Overview

This article explains the application setting labeled ‘Allow a Building to be added to multiple Locations’ (internal setting ID: Allow_SubLocations_To_Be_Added_To_Multiple_Locations). This setting controls whether a single Building (also referred to in the system as a SubLocation) can be linked to more than one Location (also referred to as Campus, Site, School, or Institute) at the same time.

It is relevant for institutions that organize their facilities using both Locations and Buildings, and it determines how flexibly a Building can be shared across different Locations.

What This Setting Does

By default, every Building in the system belongs to exactly one Location. This setting allows an administrator to relax that rule so that the same Building can be assigned to several Locations at the same time.

• When the setting is turned OFF (default): each Building can be connected to only one Location. Once a Building is linked to a Location, it is treated as exclusive to that Location throughout the system.
• When the setting is turned ON: a Building can be connected to two or more Locations at the same time, meaning the same Building can be shared and appear under multiple Locations.

This setting only becomes relevant once the Building feature itself is active for your institution (see Prerequisites in the Notes section). If Buildings are not enabled, this setting has no visible effect.

Where It Is Used

This setting affects the following areas of the application:

• Building setup screen: When creating or editing a Building in Settings, the field used to link the Building to one or more Locations changes behavior based on this setting. With the setting off, this is a simple single-choice field showing a ‘Please Select’ prompt. With the setting on, this becomes a multiple-choice field that allows selecting several Locations at once.
• Building selection lists: Anywhere in the system where staff choose a Building from a list of currently available Buildings, the setting determines which Buildings are shown. With the setting off, Buildings that are already linked to a different Location are hidden from the list, to avoid mistakenly connecting a Building that already belongs elsewhere. With the setting on, all Buildings are shown regardless of their existing Location links.
• Human Resources – Staff Check-In and Working Hours Registration: When staff record attendance or working hours, they may be asked to select a Location, a Building, or both, depending on this setting. With the setting off (and Buildings enabled), the Location field is hidden and staff simply choose their Building, since each Building belongs to exactly one Location. With the setting on, the Location field remains visible, because a Building could belong to more than one Location and the system needs to know which one applies.

Business Logic / Behavior

The following business rules can be observed from this setting:

• A Building can always exist without being linked to any Location.
• If this setting is OFF, a Building can be linked to at most one Location. The system prevents a Building that is already linked to one Location from being offered for selection under a different Location.
• If this setting is ON, a Building can be linked to any number of Locations. There is no restriction on how many Locations a single Building can be shared with.
• Turning this setting ON does not automatically link existing Buildings to additional Locations. It only changes what becomes possible going forward; existing Building-to-Location assignments are not changed automatically.
• This setting has an effect only when the Building feature is enabled for the institution. If Buildings are not enabled, there is no Building-to-Location assignment screen for this setting to influence.

Assumption (not directly confirmed): turning this setting back OFF after it has been used to link a Building to multiple Locations is expected to leave any existing multiple links unchanged, and would only prevent new multiple assignments from being made going forward. This should be verified with your system administrator if it becomes relevant.

 Examples

Example 1 – Setting OFF (default): dedicated buildings per site

‘Sunrise Learning Group’ operates two Locations: ‘North Ridge Campus’ and ‘South Bay Campus’. Each Location has its own dedicated building: ‘Maple Hall’ belongs only to North Ridge Campus, and ‘Oak Hall’ belongs only to South Bay Campus. When an administrator opens Maple Hall’s settings, the Location field only allows choosing a single Location. Once it is set to North Ridge Campus, Maple Hall no longer appears as an available option when configuring South Bay Campus. This matches the way most institutions with clearly separated sites organize their facilities.

Example 2 – Setting ON: a shared building across sites

‘Sunrise Learning Group’ later opens a shared ‘Central Services Building’ that houses administrative staff serving both North Ridge Campus and South Bay Campus. With this setting turned on, the administrator edits the Central Services Building record and selects both North Ridge Campus and South Bay Campus in the Location field, which now allows multiple choices. The Central Services Building now appears as a valid option under either Location. For example, when staff working there check in for the day, they can choose which Location’s activity they are recording their working hours against.

When to Use

When to Enable

• Your institution has one or more Buildings that are physically or organizationally shared by more than one Location (for example, a shared administration building, library, or auditorium serving two or more campuses).
• You want to avoid creating duplicate Building records for what is really the same building serving multiple Locations.
• Staff working in a shared building need to be able to specify which Location they are currently associated with, for example during check-in.

When to Disable (recommended default)

• Each Building in your institution physically and organizationally belongs to a single Location, which is the most common setup.
• You want the system to prevent accidental cross-linking of a Building to more than one Location, keeping your Location and Building structure simple.
• You prefer streamlined attendance and working-hours forms where staff only need to pick a Building, without also needing to specify a Location.

Notes

• Higher Education vs. K-12: This setting behaves identically regardless of whether the institution uses Higher Education mode or the standard K-12 mode. Enabling or disabling Higher Education customization does not change how this setting works. Institutions of either type may have shared buildings across Locations, for example a shared gymnasium across school campuses in a K-12 group, or a shared library across faculties in a Higher Education institution, so this setting applies equally in both configurations.
• Prerequisite: The Building feature must be enabled before this setting has any effect. See related setting ‘Enable Building’ below. Without Buildings enabled, there is no Building-to-Location assignment screen for this setting to influence.
• Related setting: Enable Building/Enable_SubLocations (Settings > Basic Customization > Building Settings) – turns the Building feature on or off across the institution. This must be configured before ‘Allow a Building to be added to multiple Locations’ becomes relevant.
• Setting location in the system: Allow a Building to be added to multiple Locations/Allow_SubLocations_To_Be_Added_To_Multiple_Locations (Settings > Basic Customization > Building Settings). The setting appears as a simple checkbox.
• Terminology note: Depending on your institution’s terminology configuration, ‘Location’ may instead be labeled as Campus, Site, School, or Institute, and ‘Building’ may be labeled differently as well. The behavior described in this article remains the same regardless of the labels shown on screen.