How Can I Create a Status Code for Part Orders?

There's a lot that Status Codes can do for you in ESC.  They keep you up-to-date on the current standing of your dispatches, they track traveling and working time for your technicians and they can also reassign dispatches for you automatically.  

In this example, we're going to create a new Status Code called "Part Order" that will automatically transfer the dispatch to ESC's Backorder Non-Tech Column.

Setup the Dispatch Board

Before we get started, make sure that the Backorder column is showing on your Electronic Dispatch Board.  

1. Go to Dispatch → Setup Dispatch Boards.
2. Double-click on the name of the board you wish to edit.
   
   
   
   
3. Make sure the Backorder Non-Tech Column is showing on the left side of the board.  
4. Click OK.

Setup the Status Code

1. To setup the new Status Code, go to Dispatch → Enter Status Codes.
2. Click Add New.
3. We'll call this Status Code "Part Order".  This will be the code our dispatcher or technicians will use when they need to wait for parts before they can complete the work for a particular dispatch.
4. Next, we'll enter the following settings:

• Date Dispatched - Set if empty
• Time Dispatched - Set if empty
• Dispatcher Name - Set if empty
• Time On - Set if empty
• Date/Time Off - Set if empty
• Transfer to Tech - Backorder
• Leave On Board - Yes
• Set On Assign - No
• Set On Unassign - No

With the Date/Time settings all set to "Set if empty", this code will fill in any blank Date/Time fields and stop the working time.  However, since Leave On Board is set to "Yes" the dispatch will remain Active.  You'll notice that we set Transfer to Tech to "Backorder", which means that this Status Code will automatically move the dispatch to the Backorder Non-Tech Column.

See It In Action

1. Create a test dispatch and assign it to a technician.
2. Switch to the Electronic Dispatch Board.  Make sure you can see the dispatch you just created and the Backorder column.
3. Right-click on the dispatch and set the status straight to Part Order.  You'll notice that the dispatch will have moved from the assigned technician's column and should now be showing under the Backorder column.  
4. Double-click on the dispatch to open it.  You should now be looking at the Schedule tab of the Dispatch screen.  Since we skipped the regular process of setting the dispatch to Traveling and then to Working, the Date and Time fields of the dispatch would have been empty.  Since we setup the Part Order Status Code to fill in any empty dates, all Date and Time fields of the dispatch should now be set to the current Date and Time.  
5. If you are done testing with this dispatch, you can click the Delete button on the toolbar of the Dispatch screen to delete it from your database.

Any dispatch transferred by a Status Code can be edited and re-assigned like any normal dispatch.  If your technicians are using ESC Mobile and will need the ability to access this new Status Code, be sure to go to the ESC Connections Server → Settings → ESC Mobile and make it available to them.