How to set up Time-Based Policies

A time-based policy is a custom policy that is applied to OUs or Security groups for a specific period of time. As such you can either create a new custom policy or convert an existing one into a time-based policy. 

When creating time-based policies it is important to remember that policy prioritization logic would determine which policy is applied to a student at any point in time. For example, if a student belongs to a custom group indicating policy priority P4, and the time-based policy is created with a priority of P6, then the student will get the custom policy even during the duration of the time-based policy rule as the priority of that policy is higher. This means that to make the most of your time-based policies you should place them higher up on the priority list. You can change a policy priority at any time. 

Time-based policies can be applied to users irrespective of their geographical location so long as the exception window setting is enabled, or the take-home policy or parent policy is not present. However, the school’s time zone will determine when the time-based policy will click in, and not the time-zone the user is at.  

Note: If a policy is set up as a time-based policy and the 'Disable off-campus filtering' is turned on, then the student will not be filtered at all due to this setting. If you want the time-based policy to be applied off-campus and filtering to continue, then ensure that this setting is not turned on.

Note: If a policy is set up as a time-based policy and the 'Exclude from take-home policy' field is enabled, then the student will not be filtered as per the take-home policy. They will get the time-based policy.

To set up a time-based policy:

1. Navigate to Policy Map and select an OU/Security group you want to assign the time-based policy to.
2. Click ‘Assign Policy’. 
3. Now instead of a simple dropdown with the policy list, you will find a checkbox for ‘Create a time-based mapping’. Select the checkbox.                                                                                                                               
4. Now select the days of the week when the policy should be applied. There is no limit to how many days can be selected. 
5. Then define the time range for each of the days of the week. 
6. Now select if and when the time-based mapping should recur. 
7. Next, you can select when the policy should start to apply. Select the date. If you do not select any, the date of the same day will be auto-filled.                                                                                               
8. You can then state when you want the policy to stop. The time-based policy could apply indefinitely, or for a specific number of days. This allows you the convenience of applying the policy for the complete year or semester and not worry about going back to it for maintenance again. 
9. Click ‘Apply Policy’.
10. Back on the OU/Security group page, you will find that your selected OU/Security group has more than one policy applied, with one of them being the time-based policy. 
11. You can edit this policy directly by clicking the clock icon here.

There is no limit on how many policies can be applied to an OU/Security group. However, when applying multiple policies there might arise a conflict of time where two or more policies overlap. This will be displayed to the admin in a tooltip and the admin can choose to make changes to avoid the overlaps. 

When an OU/Security group has overlapping policies assigned, the policy priority as set by the admin will be used to determine which policy is applied. For example, if policy A has priority 4 and policy B is priority 3, and they overlap between 3 & 4 pm, then policy B will be applied during that period.  Learn how to assign priority to policies here.

For best results, it is recommended that you set up the time-based policies at least one day prior to the date you want them to be enforced.