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How scheduling and dispatch work

Plan

Scheduling, dispatch and manual assignment are on every plan. Auto-assignment and booking windows need Pro.

What it is

Scheduling puts a job on a date and time. Dispatch gets it to the right technician. On every plan your office team assigns jobs by hand from the Jobs page and the live dispatch board. On Pro, auto-assignment picks the technician for you based on skills, SLA deadlines, workload and who's available, and keeps adjusting as the day changes.

Where it fits

flowchart LR
    J[New job] --> S[Schedule]
    BW[Booking window] --> S
    AV[Technician availability] --> D[Dispatch]
    S --> D
    D -->|Manual| T[Assigned technician]
    D -->|Auto-assignment| T
    T --> M[Mobile app]
    D --> LD[Live dispatch]

A job lands on the schedule with a date and, on Pro, a booking window. Dispatch looks at which technicians are available and assigns one, either by hand or automatically. The technician then sees the job in the mobile app, and the office watches progress on the live dispatch page.

Statuses

Technicians set their own availability. Some statuses can receive new work and some can't.

stateDiagram-v2
    direction LR
    state "Can receive work" as Open {
        state "Wrap Up" as WrapUp
        Available --> WrapUp
        WrapUp --> Lunch
        Lunch --> Available
    }
    state "Cannot receive work" as Closed {
        state "Off Duty" as OffDuty
        OffDuty --> Vacation
    }
    Open --> Closed
    Closed --> Open

Available, Wrap Up and Lunch can receive work. Off Duty and Vacation can't. A technician can switch between any of them; the diagram just groups them. The dispatch summary counts your team as Available, Busy or Off-Duty.

Step by step

  1. Open the Dispatcher Dashboard from the side menu. Its page header reads "Live dispatch". The Live map shows your team, with Fit to fleet, Traffic and Auto-follow controls. Live dispatch map showing where each technician is, next to a status panel with active jobs, idle technicians and SLA alerts
  2. Check the Live status panel for Active and Idle technicians and any SLA Violations.
  3. Use the Jobs tab to see what still needs a technician, and the Active Technicians tab to see who's free. Unassigned filter on the live dispatch Jobs tab, listing jobs still waiting for a technician
  4. Assign the job to a technician. On Pro, auto-assignment does this for you when a job comes in.
  5. Watch the Live Dispatch Feed as technicians head out, arrive and finish.
  6. For a whole-team view by technician, open the Team Board tab on the Jobs page. Team Board with one column per technician, showing the job each person is working on

What happens next

For the full detail, see Scheduling, the dispatch board, Technician availability, the Team Board, Auto-assignment, Booking time windows, Auto-assignment settings and Dispatcher notes.

Who can do this

Action Who can do it
Use the live dispatch page Owner, Manager, Dispatcher
Assign jobs Owner, Manager, Dispatcher
Set availability Each technician, for themselves

Tips and common questions

How does auto-assignment pick a technician? It looks at skills, SLA deadlines, how much is already on each technician's plate and who's available, then matches the job to the best fit. It keeps rebalancing through the day as jobs and availability change.

What do technicians see when auto-assignment is on? Instead of picking jobs themselves, they tap Get Next Job in the mobile app. The job they should go to next shows a HEAD HERE badge.

Can I limit how many jobs one technician gets? Yes. Auto-assignment settings include a maximum number of jobs per technician per day, your business hours and your company's skills.

Learn more about scheduling and auto-assignment.