While creating a job is covered in our 'Scheduling How-to: Create and Booking a Job' doc, there may come a time when the parameters of a site visit change and you want to adjust the job itself to reflect this. The options to change an existing job have expanded through a recent update, which we will cover below.
Some of the features reflected in this article are not yet live but will be deployed soon.
Permissions
In order to make changes to jobs within your instance, the corresponding role permissions must be enabled first. Please take a moment to review these permissions, and ensure that the relevant roles have them added before proceeding.
If you're a Super-Admin of your Sonar instance, no permission changes are required for your account. For more information on Roles and Permissions overall, please review this linked article.
Navigate to Settings > Security > Roles and either choose to edit an existing Role or create a new Role. When the next page populates, locate the permissions reflected in the screenshot below and enable whichever ones are applicable to that Role.
"View all jobs" allows users to view the "Scheduling" page and needs to be enabled for any of the following items to be relevant.
"Update a job" determines whether users can see the option to "Edit Job" —this should also be enabled.
If "Reschedule a schedule blocker" is enabled, it'll allow users to move blockers such as "Lunch" or "Break" in the schedule. This doesn't have to be enabled for this feature, but it can be a helpful addition to avoid users overlapping blockers with jobs.
"Update a job skipping validation" determines whether a user can choose to "Ignore Warning" should an error display when they're attempting to alter a scheduled job. It does not have to be enabled, but it can be particularly beneficial for users who primarily take care of the schedule.
How to Edit a Job
The option to edit a job is available from a number of sections within your instance:
From the Scheduling page, whether in table or dispatcher view. In the table view, click on the downward-facing arrow alongside the function button and select 'Edit' from the populated menu:In the dispatcher view, click on the job icon and select 'Edit' from the populated menu:
From within a customer account. Navigate to 'Jobs' and click on the downward-facing arrow alongside the function button and select 'Edit' from the populated menu:
From within a network site account. Navigate to 'Jobs' and click on the downward-facing arrow alongside the function button and select 'Edit' from the populated menu:
Selecting "Edit" alongside any job will open the following modal:
This section will only be present if the job has already been scheduled.
This field details who or where the job is assigned to.
This dropdown details the current job type and allows you to change it if required. If an alternate job type is selected, the following checkbox will populate:This option allows you to replace any existing tasks attached to the job with ones automatically associated with the new job type you select. You can uncheck this to prevent new tasks from being added, however you should be mindful of whether this could cause certain requirements to be missed.
In the event that some tasks have already been completed ahead of you changing the job type and associated tasks, they will remain as "Completed".
This toggle allows you to adjust the length if necessary.
This dropdown allows you to change the associated ticket, or add one if one hasn't been added yet.
This field should be utilized to detail why the job has been edited, whether this is just noting that a mistake was made when selecting the job type etc., or to reflect changes a customer has prompted.
This checkbox overrides any errors that may be prompted when changing the job type. For example, if the job is scheduled with a technician that exclusively handles service visits and you try to change the job type to an installation, an error would occur upon trying to save the changes. When this error is prompted, the checkbox will then appear and you can then make the decision to override the error or back out.
This checkbox only displays for users who have the permission "Update a job skipping validation" enabled.
Considerations for Scheduled Jobs
There are a few considerations that come with the ability to edit the job type of a scheduled job:
While you do have the ability to override a lack of availability, you should still be mindful of how the change will affect technicians' day. For example, a 90-minute job scheduled to start at 3 pm should be completed before 5 pm, but if the job is changed to a type that typically takes 180 minutes, that would push their day out to finish at 6 pm. Though days in the field can run over due to extenuating circumstances, you should aim to avoid this where possible.
On a similar note, if the change you are attempting to make interferes with another job, you'll be notified with the following error:Though you can choose to "Ignore Warning", it may cause the technician to miss a previously agreed-upon arrival time for the next job, tainting the relationship with that customer. In these cases, you should endeavor to make adjustments to the calendar to try and meet all expectations.
The error "There is no availability for this job." can mean that there is not sufficient enough time in the calendar to complete the job, but it can also mean that the technician attached to the job is not part of the necessary Schedule Availability. The latter option could be due to a range of reasons including not yet being trained on a particular technology. If you are unsure whether the technician is capable of the work, you should follow up with your manager.
To read more about Schedule Availabilities, click here.
Another error you may see is "This job is blocked by the schedule blocker 'XYZ'." As touched on earlier, while you can ignore the warning, you should aim to avoid overlapping blockers; items such as "Lunch" or "Break" can be mandated, and overbooking a technician can pose labor risks. The recommended approach in these cases would be to only add a check mark alongside "Ignore Warning" if you have options available to make adjustments to the schedule afterward that ensure no blocks are overlapped.
Example Use Case
In our example, potential customer Raegan Beer has been booked in for a Wireless Installation by the Sales team.
The Dispatch team audits upcoming jobs to ensure that there aren't any details missed or errors made from when the job was booked. During their audit, it was noted that the service address for Raegan is within the Fiber service zone. As Fiber Installations require sufficiently different technology than a Wireless Installation, it's important that the job type is corrected so that the technician ensures they have the correct equipment such as a Demarc box, fiber optic cable, and a fiber cleaver on hand. To do this, we will take the following steps:
Click the downward-facing arrow alongside the function button of the respective job, and select "Edit".
In the new modal, we'll use the dropdown below "Job Type" to select "Fiber Installation". Due to the variance between wireless and fiber installations, we'll ensure that there is a checkmark present for "Replace existing tasks..."
We will also add a note detailing why we changed the job type so that we're maintaining an accurate paper trail.
Finally, we'll click on "Save". As our technician, Alanis, is scheduled with availability for Fiber Installations, the job will save successfully.
As mentioned above, if Alanis did not have availability for this job type, the following error would've displayed: While we could add a checkmark for "Ignore Warning", we should be mindful of whether the lack of availability is due to the technician not being skilled in that area. Though it's best practice to honor installation time frames, we should always ensure that the technician has the knowledge and capability to complete the job otherwise we could needlessly sacrifice time in the calendar that could be used elsewhere.
Once the changes are saved, the modal will close and the changes will be automatically reflected in the scheduling calendar. Upon opening up the job, we can see the note we added.
Updated
by Kristen Fiddes
In the event that some tasks have already been completed ahead of you changing the job type and associated tasks, they will remain as "Completed".
