The Availability Locking feature (Feature #3 in System Settings) allows system administrators to control how and when officials can edit their availability calendar. Based on the settings selected by the organization's administrator, the system will automatically lock calendar days to prevent edits to those days in certain scenarios. If a day is locked, the official will not be able to make changes to their calendar on that particular day and will instead see a message that says, "This day is locked. No further edits can be made."
In all of the locking scenarios, the scheduler can still update the official's calendar for them, if needed, using Simulation Mode. The following options/scenarios are available for organization administrators to select for controlling availability locking:
Locked Only If Unaccepted or Declined (default setting)This option will lock a calendar day if an official has any unaccepted or declined assignments on that particular day, regardless of the game's publishing status. Once the official has accepted all their assignments and/or the scheduler has rescheduled all their declined assignments, then the official will be able to edit that calendar day again. This is our recommended setting.
Locked Only If UnacceptedThis option is similar to the above, except it does not include declined assignments. This will only lock if the official has unaccepted assignments on a particular day, regardless of the game's publishing status. Once the assignments are accepted or declined, the calendar day will unlock and will be editable again. It is a good option to use if you want officials to change their calendars after declining an assignment immediately. This is also a good choice, specifically if you want users to edit their calendars after a decline.
Locked PermanentlyThis option is very restrictive. This will permanently lock the calendar day anytime an official has any assignments on that day, regardless of the assignment status and the game's publishing status. If the assignment is accepted, declined, turned back, or unaccepted, the calendar will remain locked permanently and can never again be edited by the official. Only the scheduler will be able to edit their calendar via Simulation Mode if further changes need to be made. Note that a "canceled" game will not cause the calendar to be locked. If a game is canceled, it does not contribute to the locked status.
Never Lock AvailabilityThis is the equivalent of turning this feature completely OFF. If you select this option, then no calendar locking will occur, and the calendar will always be editable by officials.
Note: A game's Published / Unpublished status does not affect Availability Locking. An Unpublished game will still cause calendars to lock unless you use the Never Lock Availability setting. This facilitates the locking of calendars while schedulers are in the middle of their scheduling process.