Use Technician ShiftsLast updated on 01/31/2023
Technician Shifts allows you to input the shifts you expect your technicians to be working, taking off or on call in one place. Shifts are easily searchable and editable. After you have set up Technician Shifts, the schedule displays on the Dispatch Board in an intuitive, color-coded way so that dispatchers know exactly which technician is working on which day and during which times.
Things to know
If you have both Open Capacity Planning and Technician Shifts enabled, technicians must have working shifts added to both features to count towards the total open capacity. Set up the technician's typical working hours in Open Capacity Planning, and then set them up in Technician Shifts as well. To learn more, see Set up Open Capacity Planning.
Available shifts don’t affect Clock-in/Clock-out, Timesheets, Check-in/Check-out, or Payroll Reports. Time off shifts, however, will affect Timesheets and Payroll Reports.
If you have Technician Shifts enabled, use it instead of non-job appointments to add time off, and use non-job appointments for actual appointments that are work-related but not directly related to a job, like truck maintenance and meetings.
In order to ensure accuracy and ease in scheduling, schedule Technician Shifts only up to a month in advance and copy an existing shift when you need to use the same information for future shifts. If you schedule shifts too far into the future, you will eventually have to delete any changed shifts individually.
Time off cannot be entered as an overnight shift.
Shifts can overlap. In order of priority, time off takes first precedence, then regular shifts, then on call shifts.
Understand shift types
Technician Shifts works using three types of shifts:
Shift: A regular shift, when a technician is expected to be working on a given day.
On call: When a technician is designated to respond to urgent calls outside of their normal working hours.
Time off: When a technician has planned time off, which is the type of time off that uses a timesheet code.
Any time a technician’s schedule is not covered by one of the three shift types, it's considered off-duty time for that technician. You do not need to create time off periods for regular off-duty hours. You are also free to schedule shifts during off-duty hours.
For example, if a technician works from 8 AM to 6 PM every weekday, their shift should be marked for those times Monday through Friday. Any time between 6 PM and 8 AM is automatically considered off-duty time for them.
View Technician Shifts
The shifts you add in Technician Shifts display on the Dispatch Board. Regular shifts are in white and on call shifts are in orange, while scheduled time off and all other time is in gray (the default Dispatch Board background color). To learn more about the Dispatch Board, see Use the Dispatch Board.
You can also view shifts on the Technician Shifts screen. To get to the Technician Shifts screen, go to the navigation bar and click Schedule. Then, click Technician Shifts.
The shifts on the Technician Shifts screen use the same color coding as they do on the Dispatch Board.
Filter your view of the shifts by date, business unit, technician, and/or shift type.
Create a regular, overnight, or on call shift
Note: When you create shifts using the repeat option, you create a series of duplicate shifts treated as individual shifts. This means that deleting or editing one shift will not change any of the other shifts you created as part of the repeat.
To avoid having to delete and/or edit large amounts of shifts, repeat shifts only as far as a month out from the date you are creating them. You can always copy shifts if you need to reuse the information in them.
Go to the navigation bar and click Schedule. Then, click Technician Shifts.
Click Create Shift.
In the flyout, add a title, start date, start time, and end time for the shift. The shift length updates automatically based on the date(s) and times you input.
If the shift is for the technician to be on call, select On Call.
If the shift goes past midnight, select Overnight Shift.
If the shift repeats, select how often it repeats as well as an end date for the repetition.
Select the technician(s) for the shift. You can filter technicians by business unit.
When you're finished, click Add to schedule.
Add time off for one or more technicians
When you add time off for one or more technicians, a non-job timesheet is automatically created for each time off shift as long as you select a timesheet code. If you choose None for the timesheet code, a non-job timesheet will not be created.
Note: Time off is a period of time when a technician is off from their regularly scheduled working shift. You do not need to add off-duty hours when a technician is not scheduled to work.
Go to the navigation bar and click Schedule. Then, click Technician Shifts.
Click Create Shift.
Click Time Off.
In the flyout, add a title, start date, start time, and end time. The shift length updates automatically based on the date and times you input.
If the time off repeats, select how often it repeats as well as an end date for the repetition.
Select the technician(s) for the time off. You can also filter technicians by business unit.
When you're finished, click Add to schedule.
Copy an existing shift or time off
When you copy a shift or time off, you duplicate the same information from an existing shift into a new shift, ensuring consistency and saving time. Copy shifts rather than schedule shifts repeats too far out into the future to avoid having to individually delete or change those shifts.
Go to the navigation bar and click Schedule. Then, click Technician Shifts.
Hover over the shift or time off you want to copy, and then click the copy icon.
In the flyout, revise whatever information needs to be changed to make the copy.
When you're finished, click Add to schedule.
Edit or delete a single shift or time off
Note: You can't edit or delete repeating shifts or time off periods. Any repeats of the shift or time off won't be affected. Additionally, you can't convert an existing shift into a repeat shift.
Go to the navigation bar and click Schedule. Then, click Technician Shifts.
Hover over the shift or time off you would like to change, then click the eye icon to edit or the trash can icon to delete.
If you're editing the shift, in the flyout, revise whatever information needs to be changed. When you're finished, click Save and apply.
Delete multiple shifts
There are two ways to mass-delete shifts: You can delete all shifts in the same week, or delete all shifts within a certain date range.
Delete all shifts in a specific week
Go to the navigation bar and click Schedule. Then, click Technician Shifts.
Using the calendar, click a day in the week that includes the shifts you would like to delete.
While viewing the week whose shifts you would like to delete, click the dropdown arrow next to the trash can icon.
Click Delete Visible
Delete all shifts within a date range
Go to the navigation bar and click Schedule. Then, click Technician Shifts.
Click the dropdown arrow next to the trash can icon.
Click Mass Delete.
From the Mass Delete pop-up, select the dates whose shifts you want to delete, then click Delete.
Want to learn more?
Visit ServiceTitan Academy to enroll in Managing Technician Shifts
See Dispatching
Important note: Some features may not be currently included in your account and additional configuration may be required. Please contact technical support for details.