In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the basic functionality behind the Dispatch Board in ServiceCEO.

The Dispatch Board is the calendar within ServiceCEO, but it is also the central nervous system of the software.  You can start any work flow from this portion of the software.

Take a look at the top-right corner at the Common actions task bar.

By clicking on the Common actions bar, you can show a map of all of your work, add jobs, estimates, customers, and also print out work orders and route sheets for the day (or week).

Changing Layouts

You will be able to change the layout of the Dispatch Board by using the calendar and view options on the top-left of the Dispatch Board.

In this particular instance, you are viewing the Dispatch Board for this one day in 15 minute increments.  You can switch to view a whole week and also switch the increments in the day view from any increment from 15 minutes to 240 minutes.  Additionally, you can easily switch between days and weeks by using the arrows around the displayed date.  Finally, you can click on the Calendar icon to move easily between specific dates.

Teams and Employees

On the left-hand side of the Dispatch Board, you can see your employees and teams.

The Teams will be displayed on the top with the Employees displayed on the bottom.

If you click on an Employee’s name, it will bring up a pop-up.

From this pop-up, you will have access to your employee’s contact information (phone and email), you can click on “View Employee” to go to their employee record, you can view their driving directions for the day or week, or you can print their invoices, work orders, or route sheets for the day by using the drop-down Reports area.

Scheduled Jobs

Next to the employees, you will see all of your work orders that are scheduled out for the day (or week).

Each job is marked by a few different things:

Color – Marks the Status of the Work Order (Blue=Open, Green=Closed, Red=Cancelled)

Customer’s Name – Displayed in the center of the job

Zip Code – Zip or Postal Code of the Service Location

Icon – Substatus of the job created during implementation

To see more details on any job, simply click on the Customer’s name.

At the top, you will have the Summary of the Job (in this instance it is 5/22).  You also have quick access to the Customer file by clicking on the blue link or their contact information by clicking on the contact icon to the right of the customer link.  In this pop-up, you also see the current Status and Substatus, the Work Order number, the business unit the job is applied to, the service contact and location, and additional notes and information pertaining to this work order.  At the bottom of this pop-up, you will be able to print or email the invoice or work order for this job.

Note: The “Schedule another Work Order after this one” link is covered in our scheduling tutorial.

Drag and Drop Functionality

On the Dispatch Board, you can click down on and Work Order and move it to another time or employees schedule.

When doing this, note that a green message will pop-up above the Work Order, showing exactly where you are currently moving the Work Order to.  You can drag and drop jobs from the queues that will be covered in the next section of this tutorial.  Additionally, you can extend the amount of time allotted to a Work Order by hovering towards the end of the blue bar and dragging the job out.

Dispatch Board Queues

At the bottom of the Dispatch Board there are three lists.  

The Unassigned Work Orders are jobs that have a specific date and/or time but do not yet have an employee or team assigned.  This queue only shows jobs for the day or week that you are viewing.  When you have decided on an employee or team, you can simply drag and drop the job onto the Dispatch Board to schedule it with a specific employee or team.

The Unscheduled Work Orders are jobs that have no date, time, employee, or team assigned to them yet.  While the work order is in this queue, you will be able to see the Substatus, the Customer, the Duration of the job, the Service Location, and the Summary of the Job (with a link to the full work order).  You can also click on the blue bar to the right to see more information on the work order.  When you have decided on an employee and time, you can simply drag and drop the blue bar onto the Dispatch Board to schedule it with a specific employee or team.

The Earlier Opening Request queue is a list of work orders that have not been completed and the customer has requested an earlier opening than their scheduled appointment.  If the “Earlier Opening Request” checkbox has been selected on the work order, then it will appear on this list.  When you have decided on an employee and time, you can simply drag and drop the blue bar onto the Dispatch Board to schedule it with a specific employee or team.

Note: The names of the lists will appear Red if there are jobs that need to be assigned.

Custom Views – Dispatch Board

Custom Views allow you to limit the calendar to see only particular employees, teams, or types of jobs.

To create a new Custom View, click on “New View”.

On the left hand side, we see a list of Filter Options that will help us create the new view.  If you are using Business Units, you can select to choose work orders of a particular business unit.

You can also filter by your Employees or Teams assigned to the Work Orders.

Using this filter, you will be able to choose specific employees and even Unassigned work orders that have not be given to a particular employee.

You can also filter by the Job Type

This is useful for if you only wanted to filter through jobs of a particular purpose, whether it be a recurring job or a one-time job.

You can also filter by the Status and Substatus on the Work Order

You can narrow down these Work Orders by Status or even by Substatus.  This will help you set reminders, close out jobs, and make sure you stay on top of specific status types.

You can also filter by Service Locations.

Service Locations can be filtered by City, State/Province, or Zip as well as by Zone if you are using Zones within ServiceCEO.

Options Filtering

In the Options area, you can add or delete additional information from the Dispatch Board, such as removing unscheduled and earlier opening requests.  Additionally, you can add information to see, such as the Work Order Type or Zone flags.

Custom Fields

Custom Fields can help you define and sort criteria that is not naturally within ServiceCEO.

To complete creating a custom view, be sure to check off all of the criteria that you will be searching for, and select save.  You will now have that view permanently saved in your drop down views menu to help you sort through your Dispatch Board.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to manage jobs and work orders within ServiceCEO.

Dispatch Board Tips

There are many ways to do a job and to schedule a job.  Let’s start with a few tips for the Dispatch Board.

At the bottom of the Dispatch Board there are three lists.  

The Unassigned Work Orders are jobs that have a specific date and/or time but do not yet have an employee or team assigned.  This queue only shows jobs for the day or week that you are viewing.  When you have decided on an employee or team, you can simply drag and drop the job onto the Dispatch Board to schedule it with a specific employee or team.

The Unscheduled Work Orders are jobs that have no date, time, employee, or team assigned to them yet.  While the work order is in this queue, you will be able to see the Substatus, the Customer, the Duration of the job, the Service Location, and the Summary of the Job (with a link to the full work order).  You can also click on the blue bar to the right to see more information on the work order.  When you have decided on an employee and time, you can simply drag and drop the blue bar onto the Dispatch Board to schedule it with a specific employee or team.

The Earlier Opening Request queue is a list of work orders that have not been completed and the customer has requested an earlier opening than their scheduled appointment.  If the “Earlier Opening Request” checkbox has been selected on the work order, then it will appear on this list.  When you have decided on an employee and time, you can simply drag and drop the blue bar onto the Dispatch Board to schedule it with a specific employee or team.

Note: The names of the lists will appear Red if there are jobs that need to be assigned.

Entering a New Work Order – Dispatch Board

To enter a new job on the Dispatch Board, simply click on any white cell to prompt a pop-up box.

This pop-up confirms the correct time and enables you to choose a Job or an On-Site Sales Call.  In this case, we will select “Job” and click “OK”.

This will bring you to the Customer Required screen, which allows you to choose an existing customer, or add a new one.

To select an existing customer, click “Select” next to their name.

Creating  a Job

You will now be on your Job Information tab.

The Job Information screen is where the office will be able to track high-level information relating to the specific job.  The Summary area is the summary of the work that you will be doing.  If you are using Business Units, you will be able to assign this job to a different unit.  We also see our Status and Substatus.  The Substatus is useful to track where the job is in its life-cycle or to set any next steps.  The Marketing Campaign will carry over from the Customer Record, but if it was not, you can manually select an option.  If the Job will have more than one work order or day, you can fill out how many Work Orders the Job will require.

When completed, click “Next”.

Clicking “Next” and “Previous” is a great way to navigate around the system because it will save the page that you are on and bring you to the next page in the workflow.

Creating a Work Order

On the Work Order screen, you can note that your Work Order Number will be displayed on the top-right corner of the screen.  At this point, most of the information in the general area has been filled out.  You have the Customer name, the Summary, the Status, and Substatus that have all been filled out on the previous screens.  Additionally, if you had picked a specifc date and time on the Dispatch Board, the Start and End times will already be filled out.  Note that you must block off a Duration for the job.  The Arrival Window marks how far outside of your Start time that you can arrive.  The Early Opening Requested checkbox will place this work order in your Earlier Opening Requested queue on the Dispatch Board.

Scrolling down the Work Order you will find your Charges.

To add a product, service, or kit, select on of the three buttons on the top-right side.

Once you have chosen an option, a new screen will appear.

In the add charge area, you will be able to see the list of all of your charges in groups of ten.  To navigate through your charges, you can use the “Next>”, “<Previous”, “<<First”, or “Last>>” buttons found at the top-right and bottom-right of the screen.  You will also be able us the Search Bar to search for any Charge Name or Part No. (only within products and kits).  If you want to narrow down your results, use the “Categories” drop down to filter through your lists.  To add a product as is, simply select the “+” next to the charge.

To add a product with some modifications, click on the “+” with the pencil next to it.  This will bring up the “Edit” mode.

Here, you will be able to provide a more specific description of the charge, change your quantity, change the Unit Cost (how much it cost you), and the Unit-Sell Price.  You will also be able to add on any Sales Tax that you have set up so far.  Here, you also have the option to give discounts to the customer in either a fixed rate or a percentage that you define.  Once completed, be sure to click “OK.”

After you are done, the Charges area has your charges applied.

You can now see at the bottom you subtotals have been added for you.  If you need to make any changes to the charges that were already added, simply click on the paper and pencil icon or click the red “X” to delete the charge.

You can now assign an employee to this Job.

To do so, click on the “Add Employee” or “Add Team” button in the top-right.  Note: If scheduling from the Dispatch Board, the employee will already be assigned to the Work Order.

To add an Employee or Team, you can click on the “+” sign next to their name.  To Add and Edit the Employee (change their rate sheet or mark a specific time), click on the plus and pencil icon.  If you need to check your employee’s schedule for the proposed day, simply click on the rightward-facing, black arrow to reveal their schedule for the day.

After you have added your employees, you can come down to the Notes area.

If there are any notes you need your employees to know about, click on “Edit” next to the Work Order Notes are.

You can fill out as much information as you would like here.  Once completed, click “OK.”  Once this task has been completed, you can click on “Save” at the top or bottom of the Work Order tab.

Creating a Multi-Work Order Job

From the Dispatch Board, navigate to the “Common actions” task bar on the top right of the screen.  Click on it to view your options.

To add an estimate, click on “Add Job”.  This will bring you to the Customer Required screen, which allows you to choose an existing customer, or add a new one.

To select an existing customer, click “Select” next to their name.

You will now be on your Job Information tab.

 

Since you are scheduling a Job that will have more than one work order or day, you can fill out how many Work Orders the Job will require where it says “How many Work Orders will this Job have?”.

When completed, click “Next”.

Unlike scheduling a Single Work Order Job, you now have two work orders in the Work Orders tab.

On this screen, you should fill in the Start Date for the first day of the Job.  To see how to add Charges and assign Employees, please see earlier in this tutorial.

Once completed filling out the first day, click “Next” at the top or bottom of the Work Order.

On the Second Work Order, there are a few things to note.

Notice that the Work Order number now has a “-2” at the end.  This represents the second Work Order for this Job.  You can now schedule the second Work Order using the same methods as earlier in this tutorial.  Once this task has been completed, you can click on “Save” at the top or bottom of the Work Order tab.

Notice that the “Work Order” tab in this Job now says “Work Orders”.

If you click on this tab, you will come to a new screen.

You now have a list of all of the Work Orders that are attached to this Job or project.  If you need to add a third day, you can click on “Add Work Order” on the top-left.  You also have the ability to Copy a Work Order you have already created by clicking the “Copy” button to the far-right of the Work Order.

Note: Clicking “Copy” will duplicate everything in that Work Order.  Make sure you change the Start Date if this Work Order is to take place on a different day.

Closing Work Orders

Once you complete a Work Order, you need to close it in order to mark in the system that you are done with the work and are ready to collect money on that Job.  Open any Open Work Order in Edit Mode to begin closing out a Job.

Once in Edit Mode on a Work Order, move to the Status area, and change in from Open to Closed.  Click “Save” to complete closing.

Note: By default, closing a Work Order will issue an invoice to a client.  To change this setting, go to the “Jobs and Work Orders Settings” in the Settings tab.

Batch Closing Work Orders

If you do not need to view a Work Order before closing it, there is an option to batch close Work Orders.  To batch close, go to the Work Orders tab.

By default, the Work Orders tab is set to show all work orders without any filters.  To filter to the jobs that we want to close, create a Custom View and select it.  To learn how to create Custom Views, please see our training tutorial.

I have selected “Today’s Open” work orders.

Coming down from left to right, we first have our check boxes.  You can select Work Orders on the left for uses in the Common actions.

To batch close, you can simply check off multiple boxes, click on the common actions bar, and select “Close Work Orders”.

If you wish to close work orders for more than 10 of your work orders, first choose the “All” button.  A new link will pop up.  Select the link to select all customers in this view.

Custom Views in Work Orders tab

Custom views are a great way of filtering through your jobs to find the ones that you want to see or manipulate.  We will start on the Work Orders tab.

Views are managed in the view drop-down area.

You can easily switch views by toggling the drop-down to the list that you would like to see.

To create a new view, click the link for “New View.”

On the left hand side, we see a list of Filter Options that will help us create the new view.  If you are using Business Units, you can select to choose work orders of a particular business unit.

You can also filter by your Employees or Teams assigned to the Work Orders.

Using this filter, you will be able to choose specific employees and even Unassigned work orders that have not be given to a particular employee.

You can also filter by the Job Type

This is useful for if you only wanted to filter through jobs of a particular purpose, whether it be a recurring job or a one-time job.

You can also filter by the Status and Substatus on the Work Order

You can narrow down these Work Orders by Status or even by Substatus.  This will help you set reminders, close out jobs, and make sure you stay on top of specific status types.

Work Order Start Date

This allows you to view Work Order based on the day you scheduled them for.  Use the calendar drop-downs to specify a date range or choose one the the options in the drop-down above the calendars.

You can also filter by Service Locations.

Customer Location can be filtered by City, State/Province, or Zip as well as by Zone if you are using Zones within ServiceCEO.

Custom Fields can help you define criteria that is not naturally within ServiceCEO.

To complete creating a custom view, be sure to check off all of the criteria that you will be searching for, and select save.  You will now have that view permanently saved in your drop down views menu to help you sort through your work orders.

Scheduling Recurring Jobs

Create a new Job  and you will be on your Job Information tab.

To create a recurrence, click on “Add a Recurrence”.

This will bring up your frequency options screen.

There are many different frequency options within ServiceCEO.  For example, choosing daily and selecting “2” will schedule out the same job every two days.  Here are some other possible options:

Once you have selected your recurrence, click “Add”.

 

Note: Every different type of recurrence has multiple options behind them, creating a near limitless way of scheduling recurrences, even for your “Non-cookie cutter” customers.

After you add a recurrence, you will see it displayed on the Job Information tab.  If you need to add an additional recurrence to the Job, simply click on “Add Another Recurrence” on the top-right corner.  You will also be able to see the “Start Date.”  This is the day that the recurrence will begin on.  The Ends area selects when you want the recurrence to stop.

Note: If the customer ever cancels this recurrence, simply come to this area and select the Ends as today’s date.

Once completed, click “Next” at the bottom or top of the page.  You now need to set up the template for the Work Order that will be created on your recurring schedule.  Once completed, click “Save”.