Technician availability

Before you assign a job, you need to know who is available. FSM Navigator® lets you define working hours for each technician, review schedule change requests, and view availability at a glance — so you can schedule confidently without overbooking your team.

Set working hours

Each technician has a weekly schedule that defines when they are available for job assignments.

1. Navigate to Users > Technicians and select a technician.
2. Open the Schedule tab.
3. For each day of the week, set the start time and end time.
4. Toggle days on or off to indicate working days versus days off.
5. Click Save Schedule.

Default schedule: New technicians start with the following schedule. You can customize this immediately after adding a technician.

View availability

You can check technician availability in several places:

On the dispatch board

The dispatch board shows each technician's working hours visually:

• Working hours appear as open blocks on the timeline.
• Outside working hours are shaded to indicate the technician is unavailable.

This lets you see at a glance who has capacity for new jobs.

On the job assignment screen

When you assign a job, the technician selector shows availability information:

• Technicians who are available during the job's scheduled time are listed first.
• Technicians who are off that day or already fully booked are flagged so you can avoid conflicts.

On the technician profile

The Schedule tab on each technician's profile shows their full weekly schedule.

Schedule patterns

If your technicians work consistent but non-standard schedules — such as four 10-hour days or rotating shifts — set up their weekly schedule once and it applies going forward. Individual days can be changed through a schedule change request.

Common schedule patterns:

Schedule change requests

Technicians can request changes to their working hours for a specific day — such as a different start or end time, or a full day off. These requests go through an approval workflow so owners and managers stay in control.

How the approval workflow works

flowchart TD
    A[Technician requests<br/>schedule change] --> B[Owner and managers<br/>notified instantly]
    B --> C{Review request}
    C -- Approve --> D[New schedule takes<br/>effect immediately]
    C -- Reject --> E[Technician notified<br/>with optional reason]
    D --> F[Auto-assignment engine<br/>uses updated schedule]

1. Technician submits a request — the technician selects a specific day and enters their desired start time, end time, or requests the day off.
2. Owners and managers are notified — an in-app notification appears immediately, and owners also receive an email.
3. Owner or manager reviews — the request is approved or rejected. If rejected, an optional reason can be provided.
4. Decision is communicated — the technician receives a notification with the outcome.
5. Approved changes take effect immediately — the updated schedule is reflected on the dispatch board and used by auto-assignment right away.

Viewing pending requests

Owners and managers can view all pending schedule change requests from the Scheduling section. Each request shows:

Impact on auto-assignment

If your company uses auto-assignment, technician availability is a critical factor in how jobs are assigned. The engine uses current schedule data — including recently approved schedule changes — to make decisions:

• Working hours — the engine only assigns jobs during each technician's defined working hours.

• Schedule change approvals — when a schedule change request is approved, the engine uses the updated hours immediately. No manual refresh is needed.

• Current workload — the system considers how many jobs a technician already has before assigning more.

• Skills and location — combined with availability, skills and location determine the best match.

Keeping technician schedules accurate — and responding to schedule change requests promptly — ensures auto-assignment makes the best decisions for your team.

Best practices

• Keep schedules current — update working hours whenever a technician's regular schedule changes.
• Handle change requests early — approve or reject schedule change requests as soon as they arrive so dispatchers can plan around them.
• Review availability weekly — at the start of each week, check the dispatch board for any scheduling conflicts or gaps.
• Coordinate with your team — make sure technicians know their schedules and any changes communicated through the system.

Related guides

• Dispatch board — view and manage technician schedules visually
• Auto-assignment — how schedules and availability influence automatic job assignment
• Creating jobs — schedule jobs that align with technician availability
• Technician daily workflow — how technicians see their daily schedule
• Plans & pricing — compare plans including auto-assignment capabilities