Technician availability¶

Before you assign a job, you need to know who is available. FSM Navigator lets you define working hours for each technician, manage time off, 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.

Manage time off¶

When a technician is unavailable due to vacation, personal days, or other reasons, you can block time on their schedule so no jobs are assigned during that period.

Add time off¶

1. Open the technician's profile and go to the Schedule tab.
2. Click Add Time Off.
3. Select the start date and end date.
4. Optionally add a reason (for example, "Vacation" or "Training").
5. Click Save.

The blocked period appears on the dispatch board as a shaded area on the technician's timeline, making it clear they are unavailable.

Remove time off¶

1. Open the technician's Schedule tab.
2. Find the time-off entry in the list.
3. Click Remove and confirm.

The technician's availability is restored for those dates immediately.

View availability¶

You can check technician availability in several places:

On the dispatch board¶

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

• Working hours appear as open blocks on the timeline.
• Outside working hours are shaded to indicate the technician is unavailable.
• Time-off periods are clearly marked across the affected dates.

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 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 and any upcoming time off in a list view.

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. You can adjust individual weeks by adding time-off entries as needed.

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 real-time schedule data — including recently approved schedule changes — to make decisions:

• Working hours — the engine only assigns jobs during each technician's defined working hours.
• Time off — technicians with scheduled time off are excluded from auto-assignment during those periods.
• Schedule change approvals — when a schedule change request is approved, the engine uses the updated hours immediately. No manual refresh is needed.
• Overtime awareness — assigning a job that would push a technician past their shift end makes them less likely to be assigned. The engine prefers technicians who can complete the job within normal hours.
• End-of-shift optimization — for a technician's last job of the day, the engine gives a bonus if the job is near the technician's home base, reducing unnecessary travel at day's end.
• Current workload — the system considers how many jobs a technician already has before assigning more.
• Skills and location — combined with availability, skills and location-based matching with live traffic 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.
• Enter time off early — add vacation and personal days as soon as they are approved 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