Automating IT Policy Assignments With Policy Rules – Deel

Policy rules let you automate IT policy assignments in Deel IT based on criteria such as a worker’s country or organizational structure (department or team).

Instead of manually assigning workers to policies or risking errors that can affect seat usage and costs, you can create smart rules that automatically place workers into the correct policy from day one. This saves time, improves accuracy, and streamlines onboarding and seat management.

With Policy rules, clients can:

Automatically assign workers to IT policies based on country, department, or team
Ensure workers are added to the right policy setup faster
Eliminate repetitive admin tasks for policy management
Prevent human errors in IT policy assignments
Avoid incorrect assignments that could trigger unwanted seat charges under per-seat pricing

This article explains how to set up and manage Policy rules in Deel IT to automate worker assignments and streamline your IT policy management.

Before you begin

To successfully automate IT Policy assignments with policy rules, you'll need:

A user with an organization admin role on Deel
An organization with an active Deel IT contract

Getting Started with Policy Rules

You can find the Policy rules configuration in your Deel IT settings.

To access Policy rules in Deel IT:

On Deel, go to Organization settings > Deel IT.
On the Deel IT page, go to the Policies tab and click Policy rules.

This takes you to the main Policy Rules overview page. Here you'll see a summary (like total rules active, workers assigned to paid policies) and a list of your configured rules ordered by priority. Which means the rules will be applied top down - the worker will be assigned by the first rule they match.

Create Your First Rule

On the Policy Rules overview page, click the + Create Rule button.

Details:
- Give your rule a clear Rule name
- Add an optional Description for more context
- Click Continue.
Conditions: This is where you define who the rule applies to.
- Add Condition: Select Country. Choose "equals" and then select one or more countries. You can add multiple countries here – the rule matches if the worker is in any of them.
- Add Condition: Select Organization structure. Choose whether to base this condition on the Department or Team. Choose one or more departments or teams from the list (e.g., "Engineering", "Product"). The hierarchy is shown, and you can select parent levels if needed.
- Logic: The conditions work together with AND logic.
Assign Policy:
- In the "Then assign to IT policy" section, select the IT Policy these workers should be moved into.
- Seat Warning: If you select a paid policy (one requiring a seat), you'll see a notice reminding you that each assigned worker will need a seat. We'll cover how seats are handled later.
- Click Continue.
Priority: Rules run in order from top to bottom. A worker is assigned based on the first rule they match.
- You'll see your new rule added to the list of existing rules.
- Drag and drop your new rule into the desired position in the priority list. More specific rules (e.g., "Japan Engineering") should generally come before more general rules (e.g., "All Japan").
- You can expand existing rules here to double-check their conditions.
- Click Save once the order is correct.
Review: Check all the details of your rule one last time (Name, Conditions, Policy, Priority).

Click Create rule. You'll see a success confirmation!

Manage Your Rules

Once your Policy rules are created and applied, you can manage them anytime from the Policy Rules overview page.

To manage your rules:

On the Policy rules overview page, click the ellipsis (three dots) menu next to the rule you want to update and choose one of its actions:

Click Edit to modify a Policy rule’s name, description, conditions, or assigned policy
Click Delete to remove a rule. This action cannot be undone

After editing or deleting rules, click Apply Rules again to update assignments for existing workers.

Understanding Rule Priority and Conflicts

Top-Down is Key: Remember, rules are checked in order from top to bottom. As soon as a worker matches the conditions of a rule, they are assigned to that policy, and no further rules are checked for that worker.
Conflict Detection: The system helps prevent mistakes! If you create or reorder rules in a way that makes a rule impossible to ever match (e.g., a general "All Japan" rule placed before a specific "Japan P&D" rule), the system will display a warning highlighting the conflicting rules.

Resolving Conflicts: To fix a conflict, simply reorder the rules. Make sure your more specific rules (targeting fewer people) are placed above your broader, more general rules that might overlap. Drag the specific rule higher, save the priority, and the conflict warning should disappear.

How Seat Assignments Work

When a rule assigns a worker to a paid IT Policy, they need a Deel IT seat. You control how these seats are assigned globally for all policy rules:

On the main Policy Rules page, click the three-dots menu (...) near the top right.
Select Settings.

You have three options for seat assignment:

Approve manually:
- What it does: Every time a rule assigns a worker to a paid policy, their seat status becomes "Pending".
- Admin Action: An admin must go to the Seats tab and manually Approve (or Deny) each seat request.
- Use Case: Best if you want full control over every single seat assignment and cost.
Automatically assign available seats:
- What it does: The system first checks if you have any unused, available seats. If so, it assigns them automatically to workers moved by the rules. If there aren't enough available seats, the remaining workers needing seats will have their status set to "Pending".
- Admin Action: An admin needs to approve the "Pending" requests, which will likely involve purchasing new seats.
- Use Case: Good for utilizing existing seats efficiently while still requiring approval before purchasing new ones.
Automatically assign and approve seats:
- What it does: The system assigns any available seats first. If more seats are needed, it will automatically approve the purchase and add new seats to your contract, then assign them. Workers who need available or newly purchased seats are assigned directly.
- Admin Action: Minimal action needed, only if a purchase fails. Be aware this can automatically increase your costs.
- Use Case: Ideal for maximum automation when you trust the rules and want seats assigned without manual intervention.

Choose the option that best fits your workflow and click Save.

How and When Rules are Applied

Policy Rules work in two main ways:

Automatically for New Workers: As soon as a new worker is created in Deel and their relevant details (Country, Department/Team) are available, the Policy Rules engine runs automatically for them. They will be placed directly into the correct IT policy (or Default if no rule matches) according to your rule priority and seat assignment settings. This is the primary way rules automate your onboarding.
Manually for Existing Workers ("Run Rules"): What about workers already in Deel, perhaps sitting in the Default Policy? The Run Rules button lets you apply your current set of rules to all existing workers in your organization.

Apply Rules to Existing Workers

Use this function to clean up assignments for workers already in Deel or after you've made significant changes to your rules.

Go to the Policy Rules page.
Click the Run Rules button.
Confirmation: You'll see a warning that this action will affect existing workers based on the current rules and priority, potentially overriding manual assignments. This action cannot be undone. Click Confirm.
Preview Screen: Before anything changes, you'll see a preview of only the workers whose policy assignment will change. This screen shows:
- The total number of workers to be reassigned.
- A list of these workers.
- Their Current policy.
- The New policy they will be assigned to based on the rules.
- Required seats: How many workers in this batch need a new seat.
- Additional seats/cost: An estimate of new seats to be purchased and the cost (this depends on your chosen Seat Assignment Setting and the current available seats).
Review and Skip (Optional): Carefully review the list. If there's a specific worker you don't want to move during this run (perhaps they have a unique manual assignment you want to keep for now), you can:
- Select the checkbox next to their name(s).
- Click the Skip rules button that appears.
- These workers will be marked as skipped and will remain in their current policy for this run. The counts at the top will update.

Reassign: Once you're happy with the preview list (including any skips), click the Reassign (or Save and reassign) button at the bottom.
Final Confirmation(s): You might see one or two final confirmations, especially regarding seat assignments or purchases based on your settings. Confirm these to proceed.
Completion: The rules will run. You'll see a "Rules applied successfully" message. The overview stats on the Policy Rules page will update.

The system is designed to prevent data loss or access issues. If a rule attempts to move a worker who has an active, in-use seat in a paid policy back to the Default Policy, this action should typically be blocked or require special confirmation, as it might impact their access or assigned equipment/licenses. Be mindful of rules that could cause downgrades.

Manage Pending Seat Requests

If your seat assignment setting is "Approve manually," or if "Automatically assign available seats" runs out of free seats, you'll have workers needing approval:

Navigate to the Seats tab under Deel IT.
You can filter the list by Seat status = Pending to easily find these workers.
For each pending worker, you can use the actions menu (...) or click on the worker to see details. You'll have options to Approve or Deny the seat request.
- Approve: Assigns the seat (purchasing if necessary, depending on your contract) and fully moves the worker into the target policy.
- Deny: Rejects the seat assignment. The worker will typically remain in the Default Policy.

Current Limitations

Please keep in mind these points about the initial version of Policy Rules:

No Dynamic Updates: Rules run only when a new worker is created or when you click "Run Rules Now". If a worker's Country or Department/Team changes after they've been assigned, the rules will not automatically re-evaluate them. You would need to click "Run Rules" again or manually reassign them.
Manual Trigger for Existing Workers: The "Run Rules" process is always manually initiated. There is no scheduled or automatic recurring run for existing workers.
Simple Conditions: Rules are based on "equals" logic for Country and Organizational Structure, and support multiple selections. More complex logic ("not equals", "starts with", etc.) is not yet available.

Policy Rules offer a powerful way to streamline your IT policy management. By setting up rules based on your organizational structure and geography, you can save time, reduce errors, and ensure a smoother onboarding experience for your team.

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