Working With Appointments
Service Board includes a variety of tools and features to help you manually schedule Appointments. When you dispatch Jobs to Resources or Crews, Appointments are created. You can schedule single or multiple Appointments for Jobs, and assign them to single or multiple Resources.
During Appointment creation and update, the following predefined validations are performed.
• You cannot clear the Primary Resource check box in the Edit Appointment dialog box. All dispatched Jobs must have one Primary Resource, and in cases where Jobs are dispatched to the same Resource more than once, the Primary Resource check boxes in the Edit Appointment dialog boxes for all Appointments assigned to the same Resource are selected. You can select the Primary Resource check box only in the Edit Appointment dialog box. After you select Primary Resource check boxes and save Appointments, Primary Resource check boxes in Edit Appointment dialog boxes for all other Appointments created for the same Job are cleared, and the Primary Resource check box is selected or cleared for all Appointments dispatched to the same Resource for the same Job.
• The End and Duration fields cannot both be empty. If the End field is empty, a value is automatically configured based on Start and Duration field values. If the Duration field is empty, a value is automatically configured based on the Start and End field values. If both the End and Duration fields are empty, values cannot be calculated and set.
• Start field values cannot be configured to times later than End field values.
• You cannot dispatch Jobs to Resources associated with deactivated users.
• You cannot create Appointments with Duration field values of longer than 14 days in cases where the GBL025 setting is configured to Salesforce Event and the Appointment is for a Resource with a linked user account, or when the Appointment is assigned to a Crew.
• Name field values cannot be longer than 80 characters if the Salesforce Event Object field value is ServiceMax Event.
• You cannot update Appointments that are not related to Jobs. You also cannot update Appointments if you are not authorized to access the related Jobs.
Notifications or error messages appear in the following cases.
• Notifications
◦ Appointment start dates and times are outside the Resource's business hours.
◦ An Appointment is created on a date that falls in the past.
• Errors
◦ A Job is assigned to a Resource associated with a deactivated user.
◦ A Job is assigned to a deactivated Resource.
◦ A Job assigned to a Crew is in an end status, for example, Canceled or Closed.
◦ A Job assigned to a Resource is in Canceled or Closed status.
When Jobs assigned to Resources or Crews are in In Progress status:
• No error message or notification appears if single Resources are assigned.
• If assignees for Multi-Resource Jobs are updated, the Multi-Resource Calendar appears.
• If the same Job is assigned a second time to the same Resource, a new Appointment is created.
• If assigned to a Crew, an error message appears and states that the Job is already assigned to this Crew, or that Jobs cannot be assigned to multiple Crews.
When you create single Appointments for Jobs, Scheduled Time fields in related Job records are set to the Start field values of the associated Appointments. When you create multiple Appointments, by default, Scheduled Time fields are set to the Start field values of the earliest non-final Primary Resource Appointments, and are updated when:
• New Primary Resource Appointments are created, or
• Start field values in Primary Resource Appointments are updated, or
• Status field values in Primary Resource Appointments are updated to Aborted, or
• Different Appointments are assigned as Primary Resource Appointments, or the reverse.
 |
• Service Board can be configured to set the earliest Start field values in all related non-aborted Appointments (whether or not they are Primary Resource Appointments) as the Scheduled Time field values in the associated Job records. If your environment is configured in this manner, Scheduled Time field values are updated when new Appointments are created, Start field values in existing Appointments are updated, or Status field values in Appointments are updated to Aborted. For more information, contact your system administrator.
• If configured, Service Board automatically adjusts Appointment start times in cases where Travel Time to Location values for new or updated Appointments conflict with scheduled times for previous Appointments or Events in the same work shift.
• If configured, you can click the Actual Time slider button to view live updates that show the actual times when technicians begin work on Appointments. You can then easily make adjustments when traffic conditions or unexpected situations cause delays.
|
In Service Board, Appointments can be configured to correspond to either Salesforce Event or ServiceMax Event records. When either Salesforce Event or ServiceMax Event records are deleted in Salesforce, the corresponding Appointment is deleted in Service Board. However, when these deleted records are undeleted in Salesforce, the corresponding records are not undeleted in Service Board. When a Job is assigned to multiple Resources, and the Appointment for the associated primary Resource is deleted from Salesforce, only the Appointment for that Resource is deleted from Service Board. All other Appointments scheduled for the Job are canceled, and the Status value for the Job changes to New.
Several other useful features are available to help you schedule Appointments. You can view all Appointments for a specific Job on the Scheduler Calendar, and configure Service Board to support Appointment durations longer than the default value of 31 days. To reduce travel times and optimize Resource utilization, you can use the Nearby Jobs option to identify Jobs close to locations where appropriate Resources are scheduled. Additionally, you can create shift exceptions to support situations where Resource availability for a specific date and time is different than what is defined by the assigned shift.
For more information: