Schedule Board Mapping is an optional component to the Schedule Board. This system does require an active service agreement and internet connection in order to register and use daily. This system contains two sections; a graphical schedule board and a GPS employee tracking map. These two sections work together for efficient scheduling and dispatching.
There is no installation required for the mapping system. However, you will need to register the product. If you purchased the mapping system, the serial number from registration will be located on your sales receipt/invoice. If you cannot find your serial number, please contact us and we will give it to you. You may email helpdesk@aptora.com or call 913-322-4666.
Setup & Registration
Navigate to Company | Schedule Board (New) to open the schedule board.
In the upper right corner, click the Mapping Registration button.
Enter the serial number from your sales receipt/invoice. NOTE: You may or may not include the hyphens.
Click the SUBMIT button.
Once the registration is complete, you will see the Map tab next to the Scheduler tab. Click the Map tab to access the map.
The Schedule Board Mapping system can do three things:
1. Display the location of your work orders and appointments. The work orders and appointments shown on the map coincide with the profiles and date parameters on the Scheduler tab.
2. Display the location of the mobile device(s) which are running the Aptora Mobile II app.
3. Display the location of a vehicle which is tracked using Verizon® Networkfleet®, Verizon® Connect(formerly Reveal/Fleetmatics), or Fleet Complete®.
Please Note: There is an additional charge for tracking of devices and vehicles on the map. For pricing information, please contact your account manager.
Usage
The schedule board and mapping system was designed with the idea it would be on a separate screen. You may detach the map from the scheduler by clicking on the map tab and dragging it to your desired location. You may zoom in/out on the map by using your scroll wheel on your mouse or by clicking the magnifying glass on the map.
The map displays icons for the different tracking options. Currently there are three things the map tracks.
Work orders
Appointments.
Devices – These may be either cell phones/tablets running the Aptora Mobile II app or vehicles being tracked by Verizon® Networkfleet®, Verizon® Connect(formerly Reveal/Fleetmatics), or Fleet Complete®.PLEASE NOTE: The activity shown on the map coincide with the profiles and date parameters on the Scheduler tab.
When the map is zoomed out and multiple work order appear in a close region, you will see a number instead of the
The Scheduling Wizard is found on the (new) Schedule Board. It gives the user the ability to create scheduled work orders and assign one or more technicians through a simple step-by-step process. Each step of the Scheduling Wizard is split into pages with buttons at the bottom of the page that will be disabled until all necessary data has been provided. Users can go to previous pages and change information if needed.
The system was designed to help users select the best technician for the job based on their skill set and estimated time of arrival to that call. The system uses Total Office Manager’s Skills Checking feature and combines it with our GPS tracking and mapping systems.
Requirements
This feature is included in the New Schedule Board. At the moment, this feature is being offered at no extra charge. It requires the optional Schedule Board Mapping system and GPS Device Tracking service. Please contact your account manager for more information about these services.
Step-by-Step Process
From the New Schedule Board, click the Scheduling Wizard button. The Scheduling Wizard will open on the right side of the schedule board.
There are two options. 1. Schedule Multiple Unscheduled Work Orders. 2. Create and Schedule a New Work Order. Each option is explained in detail below.
Create and Schedule a New Work Order
Use this option when you want to schedule a work order and assign it to a technician that can get to the work order address the quickest. The wizard will check the location of each technician against the location of the work order.
This process is almost identical to creating a work order using the method you are likely already used to.
From the New Schedule Board, click the Scheduling Wizard button. You may also right click on an empty section of the schedule board. The Scheduling Wizard will open on the right side of the schedule board.
Select the Create and Schedule a New Work Order option and click Next (bottom right).
Select a customer or job from the drop-down list. You may search simply by typing in a few characters.
Verify the customer’s information. Update this information as needed. Click the Next button.
Tip: If the Next button is unavailable, that is because the Wizard cannot find the customer’s location. The address is likely invalid. Double check the address.
Select a Work Order type. The Work Order Type that you select will be matched against the Work Order Types selected at Edit Employee > Skills stab. The Duration will be added automatically. You may edit that value.
Enter a short reason for the call in the Brief Description field. This field is like the subject line of an email. Enter additional information in the Detailed Description field if needed. You may enter a Private Description that will only be seen by your company. The Technician’s Notes field is where the technician’s notes will eventually appear. You may use this space if needed. Keep in mind, you are sharing this space with the technician and these notes are what appear on the work order or invoice that the customer sees. Click Next.
You will see an ASAP button and a Schedule Time button. Use the ASAP button for emergency calls that need to be handled immediately. If this call is to be scheduled in the future, click the Schedule Time button.
Schedule Time Button
Click the Schedule Time button.
Enter a Date and Time. Click the Find Technicians button.
ASAP Button
Click the Find button.
Click the Find Technicians button.
Select one or more technicians.
A list of technicians will be loaded into a list. The list will show all technician’s that are selected in the Selected Employees list (found in the Lists View area of the schedule board). The list will show technicians sorted by who can arrive the soonest and then by shortest drive time. You can then select which technician(s) for the work order(s) to be created. When at least one technician is selected the next button will become enabled, allowing that user to proceed to the next page.
Select a Confirmation Status for the work order(s). This is the same Confirmation Status feature that you may already be using.
Click the Finish button to create your work orders.
That is all there is to it. Now you can manage these work orders the same way you have always managed them.
Advanced Topic – Explaining the Scheduling Algorithm
If you are curious about the details behind how the Schedule Wizard works, this information is for you. Otherwise, you may feel free to skip over the rest of the article.
The main business logic involved in determining the drive time is finding the technician’s location. The customer’s location and the technician’s location are supplied to the Bing API and the route information is returned which contains the estimated drive time. The preferences for now are set to their defaults and cannot be changed yet. The ‘Use Asset GPS Threshold’ preference is set to 60 seconds. The ‘Default Source Location’ preference is set to technician’s home. Another thing to keep in mind is that currently the truck location and phone location are not implemented.
Determining the Technician’s Location
The flow-chart shows how finding the technician’s location is determined.
After Bing returns the data for the route, the estimated time of arrival is calculated. The estimated time of arrival will check if there are overlapping appointments with the desired time. If there are overlapping appointments, the overlapping appointment with the latest end time will be taken and the drive time will be added to that time to determine the estimated time of arrival. If not, desired start time will have the current time subtracted from it. The result of that will be compared against the drive time. If the drive time is greater, the estimated time of arrival will be the current time with the drive time added to it. If not, the estimated time of arrival will be simply the desired time.
Estimating the Time of Arrival
The flow-chart shows how the estimated time of arrival is determined.
Display of Geographic Data
While the Scheduling Wizard is being used, the map will display route information to the user. The first instance that will appear on the map is the customer location pin. This will show up when a customer is selected on the first page and they have a valid address. This pin will show the location of the target customer. The second instance will appear when technicians are selected. The starting location pin and the route line for that technician will appear on the map. If deselected, that route will then disappear. When all Scheduling Wizard panes are closed, the routing layer will be cleared on the map and all Scheduling Wizard related objects will be removed.
A multi-day work order is a single work order that spans two or more days. The feature allows you to set a start date and end date. You have options that include skipping weekends. Each day can have a different start and or end time. Each of these can be edited or deleted without affecting the others. When you search for this type of work order, you will see just one work order. To edit days and techs, open the WO and click the Edit button next to the “Multi-Day WO” checkbox.
Repeating Work Orders Form Usage
This option creates two or more separate work orders. You can think of this as a fancy Copy WO feature. The work order that is used to create the repeating work orders is the “Master Work Order”. If you delete it, you will delete all of the work orders created from it. You may open the Master WO and edit all of the repeating work orders.
Field Explanation (for both)
Repeats: This controls how often the work order repeats itself. This selection adds or removes certain controls from the form. For example, if you select Weekly, you will see checkboxes for each day of the week.
Avoid Weekends: You can avoid creating work orders on weekends. Note: This option may not be visible due to certain other options.
Start Date: The date of the work order. Remember, this is a single work order that spans two or more. The Repeating Work Order feature actually creates two or more work orders – one work order for each day.
Ends: You can enter the total number of occurrences or the end date. Both methods have the same end result.
Repeats Every: If you entered “1 Month”, as shown above, you would end up with a work order that includes one day per month. Tip: This is a multi-day work order, but the days do not have to be contiguous.
Repeat By: You will only see this option if your “Repeats” is set to “Monthly.” Your options are Day of the Month or Day of the Week.
Start Time and End Time: This is the time the work order begins and ends. The End Time can be entered manually, or it will automatically calculate depending on the Duration.
Duration: The duration can be entered manually, otherwise it will automatically calculate.
Understanding the Status for Multi-Day Work Orders
Multi-Day Work Orders are basically two or more work orders grouped together within a “master” work order. They appear as one work order. You might think of the master work order as the “container” for the individual work orders within it. This design works a little bit like how Group Items work.
Each work order can have its own settings and properties, including different work order status. As you may recall, work order statuses include Not scheduled, Scheduled, En Route, Working, Completed, Canceled, and Dispatched. Again, the status of each work order within a Multi-Day Work Order can be different. The fact that each work order can have different statuses may cause confusion with users.
Master Work Order Status
When the individual work orders have different statuses, it isn’t easy to decide on a great way to set the status of the master work order. Here is how the status of a master work order is decided.
Master Work Order Status = In Progress: If the Work Orders within Multi-Day Work Order have different active statuses or all the same active statuses (Not scheduled, Scheduled, En Route, Working, or Dispatched), the Master Work Order Status will be set to In Progress. Under certain circumstances, the work order might ask you to approve the status change. If you do not agree to change the status, it will remain the same.
Master Work Order Status = Canceled: If all the Work Orders within Multi-Day Work Order are changed to Canceled, Total Office Manager will ask you if you wish to set the Multi-Day Work Order status to “Canceled”. If you do not agree to change the status, it will remain the same.
Master Work Order Status = Cancelled: When all of the work orders have a “Cancelled” status, the master work order status will be set to “Cancelled”. Total Office Manager will ask you if you wish to set the Multi-Day Work Order status to “Completed”. If you do not agree to change the status, it will remain the same.
Master Work Order Status = Completed: When all of the work orders have a “Completed” status, the master work order status will be set to “Completed”. Total Office Manager will ask you if you wish to set the Multi-Day Work Order status to “Completed”. If you do not agree to change the status, it will remain the same.
Master Work Order Status = Completed: When all of the work orders have either a “Completed” or “Cancelled” status, the master work order status will be set to “Completed”. Total Office Manager will ask you if you wish to set the Multi-Day Work Order status to “Completed”. If you do not agree to change the status, it will remain the same.
Common Q&A
Q: How can technicians see who has been assigned to the other multi-day work orders?
A: You can see the other technicians if you go into the Work Order List. You can grant permissions to the Master (main) Work Order List. Or, you could grant them permission to go to Customer History > Work Order List. They will see the Assigned To on each WO. Most techs need to see the WO History. You could also enter the name of each technician in the Private Notes area of the WO. The techs can see that.
Tips
Multi-Day Work Order will have an asterisk to the right of the WO number. Example: 25561 *
You cannot have two or more work order types. A multi-day work order is a single work order with a single type.
The old Schedule Board will list each day separately on the Unscheduled List and denotes multi-day WOs with an asterisk.
The NEW Schedule Board Unscheduled list will nest the days under the parent WO, where you expand it and you can see the schedule laid out before you. Note that you cannot drag already scheduled days onto the board, but they are visible just the same.
If you need technicians to enter daily notes regarding their work, you might use the Work Order Contact Log. The Technician’s Notes are typically used for “customer facing” information. The Work Order Contact Log is used for internal purposes.
The Schedule Board is a tool used to display and schedule work orders and appointments.
Form Access
From the main menu, click Company | Schedule Board, or
From the toolbar, click the Schedule Board button.
Field and Button Definitions
Date Selector – Use the Date Selector to set the schedule board to a given day.
Now – Click the Now button to set the schedule board to the current date.
Profiles – The Profiles drop-down box is used to select or create new profiles.
Edit Profile – Click the Edit Profile button to modify whatever profile is selected in the “Profiles” field.
Day (View) – Click the Day button to display the schedule board in Day view. Day view displays only the day that is selected by the date selector at the top of the form.
Week (View) – Click the Week button to display the schedule board in Week view. Week view shows the entire week for the date that is selected in the date selector at the top of the form. Note that a week is not necessarily limited to 7 days; the number of days in a “week” can be changed in the schedule board options and can be set to display any number of days.
Month (View) – Click the Month button to display the schedule board in Month view. Month view shows the entire month for the date that is selected in the date selector at the top of the form.
List (View) – Click the List button to display the schedule board in List view. The list view mimics paper desktop meeting schedulers, commonly found in office settings.
Options – Click the Options button to modify the various available schedule board options. See the topic Schedule Board Options for more information.
WO Type – The WO Type drop down box is used to filter the Unscheduled Work Orders by work order type. It works alone or in conjunction with the month filter.
Month Filter – The Month Filter is used to filter Unscheduled Work Orders by a particular month and year. The settings are either “All” or “mm/yyyy”. When set to “All” the filter allows all months to be displayed. When set to “mm/yyyy” the user then selects the month and year to filter on from the MM/YYYY field, and clicks the Apply button to activate the settings.
Unscheduled Work Orders – The Unscheduled Work Orders area of the schedule board displays work orders which do not yet have the status of “scheduled”. For a work order to achieve scheduled status, it must have the four following attributes: (1) a technician, (2) a date, (3) a start time, and (4) a duration. If any one of these conditions is not met, the work order is considered “unscheduled” and appears in the Unscheduled Work Orders area of the schedule board.
Schedule Board – Use the scheduling area of the schedule board to manage work orders. Work orders on the schedule board are easily “dragged & dropped” from the unscheduled area to whatever technician and time-slot is desired. Work order duration is easily manipulated by “grabbing” the top or bottom of the work order with your mouse pointer and stretching it to cover whatever time-slots the work order requires. Right-click on any scheduled work order to see a pop-up menu of other convenient commands.
Info Balloon – When the mouse pointer is allowed to hover for a moment over a scheduled work order, an Info Balloon which contains the most important work order information will pop-up. This is very useful when the duration of a work order is too short for the schedule board to display all of the particulars. Instead of having to open the work order to review details, the Info Balloon will display them for you.
Color Bar – The Color bar is perhaps the most misunderstood, yet very helpful area of the schedule board. During setup, a color can be assigned to each work order type in your organization. In turn, each work order type then has a corresponding stripe on the color bar. When a work order is placed on the schedule board, the color associated to it’s work order type is displayed on the color bar in that same time slot. For example, imagine a work order type is setup and assigned the color purple. Whenever that type of work order is on the schedule board, a purple stripe will appear in the color bar, indicating that one of these work order types exists somewhere in that time-slot, even if the actual work order is out of the current field of view. Appointment Types can be setup with their own color too, and behave the same way as work order types on the color bar.It is recommended that you set very important work order types to easily identifiable colors. For example, in the service industry a “Callback” work order type is often considered an urgent situation. A callback is a situation where work was performed, but the customer’s problem was not fixed, and the customer is calling back to report this issue. Consider setting up the work order type “Callback” with the color red. Red is easily identifiable and commonly associated with an urgent situation. Now a quick glance at the color bar tells whether any urgent situations exist which demand immediate attention. No Red = No Urgent Work Orders.
Priority Indicators
The upper left corner of each work order on the schedule board displays an easily identifiable priority indicator as follows:
Low Priority
Medium Priority
High Priority
Priority indicators work independently from work order types. As part of their customer benefits, high priority is often assigned to call-in work orders from customers who have invested in one of your service agreements. Low priority is often assigned to work orders having to do with planned maintenance — work orders which can easily be rescheduled without repercussion.
Adjusting Display Areas
The amount of schedule board window dedicated to the Unscheduled Work Orders area, and the actual scheduling area can be adjusted. To do so, move the mouse pointer to separation point where the two areas meet. The normal pointer will turn into a “split pointer” as it hovers above the separation point between the two areas. While the pointer is “split” click and drag the separation point to the desired location, then release.
Adjusting Columns in the Unscheduled Work Orders Area
The columns which are displayed in the Unscheduled Work Orders area of the schedule board can be adjusted. Just as with most other lists in the program, the header of any column can be “dragged and dropped” to the left or right until the desired layout is achieved. Adjusting the display area to reveal more of the unscheduled area (see Adjusting Display Areas, above) is helpful when adjusting the layout of columns in the unscheduled area..
Right Click Commands
The following commands are available when you right click on a work order or appointment from the schedule board. Be aware that not all options are available at all times. It can depend on the circumstances.
New Work Order – Depending where a right-click is made on the schedule board, the New Work Order command will bring up a new work order which is automatically populated with any information available. For instance, right-clicking on a blank 9:00 AM time slot under the technician “Jimmy” will open a new work order which is automatically assigned to Jimmy at 9:00 AM.
Edit Work Order – Opens the existing work order for editing.
Delete Work Order – Deletes the work order. Canceling a work order is generally recommended over deleting a work order.
Duplicate – Creates an exact copy of the work order, which you can change as necessary rather than filling in a new work order from scratch.
Add Timesheet Entry – Opens the time sheet of the technician to whom the work order was assigned. The time sheet will automatically be filled in with information from the source work order — Customer:Job, Department, Start Time, Stop Time, and Hours are examples.
Send Page – Brings up the pager form, automatically populated with the assigned employee pager/pin number (if provided) and the message area of the pager form will auto-populate with the work order information. Note that because of restrictions on the length of text based pages, the work order information will be brief.
Send Email – Opens your default email client. The email will be auto-populated with the assigned employee’s email address (if provided). The email will auto-populate with the customer: job and work order information.
Printing > Print Work Order – Used to print a hard copy of the work order.
Printing > Work Order Print Setup – Used to establish work order printing preferences.
Printing > Print Employee Schedule – Prints a hard copy of an employee’s schedule for the day.
Create > Invoice – Creates a new invoice for the customer who appears on the work order. The invoice will automatically be filled in with the customer name and any pertinent customer information which can be brought forth from their customer record (like terms, for example). The invoice will have automatically have the source work order assigned to it, thus keeping the history of the work flow intact.
Create > Sale – Functions exactly like Create > Invoice (above), except payment is being received immediately, rather than invoicing the customer for payment expected at a later date.
Create > Credit – Functions exactly like Create > Invoice (above), except it creates a credit memo to the customer on the work order.
Create > Estimate – Functions exactly like Create > Invoice (above), except it creates a new estimate for the customer on the work order.
Create > PO – Creates a new purchase order where the shipping destination is set to the location of the customer appearing on the source work order, rather than your company’s default shipping destination.
Edit Customer – Provides convenient access to the work order customer’s record.
View History – Opens the customer history for research and review.
Equipment – Within a work order itself, the piece of customer equipment being worked on can be assigned. Afterward, this right-click command on the work order in the schedule board simply displays which piece (or pieces) of customer equipment was selected when the work order was created. Whatever equipment is displayed in the list can be highlighted and edited if necessary. The equipment is not assigned or unassigned here — that takes place within the work order itself.
Customer > Contact Log – Opens the contact log of the customer appearing on the work order.
Status > Scheduled – Sets the work order status to “Scheduled”. This status conveniently appears in the info balloon (described above) for all users who have access to the schedule board. See Work Order Statuses Defined below for more information.
Status > En route – Sets the work order status to “En route”. This status conveniently appears in the info balloon (described above) for all users who have access to the schedule board.
Status > Working – Sets the work order status to “Working”. This status conveniently appears in the info balloon (described above) for all users who have access to the schedule board.
Status > Completed – Sets the work order status to “Completed”. This status conveniently appears in the info balloon (described above) for all users who have access to the schedule board.
Status > Complete/Add Time Sheet Entry – Sets the work order status to “Scheduled”. This status conveniently appears in the info balloon (described above) for all users who have access to the schedule board. In addition, this command will then open the time sheet and automatically populate the employee, date, customer:job, WO #, start time, stop time, and hours (duration), based upon the source work order.
Status > Canceled – Sets the work order status to “Canceled” and removes the work order from the schedule board. Canceling a work order is generally recommended over deleting a work order. Problem customers sometimes call many service companies only to award the service call to the one who arrives on location first. Then they cancel all the other work orders placed with other companies. If this happens habitually it can cost you money. It wastes your scheduling and dispatching resources, while loosing the opportunity to do profitable work for reliable customers. By canceling a work order instead of deleting a work order, a history of this behavior can be established. It may be the case you decide to “fire” a customer because of repeated work order cancelations. Don’t be afraid to send problematic and unprofitable customers to your competitors where they can do you some good.
Other Menu Options
In addition to the commands described above, the following commands are available when you right-click on a work order in the Unscheduled Work Orders area of the schedule board. Be aware that not all options are available at all times. It can depend on the circumstances.
Export List – Used to export the information in the list in a variety of delimited formats.
Form Preferences > Show Columns – Used to choose which columns are displayed in the Unscheduled Work Orders area of the schedule board
Form Preferences > Find As You Type – Used to set the “Find As You Type” function to Customer, Number, or Assigned To.
Work Order Statuses Defined
A work order may be in one of seven statuses. Work order statuses are “hard coded” and may not be changed or edited by the user.
Not Scheduled: The work order (WO) is not ready to be scheduled. The status is set automatically when the WO is missing required information including Date, Start Time, or Assigned To.
Scheduled: The WO has been scheduled for a technician. This status is set automatically when the required information has been added to the WO. This includes Date, Start Time, and Assigned To.
Dispatched: You set the status to Dispatched when the WO is ready to be sent to or passed on to the technician. This status basically means that the technician (Assigned To field) should know about the work order. Certain Aptora software programs allow you to hide work orders from the user unless they are Dispatched.
En Route: This status indicates that the technician is on their way to the call. You might set this status as soon as you learn that they are driving to this location. This status is usually set by the technician from the app.
Working: They have arrived on the call and have begun working on it. This status is usually set by the technician from the app.
Completed: The work that was described on the WO has been completed as instructed. There is no additional work for the technician to do to finish this work order. This status is usually set by the technician from the app.
Canceled: This status is used when the customer (or even the company) completely cancels the work. This status is usually set by the office. Note: This is not typically used to reschedule or postpone a WO.
Tips
If you don’t see a work order in the Unscheduled Work Orders area, double-check your filter settings, which may be excluding the work order from being displayed.
The Schedule Board Options allows you to customize the schedule board form by user.
Usage
Total Office Manager allows you unprecedented control over the look and feel of the schedule board. This form makes it easy to customize the look and feel of the schedule board.
Form Access
First, open the Schedule Board from the main menu by clicking Company | Schedule Board. Once in the Schedule Board click the Options button.
Field Definitions
Date Format Options
Total Office Manager allows seven different ways to format the date that is displayed on the schedule board.
Date Format 1
Monday
November 17, 2003
Date Format 2
Monday
17 November 2003
Date Format 3
Mon, November 17, 2003
Date Format 4
17 November 2003
Date Format 5
Mon
17 Nov 03
Date Format 6
Mon 17 Nov 03
Date Format 7
11/17/03
Day Start/End Time
Use this area to decide when your work day starts. Use the day length property to decide how long your workday lasts. (Example: Day starting at 6:00 am and is 14 hours long will give you a work day starting at 6:00 am and ending at 8:00 pm.
Day View
Use this tab to decide the layout of your schedule board for the day view.
Days and Assigned to: (Top Margin), Time increments (Left margin)
This places the date and the employee assigned the schedule item at the top and the time increments on the left.
Days and Assigned to: (Left margin), Time increments (Top margin)
This places the time increments at the top and the date and the employee assigned the schedule item at the bottom.
Week View
Use this tab to decide the layout of your schedule board for the week view.
Days and Assigned to: (Top Margin), Time increments (Left margin)
This places the date and the employee assigned the schedule item at the top and the time increments on the left.
Days and Assigned to: (Left margin), Time increments (Top margin)
This places the time increments at the top and the date and the employee assigned the schedule item at the bottom.
Week Starts On
Use this area to decide when your workweek starts. (Example: The work week starts on Monday).
Week Length
Use this are to decide how many days will be visible in the week view of the schedule board.
Example: A workweek starting on Monday and that is five days long will end on Friday. This is a handy way to display up to two weeks at a time for the week view of the schedule board.
Color Options
Use this area to format the various colors of the schedule board.
Show Inactive Employees
If this is unchecked, inactive employees will NOT show up. If it is checked, ALL inactive employees WILL show up on the schedule board as long as the ‘Show on Dispatch Board’ check box is checked. This is done in the edit employee form.
Show Color Bar
If checked, Total Office Manager displays the color bar on the left side of the schedule board. This is a small vertical color coded series of bars that help you identify what types of work orders are on the schedule board. Take a look. It’s hard to explain but easy to see.
Step-By-Step
Choose your formatting preferences and click OK.
Tips
To revert back to the Total Office Manager default settings for the schedule board, click the ‘Defaults’ button.
This topic explains how to use the Schedule Profile feature in Total Office Manager.
Usage
Use this feature to define how you wish the schedule board to display information. This is handy when you need two or more schedule boards. Profiles eliminate the need for multiple schedule boards. You can quickly switch from on “view” to another.
Form Access
From the main menu, click Company | Lists | Schedule Profile List.
Step-by-Step
Using the field and definitions table below, set the various filters and options as desired.
Click the OK button when finished. Your changes will be saved and the form will be closed.
Field and Control Definitions
Filter By Employee
Use the control to view all scheduled items for a specific employee.
Filter By Date
Use this filter to display all scheduled items or display current and future scheduled items only.
Filter By Activity
Use this filter to display only work orders or only appointments.
Work Order Type
Use this filter to display work orders of a certain type only.
Work Order Status
Use this filter to display completed, not completed or all work orders.
Profile Inactive
Check this box to make the profile inactive. This makes it unavailable from the schedule board but it is not deleted.
Make this a Global Profile
When checked, this profile becomes a Global Profile and will be seen by all users. If not checked, users create their own private profiles and others will not be able to use them.
Next Button
The form is saved and cleared so that you can enter another profile.
Tips
If your service technicians and installers are primarily different people, consider creating a “Service” and “Installation” profile. You can have as many as you wish.
The default profile includes all appointments and work orders. There are no filters.
The Work Order History form is another key element of the software that displays all sales, timesheets, purchase orders, accounts payable transactions, and journal entries associated with a particular order entered into Total Office Manager. It allows users to see all activity in a summary format without the need to generate a report.
Form Access
From a within an order, click Menu | Work Order History, or
From within the List, highlight an entry, then click Actions | Work Order History.
Field & Button Definitions – Work Order History
Sample – History Form
Sales Tab – See all invoice/sales activity associated with the work performed.
Timesheets – See recorded timesheets by the technician associated to perform the work.
PO – See purchase orders associated with the work performed.
A/P – See all accounts payable transactions associated with work performed.
JE – Will include Escrow Movements in the JE tab (if that feature is being used).
Refresh – Updates the form with the most recent information available in the system.
Usage
Click through each of the provided tabs for Sales, Timesheets, PO, A/P, to see individual transactions associated within that particular work order. For instance, if an Invoice is generated from the work order, then the history of the invoice being created will automatically appear under the ‘Sales’ tab upon hitting the refresh button. This is because the software knows that you are connecting that individual invoice to the work performed by the technician assigned to the work order.
To view or edit any transaction under a particular tab, double-click on any entry to open and review it in Total Office Manager.
The Work Order List displays all work orders entered into Total Office Manager. This form makes it easy to quickly locate a work orders for viewing or editing. Use this form to create a new record or select a record to edit, delete, inactivate. You have the ability to filter and sort these records in many different ways.
Form Access
From the main menu, click Company | Work Order List or
Work Order List File Path
Click the drop-down arrow just right of the Add New Work Order toolbar button. (Hint: the button has a hammer on it. Think of it as “hammering out a new work order”.
Work Order List Toolbar
Field Definitions
Work Order List
Number –
This refers to the work order number that was assigned to the record.
Cust:Job –
This refers to the cust:job that the work order was created for.
Date –
The Date the work order is/was scheduled for.
Start Time –
The scheduled starting time of the work order.
Duration –
The amount of time (in minutes) allotted for the work order.
Status –
The status of the work order (scheduled, not-scheduled, completed).
Priority –
The priority of the work order. (High, Medium, Low)
Step-By-Step
Open the form and sort and filter the list if desired.
To create a new work order, right-click anywhere in the list and choose New Work Order from the pop-up menu.
To edit a work order, right-click on it and choose Edit Work Order from the pop-up menu.
To delete a work order, right-click on it and choose Delete Work Order from the pop-up menu.
To cancel a work order, right-click on it and choose Mark as Canceled from the pop-up menu (we recommend this instead of deleting a work order).
Tips
You can delete or inactivate multiple records. To highlight multiple work orders, press and hold your CTRL key and click each record. You may also select a range of work orders by highlighting the first record in that range, pressing and holding your left Shift key, and clicking the last record in that range.
Remember that you can change the order of the columns by dragging to the preferred location on the grid.
Right-click within the list to select form preferences. Speed up performance by unchecking any unnecessary form that a user doesn’t need immediate access to see.
Work order types are managed through the Work Order Type List and are a way of categorizing work orders to help sort, organize, and schedule them. Work order types are also used for skill checking when assigning work orders to technicians, ensuring that work orders are assigned to technicians qualified for the job (see the related topic, Employee – New Employee Setup for more information).
Why Use Work Order Type?
You should have a department called Demand Service. You select that department on the work order. That will allow you to report on how many “demand” service calls you performed. But what if you wanted to know how many demand service calls were for “No Heat” and “No Cooling”? You will be able to know this by creating Work Order Types with those same names.
Think of it like this, a Work Order Type is why they called your company. Examples: Breaker Tripping, No Power/Lights, Disposal Jammed, Insufficient Hot Water, Water Leak, Loud Noises, Replace Faucet, Dripping Faucet, Warm Freezer, No/Insufficient Ice, and so forth.
More Granular Reporting
Work order types can be helpful for reporting purposes. You may want to know how many service calls your company ran related to heat-pumps, tankless water heaters, oil heat, ground source heat-pumps, etc.
Accessing the Work Order Type Form
From the main menu, click Company | Lists | Work Order Type List.
Work Order Type List File Path
Usage & Menu Options
Sample – Work Order Types List
Menu options for the Work Order Type list are located under the Work Order Type option in the upper left corner of the form. You may quickly access this menu by using holding down the ALT key and typing W or right clicking anywhere on the list.
To create a new work order type, right click anywhere in the list and choose New Work Order Type from the pop-up menu.
To edit a work order type, you may double click to open or right-click on it and choose Edit Work Order Type from the pop-up menu.
To delete a work order type, right-click on it and choose Delete Work Order Type from the pop-up menu. Note: You may not delete a work order type which has history. Inactivating the work order type is the action to take if you no longer wish to use the item.
To inactivate a work order type, right-click on it and choose Make Work Order Type Inactive from the pop-up menu. This can also be done by checking the “Inactive” checkbox within a work order type record.
To merge two work order types together, right click on the work order type you wish to merge and choose Merge Work Order Type from the pop-up menu.
When the merge utility appears, select the target work order type in the Merge To section.
Indicate whether to inactivate the Merge From type and press the Merge button.
This will replace the Merge From work order type on work orders with the work order type selected in the Merge To.
To quickly create a spreadsheet of the work order type list, right click and choose Save/Open List in MS Excel from the pop-up menu.
Note: If you are on the Aptora Hosted platform, you may save to this format and open on your local workstation.
To quickly highlight all visible records, right click and choose Select All from the pop-up menu.
To quickly remove any highlighting, right click and choose Unselect All from the pop-up menu.
To export all information currently visible in the list, right-click and choose Export List from the pop-up menu.
Creating a New Work Order Type
Work Order Type – Add New
Right click anywhere in the Work Order Type List and choose New Work Order Type from the pop-up menu. The “Add Work Order Type” form will appear.
Enter a name in the “Work Order Type” field.
Enter a “Description” for the work order type, if desired. This description is for internal use to define how the work order type is used.
Select a “Color Code” from the drop down list. This assigns a color to the work order type, which then appears on the left side of the work orders on the schedule board. You may also create your own custom color using the More Colors option.
Define the “Default Length” for the work order type in minutes. This will be prepopulate when creating new work orders of this type. The default can be overridden as necessary. Note: The minimum length which may be entered is 15. The maximum length which may be entered is 999.
Select an option in the What Best Describes… field. This selection will be used in the Contractor Compass Dashboard.
Click the OK button to finish and close the form.
Click the Cancel button to close the form and not save any changes made.
Click the Next button to save and go on to create another.
Security Settings
The following securities (Company | User List/Security) are required for accessing work order types:
Work Order List Security Permissions
Work Order Type List
Section = Company
Work Order Type List = View
Work Order Type
Section = Company
Work Order Type = Add/Edit
Please Note: You may give someone access to add without having edit permissions. We do not recommend users have permissions to void or delete unless it is vital to their day-to-day operations.
Skills Checking (Technician Skills)
When scheduling work orders, the software will notify you if the technician may not be qualified to perform this type of work order. It determines this by comparing the Work Order type selected on the work order with list of work order types in the Employee’s contact information form.
From the main menu, click Employees > Employees List and open the employee. Go to the Skills tab. Check the option at the top to activate this feature. It is unchecked by default. Check the appropriate work order types.
Tips
After setting up a new work order type, it will appear on the Skills tab of each employee record. It will then be necessary to open each employee record who is qualified to perform that skill and mark it as such. To prevent extra setup work, it is recommended to setup all of your work order types before setting up employees and their respective skills.
New work order types may also be created with the work order by select <Add New> in the work order type dropdown.
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