Using panel rules to stop over contacting

Use this when you want to stop your team going back to the same people too often. A cooldown rule hides someone from your panel searches for a set time after they were last contacted, or after they last took part in something.

For example, a rule of 14 days after Last contacted means anyone you emailed in the past fortnight doesn’t come up when you search the panel for people to add to a study.

Who can use this

Organisation admins, and anyone with the panel manager role who has access to the panel.

Where cooldowns apply

Cooldowns hide people when you’re choosing who to add to research:

• Add from panel and Add to shortlist, when you add people to a study
• broadcasts, but only the Last contacted rule, and you can send anyway (see Sending a broadcast to your panel)

Your panel’s own people table is not affected. Everyone stays visible there, whether they’re inside a cooldown or not.

1. Open your panel’s rules

Go to Panel settings in your panel’s sidebar and scroll to Panel rules. The cooldowns are under Cooldown rules.

2. Add a rule

Click Add rule, then pick which date the rule watches. You can set one rule for each of the five:

Rule	What it means
Last contacted	When you last contacted them through Participant Kit
Last active	When they consent, complete a screener or another form, are scheduled or are incentivised
Last consented	When they last signed a consent form in a study
Last incentivised	The most recent date they were given an incentive, in any study
Last scheduled	The last time they were scheduled in a study

3. Set how long the cooldown lasts

Each rule reads “in the last”, then a number and a unit. The units are Days, Weeks, Months and Years.

Click Save rules when you’re done. To take a rule away, click the bin next to it, then Save rules.

What you see when a cooldown hides someone

When you add people to a study, the page tells you how many were left out, for example “2 are unavailable: 1 already in this study and 1 contacted in the past 14 days.”

Broadcasts are the one place you can go ahead anyway. The confirmation warns you how many people were contacted recently and offers a tick box to include them.

Key takeaways

💡 Remember: Cooldowns only hide people when you’re picking who to add to research. Your panel table still shows everyone.

🧪 Try: Start with one rule on Last contacted. It’s the one that stops the most over contacting.

⚠️ Watch for: Broadcasts respect the Last contacted rule only, and you can send to people inside it anyway.

⚡ Quick tip: Set a longer cooldown on Last incentivised if you want to spread paid research around your panel.