Mobile scheduling
When you run mobile jobs
The optimizer only books inside these hours. They can differ from your shop hours — vans can run on a Saturday morning the counter is shut, or stop dispatching before the building closes.
Response window
New jobs must be scheduled within this many days by default (you can override per job in the queue). 0 = same day.
Buffers & defaults
Fine-tuning so generated routes are realistic.
Home base & service area
Where the van starts and ends its day.
Service zones
Name the parts of your area, by ZIP code and/or town or neighborhood. Each job then shows its zone. Start rough — redraw them once you have a month of real jobs.
Who gets new work
While the team is small, anyone can go anywhere and new work goes to whoever lives closest. Once about three technicians live in different parts of the area, give each a home region: Find a time offers that technician’s day first, and the nearest covers when they cannot.
Before a job goes
What to check before a visit is confirmed or a tech is sent out. "Ask why" lets it go once someone gives a reason (kept on the job); "Hold" stops it until the check passes.
Arrival windows
Promise customers a window instead of an exact time. An on-site booking gets the window its time falls in (or another one, or an exact time, picked when booking); the confirmation and the reminder say "between 8:00 and 11:00 AM"; and arriving by the end of the window counts as on time.
When the day's statuses show a technician will miss a window (or an exact time by 15 minutes), the desk is told on Today. To text the customer the new time automatically, switch on Running-late texts in Settings › Customers › What to send.
Placement rules
Rules for where "Find a time" puts a job in the day. The blocks are your arrival windows. A time a rule rejects is listed with the reason; booking it by hand still works, with a note.
Jobs near each other go back to back without a switch: Find a time offers the openings on the way first.
Checklists
What gets done and photographed. Technicians tick the day's lists on Today and a job's on the repair order; marking a job completed with a required item open asks why (or holds it: "The job's checklist is done" above).
Online booking
Customers pick a service from your menu, enter where the car will be, and choose from the times near your route (Find a time). With a deposit set (Settings › Payments) they approve the estimate and pay it next. Without live drive times, they ask for a time and it goes on the route queue.
Mileage
Technicians log the odometer leaving home and back on Today. Reports › Tech shows the week and downloads it for payroll at this rate. 0 means you do not pay mileage back.
Express fee
"Find a time" offers the openings near the customer first. When someone wants an earlier time, or the same day, it shows that too, with this fee suggested: hours of labor at the customer's own rate. 0 means no fee.
Calendar links
See the schedule in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook while you move over. Each link is read-only and shows customer names and addresses, so make one per technician and turn it off when someone leaves. Calendar apps check it on their own clock: Google can take several hours to show a change.