Dosing Rules and Application Rates

A product only sizes itself on a visit when it carries a rule. For a pool company that is a dosing rule: how much of the product moves a reading by one unit per 10,000 gallons. For an aquatic company it is an application rate: how much goes on per treated acre. Without one, the Dose Plan or treatment plan lists the product with nothing to size, and the tech types the amount by hand.

When you finish this article, every product we recognise carries its default rule in its own stock unit, you can see which readings or symptoms your shelf still cannot dose, and the ones a stock unit is blocking are fixed.

Inventory is included on Crew and up. The review only appears for pool and aquatic accounts; other industries do not size products by rule.

Where to find it

• SettingsSetup Wizard — the step reads Dosing Rules for pool accounts and Application Rates for aquatic accounts, in the Optimize section.
• SettingsWater Chemistry — a Dosing Rules section at the bottom, for pool accounts.
• SettingsTreatment Protocols — an Application Rates section at the top, for aquatic accounts.
• Inventory — the Rule column shows the same status on every row, and each product page shows it beside Dosing Rule or Application Formula.

All four show the same review, so nothing here is wizard-only.

What the review shows

Coverage comes first. For a pool account, one row per reading the engine adjusts — raises free chlorine, lowers pH, lowers total alkalinity, raises pH, raises total alkalinity, raises calcium hardness, raises cyanuric acid, raises salt, lowers phosphates — with the stocked product that moves it. For an aquatic account, one row per symptom under each treatment work type, with the tagged product that carries a rate. A product counts only when it is tagged for that work type and that symptom, which is exactly how the treatment plan chooses candidates.

Products follow, one row each, with a status pill:

Attach the defaults

1. 1

   Open the review

   In the setup wizard, open Dosing Rules (pool) or Application Rates (aquatic). Outside the wizard, use the section on SettingsWater Chemistry or SettingsTreatment Protocols.

2. 2

   Read the coverage list first

   Anything marked Nothing stocked or Nothing tagged is a gap no button fixes. For pool accounts the row names the product to add, and Add it now opens the inventory form.

3. 3

   Attach

   Click Attach recommended dosing rules or Attach recommended rates. The count in the button is how many products will change. Only products marked Default available are touched; products with a rule, unrecognised products and unit mismatches are left alone, so clicking twice changes nothing.

   In the wizard, the Attach Recommended Dosing Rules / Attach Recommended Rates button in the step header does the same and marks the step reviewed.

4. 4

   Fix the units that block a rule

   Click Fix unit on a Unit blocks rule row, change Unit on the product, and save. The row becomes Default available; click Use default.

5. 5

   Enter label rates by hand

   For No rule products, click Edit. Pool accounts pick a rule under Dosing Rule; aquatic accounts tick Application Formula (linear) and enter the multiplier from the label.

The unit rule

One reading of "oz" is allowed: a liquid stocked as plain oz is read as fluid ounces, because that is how trucks are labelled. A weight never becomes a volume.

What arrives with a default

New products get their default at creation — from the inventory form, the CSV import, the setup catalog and the starter items. In the setup catalog, rows that will arrive with a rule read auto-dosed (pool) or default rate (aquatic).

Pool accounts: liquid chlorine, cal-hypo, dichlor, trichlor, muriatic acid, soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride, cyanuric acid, pool salt and phosphate remover. A strength in the name ("Liquid Chlorine 10%") rescales the rate. On the inventory form, Dosing Rule lists the same defaults plus Custom rule…, with Strength %, the amount per reading per 10,000 gal, and a per-visit cap, all in the stock unit.

Aquatic accounts: Fluridone Herbicide (32 oz per acre), Flumigard Herbicide (16 oz per acre), Copper Sulfate Algaecide (16 lbs per acre) and Black / Blue Pond Dye (1 gal per acre). On a new product the form offers Use the default rate when the name matches; on an existing product it only suggests, never changes.

Verify it worked

1. Open Inventory. Every chemistry product you expected shows Has rule in the Rule column, with the rule in words.
2. Open the review again. Default available is zero, and the coverage list has no Stocked, no rule rows.
3. On the next visit, the Dose Plan shows sized amounts for the readings that are out of range (pool), or the treatment plan shows quantities for the symptoms selected (aquatic).