FAQ

Accounts and access

How do I get an account? By invitation. Your organization owner or a team owner invites you by email; you cannot sign yourself up.

How long do invitations last? Seven days. After that a new one has to be sent.

I forgot my password. Use Forgot password on the sign-in page. If your organization uses single sign-on, you may not have a password at all — sign in through SSO instead.

Why can I see the organization but no data? You have an organization membership but no team membership. Team access is a separate invitation. See Teams and Members.

Can I belong to more than one team? Yes, as many as you are invited to. Switch between them from /home.

Is multi-factor authentication required? It is available to everyone and strongly recommended, but it is not enforced organization-wide. Each person enables it on their own account. See Security and Data Handling.

Data

Does the platform store client or employee personal information? No. It works on aggregate counts and rates grouped by three-character postal area. No names, addresses, full postal codes, or health information are stored.

How often does my data refresh? API sources refresh automatically once a day, and can be synced on demand. CSV data changes only when someone uploads a new file.

Which source systems can you connect to? AlayaCare, GoldCare, and AxisCare. Anything else goes through CSV upload. See Vendor Reference.

Can a team have both an API connection and a CSV upload? No — one data source per team. Use two teams if you need both.

Does the platform write back to my scheduling system? Never. It reads only. Everything you change in Optimal Workforce stays in Optimal Workforce.

Can I edit data in the platform? Yes, in the Data Editor — but for an API source those edits are working values only, and the next sync replaces them with what the vendor reports. Fix bad data at source.

What is an FSA? A forward sortation area — the first three characters of a Canadian postal code. It is the platform's geographic unit. See the Glossary.

Optimization

How long does a run take? Usually under two minutes. Boundary Rebalance is faster; the AI-powered approach takes one to three minutes. A run that does not respond within ten minutes is marked as timed out.

Which approach should I use? Start with ReCom MCMC — it is the default and right for most questions. Use Boundary Rebalance when you want a small, defensible adjustment to a structure that broadly works.

Does running an optimization change anything? No. A run produces a proposal. Nothing changes until you adopt it, and even then nothing changes in your scheduling system. See Applying Changes.

Can I run several and compare? Yes, one at a time. Comparing two or three configurations is good practice.

The result looks operationally impossible. That is expected sometimes — the model knows your numbers and geography, not your language needs, certifications, or relationships. Adjust it by hand in the Preview sandbox, or adopt it partially.

Do I have to accept all of a result? No. Taking the obviously sensible moves and leaving the marginal ones is often the better outcome.

Reports

What report types are there? Balance (current distribution), Optimization (a specific run), and Trends (change over a period).

Who can download a report? Members of the team that owns it. Access is checked on every download.

Can I report on a proposal rather than live data? Yes — generate the report against a saved configuration from the Preview sandbox.

Willow

Can Willow change my data? No. It is read-only.

Can my colleagues see my conversations? No. Conversations are private to the person who created them, even within a team.

Can Willow see other teams' data? No. It only ever sees the team you are working in.

Administration

What is the difference between an organization and a team? The organization is your company; teams are workspaces inside it with their own data and configuration. They have separate role systems. See Administration.

Who can set up single sign-on? Only an organization owner.

Can an ordinary team member change our data source? Yes. That permission is held by members as well as owners today. If that does not suit you, keep team membership tight. See Teams and Members.

How do I fully remove someone? Unassign them in Microsoft Entra if you use SSO, remove them from each team, then remove them from the organization. In that order.

Can I export all of my data? There are per-artifact exports — CSV from the map, the sandbox, and completed runs, and PDF reports. There is no self-serve bulk export; contact your Optimal Workforce representative if you need one.

Something else

See Troubleshooting or Support.