Field service operations: smart dispatch, work lines, service report with signature, first-time fix
With the Field Services vertical on, every work order gains an Operations panel (in the order's detail and in the ticket's field work box) with four tabs: Dispatch, Work, Report and Context. Everything here builds on what the order already had: visits, dispatch board, stock, estimates and the equipm
With the Field Services vertical on, every work order gains an Operations panel (in the order's detail and in the ticket's field work box) with four tabs: Dispatch, Work, Report and Context. Everything here builds on what the order already had: visits, dispatch board, stock, estimates and the equipment history.
Dispatch by policy The Dispatch tab ranks technicians for this order, day by day: who has the skill the trade requires, who is closest to the previous stop (straight-line distance between property coordinates, at the average speed of your policy), who has the lightest day, who covers the zone, and how early the slot is for urgent work. Each candidate shows the score, the suggested start and end, the travel estimate, the skill fit and any warning (outside the zone, overtime). Technicians left out are listed with the reason: absent (vacation or leave recorded in the team calendar), missing skill, or no slot that fits. Book with one click: the visit is created, the order moves to scheduled and the checklist rules for that job type and trade are applied.
The weights and the working day live in Settings, under Operations: travel, skill, load, zone and priority, average speed, default duration, buffer between visits, overtime allowed for urgent work, arrival tolerance, the first-time-fix window and how many candidates to show. Without a saved policy the defaults apply and the panel says so.
A trade requires skills from the same catalog used to route tickets (Settings, Skills). Map trade to skill and minimum level once; the dispatcher honours it and a technician missing the skill is never suggested for that trade.
The panel does not use paid routing or live GPS: distances come from the property coordinates you record, and the position of a technician is the last visit on the schedule.
Arrival and departure When the technician arrives, press Arrive on the visit: the arrival time is recorded once (pressing again never rewrites it), the visit goes to on site and the order advances along scheduled, dispatched, en route, on site as far as the state machine allows. The visit shows its punctuality against the promised window (early, on time, late, missed), with the tolerance of your policy. A visit completed without a recorded arrival shows as not recorded, never as on time. On leaving, press Departed: the departure time is stored and the visit is completed.
Work lines, parts and stock The Work tab is the single list of what was done and what will be charged: services, parts, labour and fees, each with quantity, unit price and whether it was executed on this visit. A part executed from a stock location (the technician's van, a warehouse) is consumed from that location through the vertical's stock ledger and the line keeps the movement; such a line cannot change quantity or be removed, because the ledger is append-only. Record the serial number of an installed part and, if it should have its own history, tick Install as component: it becomes a child equipment of the order's equipment.
When a part is missing, request it from the order: the order goes to needs parts and the request appears for whoever supplies. Fulfil it by transfer (warehouse to van, moving stock in the same transaction), as a purchase, or as on hand; the part line is created as proposed and the order returns to in progress when no request is pending.
Proposed lines (not executed) can become a field estimate in one click, reusing the vertical's estimates and the customer approval in the portal. If a draft estimate for the order already exists, the button asks you to edit it instead of creating a second one.
Service report and signature The Report tab produces the document delivered to the customer: findings, work performed, pending items, recommendation and the outcome (resolved, follow-up needed, not resolved). One draft per order or per visit. Issuing the report checks the customer's service agreement: if it requires a purchase order, the PO reference is mandatory; if the executed total exceeds the not-to-exceed amount, issuing requires a written override reason, which stays on the report. Above the approval threshold the report is flagged for approval. Once issued the report is frozen: its content, the executed lines, the checklist and the time on site are stored as a snapshot with a hash, and the database refuses any change. Issuing also writes the visit into the equipment history, linked to the order, and can complete the order.
The customer (and the technician) sign the issued report on the screen, drawing on the signature pad or typing the name when there is no touch screen. Each signature keeps the hash of the document it signed, one per role, and is never edited or deleted. Print the report or send it by email to the customer contact or to any address; the sent time and recipient are recorded.