The Electronic Dispatch Board provides a variety of views and options to customize what you see and how you see it. To start, there are three different views for the Dispatch Board that you can choose from: the Standard view, the Weekly view and the Month view.
Switching between views is fast and does not alter any settings for the view you are switching from. To select a view, click its icon on the EDB toolbar.
Standard Dispatch View
This view allows you to see all the dispatches scheduled for your technicians in Promised Date and Time order. Daily header records give you the option of seeing several days at once while still being able to differentiate between dispatches scheduled for today and those in the future. The header record can also be customized to show the total number of calls scheduled for the day or the total time it should take to complete them.
At the top of each column in this view is a header record that shows the technician's name.
If any dispatches have been assigned to the technician the next thing that will appear will be a date record. The date record will show you the day of the week (ie. Monday), the calendar date and either the total number of calls assigned to the technician that day or the total amount of time those calls should take (this is based on the settings of the EDB Options screen). A new date record will appear before any dispatches scheduled for other days as well. This lets you instantly know what day each dispatch has been scheduled.
After that you will see the actual dispatches themselves. The first line of the dispatch will always show the Location Name associated with the dispatch so you know who is requesting the work. The contents of the second line can be set several different ways on the EDB Options screen. In the screen shot above they are set to Promised Time & Estimated Time.
Weekly View
This view allows you to accurately schedule dispatches simply by dragging them to the desired tech at the desired time. The width of all dispatches shows the estimated time to complete the dispatch. This is extremely useful when assigning a new dispatch as you can visually check to ensure the dispatch you want to assign does not conflict with the technician's existing schedule.
Can't find an a technician to assign the call to today? You can now scroll down to see up to a full week in advance. You can also scroll up to see the prior week if you wish to check on calls that are waiting to be completed. The Weekly view will only allow you to view 7 days ahead and 7 days behind, even in the non-tech columns.
At the top of this view is a time line. A horizontal scroll bar on the bottom of the screen allows you to shift the time viewed to see what you want to see. The times shown here, and the intervals between them, can be set by going to Dispatch → Setup Dispatch Boards.
The left hand side of this view is divided by days. Under each day you will see a list of the technicians assigned to that board. Dispatches that have been assigned to each tech will appear on the same line the technician's name. The dispatches will be arranged horizontally with their left boundary in alignment with the promised time and the right boundary showing the time of estimated completion.
Assigning Dispatches with the Weekly View
Dispatches can be assigned to a particular technician by dragging the dispatch to the desired time on the technician's line. An outline of the dispatch will appear as it is dragged. This outline will show the estimated time to complete the dispatch. We do this so you can quickly see if the dispatch you are assigning will fit into the technician's schedule. When the dispatch is released, the promised date and time on the dispatch are changed reflect where it was scheduled. If you drag a dispatch to the top or bottom border of the dispatch board without releasing it, the board itself will scroll to make other days available.
Month View
This view allows you to see your schedule for the entire month. Work meters appear on at the top of every day to show the amount of work scheduled versus the time available. Simply clicking into any day expands the view to show a daily schedule by time. This view is perfect for both scheduling big jobs that will last several days and finding a time slot that matches your customer's schedule.
The left hand side of this view is divided by days. Under each day you will see a list of the technicians assigned to that board. Dispatches that have been assigned to each tech will appear on the same line the technician's name. The dispatches will be arranged horizontally with their left boundary in alignment with the promised time and the right boundary showing the time of estimated completion.
Assigning Dispatches with the Monthly View
Dispatches can be assigned to a particular technician by dragging the dispatch to the desired time on the technician's line. An outline of the dispatch will appear as it is dragged. This outline will show the estimated time to complete the dispatch. We do this so you can quickly see if the dispatch you are assigning will fit into the technician's schedule. When the dispatch is released, the promised date and time on the dispatch are changed reflect where it was scheduled.
To make it easy to find an opening in your schedule, we allow you to drag a dispatch over any day. If you hover over the day for a moment that day will expand so you can see the details of it. You can do this over as many days as needed until you find the right spot for the dispatch.
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