Interpreting the Schedule -- Global Properties
Jobs are arranged in columns. There is a column for each day, and a column for each vehicle or crew shown within a day. Job time intervals appear on the left side going down. Dates, along with vehicle/crew names or numbers, appear across the top. Virtually everything is easily and quickly adjustable. Check out the right-click menu for often-used shortcut options.
There are various ways to move around on the schedule screen. At the top left of the screen, where you see a date displayed, you can click on the drop-down arrow and access the date selector calendar. On this calendar, you can move to a different month quickly by clicking on the month text, and then choose the month you want from the list of months. You can do the same for the year. To go to a day, just click on the day number. You can also scroll a day at a time with the single arrow buttons at the upper left of the schedule screen, or a scroll a screen at a time with the double arrow buttons (i.e. the double arrows make the screen move the same number of days that you have currently displayed).
To move through the schedule from the keyboard, use the right and left arrow keys to move your schedule a day at a time. Hold the [Ctrl] key while using the right and left arrows to move your schedule a screen at a time. Click here for help on setting up different views of the schedule.
When scheduling a job, you can view the zone color for the job you are scheduling at the top of the schedule screen just next to the Calendar button, as there will be a small box that is the color for the Zone of the job you are scheduling. If there is no zone assigned to the job, then the color box will not be there. The only time that box will show is when you are in the middle of scheduling a job from the order form screen.
Schedule Objects, or Activity (Job) Blocks
Any activities (jobs, pickups, deliveries, or estimates) that are scheduled will display as Schedule Objects or Activity (Job) Blocks on the schedule screen. These are the colored boxes of varying lengths that appear on the schedule. To move an activity block on the schedule, simply drag it where you want it with your mouse. If the desired destination is not visible, then you may have to drag to a spot temporarily and then shift the days you are viewing on the schedule.
To enter a new order directly from the Schedule screen, click and drag on the day and time section under the desired Vehicle/Crew for the desired time length. When you release the mouse button, a menu appears from which you can select the appropriate option. If you choose either Job, Pickup, Delivery, or Estimate then a new order form will appear with the date and time already scheduled. To enter an activity (such as a meeting) without having an order associated with it, then click and drag on the desired schedule location as above, but this time select Add
Activity. Then type in a note describing the activity.
Schedule Hints
A Schedule Hint shows you selected pieces of information about an activity, such as a job, that can appear on the schedule for quick reference when routing and scheduling. Sometimes you will have this hint displayed directly in the Job Objects on the Schedule. At other times you will have the Schedule set to a view that makes the Job Objects too narrow to display the full Schedule Hint. In this instance you will uncheck the right-click option to Show Hints In Box. Hints can now be viewed by moving your mouse over a given object. As you do, a hint box will be displayed that shows the summary information about that scheduled order.
To load the order form from the Job Block, just right-click on the desired Schedule Object and choose Edit Associated Order.
To change the schedule time, estimated time length, or put a note with the object, right-click on it and choose Edit. This will load the Activity edit form, where you can make any of these changes. You can also lengthen or shorten the estimated time for the activity by just moving the mouse to the bottom edge of the Schedule Object and clicking and dragging to make it longer or shorter.
To view the schedule hints inside the Job block again, right-click on the schedule and choose Show Hints in Box.
To see more of the Schedule Hint directly in the Job Object, view a smaller number of days by right-clicking on the schedule and choosing a different Number of days, or increase the resolution setting for your monitor (from the Windows Start menu, Settings, Control Panel, Display). Click here for information on customizing the contents of the schedule hints.
Removing Vehicles from the Schedule
Sometimes you know that a certain truck or van will not run on a certain day, so you don't want to schedule anything to that truck. To remove the vehicle's column from the schedule for that day,
1. Choose Vehicles from the Misc/Setup pull-down menu
2. Go to the Absences tab
3. Click Add to add an absence
4. Fill in the date range for the absence.
Now when you view that day on the schedule, that vehicle's column will not be shown.
To remove a vehicle from the schedule screen altogether without just deleting the vehicle, go to your Vehicle setup screen and on the Status tab, uncheck the Currently Active box. Refer to the help in the software for more information on setting up your vehicles (Misc/Setup > Vehicles option > press F1).
You can also define different views of the schedule where say only certain vehicle columns are visible (say you have 10 trucks and you want a view of 5 of them at a time, and then a separate view of the other 5 at a time). You can define these different schedule views on the Schedule Views screen.
Assigning Specific Technicians to Jobs
After you have setup your vehicles (see the Company Setup section of this manual under Vehicle Setup), you can assign employees to be on each vehicle for certain days on the Vehicle Schedule screen (Misc/Setup > Vehicle Schedule). You can always see what employees are assigned to what vehicle by moving the mouse over the vehicle picture at the top of its column on the schedule screen. You can also access the vehicle schedule by clicking on the vehicle picture there at the top of the schedule screen.
If a client has indicated to you that they want a certain technician to do their work, then you would indicate that in the Activity Note for the job. You can enter in the activity note by just double-clicking on the scheduled job, going to the Note tab, and entering the note in the box provided there. Then you want to be sure that the Activity Note field is visible in the Hint Layout (see section above on Customizing Hints - you may even want to make it be bold or red in color so it stands out). Whenever you complete a job (set the Status on the order to Done), the Activity Details
screen will appear to allow you to set the specific technicians who actually did the work and the commission level they should receive.
To set the commission level, select the employee in the list on the right, and then set their commission in the drop-down box below the list. Refer to the Commission Level setup section of the help to understand more how commission levels work. See the help section on Completing Orders for more information on completing orders.
Scheduling a Job to more than one Vehicle
Sometimes a job may be rather large and require more than one vehicle to be on it. To schedule another vehicle to be on a job in addition to 1 main vehicle, the best thing to do is just block out the time for the other vehicle on the schedule by just adding an activity and indicate in the notes for the activity where the vehicle is going to be. That way you won't over book the vehicle and your schedule will indicate where everyone is. Whenever you complete the order, you will be able to choose all of the technicians for the job on the Activity Details screen. See the help section on Completing Orders for more information on completing orders.
Calendar Summary
This screen gives you a quick summary of each day in a month. You can click on a day to jump to that day on the schedule. The summary shows dollars booked, number of jobs, and job average for each day.
Printing the Schedule Route Sheets
You can print the schedule by right-clicking on it and choosing Print Route Sheets or hitting Ctrl+P on your keyboard. The schedule print-out is just like any of the other reports. If you go to the Reports screen, you will see the Schedule report listed there in the Employee Performance category. Click here to learn how to customize the look of the Route Sheet report. If you are getting an error like Error opening query for the chosen report, please refer to that topic in the help.
To schedule an order from the order form itself, just click the Schedule button at the top of the order form. This loads your current schedule, showing a column for each of the vehicles on each different day. Once on the schedule screen, the cursor will change to the order scheduling cursor, which is a normal cursor with a little document under it (looks like a white square box). You can then move to a different day to get to the right date and vehicle where you want to schedule this order, but remember that when you actually click in the grid on the schedule, it will assign the order to the time slot on which you clicked. You often will navigate to whichever date that the client wants to have the work done, and find the first available time slot there.
Once you have found the time slot you want to schedule , simply click the cursor at that time slot. The order will then appear on the schedule. If there are any conflicts (another job is already scheduled at that time), then you will be notified. You should be able to see any other activities for the crew as objects on the schedule screen, so just be sure that you don't try to schedule on top of any of the objects that are already shown.
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