Manage appointments

Overview

Appointments are the scheduled visits technicians make to a job. When booking a job, an appointment is automatically created. After booking a job, you can add additional appointments if needed.

If you're a Construction business, managing appointments enhances pre-project efficiency.

Tip: To help with appointment management for your projects, assign a job type to each phase of your project and for each job add the appointments needed to complete the phase.

Things to know

• A single appointment is automatically created when you book a new job.

• After a job's invoice is posted or exported you can't add additional appointments to the job.

• You can't add appointments to a job in a closed accounting period. For more, see Use Accounting Periods.

• A job can't have more than 365 appointments. If you have a job that lasts longer than a year, book a new job and add it to a project along with the job that has maxed out its appointments.

• When you book additional appointments for a job, information from the previous appointment is copied, with the next available work day pre-selected in the Date field.        

  Tip: If your job or construction project requires multiple visits, consider adding multiple appointments at a time to promote efficiency in your workflow.

• Your next work appointment is based on how you set up your business hours.

Add permissions to allow employees to create appointments

Employees need the Create appointments on a job permission before they can add appointments to a job. By default this permission is off.

1. Go to the top toolbar and click Settings .

2. In the side panel, click People > Employees.

3. Find the employee you want to change permissions for and click Edit.

4. Click Permissions.

5. Select Create appointments on a job. 

6. When you're finished, click Save.

Add appointments

1. Search for the job.

2. Scroll down to Scheduled Appointments.

3. Click Add Appointment or use the dropdown to add multiple appointments. 

4. Fill out the appointment details:        

   1. Click the Calendar to set Start Date.

   2. Click the Clock to set Start Time.                

      Note: After you set the scheduled start and end times, the system updates them to reflect the job's real-time arrival and completion.

   3. Select Edit Appointment End Time to set the duration.

   4. Use the Technicians dropdown to assign or unassign technicians.

   5. Enter or edit any Special Instructions for the appointment or click Clear Instructions to remove existing instructions.

   6. Select Send Booking Confirmation if you want to send a confirmation notification to the customer. Separate emails will be sent for each confirmation.                

      Note: Booking confirmations must be enabled in Settings > Customer Notifications.

5. Click Schedule Appointment. 

Edit appointments

If you need to reschedule an appointment or assign, unassign or reassign a technician you can do it by editing the appointment.

1. Search for the job.

2. Scroll down to Scheduled Appointments.

3. Click Edit to perform a bulk edit or click the Pencil to edit a single appointment.

4. Edit the appointment:        

   1. Click the Calendar to edit Start Date.

   2. Click the Clock to edit Start Time.

   3. Select Edit Appointment End Time to edit duration.

   4. Use the Technicians dropdown to assign or unassign technicians.

   5. Enter or edit any Special Instructions for the appointment or click Clear Instructions to remove existing instructions.

   6. Select Send Booking Confirmation if you want to send a confirmation notification to the customer. Separate emails will be sent for each confirmation.                

      Note: Booking confirmations must be enabled in Settings > Customer Notifications.

5. Click Save Changes. 

Tip: On the Dispatch Board, you can reschedule appointments or reassign them to a different technician by dragging the appointment to a new spot.

Remove appointments

If there is only one appointment on a job or there are timesheets associated with the appointment, you are not able to remove the appointment.

1. Search for the job.

2. Scroll down to Scheduled Appointments.

3. Click Edit to remove multiple appointments or click the Pencil to remove a single appointment.

4. Click the Trashin the upper right corner. The appointment card turns grey.

5. Click Save Changes.

Tip: To undo this action, click Restore Appointment.

Confirm appointments

Once the appointment has been confirmed by the customer, you can mark the appointment as confirmed. If you have automated confirmations configured, and the customer replies to your notification the appropriate appointment will be marked as confirmed.

1. Search for the job.

2. Scroll down to Scheduled Appointments.

3. Click Moreon the appointment you want to confirm.

4. Select Confirm appointment.

Tip: To undo this action click Remove confirmation.

Confirm appointments from the Dispatch Board

To confirm a job Appointment on the Dispatch Board:

1. Go to the navigation bar and click Dispatch.

2. On the Dispatch Board that opens, click the date in the top and select the date of the appointment you want to confirm. 

3. Right-click the appointment and then select Confirm. 

   Note: When an appointment is confirmed it turns a darker shade of blue.

        

Put an appointment on hold

You can't put a dispatched, working, canceled or done appointments on hold. If you need to hold an entire job, do it from Job Actions.

1. Search for the job.

2. Scroll down to Scheduled Appointments.

3. Click More on the appointment you want.

4. Select Hold/Remove Hold.

Mark appointment as done

When you mark an appointment as Done, all technicians assigned to the appointment with a status of Working change to Done. Technicians who are in Dispatched status will change to Scheduled. All other technicians assigned to the appointment stay as Scheduled.

If the job has a single appointment or it is the last appointment on a job, you cannot change the status to Done. You will either have to complete the job or schedule another appointment.

Mark an appointment as Done

1. Search for the job.

2. Scroll down to Scheduled Appointments.

3. Click Moreon the appointment you want.

4. Select Mark Appointment as Done. 

Reopen an appointment

If an appointment is marked as Done in error you can reopen it so that work can be resumed. Any technicians who are in Done status after the appointment is reopened should be dispatched.

1. Search for the job.

2. Scroll down to Scheduled Appointments.

3. Click More.

4. Click Reopen Appointment. If the job is complete, a warning tells you that you are about to un-complete the job. 

Complete a job

When you complete a job with open appointments remaining on it

• Scheduled and Dispatched appointments will change to Unused status.

• Appointments with technicians working or paused will change to Done.

• Appointments on Hold will remain on Hold.

Complete a job

1. Search for the job.

2. Click Job Actions in the top right corner of the Job Record.

3. Click Complete Job. 

You cannot unassign technicians from completed jobs. If the job's invoice has not been posted or exported, you can add more appointments to the job, or reschedule existing appointments. These actions will put the job back into In Progress status.

Note: Completing a job populates the Completed On date on invoices.

Want to learn more?

• See Manage technicians on appointments

• See Statuses and actions on jobs and appointments

• See Job record overview