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What is a Scheduling Dashboard?

Some customer problems require on-site support or field service from a technician. However, when it comes to delivering field service, coordinating field teams from the Admin desk can be incredibly challenging. 


Incoming service requests need to be assigned to the right field technician for a speedy and accurate resolution. Dispatchers need multiple information points such as field technician’s current schedule, workload levels, and the customer’s history to identify the best field technician for each job. 


The Scheduling Dashboard in Freshdesk helps dispatchers get a holistic view of their field technicians’ schedules, and allows them to assign service tasks in real-time, through a simple drag and drop, thereby ensuring the most efficient field team utilization. 


The Scheduling Dashboard provides an intuitive, visual way for admins and dispatchers to:

  1. View the calendar - daily as well as weekly schedules of Field Technicians.

  2. Select from a list of preset service task views to narrow down to tasks that need your attention.

  3. Filter the dashboard by Service Groups to view the workload of each field technician within the group for the selected date.  

  4. Drag and drop service tasks to effortlessly assign or reassign them to field technicians and set appointments.


Here’s a quick guide to using the Scheduling Dashboard:

  • Login to your Freshdesk account as an Administrator or ensure your role has access to the scheduling dashboard.
  • Click on the Scheduling Dashboard icon in the navigation bar on the left. 
  • The “Service Tasks” pane on the left lists the service tasks created in your helpdesk in four default views as well as any custom views you may have created. Choose one from:
    • Unassigned Service Tasks (this view is selected by default)
    • Service Tasks due today
    • Overdue Service Tasks
    • Unresolved Service Tasks and any other custom view you may have created.



  • Select the date at the top of the calendar to view your field team’s schedule for that day. 
  • Filter the dashboard by Service Group to view and assign service tasks to that group. 
  • Once done, drag and drop a task you want to assign/reassign to a field technician’s calendar. If a service task doesn’t have appointment information prior to its assignment, it will be automatically set based on where you drop it. If it did, the appointment will be updated based on its current position in the scheduling dashboard. 
  • If you'd prefer to see your team's schedule for the entire week, you can do so by switching to Week view via the drop-down on the top right corner. 



When assigning service tasks in Week view, if a task does not already have appointment start and end times associated with it, you will get a pop up (like the one below) where you can select the Appointment Start and End times. 

 


Default Duration:
If you assign a task to a field technician using the Scheduling Dashboard with no appointment start or end times specified, Freshdesk automatically picks up the duration from the "Default Duration" setting on the top-right corner of the dashboard.


Default task durations can be as short as 15 minutes and can last as long as 2 hours.

Note: If you have already set start and end times for a service task the duration you specified is retained, overriding the default duration setting.


To find out how you can track time spent working on a service task and log billable hours, read this solution article. 

To learn more about Freshdesk Field Service Management or to sign up and try this feature, click here.