How to Set Up Scheduling Tools

Set available hours for resources to assist in scheduling accuracy and visibility. You can set available hours for individual days, for the weekend, or for all weekdays.

This is necessary when scheduling whole days at a time for jobs in Schedules > Project View.

To set up scheduling availability:

1. Access the resource.
2. Click the Schedule tab.
3. If you are setting availability for a plant item, ensure Enable Scheduling is selected in the Details tab.
4. Under Shift Start, select the Day or days you wish to schedule for, then select a starting and ending Time.
5. Click Add.
6. Repeat as necessary until complete.
7. Click Save and Finish.

To remove available hours for a specific day, click the icon for the day, or alternatively, click Clear next to Availability to remove all available hours.

To edit available hours for a specific day, select the Shift Start / End Day and Time, then click Add, and the existing shift is adjusted.

You can schedule resources outside of their available hours in any schedule except in the Job Setup page when you create a job.

Assign cost centres and zones to resources so that they can only be scheduled to quotes and jobs with the same cost centres and zones assigned, unless you have unrestricted zones enabled in your security group permissions.

You can also assign resources to teams so that they are scheduled as part of a unit. You can only schedule resources to a job or quote if the other resources in the team are also available.

This is useful for avoiding scheduling conflicts if you have a group of technicians and / or plant items that are commonly scheduled to the same jobs and quotes.

To assign cost centres, zones, and teams:

1. Access the resource.
2. Click the Schedule tab.
3. Select from the Cost Centres, Zones and Teams drop-down lists as required. Or select Add All to add all cost centres / zones / teams.
4. Select a Zone Default and Team Default if required. When the employee views the schedule, the schedule filters for employees assigned to the default zone and default team.
5. Alternatively, click Add All.
6. Click Save and Finish.

Alternatively, assign resources to teams in System > Setup > System Setup > Teams.

Click the icon to remove cost centres, zones or teams from a resource, or alternatively, click Clear All.

Learn more in How to Use Cost Centres, How to Use Zones and How to Create Teams.

When scheduling in Schedules > Day View, Simpro Premium only displays resources that have been scheduled and / or created thirty days before the current day, or scheduled in the thirty days after.

Select Show All to display all resources, both available and unavailable as specified by the available hours, cost centres, zones and / or teams assigned to them.

If you have the necessary security group permissions, you can schedule resources assigned to a different zone from the job / quote site. This is useful if all resources assigned to the necessary zone are unavailable and you need to prevent unnecessary delay for the customer.

To enable setting unrestricted zones, go to System > Setup > System Setup > Security Groups, access the security group, then go to Permissions > Schedule, select Unrestricted Zones, and click Finish.

You can then override zones in both the quote or job and the Day View or Week View. To override zones in a quote / job, go to the Schedule tab, then search and select the new Zone you wish to schedule for.

To override zones in the Day View / Week View:

1. Go to Schedules > Day View / Week View.
2. Under Schedule, select Job / Quote, then search for the job / quote.
3. Click Filter.
4. Search and select the Zone you wish to schedule for.

You can then schedule resources to the job / quote as normal.

If a salesperson needs to follow up on a lead, you can schedule them in Simpro Premium and then send a calendar appointment to both the salesperson and the customer.

When you assign preferred technicians to customers, sites, asset types , or service levels and you create and schedule a related job or quote, the preferred technicians are highlighted yellow to view and schedule more easily, both in your schedule Day View and the Schedule tab in jobs and quotes.

You can then hover over a technician's name to see their preference ranking for the job or quote.

Learn more in What are Preferred Technicians in Simpro Premium?.

When viewing the list of technicians in the Schedule tab, click the arrow next to the employee's name to view their availability.

Their hours for each day, from the current day onwards, is displayed.

When scheduling a job or quote, you can calculate the travel time and distance between the job / quote site and the nearest available technician to minimise travel time. Travel time and distance is calculated based on the technician's previously scheduled job location, or the home address entered in that technician's card file.

You can calculate travel either within the created quote or job, or in the Job Setup page when you create and schedule a service job.

To schedule according to travel time and distance within the created quote or job, access the quote or job, then go to Schedule > Help me decide > Technician(s) to Schedule > Travel Distance, then click Calculate.

The available technicians then reorder according to the shortest travel time, with the closest technicians highlighted in green.

You need to enter addresses in your employee / contractor card files to calculate travel time.

Learn more in How to Create a Service Job.