Capacity and arrival windows

Overview#

Customers are promised an arrival window, such as 8 to 10am: the technician arrives inside the window, and the work can run past it. TradesWork works out how many more jobs fit in each window from real data. The same calculation feeds the capacity strip above the dispatch board, your online booking page and website button, and availability for connected systems, so they always agree.

Before you start#

• Anyone in the office with read access sees the capacity strip on the dispatch board (Owner, Admin, Dispatcher, Customer service, Accounting, Viewer).

• Changing arrival windows and drive time needs an Owner or Admin (Settings › Communications › Web Appointments).

• Capacity is only as good as your hours. Set up Settings › People › Technicians first.

How capacity is worked out#

For each day and each arrival window, TradesWork:

1. Finds who is working. Active people with the Technician role, using their own weekly schedule or the company default, minus time off and minus non-job events they are on.

2. Checks skills. If the job type needs skills (set in Settings › Dispatch Board › Board & Skills), only technicians with all of them count. Without a job type, it uses a generic one-hour visit with no skills.

3. Takes out booked work. Each assigned appointment blocks its technicians from the start of its window for its duration plus the drive time between jobs. Unassigned appointments (for example online bookings waiting for dispatch) are placed on the earliest qualified technician who can take them, so they use up real capacity too. Canceled appointments don't count.

4. Counts what still fits. For each working technician, it counts how many more jobs of that length can start inside the window, each taking time on site plus the drive buffer.

5. Applies the rules for the channel. The office only closes windows that have already started. Online and partner bookings also apply minimum notice, the same-day cutoff, how far ahead you book and the per-window online limit (see "Set up online booking and the website button").

A closed window always has a reason, for example "This window is fully booked." or "No technicians with the right skills are working then."

Steps#

Set your arrival windows and drive time#

1. Open Settings › Communications › Web Appointments.

2. In the Rules card, edit Arrival windows. Type start-end pairs in 24-hour time, separated by commas, for example 8-10, 10-12, 12-14, 14-16. You can have one to eight windows, each listed once.

3. Set Drive time between jobs (minutes), from 0 to 240. The default is 30.

4. Click Save rules.

Read the capacity strip#

1. Open Dispatch › Dispatch Board. The strip above the board shows the next 7 days.

2. Each day shows a percent booked and a bar:

   • Green: under 80% booked.

   • Orange: 80% or more.

   • Red: 100% or more, or no windows left.

3. The line under the bar says "{n} of {m} windows open" (for a one-hour visit), Full, or No one working. A day with nobody working shows "—", never 0%.

4. Hover a day to see booked tech-hours against available tech-hours.

5. Click a day to open the board on that day.

Settings that change this#

• Settings › Communications › Web Appointments: arrival windows, drive time between jobs, and the online-only rules.

• Settings › People › Technicians: company default hours, personal weekly schedules, time off.

• Settings › Dispatch Board › Board & Skills: technician skills and each job type's required skills. This page also has Board hours and Bookable hours per tech, which shape the dispatch board itself; they are separate from the hours used for capacity.

• Job type durations: the job type's default duration is the time on site used in the calculation.

Tips#

• Keep windows the same length. Customers understand "two-hour windows", and capacity is easier to read.

• If technicians run late every afternoon, raise Drive time between jobs before you add technicians.

• Use the strip to steer marketing. When the next three days are red, it is a good day to push maintenance, not demand.

• Percent booked compares appointment minutes with working minutes. A job with two technicians counts twice.

Troubleshooting#

• The strip shows "No one working" every day. No active technicians, or none with hours. Check the Technician role in Settings › People › Employees & Role Permissions and hours in Technician Availability.

• Online booking shows no times, but the board looks empty. Online-only rules close windows the office still sees: minimum notice, same-day cutoff, days ahead, or the per-window online limit. Or the service needs a skill nobody working has.

• "Add at least one arrival window", "Up to 8 arrival windows" or "Each window only once." Fix the Arrival windows list.

• A window shows as full though a technician has a free hour. The free time is shorter than the job's duration plus the drive buffer, or it starts after the window ends.

FAQ#

Does capacity stop the office from overbooking? No. When you schedule from a job page or the board, TradesWork doesn't block you for capacity. It does refuse a technician who is missing a required certification. Capacity limits apply to online and partner bookings.

Does the arrival window limit how long the job can take? No. The technician must arrive inside the window. The job can run past it.

Are capacity numbers per business unit? Not yet. Capacity is company-wide, filtered by skills for the job type.

Is there a full-screen open capacity grid? Not yet. Use the 7-day strip on the dispatch board, and the Demand vs capacity card in Reports › Insights for the weeks ahead.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

• Same: arrival windows, open capacity per window, and skills that limit who can take a job.

• Different: capacity is calculated live from hours, time off, events and booked work, so there are no capacity numbers to maintain by hand. There is no per-business-unit capacity grid yet. For weeks ahead, the Demand vs capacity card in Reports › Insights compares booked and forecast hours with capacity.

• Where it lived: ServiceTitan Schedule › Open Capacity, Settings › Arrival Windows, and capacity planning settings.