Audience rule set examples

Dynamic audiences in Totara allow you to automatically group users based on profile information, learning activity, position, and other data. Rule sets let you build flexible logic for audience membership — enabling highly targeted enrolments, reporting, and messaging.

This page provides a range of example audience rule sets, designed to illustrate how different rules and logic can be combined to produce practical, real-world audiences.

Each example includes:

Rules – The conditions being evaluated (e.g., department, certification status)
Rule Set Logic – Whether all, any, or none of the rules must match
Membership Outcome – Who would be included based on the rules
Example Use Case – A typical purpose for the audience

These examples are for reference only and are not automatically available in your site. You can replicate them using rules listed on the Available Audience Rules page.
Some examples refer to custom user profile fields (such as CPD hours or Branch). These will only be available if they have been created in your Totara site. You can adjust the examples to match the custom fields used in your own organisation.

Audience name	Rules (with inline logic)	Rule set logic	Who would be members	Example use case
All staff in the UK	Country is United Kingdom	All rules must match	Anyone with UK as their country in their user profile	Assign UK-specific compliance training
New starters (Last 30 days)	Account created date is within last 30 days	All rules must match	Users recently added to the system	Enrol into onboarding programme
Managers with more Than 5 Direct reports	Is a manager AND has more than 5 direct reports	All rules must match	People managers responsible for larger teams	Invite to advanced leadership programme
People in Finance or IT Teams	Department is Finance OR Department is IT	Any rule can match	All staff in either department	Share policies or updates relevant to both departments
Staff who have not logged in	Last login date is more than 90 days ago	All rules must match	Inactive users who may need follow-up	Send reminders or escalate account clean-up
Staff at New York or London branch	City is New York OR Branch is London	Any rule can match	All users located in either city	Regional campaign or localised learning
Learners Missing Mandatory Course	Course enrolment: Is not enrolled in Health & Safety course	All rules must match	Anyone who hasn’t completed a mandatory course	Trigger audience-based enrolment or reminders
Team leaders in Australia	Job title contains Team Leader AND Country is Australia	All rules must match	Mid-level managers located in Australia	Assign leadership microlearning
Users With Expired Certifications	Certification status is Expired	All rules must match	Users who have failed to recertify	Auto-enrol in recertification path
Contractors not in the HR System	Authentication type is Manual accounts AND email address does not contain @ABCRetail.com	All rules must match	Contractors or manually created users	Target specific training to contractors such as company Health and Safety
All non-Managers	Total number of direct reports: None	All rules must match	Staff without managerial responsibility	Assign staff-specific training not needed for managers
Sales staff with LMS Activity	Department is Sales AND has logged in in the last 30 days	All rules must match	Active Sales team members	Target performance support and sales enablement
Admin team needing CPD	Department is Admin AND custom field “CPD Hours Completed” is less than 10	All rules must match	Administrative staff who haven’t completed enough CPD	Reminder audience for compliance tracking
Users with achieved skills	Proficient in skill (selected skills)	All rules must match	Users who has achieved a certain skill	Assign those audience members the next level of skills for there career development
Users in a existing audience, or specific part of the organisation	Audience member: Customer Support Team OR Organisation: Supply chain	Any rule can match	Users currently in a specific audience you need to target, or employees from specific part of the organisation	Target very specific comms or training
Staff not completed ‘Getting to know our organisation’ course, or completed the course over 1 year ago	Course completion: has Not completed any: Getting to know our organisation, OR Course completion date: Getting to know our organisation - User completed before dd/mm/yyyy	Any rule can match	Users not completed key training, or the course subject has been updated in the last 12 months	Enrol users onto the course either those who have not completed, or those who need to retake
People managers not in the leadership programme	Has direct reports AND Programme assignment: Is not assigned	All rules must match	Eligible managers who haven’t started training	Invite them into the leadership development programme
All users none UK	Country is not equal to United Kingdom	All rules must match	Imported users based in locations outside UK	Tailor region-specific onboarding or compliance
Users from either Personal manager, or part of the executive team, or are on board of chairs	Position is HR>Personnel Manager OR Organisations is equal to Executive team OR, Department is equal to Board of Directors	Any rule can match	Targeting very specific users based on different criteria	Target specific learning, resources or skill frameworks

When using NOT logic, it’s especially important to test your audience membership to make sure it behaves as expected. In some cases, "none of the rules must match" logic may give more control than simply using "all rules must match" with negatives.

Course badge The Totara Academy has a whole course dedicated to using Audiences in Totara. Here you can learn more on how to use audiences, see best practice, and give it a go yourself.

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