Timetabling & roster scheduling
Conflict-free timetables, built around your rules.
Dests turns your courses, staff, rooms and constraints into a schedule with no clashes, and explains any problem in plain language. One engine for university timetables, school lessons, exam sittings and hospital duty rosters.
- Hard rules are never broken
- Clashes explained in plain sentences
- PDF & Excel export
Level 300 · Computer Science
Friday afternoon is blocked. A hard rule — nothing will ever be scheduled there.
Form 4 · Science stream
Every teacher, one class per period. Staff who teach several classes are never booked twice.
Electrical Installation · Group B
Practicals go to a workshop. Theory goes to a classroom — venue type is a hard rule.
Ward 3 · Surgical duty roster
Rest is built in. No one goes from a night shift straight onto a day shift.
Mock examinations · Form 5
Mathematics
Main Hall
Biology
Hall B
English
Main Hall
Chemistry
Hall B
Physics
Hall B
Geography
Hall C
French
Hall C
History
Hall C
Computer Science
ICT Hall
Each paper is sat once, in a hall with a seat for every candidate.
Who it’s for
One engine, set up for how you schedule.
Choose your kind of institution and your account is set up around it — the right terms, the right resources and the right rules from day one.
- Universities & higher institutesTimetables for a faculty, department or institute — courses, student groups, lecturers, lecture halls and labs.Courses · Lecture halls · LabsGet started
- Secondary schoolsWeekly lesson timetables for general and technical streams — subjects, classes, teachers, periods and rooms, plus internal exam sittings.Subjects · Periods · ClassesGet started
- Vocational & technical centresClassroom teaching and workshop practicals in one plan — training groups, modules, instructor rotations and equipment capacity.Modules · Workshops · InstructorsGet started
- Hospitals & health facilitiesDuty rosters for wards and clinical teams — rotating day and night shifts, minimum rest between shifts, and cover for every unit.Wards · Day & night shifts · Rest rulesGet started
- Examination authoritiesExamination timetables built around papers — each paper sat once, and every sitting placed in a hall that fits it.Papers · Sittings · HallsGet started
How it works
From an empty term to a published timetable.
The same four steps whether you run a faculty, a school, a workshop or a ward.
Step 1: Describe your term
Courses, staff, rooms, groups and time slots. Import what you already have or enter it step by step.
Step 2: Set the rules
Hard blocks are absolute. Soft preferences — no long back-to-back runs, a balanced week — guide the optimiser.
Step 3: Generate, then refine
Dests checks that everything can fit, builds a conflict-free draft, and re-checks every change you make by hand.
Step 4: Publish
Export a clean PDF or Excel timetable for the notice board and share it with the people who need it.
Features
The details that decide whether a timetable works.
Every clash, in a plain sentence
Move a session or import new data and Dests re-checks the whole timetable. It tells you who is double-booked, which room is too small and which group is in two places at once — not an error code.
A score you can compare
Hard constraints are checked first; soft preferences, such as a balanced week or no long back-to-back runs, are ranked after. Comparing two drafts means something.
Checking your changes
Level 200 · Draft timetable
Lecturer double-booked
HardThe Data Structures lecturer is in LT2 and B204 on Tuesday at 10:00.
Room over capacity
HardNetworks Lab has 42 students but Lab 2 seats 30.
Back-to-back sessions
SoftLevel 200 has four sessions in a row on Thursday.
Hard rules that hold
Block a day, a session type or a whole course from a slot. The solver treats it as a rule, never a suggestion.
Rooms that fit the class
Capacity, lab or lecture hall, and availability are checked while scheduling, so no group lands in a room too small for it.
Change it without breaking it
Drag a session to a new slot and Dests warns you about clashes before you commit. Lock the sessions that must not move.
Documents ready to print
Branded PDF and Excel exports with your logo, a watermark, a signature line and clear separation between days.
Your next term shouldn’t start with a clash.
Create an account, tell us what kind of institution you are, and onboarding sets everything up around the way you schedule.