Scheduler questions and troubleshooting
The questions below are the ones that come up most often. Each answer links to the page that explains it in full.
Work that is not where you expect
Section titled “Work that is not where you expect”A job I created is not on the board
Section titled “A job I created is not on the board”Three usual causes:
- It has no time on it — it is in the side panel, under Unscheduled Event(s).
- It has nobody assigned — in a Resources scheduler there is no row to draw it on, so it is in the same panel with the tickbox switched to Unassigned Event(s).
- The board is filtered — check Users, and the kind-of-work dropdown (All / Job / Appointment). See what the board shows.
Can I see future occurrences of a recurring job on the board?
Section titled “Can I see future occurrences of a recurring job on the board?”Yes. Every occurrence a recurrence has scheduled appears as its own strip on its own date, with the fieldworker, the time slot and the description on it. Move the board forward and the coming weeks are there to read.
For the same thing as a list, open the job and use its Recurring Schedule — see recurring jobs.
A fieldworker’s row has disappeared
Section titled “A fieldworker’s row has disappeared”The Users dropdown is narrowed to a set that excludes them. Widen it and the row comes back. See which people appear.
What is the difference between unassigned and unscheduled?
Section titled “What is the difference between unassigned and unscheduled?”Unassigned work has nobody on it. Unscheduled work has no date and time. They are two separate lists in the same tab, and the tickbox beneath it switches between them — the tab’s label tells you which you are looking at, with a count. If the panel looks empty when you know work is outstanding, switch the tickbox. See the panel of work waiting.
Requests are showing on my scheduler — why?
Section titled “Requests are showing on my scheduler — why?”The Request(s) tab lists work that has been asked for but is not a job yet, so it is visible while you plan. It is not scheduled work, and it stays there until the request becomes a job, appointment or audit. See acting on a request.
Scheduling
Section titled “Scheduling”I dragged a job and nothing happened
Section titled “I dragged a job and nothing happened”If the job has several fieldworkers on it, that is the likely reason: a job with a crew does not drag in Resources Vertical, because it sits on more than one row and a row is one person. The same job drags normally in Calendar and Resources Horizontal — switch view and move it there, or change its times on the job itself.
Otherwise the row you dropped on may be hidden by a filter. Check what the board is showing before anything else. Leave is not a reason: an absence is shown, not enforced, so work drops onto it happily.
How do I both schedule and assign in one go?
Section titled “How do I both schedule and assign in one go?”That is what dragging does. The row you drop on is who does it; where along the time axis you drop is when. See dragging it into place.
Someone called in sick — what happens to their jobs?
Section titled “Someone called in sick — what happens to their jobs?”Their work is not moved for you. Book the leave so nothing else lands on them, then drag their strips onto whoever is covering.
Can I schedule somebody who is marked unavailable?
Section titled “Can I schedule somebody who is marked unavailable?”Yes. Leave makes an absence visible — the stretch changes colour on the board — but it does not lock the day. Work can still be created and assigned over it, which is what you want when a job has to be covered by whoever is nearest.
The board shows you and leaves the decision to you. See what leave means for planning.
Do cancelled jobs go into the unscheduled list?
Section titled “Do cancelled jobs go into the unscheduled list?”No. Cancelling changes the job’s status and nothing else — it keeps its date, its time and its fieldworker, so it stays exactly where it was on the board and goes on showing there. The unscheduled list is for work with no date and time, which a cancelled job still has.
That is worth knowing when a day looks busier than it is: some of those strips may be visits that are not happening. It is also why cancelling does not return a contract’s quota — the job and its cart are still there. If the work should disappear from the board altogether, unschedule it or delete it.
Can I delete a job from the board?
Section titled “Can I delete a job from the board?”Yes. Right-click the strip and choose Delete Jobs. The same menu also carries Assign To, Unscheduled Job, Copy Job and Create a Revisit/Sub Job — see the right-click menu.
Only do that for work that should not exist — the duplicate, the one raised on the wrong client. A job that was real but is not going ahead is better cancelled or closed, which keeps it and its history; deleting takes everything on it with it, and on a contract job it also returns any quota the job had used.
Somebody has left — do their jobs vanish from the board?
Section titled “Somebody has left — do their jobs vanish from the board?”No. Making a fieldworker inactive does not take their work off the scheduler. The jobs are still there to be seen and dealt with — they are simply nobody’s now, so they show as unassigned work waiting for a name.
Give each one to somebody else, or close it off if it is not going ahead. Nothing is cancelled or deleted by the person leaving.
The fieldworker has already started. Can I still move the job?
Section titled “The fieldworker has already started. Can I still move the job?”Yes. A job can be handed to somebody else at any point in its life, whatever state it is in — not yet started, in progress, or paused. The office is never locked out of reassigning.
Drag the strip onto the other person’s row, or right-click it and use Assign To. That is the answer to the van that breaks down halfway through the morning.
The time already worked stays with the person who worked it. Handing the job on adds the new fieldworker — for a moment the job has both of them on it — and taking the first one off removes them as an assignee without removing what they recorded. Their hours stay on the job and in their own worklog, which is what payroll needs; they simply are not the person the job belongs to any more.
Can a job go to more than one fieldworker?
Section titled “Can a job go to more than one fieldworker?”Yes — just not by dragging, since the row you drop on is one person.
Two ways from the board:
- Right-click the strip and choose Assign To, then pick everybody who is going. See the right-click menu.
- Click the strip to open the job and use Assign Fieldworker(s) on the form, moving each person into the assigned list before saving. See creating a job.
The first name is the team leader and carries a crown on the job afterwards. Once several people are on it, the job appears on each of their rows.
Can a fieldworker change their own schedule?
Section titled “Can a fieldworker change their own schedule?”Only by rescheduling a job they are already on, and only if you have given them the Job Reschedule permission. Reschedule on the job in the app moves it to another time — the answer to a client who is not in — and the change comes back to the board.
Everything else stays with the office. They cannot edit the job, give it to somebody else, or put new work into their own day; planning and assigning are done here, on the scheduler.
Can I create work directly on the board?
Section titled “Can I create work directly on the board?”Yes, and it is the quickest way: drag out a span where the work belongs. The job is created for exactly that stretch — the drag sets the duration — with the date, time and (on a Resources scheduler) the person already filled in. See getting work onto the board.
How do I set how long a job takes, on the board?
Section titled “How do I set how long a job takes, on the board?”By how far you drag. A strip’s size is its duration, so drawing a longer strip makes a longer job — no end time to work out. See drawing work on the board.
How do I edit or read a job from the scheduler?
Section titled “How do I edit or read a job from the scheduler?”Click its strip. That opens the job — the same window for reading it and for changing it. See click a strip to open it.
How do I move a job to a different fieldworker?
Section titled “How do I move a job to a different fieldworker?”Drag its strip onto that person’s row or column in a Resources scheduler. Dragging along the time axis instead changes its date and time. See moving work by dragging.
Getting the day out
Section titled “Getting the day out”The job is on the scheduler but the fieldworker says they cannot see it
Section titled “The job is on the scheduler but the fieldworker says they cannot see it”It is scheduled but not dispatched. Open Dispatch, filter to the day, select it and send it — the window says so itself: non dispatched jobs will not be seen on the Fieldworker Mobile App and Client Portal. See dispatching from the scheduler.
The client cannot see their job in the portal either
Section titled “The client cannot see their job in the portal either”Same cause. Dispatching is what makes a job visible in both places, so an undispatched job is missing from the client portal as well as the app. See the Not Dispatched Jobs window.
Does the client get told when I dispatch?
Section titled “Does the client get told when I dispatch?”Only if you tick Alert to Client before pressing Dispatch. See sending them.
Can I dispatch a whole day at once?
Section titled “Can I dispatch a whole day at once?”Yes — set the date range to Today, use Select All, then Dispatch.
The board itself
Section titled “The board itself”The board is out of date
Section titled “The board is out of date”Press the refresh icon in the toolbar. To have it reload on its own, set Auto Refresh on the gear to 5, 10 or 15 minutes — worth doing when the board is on a wall screen. See what the board shows.
All my strips are the same colour, or the colours mean nothing to me
Section titled “All my strips are the same colour, or the colours mean nothing to me”Colour is set by Color By on the gear: Status colours strips by where the work has got to, Staff colours them by who is doing it. Pick whichever question you are asking. See colour by status or staff.
The strips do not show the client or the address
Section titled “The strips do not show the client or the address”Turn them on: Display Client Name, Display End Date and Display Address with Pincode on the gear each add a line to the strip. See what each strip shows.
It asks me to confirm every time I drag a job
Section titled “It asks me to confirm every time I drag a job”That is Confirmation Alert on the gear. Turn it off if you rearrange the board all day; leave it on if an accidental drag would cause trouble. See Confirmation Alert.
The board opens at midnight instead of my working day
Section titled “The board opens at midnight instead of my working day”Set Default start time for scheduler on the gear to the hour your day begins. See what the board shows.
A fieldworker’s location says Stale
Section titled “A fieldworker’s location says Stale”The position on the map is the last one their app reported, and Stale with a last location update of weeks or months means it is history rather than where they are now. Treat it as their address, not their position. See read the freshness before you trust the position.
Which of the three schedulers should I use?
Section titled “Which of the three schedulers should I use?”Whichever suits how you work — they show the same work, so it is a display choice rather than a right answer.
- Simple Calendar shows time only, and is the one with a Month period.
- Resources Vertical puts people down the side, so who is free and who is full is read across rows, and work is assigned by dragging between them.
- Resources Horizontal does the same with people across the top.
Switch between them from the toolbar on a real week and keep the one your office reads best. The full comparison is in what each one shows.