field is empty at the time of execution.

​
Advanced Patterns

Combine Assignment Rules with automation conditions to route work to different groups:
  • Route high-priority issues to a senior support group while sending standard issues to general support
  • Assign leads to different sales teams based on region or deal size
Chain automations to escalate unresolved work through assignment tiers — for example, assigning to Level 1 support first and re-assigning to Level 2 if unresolved after a set period.
  • Edit a rule by selecting it from the Assignment Rules list and updating its configuration
  • Rule priority: When multiple rules could apply, the most specific rule takes precedence. Manual assignments always override automatic rules.

​
Troubleshooting

Assignment failures or no assignments happening:
  • Verify the Assignment Group field is populated with users before the automation runs
  • Confirm both the Assignment Group and Assignee fields exist in your app
  • Ensure the automation containing the Make Assignment action is published
  • Check automation logs for error details
Uneven distribution:
  • Review current team member workloads
  • Verify the assignment strategy matches your use case
  • Check whether manual assignments are skewing distribution