Using the Technician Board

Using the Technician Board – Daily View Window

The Technician Board – Daily View window displays a detailed schedule for a technician and allows you to see blocks of time for scheduling purposes. Scheduled service, activity, and job appointments display in the scrolling window. The window displays in 15-minute increments. Appointments that are in non-15 minute increments, such as five minutes or 20 minutes, are rounded up to the nearest 15-minute interval. The window displays for one technician at a time.

To open the technician board – daily view window:

1. Select Cards > Service Management > Technician Board.

2. Select a technician.
3. Select the Daily View tab.

The scrolling window displays as of the system time unless a different time is entered in the Technician Schedules window. For example, if the system time is 11:00 a.m., the scrolling window starts at 11:00 a.m. You have to scroll up to display the scrolling window before 11:00 a.m.

The scrolling window displays appointments for the selected technician and date. Mark the Completed and Closed checkboxes at the top of the window if you want appointments for these types of calls to display. Appointments for MCC calls always display in the scrolling window.

OPEN indicates the technician has no service, activity, or job appointments scheduled. N/A indicates the technician isn't available. That is, the technician doesn't have a shift set up during that time.
Appointments display in color. Service appointment color is based on call type. See Setting Up Call Types. Activity and job appointments appear amber in color. This is a system default and can't be changed.

Select the Activities button to open the Appointment Wizard where you can create activity and job appointments.

Using the Technician Board – Appointments Window

Scheduling and tracking service technicians' schedules is vital when dispatching service calls. With the Technician Board – Appointments window, dispatchers can monitor and plan technician workloads by viewing each technician's appointments.

If you're using the job scheduling feature, you can view job appointments in the Technician Board – Appointments window.

Select Cards > Service Management > Technician Board.

The scrolling window displays service appointments. If you're using the Advanced Scheduling features, you can display activity appointments by marking the Activity Appts. checkbox. If you're using the Job Scheduling feature, you can display job appointments by marking the Job Appts. checkbox.

The 42-day calendar on the right side of the window displays the hours of scheduled service appointments, activity, and job appointments for the selected technician. If you select a day in the 42-day calendar and then select the Daily View tab, the Technician Board – Daily View window displays for that date.

Filtering Appointments on the Technician Board

You can filter the appointments that display in the scrolling window using the filter fields at the top of the window:

• Date
  The Date field defaults with the date from the Dispatch Board. If a technician is entered in the Technician field, you can select another date, if necessary.
• Technician
  The Technician field defaults with the technician ID from the calling window. Use the browse buttons to select another technician, if necessary. You can view appointments assigned to the Unassigned technician in this window.
• Show, Unscheduled Service Appts. Only
  This checkbox defaults as unmarked so both scheduled and unscheduled service appointments display in the scrolling window. Mark this checkbox if you want only unscheduled service appointments, or those that do not have a start time and estimated hours, to display in the scrolling window. If you mark this checkbox, the Activity Appts. and Job Appts. checkboxes will be unmarked and disabled.
• Activity Appts.
  If you're using the Advanced Scheduling features, you can mark this checkbox to display activity appointments in the scrolling window.
• Job Appts.
  If the Job Scheduling in Service Management feature is registered, you can mark this checkbox to display job appointments in the scrolling window.
• Completed, Closed, and MCC Calls
  Mark these checkboxes if you want appointments for these types of calls to display in the scrolling window.

Rescheduling Service Appointments

A dispatcher can move a service appointment from one day to another using the Reschedule button in the Technician Board– Appointments window.

1. Select Cards > Service Management > Technician Board.
2. Select the appointment in the scrolling window, and then select the date on the calendar you want to move the appointment to.
3. Select the Reschedule button.
4. A message appears, asking if you're sure you want to move the appointment. Select Continue.
5. The Appointments window opens. Edit the appointment or just select Save.
6. Close the Appointments window.

Creating Activity and Job Appointments

The Activities button opens the Appointment Wizard where you can create activity appointments. If the Job Scheduling feature is registered, you can create job appointments.

Rescheduling Activity and Job Appointments

You can reschedule single activity and job appointments in the Technician Board – Appointments window.
To create job appointments, you must have the optional Job Scheduling feature registered.

1. Select Cards > Service Management > Technician Board.
2. Select a technician.
3. Select a job or activity appointment in the scrolling window.
4. Select the date on the calendar you want to move the appointment to.
5. Select Reschedule.
6. A message appears, asking if you're sure you want to move the appointment. Select Continue.
7. The Reschedule Appointment Wizard window opens, where you can enter a new start time for the appointment, if necessary.
8. Select Reschedule.

Technician Schedules Window

The Technician Schedules window is used to determine technicians' availability. The window is part of the Advanced Scheduling features. The window can be opened by choosing the Technician schedules button in the Technician ID field from Dispatch Board, Service Call window, and Appointments window. The Service Date field defaults with the date entered in the calling window. If no date was entered, the system date defaults.

Filtering Data

The Technician field defaults with the technician from the calling window. The Skill Level field and the Service Area field are used to filter technicians. If a service area is entered as a filter, the technicians list in the sequence established in the Service Area Setup window (Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > Service Management > Lookup Setup > General > Service Area).
Use the Clear button to display all technicians.
The starting time in the Service Call or Appointments window defaults into the Hours reflected as of: field, which we call the Time field. If you select the clock button in the Time field, the system time defaults. If the Starting Time field in the Service Call or Appointments window is blank, the system time defaults.

Viewing Scheduled Hours

The scrolling window displays the available, allocated, and MCC hours for each technician. This information assists you in determining which technician to assign to a service call appointment.

Available hours are calculated based on the length of the shift plus extended hours minus any activity appointments and assigned service appointments. Allocated hours are the total of the activity appointments for the technician and all assigned service appointments. MCC hours are the total of all MCC service appointments assigned to the technician.

The available, allocated, and MCC hours are based on the time displayed in the Time field at the top of the window. For example, if a technician's shift was nine hours long (8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.), and no activity appointments or service call appointments were assigned to the technician, and 8:00 a.m. is entered in the Time field, the available hours would be nine. If 11:00 a.m. was entered in the Time field, the available hours would be six.

Viewing Unscheduled Appointments

To view appointments that haven't been scheduled to a technician, enter Unassigned in the Technician field. The Available row in the scrolling window will always be zero since you can't set up a shift for the Unassigned technician. The Allocated row, however, displays the total unassigned hours. This is useful to dispatchers because it displays the total hours that need to be assigned to technicians. The MCC row displays the total unassigned MCC hours.

Navigating from the Technician Schedules Window

Highlight a technician and select the Select button to return to the Service Call window with the selected technician in the Technician ID field.

The Technician Board – Appointments window opens when you select a row in the Technician Schedules' scrolling window and then zoom on the date heading.