Schedule Board

Schedule Board, also called Scheduler, is one of the main components of Resco Routes and Resco Inspections. It provides a graphical overview of task scheduling for each resource, history of the performed tasks, the ability to set only resources from the selected regions or only with the required skills, the ability to set optimization of existing tasks by automation and many other features.

Scheduler is optimized to run as a desktop application (Windows 7 / Windows 10) as well as mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows 10) with larger screens (tablets).

It is also an optional part of Resco mobile apps for users with the role schedule manager. They can use Schedule Board to manage the people working in the field during the day/week, oversee the free resources and help to manage their work out of office. Scheduler should be included into a project that has set up a role to Scheduler or Schedule Manager in the Woodford tool.

Key features

Web-based tool with drag-and-drop interface to plan and distribute appointments and tasks to staff in the field
Notifications about exceptional events – delays, cancelled visits, etc.
Tracking real-time progress – if anyone will be finishing sooner than originally expected, the manager can re-assign jobs to balance workloads throughout the day

Starting the Schedule Board

Scheduler can be launched in several ways:

From the Resco Routes: routes.resco.net
From the Resco Inspections: inspections.resco.net
From Resco CRM server management console
From Dynamics: Go to Settings > MobileCRM > Inspections, then select Scheduler.
From the app.

Set up your timetable

You can change the displayed date range on the timetable using controls in the top right corner. The selected range is then displayed in the center of the top row.

Today / This week: Use this button to move to the current date. You can use the arrows left and right to move the previous or next day or week.

Arrow down: Use to expand date picker. Select the day / month / year you want to display.

Date range

Select how many days or weeks do you want to see:

Day – The screen shows 24 hours for selected day
2 Days – The screen shows two days in the season
3 Days – the screen shows three days in the season
Week – the screen shows whole week. In the filter dialog, it’s possible to show or hide weekend.
2 Weeks – the screen shows two weeks. In the filter dialog, it’s possible to show or hide weekends.
4 Weeks – the screen shows four weeks. In the filter dialog, it’s possible to show or hide weekends
6 Weeks – the screen shows six weeks. In the filter dialog, it’s possible to show or hide weekends
Month overview – a statistical overview where there is a payload of individual resources displayed in the individual months.

Schedule tasks

You can schedule tasks manually, or you can let scheduler to optimize tasks automatically.

Manual scheduling

To plan a task manually, select a task and drag it to the timetable. Some rows might be grayed out; those resource don't have the required skills to perform the task.

Alternatively, you can double-click any task to display its properties. The properties are organized into several tabs. You can edit the fields as long as the status of the task is planned.

Automatic scheduling

To let the application schedule tasks for you, click Auto-schedule and select one of the options:

Optimize schedules per Resource: Helps you to find optimal start time for all tasks assigned under individual resource. This is performed for all loaded resources. Resource to which each task is assigned is not changed.
Optimized route (per day): Minimize travel time that is necessary to visit all tasks within current day. Visit order and start time may change, while resource to which each task is assigned is not changed.
Complete optimization: Find optimal start time for all tasks shown in the view, across all suitable resources. This is performed for all loaded resources; resource to which each task is assigned may change.

As a result, the total service time in the field should decrease, and so should gaps between tasks. After each optimization process application shows summarized report in which you can easily identify if the process has been helpful or not. If the optimization does not satisfy your requirements, you can discard all changes in one click.

Popup menu

Task popup menu opens when you tap and hold an editable task for at least one second. It contains the following actions:

Rebook Task – Allows automatically change the task start time to the earliest possible time within defined time window.
Substitute Resource – Allows reassign task to another resource, while keep the task start time, or if set, finds the earliest possible time, or finds the earliest possible time within the same day or month.
Optimize Resource – Helps dispatcher to find optimal start time for all tasks assigned under the resource to which is the current task assigned.
Set As Completed – Changes the task status to completed. (This action is present only if the “Completed” action is chosen for at least one WorkOrder Schedule status field value in Woodford.)
Set As Canceled – Changes the task status to canceled. (This action is present only if the “Canceled” action is chosen for at least one WorkOrder Schedule status field value in Woodford.)

Resource popup menu opens when you tap and hold a resource row in the grid view for at least one second. It contains the following action:

Optimize Resource – Helps dispatcher to find optimal start time for all tasks assigned under the resource.

Violations

Violations are pointed out when the Scheduler detects that a task violates a rule. The following rules are checked:

Resource Availability: A task must have a gap of at least [travel to] minutes from the previous location and [travel from] minutes to the next location.

Working Hours: Task is scheduled outside of the resource’s working hours.

Start: Start should be later or equal to that of the Window Start.

End: End should be before or equal to that of the Window End.

Resource Time-Off Overlap – task overlaps with scheduled time-off

Coinciding Schedules – task overlaps with the following tasks: (task list)

In a task violates any rules, a warning icon appears in the bottom left corner of the task. To see the details, double-click the task and go to Violations tab.

Edit tasks

Double-click any task on the timetable to display its properties. Editing is only allowed if the Status Reason of the task is set to Planned.

Properties are organized into several tabs. Depending on the task, some tabs might not be available.

Info tab provides basic information about task: name, status, progress, start and end date/time.
Resource tab provides information about the resource to which the task is assigned. You can use this tab to change this assignment.
Violations tab lists all rules that the current task violates. This tab is not displayed if the task breaks no rules.

Use the buttons in the bottom to continue:

Click Cancel if you want to discard any changes and return to the timetable.
Click Save to save changes and return to the timetable.
Click Open Form if you want to access full information about a particular task.

Filter by source or resource

There's a search bar above the list of resources. Use it to filter resources or sources by name or by a letter. Whether you filter resources or sources, you can recognize by the text displayed in the search field. In the case you want to change the filter, click on the magnifying glass icon and choose Search for Source or Search for Resource.

For example, select Search for Resource. To filter resources, click the search bar, write the required term and press Enter. You can also do it another way around: First type in the required term, then click the magnifying glass and select how to filter.

To disable this filter, clear the search bar. Once it's empty, the screen is reloaded.

Review your key performance indicators

Key performance indicators are displayed in the bottom right corner. They offer summary information about the the currently displayed tasks. When you change the date range, the values are recalculated.

Total scheduled time
Average travel time
Completed tasks versus all tasks
Rule violations - number of tasks that violate at least one scheduled rule
Risks - number of unscheduled tasks in jeopardy (because the due date for scheduling is close)

Customize your scheduler

Use the Settings button in the top right corner to set up your scheduler. Modify the options in various tabs and click Save & Close to confirm your changes.

The settings are organized into multiple tabs; depending on your configuration, some settings can be unavailable.

Settings tab

Working hours: Restrict the time interval that should be displayed in the scheduler and available for tasks.
Show completed or canceled tasks
Show weekends
Rounded minutes: Select how the automatic scheduling should rounded times, from the full hours down to 1 minute intervals. This also affects the accuracy that can be set when editing task properties.
Manual drag interval: Select rounding when you're manually dragging tasks.

Manual move tab

Behavior after manual drag and drop...: Select what happens when you drag a task onto the time table: Scheduler can either accept your choice of time slot and resource, accept your resource but optimize time slots (reorder tasks if practical), or fully optimize tasks for all resources.

Auto-schedule settings: Auto-schedule new tasks: New tasks are created from each source loaded in the list for source entity; and then they are automatically scheduled.; Automatically reschedule tasks with conflict(s): All editable tasks that violate at least one rule are rescheduled.

Reschedule already scheduled tasks (not started): Optimize even previously scheduled tasks, as long as they have not started.
Use Google maps to calculate travel duration (Google API Key required): Google maps are used to calculate actual travel times, then tasks are scheduled to minimize total travel time.

Before start of optimization: Optionally, you can set incomplete tasks from the past as canceled.

Views tab

Select which entity view defined in Woodford is used in the scheduler for:

Scheduled Task View
Source (Unscheduled Task) View
Resource View

Rules tab

Configure rules that apply to automatic scheduling:

The minimum gap between the scheduled task and current time
The minimum gap between tasks

Skills/Territories tabs

The Skills and Territories tabs allow you to filter data:

Either by the specific skills that are needed for some tasks,
or by the territories where a task should be performed.

Lists on both tabs support multi-selection; you can select one or more options. If you don't want to filter by skills or territories, select All.

Customize in Woodford

Administrators can use the Woodford tool for additional customization of the Schedule Board. You can set this up for each app project; select Scheduler from the Project menu.

The whole customization is divided into multiple tabs:

Activity
Activity Types
Activity Views
Source Views
Resource Views
Time-offs and Holidays

Activity

The Activity tab provides two main things:

It allows user to determine used entities and respective fields (i.e. Activity (task) entity, Scheduled Start field)
It allows user to set On Create rule that is executed when a new activity (task) entity is created based on the source entity (when source entity item is dragged from the list of source entities onto the timetable)

Activity types

The Activity Types tab controls how tasks are displayed on the timetable.

Border Width: Set up how wide (in pixels) should be the border of tasks on the timetable.
Box Radius: Set up rounded corners for tasks.
The table allows you to customize actions (task behavior) and respective colors for individual activity entity states given by status field.

Time-offs and holidays

The Time Offs & Holidays tab allows you enable or disable the Time-Off and Holidays items. You can also set their entities, fields, and colors.

Activity, source, and resource views

These tabs allow you to select one or more of the public views available for Activity, Source, and Resource that should be available in the Schedule Board. You can also select the default view.

You can also modify these views, or create new views. When editing an app project in Woodford:

Select the underlying entity from the Project menu.
Click Show UI to display the list of existing views, forms, and charts.
Click New View, or double-click an existing one.

Default users

When a new organization is created, two sample users are created automatically.

Schedule Manager

The default e-mail address is schedule.manager@<domain> (e.g. schedule.manager@resco.net if administrator that created organization used e.g. admin@resco.net e-mail address)
The password is the same as the administrator account used during the creation of the organization.
When you log in with these credentials (or as the administrator), you will be able to use default project designed for Schedule Manager role.

Roland Dahl

The default e-mail address is technician@<domain>
The password is the same as the administrator account used during the creation of the organization.
When you log in with these credentials, you will be able to use the default project designed for the Service Technician role.

You can customize users using the Admin Console.