Reschedule and move items

  • 5 minutes

At some point, something is going to happen that results in the need to reschedule an item or substitute a resource. For example, if a customer has a sudden conflict, a technician calls in sick, or a tech runs behind due to items taking longer than normal.

The schedule board offers multiple ways that dispatchers can reschedule items or substitute different resources. Depending on what the specific need is, dispatchers can:

  • Rebook

  • Substitute resource

  • Move items to a different day

Rebook items

Rebooking lets you move a booking to a different time or day and assign it to a different resource. You can rebook an item by right-clicking on the booking you want to work with and choosing Rebook.

The original booking is displayed at the top of the schedule assistant windows. It can be expanded to view information about the original booking, such as the resource scheduled to work on the item and the time it's scheduled for. All available resources that meet the criteria needed for the booking are suggested. You can even see the estimated travel time based on location of items they're scheduled to perform work in.

Locate the resource and time that you want to reschedule for, then select the time you want from the block and use the Create Resource Pane to complete the necessary information. Once you select rebook and close, the item is rebooked to the resource and time specified.

Screenshot of Rebooking Item with original booking details, time window, and Rebook & Close button.

Substitute resources

Substituting resources is different from rebooking because you're not moving the booking to a different time. You're simply replacing the original resource associated with the booking with a different resource. Once you have identified the resource booking that you want to find a substitution for, you can right-click the item and hover over substitute resource.

When you substitute a resource, you have two resource substitution options available:

  • Substitute a specific resource: If you know the specific resource that you want to substitute, you can select that resource and select substitute. The selected resource is substituted for the original resource.

  • Find a resource to substitute: If you're not sure which resource to use, you can select find substitute and the schedule assistant opens to provide suggestions of resources that are available at that time. Once you have identified the resource that you want to substitute, you can select substitute, and the booking is reassigned to the new resource.

Screenshot of Find a Substitution dropdown and substituting details.

Move bookings to a different day

Sometimes you might need to move multiple bookings from one day to another. For example, when you create bookings in advance, and due to schedule changes, you're no longer able to do them on those days.

Moving booking is done by selecting move booking to a different day from the Actions menu at the top of the schedule board. When you're moving multiple bookings to a different day, you need to specify the following information:

  • Source Date: Defines the date that the bookings are currently scheduled for.

  • Destination Date: Defines the date that you want to move the bookings to.

  • Booking Statuses: Specifies the booking status to use to determine which bookings to move. For example, you only want items that are scheduled to move. Items that are in progress, completed, or traveling should stay on the date they are at.

Screenshot of Move Bookings to Different Day window.

You need to define at least one booking status before you can move the item. Once you select OK, all bookings on that date with that booking status move.