Assign and move appointments

Overview#

You place work on the board by dragging it, or by opening it and picking a technician and time. A move can change the technician, the time, or both, and it saves in one step. TradesWork checks skills, overlaps, time off, events and shifts, warns you about problems, and blocks only a few hard rules (such as an expired certification). Every move can be undone from the message that appears.

Before you start#

• You need a role that dispatches: Owner, Admin, Dispatcher or Customer service.

• Dragging needs a wide screen (laptop or desktop). On narrow screens, open the item and use the panel instead.

• For skill warnings, add technician skills and job type requirements in Settings › Dispatch Board › Board & Skills.

Steps#

Schedule a waiting job#

1. On the Unassigned tab under the timeline, find the job. Rows you can drag show a grip handle.

2. Drag the row onto a technician's row at the time you want. While you drag, a label shows the technician and the time, snapped to 15 minutes.

3. Drop it. The appointment gets a 2-hour arrival window starting at the drop time. Its expected length is the job type's default duration (1 hour when the job has no job type).

4. A message confirms, for example "Scheduled #10231 for Luis, 9:00 – 11:00 AM". It also warns if the technician lacks a required skill.

5. To schedule without dragging, click the row. In the Waiting job panel, under Schedule on this day:

   • Pick a Technician. The list puts people with every required skill first and names what others are missing.

   • Pick Arrival starts (2-hour window).

   • Click Schedule.

6. Not sure who to send? In the same panel, click Suggest next to Best tech at …. You get up to five technicians ranked by skills, zone, business unit, availability, overlaps, drive time and how full their day is. Click Schedule next to one.

Reassign or reschedule an appointment#

1. Drag the block to another technician's row to reassign it, or left or right to change the time. You can do both in one drag.

   • The arrival window keeps its length when you move it.

   • Drop it on the Unassigned row (it appears while you drag) to take the technician off.

2. Or click the block to open the Appointment panel and use Reassign or move:

   • Technician (or Replace [name] with when there is a crew) and Arrival starts (window length kept).

   • Click Move.

3. After a move, the message reads like "Moved #10231 to Maria, 1:00 PM". Within a moment it adds any conflicts found, such as "Maria is also on #10198 at 1:30 PM", "Maria doesn't have: Commercial refrigeration", "has time off then", or "isn't working all of that time".

4. Click Undo in the message (shown for about 9 seconds) to put it back. Undo on a newly scheduled job takes it off the board again.

Use the keyboard#

1. Tab to a block or a job row and press Space to pick it up.

2. Press the arrow keys: left and right move 15 minutes, up and down move one technician row.

3. Press Space or Enter to drop, or Escape to cancel. Press Enter on a block (without picking it up) to open its details.

Dispatch, undispatch or cancel#

1. Click the block to open the panel.

2. Under Status, click Dispatch (scheduled to dispatched), Undispatch (back to scheduled) or Cancel appointment.

3. Cancel asks you to confirm. The job goes back to waiting and shows on the Unassigned tab again.

Settings that change this#

• Settings › Dispatch Board › Board & Skills: technician skills, job type required skills, and default and per-technician bookable hours.

• Settings › Dispatch Board › Zones, Move-up & Work Streams: certifications (an expired one blocks assignment), zones and business units used by Suggest, and whether dispatchers are limited to one work stream.

• Settings › People › Technicians: shifts and time off behind the "isn't working" and "time off" warnings.

• Settings › Operations › Branches: whether technicians may be assigned across branches.

Tips#

• Skill gaps warn but never block. The only hard stops are an expired certification for a required skill, a cross-branch assignment your company doesn't allow, a job outside your enforced work stream, and closed (done or canceled) appointments.

• Completed appointments can't be dragged. Canceled and future rows open the job page instead of the panel.

• Moving a job to a new time doesn't text the customer. Tell them yourself, or use the customer ETA tools.

• TradesWork doesn't send a push notification or text to the technician when you assign or dispatch. The appointment appears in their field app the next time it loads.

Troubleshooting#

• The move snapped back and a red message appeared. Cause: the server refused the change and nothing was saved. Fix: read the message. Common ones are an expired certification ("… certification expired … pick another technician"), "Pick technicians from your team.", "This appointment is closed." and "That job isn't in your work stream".

• "Couldn't reach the server. The move was undone." Cause: a network problem. Fix: check your connection and try again.

• "That appointment or job no longer exists. Refresh the board." Cause: someone else changed or canceled it. Fix: click the refresh icon.

• "You don't have permission to do that." Cause: your role reads the board but doesn't dispatch. Fix: ask an Owner or Admin.

• No Dispatch button in the panel. Cause: the appointment is already en route, working or done. Fix: the technician moves it forward from the field app.

FAQ#

Can I change how long the arrival window is when I drop a job? Drops and the panel use a 2-hour window. To set a different window, schedule the job from the job page.

What does "Unassigned" mean on the timeline? The appointment has a time but no technician. It still counts as booked for the day, and it shows on the Unassigned tab.

Does a move change the job's status? Scheduling an appointment updates the job's status. Moving or reassigning only changes times and people.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

• Same: drag from the unassigned tray onto a technician and time, drag between rows to reassign, and dispatch from the appointment.

• Different: every drag can be undone from the message, skill gaps are warnings (not blocks), and Suggest ranks the best technicians with reasons. Conflict checks run after every move.

• Not here: automatic technician notifications on dispatch.

• Where it lived: ServiceTitan's dispatch board drag and drop maps to Dispatch › Dispatch Board.