Crews and multi-day jobs

Overview#

Some jobs need more than one person, or more than one day. A crew is the set of technicians on one appointment: one lead and the rest helpers. A multi-day job is one appointment per day, linked as visits 1 to n, with the same crew on each. Every crew member's time counts against their own capacity.

Before you start#

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

• Crew and multi-day tools appear in the board's side panel on a wide screen.

• Only appointments that are Scheduled or Dispatched can have their crew changed.

Steps#

Set the crew on an appointment#

1. On the Dispatch Board, click the appointment block.

2. In the panel, find Crew. It lists every technician on the board with a checkbox.

3. Tick everyone who should go. A Lead option appears next to each ticked person. Pick the lead.

   • If you untick the lead, the first person left becomes lead.

4. Click Save crew.

5. The appointment now shows on each crew member's row. The lead's block has a crown; the others show Helper. The job list Tags column shows Crew.

Swap one person on a crew#

1. Open the block from the row of the person you want to replace.

2. Under Reassign or move, pick a name in Replace [name] with, then click Move.

3. Or drag the block from that person's row to another technician's row. Only that person changes; the rest of the crew stays.

Schedule a multi-day job#

1. Find the job on the Unassigned tab and click it to open the Waiting job panel.

2. Set Arrival starts to the first day's start time. The board's day is the first day.

3. Click Multi-day job to open the form.

4. Fill in:

   • Days in a row: 2 to 14.

   • Hours on site per day: 1 to 12, in half hours.

   • Crew (first picked leads): tick the technicians. The first one you tick leads.

5. Click Schedule [n] days. TradesWork creates one appointment per day at the same start time, each with a 1-hour arrival window. It's all or nothing: if any day fails (for example an expired certification), nothing is created.

6. Each visit shows a mark like 2/3 on the board, and the panel says "Multi-day job: day 2 of 3".

Settings that change this#

• Settings › Dispatch Board › Board & Skills: bookable hours per technician. Crew time counts against each person.

• Settings › Dispatch Board › Zones, Move-up & Work Streams: certifications. An expired certification for a required skill blocks adding that person to the crew.

• Settings › People › Technicians: shifts and time off. Each crew member gets their own conflict warnings.

Tips#

• Use Suggest under Best tech for this job in the panel to find a good lead, then click Assign. Note that Assign replaces the crew with that one person; add helpers afterwards.

• Multi-day visits are separate appointments. Move or cancel one day without touching the others.

• Optimize route never moves crew appointments. Move crews by hand so everyone stays together.

• The AI dispatcher plans a crew as one unit and keeps every member on the same block. It needs the crew job to have a promised window first.

Troubleshooting#

• No Crew section in the panel. Cause: the appointment is en route, working, done or canceled, or your role doesn't dispatch. Fix: crews can only change before the work starts.

• "The lead must be on the crew." Cause: the chosen lead isn't ticked. Fix: tick them, or pick another lead.

• "A multi-day job needs at least two days" or "Up to 14 days". Fix: set Days in a row between 2 and 14.

• "Visits must be in order and must not overlap." Cause: hours on site are longer than the gap between days allows. Fix: reduce Hours on site per day.

• A certification error stops the save. Cause: someone on the crew holds a required skill only through an expired certificate. Fix: renew it in Settings › Dispatch Board › Zones, Move-up & Work Streams, or leave that person off.

FAQ#

Do helpers see the job in their field app? Yes. Every crew member is assigned to the appointment, so it shows on their list.

Can I give each day a different crew? Schedule the days together, then open any single day and change its crew.

Can a multi-day job skip weekends? Not from this form; it books consecutive days. Move individual days afterwards, or schedule them one by one.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

• Same: several technicians on one appointment with a lead, and multi-day work shown as linked visits.

• Different: you pick the crew per appointment in the board panel. There are no saved crews and no automatic crew creation from a lead technician.

• Where it lived: ServiceTitan's Crew Scheduling and multi-day appointments map to the appointment panel on Dispatch › Dispatch Board.