Front Shared Inbox Assignment Rules, Round Robin and Load Balancing
Front can assign shared inbox conversations on its own, with two rule actions: round robin and load balancing. Both are good for a team of equals. They get awkward once you have specialists, shifts across time zones or a rule cap on your plan. This page shows exactly how each Front action picks a teammate, what it skips, and where a routing layer adds what is missing.
In short
Front assigns through rules with two actions. Round robin cycles through online teammates and leaves a conversation unassigned if everyone is offline. Load balancing gives each conversation to the teammate with the fewest open shared conversations, up to a per teammate limit (default 100), and queues work when nobody is available.
Why it fits
For a support or operations lead on Front with five to fifty seats, who sees work stack up on whoever is online first, specialists buried while generalists idle, or after hours conversations left unowned, and who is deciding whether a higher Front plan or a separate routing layer fixes it.
Round robin has no queue
Front documents that round robin skips offline teammates and leaves the conversation unassigned if everyone is away. A teammate who comes back online does not receive what was skipped, so a quiet morning can leave a backlog nobody owns.
Load balancing counts open shared conversations
It picks the teammate with the fewest open shared conversations, including those from other shared inboxes, and respects a limit that defaults to 100. Snoozed conversations do not count. It treats a one line question and a long dispute as the same unit.
Availability is a status, not a schedule
Teammates set to Out of office or Busy are not assigned by rules. Workforce Management adds shifts per inbox, but it is a separate product area, so many desks route on a status someone must remember to flip.
Rule counts follow the plan
The Front pricing page lists up to 10 automation rules on Starter, up to 20 on Professional and unlimited on Enterprise. A desk with an inbox per language or product runs out of Starter rules quickly.
A routing layer adds the missing inputs
Assigner decides the owner from round robin, weighted rotation, load balancing, skills and live availability, using shift schedules and time off, and records why each person was chosen. It sits beside Front and does not replace it.
Side by side
How each Front assignment option picks the person
| Option | Where it lives | How it selects | What it ignores |
|---|---|---|---|
| Round robin rule action | Rules, any plan within the rule cap | Cycles through online teammates in order | Weights, skills, size of the conversation, a queue when all are offline |
| Load balancing rule action | Rules, assignment limits tab | Fewest open shared conversations, limit default 100 | Skills, shifts, size of the conversation |
| Workforce Management shifts | Workforce Management | Considers teammates on an active shift for the inbox | Skills and conversation type |
| Keep assignments setting | Inbox settings | Keeps current assignee when they go Busy or Out of office | Whether that person can actually reply |
| Manual assignment | Conversation view | Whoever the sender picks | Everything above |
| Assigner beside Front | Assigner Starter or higher | Round robin, weighted rotation, load balancing, skills, availability | Nothing hidden, each assignment records the reason |
Based on the Front help center articles on round robin and load balancing and the Front pricing page, read November 4, 2026. Plan and feature names change, so confirm in your own account.
In detail
Set up Front assignment so it holds under load
Choose the action by how reliably you are staffed
Front’s own guidance is to use round robin when someone is always available and load balancing when availability changes through the day and nothing should be missed. If you cover several time zones or take lunch breaks seriously, load balancing is the safer default because it queues instead of dropping work.
Set assignment limits deliberately
Load balancing applies a per teammate limit set on the Assignment limits tab, and 100 applies if you set nothing. A limit of 100 open conversations is rarely a real capacity control. Pick the number a person can actually keep up with, and remember that open conversations from other shared inboxes count against it.
Watch the rule cap on your plan
Starter lists up to 10 automation rules and Professional up to 20. One assignment rule per inbox plus a few triage rules uses them fast. Count your rules before you add an inbox per language or product line.
Do not let statuses carry the schedule
Out of office and Busy keep people out of rotation, but only if they set them. If shifts matter, use Workforce Management or feed the schedule into the router so availability comes from the calendar and not from memory.
Know where the native model stops
Neither action reads skills, language or the weight of a conversation. Teams patch this with more inboxes and more rules, and the setup gets hard for a new admin to explain. That is the point where a router that owns the decision is simpler than another rule.
Where Assigner fits beside Front
Assigner chooses an owner using round robin, weighted rotation, load balancing, skills and live availability, with shift schedules and time off, and shows the reason for every assignment. It is priced per user, so you pay for the people who receive work. It is configuration work to connect, not a one click native app.
Test with a week of real conversations
Replay a recent week. Count how many conversations reached someone off shift, how many specialist conversations went to a generalist, and the gap between your busiest and lightest teammate at close of day. If those numbers are small, stay native.
Questions buyers ask
Frequently asked questions
Does Front have round robin assignment?
Yes. Round robin is a rule action that cycles through online teammates in order. It skips offline teammates and leaves the conversation unassigned if everyone is offline, because there is no queue. Load balancing is the other action and does queue.
How does Front load balancing work?
Front assigns each conversation to the teammate with the fewest open shared conversations, up to a per teammate limit that defaults to 100. When nobody is available, conversations are queued and assigned as teammates come online, oldest unreplied first.
What is the difference between round robin and load balancing in Front?
Round robin rotates through online teammates and drops work if nobody is online. Load balancing picks the teammate with the fewest open conversations and queues work when nobody is available. Front suggests round robin for reliably staffed teams and load balancing otherwise.
Why is Front not assigning conversations?
Check that the rule is active and its conditions match, that teammates are not Out of office or Busy, and that they are under the assignment limit. With round robin, conversations that arrive while everyone is offline stay unassigned and are not picked up later.
How many automation rules does Front allow?
The pricing page lists up to 10 automation rules on Starter, up to 20 on Professional and unlimited on Enterprise. Check your plan before building one assignment rule per inbox.
Can Front route by skill or language?
Not inside a single rotation. You can create separate inboxes or teammate groups per language and use rules to send conversations there, but selection inside a rotation is round robin or fewest open conversations. A routing layer adds skill based selection.
Does Front respect shifts when assigning?
With Workforce Management, a teammate must be available and on an active shift for the inbox to be considered. Without it, rules rely on the status teammates set themselves.
What does Assigner add beside Front?
Assigner adds weighted rotation, skills, live availability from shifts and time off, and a recorded reason for every assignment. It is priced per user, from Starter at $7 per user per month billed yearly, with a five user minimum.
Keep reading
More on helpdesk assignment, rotation and pricing.
- Front pricing per seat - Starter, Professional and Enterprise cost at 10, 25 and 50 seats.
- Help Scout round robin - Alphabetical rotation, balanced routing and workflow bypass.
- Support ticket routing - Route every request to the right agent by skill and load.
- Round robin ticket assignment - Rotation policies compared with load based assignment.
- Skills based routing - Send each item to the person best matched by expertise.
Stop hand-sorting your incoming work
Let Assigner route it to the right available person by skill, workload, and availability, using rules you control. Nothing sits unassigned and no one gets cherry-picked. Every assignment shows why.