Work Order scheduler is a necessary tool for companies that complete their work by planning client work orders in advance. It allows you to work with records effectively and estimate the employee workload and location resources.
The Work Order Scheduler helps you solve three main issues:
Search for a free specialist at a convenient time for the client.
Find available time for a master that the client needed.
Control and distribute a location resource workload.
Add the Scheduled for compound system field in at least one Work Order Form to activate the Work Order Scheduler.
Let's start adding the Scheduled for field. You can skip these steps if your Scheduler already appears on the page.
Step 1. Go to the Settings > Forms editor > Work Orders page.
Step 2. Choose the work order type.
Step 3. Click the Add field button. Choose the Scheduled for field in a group of system fields. After that, the following fields will appear in the form: Scheduled for, Duration and Resource (if you use location resources).
As for the Scheduled for, and Duration fields, you can set default values and make them required. Add the appropriate variables to the templates to use the information from these fields in printed documents and notifications. These include but are not limited to the following: {Order Scheduled For}, {Order Duration}, {Order Resource}.
As soon as you add the Scheduled for field to at least one work order form, a switch between the Table and Scheduler buttons appears on the Workflows page.
What does the Scheduler display?
Compared to the table displaying the list of work orders, Scheduler displays those as “blocks” within one working day or week.
The Timeline is the hourly scale from 00:00 to 23:59 in the upper part.
The Specialists column is a list of all users on the left of the section with the “Display in the Specialists list” right.
The Resources column is a list of all resources of the current location.
Important: If you use the Work Schedule feature, the Scheduler will display the working and non-working hours of each employee.
Calendar is a button to select the desired day of the week or month.
Here are the buttons you can find above the scheduler:
The + Order button creates a new work order.
The 🔁 button updates the information in the Work Order scheduler.
The Specialists / Resources switch toggles between sorting by specialists or resources.
The Day / Week switch toggles between the day or week time interval.
The Go to button allows you to select the closest days of the week.
The Forward and Back buttons change the date.
The Settings button - here you can edit the time step and the display of information in the work order slot.
The system displays existing work orders at the intersection of the timeline and the list of specialists or resources. This way, you can always see the current workload.
As soon as you create a work order and fill in the Scheduled for and Assigned technician / Resource fields, this work order will appear in the Work Order Scheduler.
Note: check the corresponding checkbox on the Settings > General > Work Orders page so that planning takes into account the work hours of the locations.
After that, if the duration of the work order exceeds the working time of the location, then the remaining time will be transferred to the next business day.
When you switch the Scheduler to “Day”, a red line is displayed, indicating the current time limit. Also, the icon of the reason for the absence (sick leave or vacation) is displayed next to the employee.
The background value of the Scheduler slot corresponds to the information specified in the schedule:
Gray shading - off-hours of the Location;
Gray background - employee's non-working time;
White - working time of the employee;
Green - vacation time;
Red - sick leave;
Orange - day off.
Creating work order in the Scheduler
1 method. Click the + Order button and fill in all the required fields.
2 method. Hit the desired time on the timeline of the specialist or resource. This will open an work order with the Scheduled for and Assigned technician / Resource already filled.
As soon as you create a work order in the Scheduler, the system will display it in the Work Order Table.
Please note that you can only select the work order type for which the recording time and duration are set.
Setting up the Work Order Scheduler slot
You can change the display of work order information in the Scheduler slot by going to Settings.
You can choose in Settings:
time step duration (in minutes)
number of rows displayed in the slot;
display of information in the work order slot (if necessary, you can add a new field, delete or select other information to be displayed).
After the settings are complete, click the Save button. You're done!
Order card
When you click on a slot, the order card opens, which contains the following data: Order number, Type, Client, Asset, Asset serial number, Manager, and Order amount.
In the card, you can change the status of the order by selecting the desired one.
Remember: Work Order statuses list only contains ones that the current employee can transfer the work order to from the current status. Configure your status transfer rules and employee permissions on the Settings > Statuses > Work Orders page.
If you hover the cursor over the customer's name, a pop-up window with contact phone numbers will appear, allowing you to choose a convenient way to contact the customer.
Also, you can open the asset profile by clicking on the asset name.