1. Dispatching Basics

2. Overview
The Dispatch board is used to access, track, update, and schedule work orders. The board is divided into an upper and lower section which shows all necessary information regarding work orders and technicians.
SAMPro Dispatching produces the most efficient way to manage and schedule calls, assign necessary work orders and technicians, and operate the service management side of your business. SAMPro offers two different Dispatching Boards to manage this process accordingly; the Classic and Power board.
Before we can explore both the Classic or Power Board, we will take a look at the variety of know-hows and settings to manage Dispatching for the correct date ranges and Work Order statuses, as well as the necessary technicians for service.
We’ll also take a look at the many functions that are implemented to help make the service management side of Sampro as efficient and smooth as possible.

3. The Dispatch Board: Initial Power Board Display
When the Dispatch Board is first opened, the Power Board is displayed.
There are several Power Board features we need to know about before we can get to Dispatching.

4. The Dispatch Board: Initial Power Board Display
The Power Board is displayed when the Dispatch Board first opens.
The Work Orders on this list are subject to several filtering options. These options control the Work Order List on both the Power Board and Classic Board. The top line of the List displays the filtering options selected.
The buttons at the top of the Board are used, among other things, to control the filtering options that determine which Work Orders will appear on the board.

5. Dispatch Board: Filter Calls Options
The Filter Calls tab enables you to select which Work Orders to display based on their status (Log Type) and other parameters including Service Manager, Date Opened, Site Id, etc.

6. Dispatch Board: Filter Calls Options
Statuses may be selected from the list on the left-hand side of the screen. In this example, we have right-clicked Onsite, and will only see WO’s with that status.
Filter calls by status; left-click to add a status, right-click to replace statuses with the line you select.

7. Dispatch Board: Filter Calls Options
To add a status to the range, left-click it. Here, we have added On Break to Onsite.
Alternately, you can select Completed, Uncompleted, or Not Cancelled to select a number of statuses at one time.
If you select the All statuses option, the Log Type range will be cleared, and dispatches of all statuses (except Archived or Credit Hold Work Orders) will be displayed on the board. This should be done with caution, however, and only for very limited date ranges.

8. Dispatch Board: Filter Calls Options
Remember that if a range field is blank, all values will be shown in the Work Order list of the Power Board. If a value appears in a range, Work Orders must match that value (or Id) to appear. To display calls with a specific Work Code Id, you would simply enter the Id (or double-click the field to select from a list).
Non-id fields (such as Original, Workorder Name, and Work Order Type) must be entered from the keyboard. For example, to display only Service Work Orders, type Service on the WO Type range, and then click the Filter Calls (or Power Board) tab to display the results.

9. Dispatch Board: Date Range
The Date Range button at the top allows you to define which days/weeks you are viewing on the Dispatch Board. The Date Scheduled (on the Work Order’s Technicians tab) displays as the Begin Date on the Work Order list. To control which calls appear on the Board by date, you may select a predefined Date Range on the left, or enter your own by selecting User Range and entering then the desired dates in the upper right-hand section.

10. Dispatch Board: Date Range
Click This Week+Next Week to display these dispatches. The next time you open the Dispatch Board, this setting will be retained.

11. Dispatch Board: Sort Options Tab
The Sort Options tab enables you to select the criteria by which the Work Order list (the lower section) is sorted. This setting will be retained when you re-open the board.

12. Dispatch Board: Sort Options Tab
Tip: Sorting by Column
To temporarily change the sort order of the Work Order list, click on the header of the desired sort column in the Work Order list to sort in ascending order (in this example, by Technician). Click the column header again to sort in descending order. This feature works regardless of which tab is selected above.

13. Dispatch Board: Change Technician Tab
The Change Tech tab lets you Assign/Reassign a call to a Technician. To do so, select a line in Work Order list below and double-click the Technician Id above to make or change the assignment.

14. Dispatch Board: Change Technician Tab
After assigning or re-assigning the dispatch, the Power Board tab will automatically open with the reassigned Work Order selected below, along with the newly assigned Technician above.

15. Set / Add Date: Changing or Adding a Scheduled Date
Click the Set / Add Date tab at the top. The currently scheduled service date of the selected WO is indicated by a red square on the displayed calendar. To change that date, drag the WO from the Work Order list up to the desired calendar date.
Note: If you rescheduled the dispatch outside the date range currently selected, it will no longer appear on the Work Order list.
To add a Date Scheduled to the work order for this technician, hold down the Ctrl key while you drag the Work Order to a date.

16. Set / Add Date: Changing or Adding a Scheduled Date
The Set Today button (on the left button bar) offers a shortcut to set the date scheduled to today. Select a call by clicking on it in the Work Order List, and then click the Set Today button.

17. Dispatch Board: Switching Boards with Tech Lists
The Technicians that are displayed on a dispatch board are defined by the Boards and Technicians record, accessed on the Tech Lists tab.
In this example, the Electrical tech list is selected. To select a different tech list, double-click on a list to select it and redisplay the Tech Status Summary. When you do so, a different list of Technicians and their Work Orders will appear, as well as Unassigned Work Orders.
To return to the Tech Status Summary in the upper portion of the board, click the Power Board tab.

18. Dispatch Board: Available Hours
The next button, Available Hours, toggles the upper portion of the board to show the time that each tech has available for scheduling. Only today’s and future dates will be shown for the Date Range that you have selected.
By default, the Available Hours are based on an eight hour day. In this example, BBragg has -1 hours available – he is overbooked and has been scheduled for 9 hours on Monday the 3rd.

19. Dispatch Board: Available Hours
To reschedule a call:
Select it in the Work Order List
Drag it to the desired Tech/Date cell and drop
Confirm the change when the system prompts you to do so
You can reschedule to the same or a different technician. In this example, we will give the call to DGray on the same day.

20. Dispatch Board: Available Hours
Confirm the change.

21. Dispatch Board: Available Hours
Notice that BBragg now has one hour available, while DGray has five.

22. Dispatch Board: Graphic Time Chart
The Time Chart button enables you to fine-tune the schedule on an hour-by hour basis by changing the Work Order List display. To use this view most effectively, set the Sort Calls tab to the Date/Technician/Time option, and then click the Chart button to show the graphic time chart view.

23. Dispatch Board: Graphic Time Chart
In this example, we will only look at jgats’ dispatches by selecting his line in the Tech Status Summary. Monday, June 3, a time conflict exists (note the **’s after Burr Mall, Michigan).

24. Dispatch Board: Graphic Time Chart
To reschedule,
1. Left mouse click on the dispatch you want to reschedule.

25. Dispatch Board: Graphic Time Chart
2. Left click on the new starting time on the same line.
3. With the caret located at the time you want the dispatch to begin, right click on the caret to reschedule the dispatch.

26. Dispatch Board: Graphic Time Chart
The dispatch is now scheduled for 2:15 and the conflict is resolved.

27. Additional Features: Edit Daily Work Orders
Edit Daily WO’s provides general "house-keeping" that can be easily done as the first activity of the day. Close completed Work Orders, advance the scheduled dates of those that were not completed, reschedule techs as necessary, and so on. Click the Edit Daily WO’s button to launch this function.

28. Edit Daily Work Orders
When you click the Edit Daily WO's button, an initial range screen appears. The New Date Scheduled will be set to today – if you are rolling your dispatches over to today when you first come in, leave this setting. If you are rolling them over to tomorrow or the next business day just before you leave at night, change the date as needed.
If you flag Retain Current Dates, an additional line will be added for the new date, instead of changing the existing date. This is a management decision.
If you will be changing the status of all or most Work Orders you are rolling over, you may select the New Status. Normally this is left blank so the Log Type Id’s (status) are not changed.

29. Edit Daily Work Orders
**WARNING** Log Type Id: The list of status types will correspond to the setting of the Dispatch Board from which you launched this function – EDIT the list to remove those that do not apply (e.g. completed) or add more log types (status) that need to be included.
The Date Scheduled range field will initially be set to all dates less than today: <yyyy-mm-dd (e.g., if today is June 3, 2013 it would be set to < ). This field may be reset by the user as desired. Examples include:
A Single Date: yyyy-mm-dd
A Range of Dates: yyyy-mm-dd_yyyy-mm-dd
All Days in a Specific Month: yyyy-mm%
By default, Work Order types of Preventive Maintenance and PM Invoice are excluded from this function (note the ~ in the range – this tells the system to NOT include these statuses). To include Preventive Maintenance WO’s, delete PreventiveMaint from the range.
When the ranges are completed as desired, click the Go button to display the Edit screen.

30. Edit Daily Work Orders
By default, the Work Orders are sorted by Tech Id. To change the sort order of the Edit screen, click the Sort By button on the left-hand side and select the desired sort order.

31. Edit Daily Work Orders
Only lines that are flagged as 'Do' will be updated when you click the Go button. This box is automatically checked when you change the Date Scheduled, Time Scheduled, Tech Id, Estimated Hours, or Log Type Id (status) field. Double-click the Do box (or press Spacebar when the caret is on it) to check or clear this field.
Click the Go button when your edits are complete.
Tip: To roll Work Orders over to today, press the Spacebar when the caret is in the Date Scheduled field.
NOTE: This function can result in very lengthy processing time, depending how many records are selected. Your firm can limit the number to Work Orders that can be processed by registry.

32. Dispatch Board: Side Bar Buttons- Status Shortcuts
The top eight buttons of the side bar are shortcuts to set the status of the selected work order: On Hold, Wait Parts, Scheduled, Travel, On Site, Completed, WaitService, Cancelled.
Let’s assume that GGuy has completed his call at Home Depot Store 040; the status is currently OnSite.
Tip: if TechAnywhere is enabled, he would update his own status via his mobile device.

33. Dispatch Board: Side Bar Buttons
First, click on the call to select (highlight) it.
Next, click the Completed button to set the status to completed (note – this button was labeled ‘Done’ in older versions).

34. Dispatch Board: Side Bar Buttons
If Service Evaluations are implemented on your system, you may be asked to answer any unanswered Closing or General questions.

35. Dispatch Board: Completed Calls
The Work Order has disappeared from the list! Why? Because our Work Orders are filtered to show uncompleted calls only.

36. Dispatch Board: Completed Calls
To view completed calls, select the Filter Calls tab, and then right click Completed to view completed calls only.
Next, click the Power Board button to display the results.

37. Dispatch Board: Completed Calls
The completed call now appears on the Work Order list.

38. Side Buttons: Set Status
In the previous example, we used a shortcut button to chance the status of the selected work order. Suppose that a shortcut button does not exist for that status? Click the Set Status button.

39. Side Buttons: Set Status
The system displays a list of Statuses that you may select for this call. Click on a status to highlight it.
Then click the Select button.

40. Side Buttons: Set Status
The Status is now set to ‘on break’.
Another method of setting the Status – or updating the Work Order is to right click on the selected call.

41. Dispatch Board: Right-Click Options
When you do so, the system asks you to select an action. Highlighting ‘Change Status’ and clicking the Select button displays the Status List we encountered a couple of slides ago.
Selecting Update Work Order displays a simplified Work Order viewer designed to streamline dispatching and scheduling maintenance.

42. Update Work Order: Dispatcher’s Work Order Summary
After clicking Update Work Order, a Dispatcher's summary of the WO opens. The Technician, Equipment, Log and Call Script lines may be changed from this view, as well as selected fields in the work order header. Remember to click the Save button to retain any modifications and close the viewer.
Tip:
If you will be accessing this viewer more than once, click the Let Close button to toggle it to Hold Open. When you Save changes, the viewer will remain open. The next time you access it, it will save time and system resources. Click the Dispatch button to return to the Board.

43. Side Buttons: Create PO
The Create PO button is used to launch the Purchase Order viewer so that you can quickly generate a PO for the selected Work Order.

44. Side Buttons: Tech Finder
TechFinder helps you locate an appropriate Technician, Date and Time for the call. It is discussed in the New Call lesson.
The Time+Dist and SageQuest buttons are used in conjunction with SageQuest.
The ReleaseWO button is designed to release the selected Pending Work Order to TechAnywhere. Clicking it will change the status from Pending to Unacknowledged, resulting in the Work Order being sent to the Technician’s mobile device.