Jobs

Creating a Job

There are 6 places where jobs can be created within JobWatch:

1. Creating a Job in Schedule

There are a number of different ways to add a new job via the Schedule tab. Navigate:

1. Schedule → [icon] New job
2. Schedule → [icon] Quick job
3. Schedule → [icon] New jobs…
4. Double click on a Resource (person icon) on the Daily view – this prepopulates the Resource name
5. Double click on a Resource (vehicle icon) on the Daily view – this prepopulates the Vehicle registration
6. Double click on a time – this prepopulates the time and date
7. Double click on a date – this prepopulates the date and time

2. Creating a Job in CRM

Jobs can be added in CRM by navigating either:

CRM → Contact name → New job  OR

CRM → Contact name → Edit → Jobs tab → ‘+’ New job

Since the CRM contains your JobWatch address book, that means that it auto-populates the Contact’s details on the New Job form.

Jobs can also be created directly from your approved Quote or Invoice:

Simply select the Financial document you wish to create the job from and click the Assign to Job button

Then select New Job in the popup window and choose which information you wish to be copied over to it.

3. Creating a job in Maps

Jobs can be created in Maps by navigating: Map → Search box → Contact → Contact name/Address → New Job/Quick Job:

If you select ‘Contact Name’ JobWatch pulls all of the information for that contact from your CRM and automatically populates your Job form. Where you have selected ‘Address’ it fills in the address on the Quick Job form.

4. Creating a job in Search Anything Box

The Search Anything Box can be found at the top right of the screen. Jobs can be easily added from here as follows:

1. Type in the contact name
2. Press return
3. Click on New Job

5. Creating a job in Stock & Equipment

It is possible to create a new job by clicking on a piece of equipment.

Navigate: Stock & Equipment → Equipment → Select equipment → New job:

When using this job creation method, the selected Equipment will be pre-populated on the new job window.

6. Creating a Job on a Device

Jobs can also be created from the JobWatch app where the back office have configured the settings to allow this:

Adding Assistants to a Job

When a Job requires more than one Resource, additional Resources may be added to the Job as assistants.

Create and complete a Job form as usual, or click view to edit one which has already been created.  Once you complete the Resource field, an additional option ‘select assistants’ will appear below it:

Click on this and a popup window will open displaying available Resources:

Click on the ‘+’ sign next to a Resource name in order to add them to the Job.  They will then appear in the left-hand column.  Once saved, you will see that the assistant names now appear under the Resource field:

On the Schedule view, the Job appears in bold for the main Resource and in a faded version for assistants:

Job Categories

Job categories within JobWatch are a great way of not only being able to group together unscheduled jobs, but allow you to run a report against jobs that have been allocated to that category.

For example, you may want to have a job category called ‘Sales’, this job category would ‘folder’ jobs such as ‘Sales Appointment’, ‘Sales Webinar’, ‘Sales Phone Call’.

In the unscheduled list, you can see how many ‘Sales’ related activities have yet to be booked, run a report on all sales ‘jobs’ or, just a single sale job type.

Creating a Job Category

To create a Job Category, Navigate:  My Account → Administration → [side menu] Schedule → Job categories. Click ‘Add’ to create a new category or click on an existing one to edit it:

If you have clicked ‘Add’ the following popup window will have opened:

Name your Job Category and then tick the appropriate checkboxes depending on whether this will be an option for individual Jobs, Group Jobs, or both.

Once you have filled this out, click Ok to save.

If you now Navigate: Schedule →  Unscheduled Jobs you will see that our new category, ‘Customer Visits’ is now visible, as well as appearing as a field in Job forms:

Please note that the ‘Hide All’ button which is outlined above collapses the category name display into headings for easier viewing.

Creating Job Types

A job is the type of activity you will be scheduling to a resource to complete. JobWatch can be used for typical job-related activity such as ‘Repairs’, ‘Installations’, and ‘Deliveries’. However, as your confidence in using JobWatch grows, you can start to use it for other tasks such as ‘Meetings’, ‘Overnight Stays’ and ‘Webinars’.

Each type of activity would have its own job type, these act as a template for the jobs you will be creating.

Creating a job type is a simple process, and is done by either selecting ‘Manage Jobs Types’ from the Quick Links within Administration (My Account → Administration), or from selecting ‘Job Types’ from the Schedule section within Administration ([left hand menu] Schedule → Job Types).

To create a new Job Type, from within the Job Type screen, click Add at the top of the screen.

This will open the Job Types dialogue box as shown below.

Within this dialogue box, all items with an asterisk (*) next to the field name are mandatory.

To create a basic job type, all you need to add is the name, and a positive result. Once entered, press save, and you will be asked whether you want to set up Automatic Referencing (see below for further details on this area).

Please find below a description of what each of the sections are:

1. Name – This is the name of the job type.
2. Default Job Card – This is the design that will be loaded on the website and sent out to customers, showing all the details of a completed job. By default, this is set to “Standard Job Card” but customised templates are easy to create and can then be downloaded from the dropdown menu. For further information on how to create your own template, please read the Template article.
3. Job Card Title – Here you can enter the title which will appear at the top of the Job Card.   Where no name is added, it will be given the name of the Job Type.
4. Nominal Code – If you wish to associate this Job Type with a Sage Nominal Code, you can set this here, after first entering Nominal Codes in the Financial section first.
5. Department Code – If this particular Job Type is to be associated with Department Codes in Sage, you can enter them here, providing that they have been entered in the Financial section and in Sage.
6. Used in BigData report and dashboard – This will allow this job type to be included in the statistics reported on the JobWatch Dashboard and on the BigData Report, which measures the completion of the jobs generated in the system.
7. Reference – This is typically used either for imports or bespoke integration solutions, where neither is required, it can be left blank.
8. Default Job Duration – When creating your Job Types, you also have the option to set a default Job Duration, ie the number of minutes it generally takes to carry out the job. This is a useful guide when job scheduling the job but this figure can be changed on a case by case basis.  Editing this at a later date will only affect the default duration on all jobs created after this point and will not affect existing jobs.
   Note – The duration is set in minutes, so a 5-hour job would show as 300 minutes for example.
9. Colour – This is used for easy identification of different job types on the schedule.  To use, simply click on the coloured panel and select a colour for this job type.  When Jobs of this type appear on the schedule they will now always appear in this colour. (See video at the end of the section).
10. Duration will be divided by the number of resources allocated – This is to be used in the event that the job duration can be divided if more resources are allocated to the job. For example, if a job was to paint a room, one resource could complete the job in 3 hours, 2 resources, in 1.5 hours and 3 resources, in 1 hour.
11. Default Worksheets – This allows you to automatically load specific worksheets whenever this job type is selected. For example, a service job type may require a ‘Risk Assessment’, ‘Survey’ ‘Works Form’ and ‘Post Work Completion Document’. By selecting them as default, you will ensure that each time a Service is created, these worksheets are assigned to the job. As with the job duration, the worksheets can be amended on a case by case basis and changes made here will only affect jobs created after the changes have been saved.
12. Tick boxes – “Worksheets need to be completed in order” will ensure that worksheets are completed in the order that you set here, ensuring that information is captured in a specific order. If you wish your worksheets to appear in an order other than alphanumeric, simply rename them with the prefix ‘01’, ‘02’ etc.
    “First worksheet appears as soon as the job is started” will ensure that as soon as you have started the job, the worksheet opens and requires filling out on the device.  This is useful, for example, if there are site-specific files that your resource needs to read upon arrival.
    “Negative job result removes mandatory function for worksheet questions” – If a negative response is entered, such as “Unable to access site”, this will remove the requirement to fill out worksheets, as they cannot be completed.
13. Default Job Category – This is the Job Category as described in the previous section. This job will be grouped into its chosen category.
14. Default Job Details – If there are details specific to this job type then they can be added here.  You can select when and where these details are shown but please be aware that a maximum of 100 characters can be displayed.
15. Positive Result – These will result in a green Thumbs Up symbol appearing against the job. This is typically labelled as “Completed” or “Finished” and are results which are chosen for a job being completed successfully
16. Negative Results – These are typically used to denote that either a job was not completed or was completed with errors. Some examples include “Completed with Issues”, “No Show”, “Not Completed”, and “Unfinished”.Please remember that in both instances, on the job result page, there is a section where the resource can type in comments, these can be used to give context to the result chosen if required.
17. Stock Category Concerned – If you are using the Stock Facility, you can assign a specific default stock category which is associated with this Job Type
18. Stock Item will be – This option will allow you to assign a default stock item to this type of Job. For example, if you are doing an “A/B Motor replacement” Job, you could assign an “A/B Motor” as the default Stock Item.
19. Systems – this allows a System (a grouping of Stock & Equipment items which are always used on this job type) to be automatically added.  To create a System navigate: Stock & Equipment → Systems → Create a system, then name it and then allocate the required items of Stock and Equipment to it. For more information on Systems, please view the Setting Up a System section of the Stock & Equipment article.
20. Order Number – This will require an order number to be entered when creating this job type. Order numbers could be Purchase Order or Work Order details, given to you by your client that need to be quoted on the Job Card or Financial Document.

Multi-Select Job Types from the List View

Default Job Description

For frequently used Job Types, it may be useful to create ‘Default job details’.  This function operates in the same way as the ‘Note to Client’ feature in Financial Documents, allowing you to automatically add detailed information about this Job Type, instead of having to input it manually each time. 

Setting Up A Default Job Description

Begin in the back office and navigate: My Account → Administration → Manage Job Types. Select a job type → Edit:

Go to the field ‘Default Job Details’ outlined above and input the appropriate text which you wish to appear whenever this Job Type is used. Decide whether you wish this text to replace other Job details, to prepend (appear before) other job details, or append (appear after) existing job details.  The text itself and its position can both be amended at any time by an Administrator:

In the above example, we are editing the ‘Installation’ Job Type and have opted to ‘Replace job details’.  

Once this is completed, press ‘Save’ and return to the front end.

Create a Job using your preferred method and select a Job Type for which you have created Job details in the back office. You will now see that the preset Job details have appeared.  Where additional information specific to this Job has been input and you selected either the append or prepend option in the back office, then the Job details text will appear in the appropriate position alongside it.

Automatic Referencing

Once you have clicked Save when creating your Job Type, you will be asked whether you want to set up Automatic Referencing. It is important that jobs have unique references, as if multiple items in the system have the same job reference, it will be very difficult to differentiate between them when searching.

If you click Yes you will be taken to the below dialogue box.

The Reference Prefix is to be used to determine a reference relating the this particular type of Job Type. For instance, an installation Job Type could be prefixed “INS/”, or you could have the prefix the same for all job types based on your company name, such as “BIG/”.

The Format is the same as that used in Excel, therefore if the prefix is to have a 6-digit number after it, you would need to put “000000” in the Format box. For example, if the format is blank, the first INS will be INS/1. If 000000 is used as a format, this would become INS/000001.

The Next Number is to determine the next number to be used when creating this type of job. In the example above, the first time a Job of this type is created, the numbering will start at 34, because the next number is set to 34, not 1. The reason for this is that you have so far created 33 jobs within JobWatch. By default the job numbers increase regardless of job type.

Once you have filled this out, click Save. If you wish to remove the Automatic Referencing from a Job Type, simply open it and click Delete.

Note – If you have already created the Job Type, you can click on the Job Type from the list, this will give the option to configure the Automatic Referencing. This will affect future references only, not past ones.

Device Settings

At the top of the Job Type Dialogue Box, you have a number of tabs to choose from. Clicking on Device will open the below Device Settings options.

These settings will allow you to alter how the jobs behave when viewed on the devices.

Below is a description of what each of the options do:

1. Used to create jobs from device – This allows you to create this job type from a device. This is useful for jobs such as out of hours work.
2. Jobs arrive silently on devices – When a job is sent to a device, by default, it creates an audible notification, and pops up on the screen. Choosing this option will mute the audible notification/popup.
3. Job is automatically completed as soon as a result is entered – By default when a result is entered, the job completes (either positively or negatively). However, you may wish to change this if you want to complete the job manually after the job is completed, rather than at the site.
4. Jobs cannot be completed without a signature or name – Some jobs, such as internal office jobs, may not require a signature, and therefore this option could be used. More often than not you will however want the resource to capture the name of the person on site, if on occasion there is no one available to sign, the engineer can write ‘CNP’ for ‘Customer Not Present. By selecting this option, a job will not be able to be completed without something appearing in the signature/name box.
5. Resources can edit jobs (e.g. change job type) – By default, Resources cannot edit jobs on the device. However, if the job is subject to change, for example a replacement could become a repair, you can tick this option.
6. Resources have to accept jobs – When a resource accepts a job, the colour of the job changes on the schedule. You can use the ‘accepting of jobs’ as a way of the resource confirming that they have read and understood their instructions, and will carry out the work. By unticking this box, jobs will automatically be marked as accepted on the schedule.
7. Resources can refuse jobs – If this option is selected, resources have the option to refuse a job, alerts can be set up to notify specific office members should a job be refused. When refusing a job, the resource has the option of entering a reason.
8. Resources have to start driving to jobs – This is ticked by default. This is to be used for if a job needs to have driving time recorded. If the job only takes place at the office, you can choose not to record this.
9. A prompt to use the sat nav is shown when driving to jobs – The devices all have sat nav installed by default. If selected, when the resource starts driving, a prompt will appear asking whether they wish to use the sat nav. If ‘yes’ is chosen, the sat nav will load, with the address of the job added automatically.
10. Resources have to start jobs – By default, resources have to start jobs. However, this can be deselected if you do not wish for this to happen. This might be used if you are creating jobs retrospectively from the device.
11. Resources can suspend jobs – This option is used when the time spend on the job is to be paused, for example when the resource takes lunch, or they go to get parts. It should not be used for example when they leave site and return in a few days time (this would be classed as a multiple job, covered later).
12. Resources can cancel driving to jobs – This option allows the resource to say they are no longer driving to the job they have said they would be. It is particularly useful if resources get ‘pulled off’ jobs to go and attend to other customers requirements.
13. Resources can confirm all job consignments in one go – Consignments are a group of items. By enabling this option, it allows you to confirm the movement in one go, rather than individually.
14. Resources must action all consignments before job completion – Before a job can be completed, all consignments need to have their movements confirmed.
15. Remove job’s default result if planned stock movement can’t be carried out – If stock movement is not possible (no stock available), and there is a default result (“Completed”), this will no longer be the default, as another result may be required.
16. Resources need to confirm stock used for job – If you have a stock item assigned to a job, the resource will need to confirm that they used the stock.
17. Resources can confirm all job stock actions in one go – This introduces a ‘Validate all’ button on the tablet/device which will  allow the resource to confirm all stock items in a single action.
18. Allow copy of worksheet for multiple consignments/stock items – This allows a resource to copy the answers across for one item to other items of stock or equipment used on a job where the same worksheet is being used.
19. Resources can record driving duration after job completion –  This allows you to include the cost of the driving time after a job to the total cost of the job itself. For example, you may wish to charge the cost of driving from the customer’s premises back to Head Office.
20. Resources can change the time when recording driving duration – This is a subsidiary option which only appears when (19) is ticked.  Both (19) and (20) need to be ticked in order for the accurate charge of additional mileage to be calculated and added to the customer’s invoice.

Once you have selected your options, press Save.

Constraints (time, resources, and vehicles)

To set a constraint navigate:

My account → Administration → [Quick links menu] Manage job types → Add/Edit → Constraints tab:

In order to ensure that you only send the correct person or vehicle to a job, you can set up constraints to alert you should you accidentally schedule it to the wrong person.

For example, you can add a skills-based constraint to ensure that only qualified technicians are sent to a job, or that only those who are assigned a vehicle with a tow bar can attend.

To do this, when creating or editing the Job Type, click on the Constraints tab at the top and select the type of constraint:

There are three types of constraint available; Time, Resource (shown above) and Vehicle. You can choose any or all of the constraints available, and have multiple constraints of the same type.

To add a Time constraint, click on the icon for Time.

The top set of options allow you to specify whether a job must be started before or after a certain time or completed before a certain time. Whilst the bottom allows you to set the condition of the constraint.

Click Ok when you have created your constraint.

When selecting either the Resource or Vehicle constraint, you will be provided with the option to select a Group of resources or vehicles who are allowed to be assigned the job, the specific Resource or Vehicle which must be used, or the Skill or Attribute which you can use.

For example, an out of hours job could have the Constraints set to a resource who has the “Out of Hours” skill, a vehicle which has a specific attribute needed to complete the job (e.g. tow bar), and it must be completed within 2 hours.

If you attempt to create a job which does not meet these requirements, you will be alerted by the system that the resource or vehicle does not meet the criteria, or that the job falls outside of the desired time for this type of job. This can still be overridden though.

Don’t forget, you can also create an alert to be notified prior to a skill expiring of one of your resources.

Job Cards

A job card is the physical representation of the job information and worksheet answers.

If you would like to add your logo to your Job Card, this can be done as follows:

Navigate: My Account > Administration > [Quick links] General Account Settings > Account Details and add a URL of the desired quality and dimensions in the relevant field shown below:

Go the Schedule, and find a job that has been created. Depending on the amount of work, and the status of the job, the amount of information on the Job Card will vary. For example, if the job has not been started yet, the start and finish times will not be populated.

Click on the Job, and then click Job card.

The Job Card for this job will now have opened:

The right of the screen displays a preview of the job card itself, where the left displays the Content Filters which will allow you to edit what is displayed to the customer.

All of the filters allow the option to Hide the field from the job.

The Job Duration will allow you to display the Actual or Planned duration for the Job.

The Driving Duration and Distance Travelled allows you to display the figure, or double it. This is particularly useful to calculate the return journey is the job was completed before the driver returned to base.

The bottom of the screen gives several different options which can be used to send the Job Cards.

The Word and PDF options allow you to download versions of the Job Card in these formats, which can be forwarded via Outlook or other email systems.

The Email option will allow you to send an in-system email to the customer, which will also keep a copy of the email on the “Messages” section of the job.

Driving After Jobs

If the job type is configured to allow the resource to record driving duration after job completion, this duration can be included on the JobCard by selecting the parameter:

It will exclude by default.

Duplicating Job Options

There are options when duplicating jobs that allow you to easily copy invoice items and planned stock items onto a new job.

To duplicate a job, from the Schedule tab, locate the job you wish to duplicate and click to view it.  At the bottom of the job pop-up you will find the option to “Duplicate”. Clicking duplicate will bring up the duplication options,  including the choice to copy invoice items and planned stock items to the new job – simply select Yes or No.

Job Specific Financials (Rates, Invoice Items, Predefined Invoice Items & Sales Opportunities)

When creating a Job Type, it is possible to set some Job Type specific financial information which is automatically associated with this type. This can include rates, and invoice line items which are defaulted to the invoice. For example, a Call Out might have a specific callout charge and a specific rate for the time of date or day of the week.  This kind of granular approach to finances allows you complete control over your job margins, allowing you to set these not only for Job Types but for customers.

To do this, when creating the Job Type, at the top of the screen, click on the Financial tab, which will take you to the following screen.

You will notice that there are two sub-headings of Rates and Invoicing.

Rates

To add a Rate, ensure that the correct tab is selected at the top, and click Ok at the bottom of the screen.

From here, you can add information relating to rates charged against this type of job. Below are descriptions of what the above options mean:

1. Override contact’s set rates – Where you have set specific rates for individual clients, here you are given the option to override them if needed. You may wish to do this, for example, for a call-out charge where you have a standard rate which is universally applicable.
2. Period – This is the time period where this rate is applicable. For example, the standard rate may be 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday, and an out of hours rate may be anything outside of those times.  Select days and times from the dropdown list.
3. Fixed Price – This is a fixed rate. For example, a call-out charge.
4. Driving Hourly Rate – If you charge time for driving to a job, the hourly figure can be input here. It may differ depending on whether you select planned or actual in field 15.
5. Rate per mile – Allows you to set a cost per mile driven whilst undertaking the job. Again, your choice of planned or actual will make a difference, it will either be an estimated distance or literally how far the driver travelled from their start point, including any diversions, etc.
6. Driving from a fixed location – Choosing “No” will calculate the distance driven from the point the resource says ‘start driving to job’ to ‘start job’ on the tablet. Choosing “Yes” will allow you to choose a fixed starting location, such as Head Office. More relevant when using planned duration (15).
7. Drive Time Rounding – Allows you to choose to either round up or round down the driving time, commonly in 15 minute increments. This is more often rounded up. If 60 is chosen, this will round up to the nearest hour.
8. Driving Multiplier – This option allows you to multiply the final selling cost of travel by a specific number. For example, 1 would be standard rate. 0.5 would be half the standard rate and if you wanted to charge a customer for travel both to and from their location, you would set it at 2.
9. Working Hourly Rate, First Hour – This allows you to set a rate for the first hour, if it is to be different from the following hours. For example, the first hour charged at £25, and then £10 per hour thereafter.
10. Working Hourly Rate, after 1^st hour – As in the above example, this allows you to set the rate after the first hour
11. Working Hourly Rate Over Planned Duration – This allows you to set a figure for working time which exceeds the planned period of the job.
12. Hourly Rate Rounding (minutes) – This allows you to round your hourly rate up or down. If for example, you wanted to round up to the nearest hour, you would choose 60 or 15 for the nearest quarter of an hour.
13. Multiply by the number of resources – If there are multiple resources undertaking a job, you can multiply the hourly rate by the number of resources. For example, if the standard rate was £10, if 4 resources were used, it would be £40.
14. Show working rate even if amount is 0 – This is to be used if you want an hourly rate shown, even if the number of hours worked is 0, eg if you are already on-site and don’t want to add driving time.
15. Durations used – You can use either Planned or Actual durations. If you choose to charge the rate quoted, regardless of the duration actually taken, then use Planned. If not, Actual will charge the rate of the time actually worked.
16. VAT Code – You can choose the VAT amount charged here.

If you have a job which has a call out rate which includes the first hour’s work. The fixed price would be the call out rate, the ‘Working Hourly Rate, First Hour’ would be £0 (as this is included in the fixed price), with the hourly rate being input into ‘Working Hourly Rate, after 1^st Hour’.

Please note, the VAT Code is set in the Financial Settings by navigating My account → Administration → [side menu] Financial → VAT codes and cannot be created here, only assigned. 

Once you have created your options, press Ok.

Rates Across Multiple Time Periods

JobWatch can also calculate the actual cost of Jobs which span two or more Rate periods.

Begin in the back office by setting rates for the relevant Job Type if you have not already done so. Navigate: My Account → Administration →  [side menu] Schedule → Job Types → Select a Job Type → [tab] Financial → [tab] Rates → [icon] Add

Tailoring a Contact’s Financial Configuration

For those customers with overlapping rates, it is possible to customise a Contact’s rate configuration, either for one or all Job types.

Navigate: CRM → [side menu] Contacts → select contact → [tab] Financial → [icon] Add discount:

Once you have clicked on the ‘Add discount’ icon, a new popup window will open:

Complete the fields appropriately, paying particular attention to using ‘-‘ before a number for a discount.  The finished forms may look something like this, with the 2 different rates clearly labelled for example purposes only:

A Boiler Installation for Royal Bathrooms, taking place between 8.00-10.00 will, therefore, cross two rate periods, Rate A and Rate B.

The job rate will be therefore be calculated as follows:

A Financial Document for this job will, therefore, be totalled as the combined cost including differing rates and markups/discounts:

For a detailed look at Rates and Rating Tables, please read the separate article.

Invoicing

Clicking on the Invoicing tab and clicking ‘Add’ on the popup window will result in the  screen below:

This screen will allow you to add any pre-defined invoicing items you have created (Admin → Financial → Predefined Invoicing Items) and add them by default for the job type. Whenever the job is created, these line items will automatically be added to the job financial tab.

Using Sales Opportunities Line Items Against Jobs

Settings in the back office allow you to decide the relationship between Sales Opportunities’ line items and the jobs which they convert into.

Navigate: My account > Administration > [Quick Links] General account Settings > [Section] Schedule:

Templates for Alerts, Financial Descriptions

**Please note that Email templates cannot be altered here.  To create Email templates navigate My account → Administration and then EITHER [side menu] Account → template OR [Quick links menu] template**

For further information on this, please also read the separate articles on our Microsoft Word Add-in and Templates.

This tab allows you to set up or modify your (1) Alert and (2) Financial Description templates:

1. Alert message: If you have chosen to send an alert to a customer as the resource approaches the job (e.g. they are 15 miles away), this is where you can personalise the outgoing message through a combination of free text and keywords. Keywords include: company name, (estimated) time of arrival at job, resource name and/or registration plate details of the resource’s vehicle.
2. Financial description: The ‘Financial description’ box allows you to edit what information will be included in the ‘Description’ box on the financial tab of a job (see screenshot below for reminder). This line information is displayed on any financial documents created for the job:

Follow on Jobs – Custom Automation

The fantastic ‘Automation’ feature allows you to programme a series of jobs based upon conditional branching responses.  On the Detail tab of a Job you will already be used to completing both the Positive and Negative Results fields.  When set up appropriately in the back office, these responses can be used to trigger an automatic job, or series of jobs, until the desired outcome is reached.

Below is a video giving a high level overview of the feature, with more detailed instructions beneath.

Step 1 – Creating Job Types

Begin in the back office by navigating:

My Account → Administration → [side menu] Schedule → Job Types

Complete the fields on the Detail tab as usual:

You can either use an existing job type that is set up, or create a new one. The above image shows results that could necessitate a new Job being created, in practice a new job would be triggered in this scenario on a negative result ie ‘Additional parts required’ and ‘Replacement boiler needed’.

Please note that although the additional Jobs above were for Negative results, Automation for Follow On Jobs can also be used for Positive results, if appropriate to the Job Type selected. For example, if used in a sales appointment scenario, a Positive result could be ‘Opportunity Over 500’ results in an automated follow on Job Type of ‘Corporate Sales Follow Up’.

Step 2 – Adding a WorkSheet and Custom Fields

If you are using an existing job type, you can jump to step 3.

Once you have created your Job Types you may typically wish to add one or more WorkSheets to attach to the Job Type. To do this, navigate:

My Account → Administration → [side menu] Schedule → Worksheets → Add/Edit

For more detailed information on creating a WorkSheet, please read the dedicated article.  When you have finished, your WorkSheet will look something like this:

Now return to Job Types and attribute your WorkSheet to the appropriate Job Type:

Custom Fields can be added by navigating:

My Account → Administration → [side menu] Schedule → Job Custom Fields → Job Type → Add/Edit

Step 3 – Adding Automation

Once the previous steps have been completed, you can set up the trigger points for Automation.  Navigate:

My Account → Administration → [side menu] Schedule → Job Types → [tab] Automation and then click the ‘Add’ icon:

Section A – allows you to set up the scenario in which the Automation for the follow on Job would be triggered.  You will note that all fields are mandatory

Section B – Field mapping. This is the information from the original Job which you would wish to be copied across to all follow on jobs, eg Contact information, constraints, etc All fields are mandatory and most have yes/no answers.

Section C – Manual mapping allows you to add in additional information which wasn’t relevant to the original Job which triggered the Automation

1. Options are ‘Completed’ or ‘Completed with issues’
2. The selections available from the dropdown list are the Positive (Completed) and Negative (Completed with issues) results which you input on the Detail tab of the Job Type.  eg if a Boiler Service was unsuccessful because it requires a total replacement, you would select ‘Replacement boiler needed’ as the Comment.
3. Choose the Job you wish to automatically create eg if ‘Replacement boiler needed’ was the Comment, you would select ‘Boiler Installation’ as the automatic follow on Job.
4. Do you wish the original and follow on Job(s) to be grouped together yes/no.
5. The new Job can immediately be placed on the Schedule against the triggering Resource, with or without their assistant, or go into Unallocated on the side menu.
6. Select whether this should appear under the Job Contact or a Parent Contact
7. Do you want the original Job description to be copied over to the new Job, yes/no?
8. Do you want the original Invoice items to be copied over to the new Job, yes/no?
9. Do you want the Planned Stock, Actual Stock, or no Stock & Equipment to be copied over to the new Job.
10. Do you want the original Job group to be copied over to the new Job, yes/no?
11. Do you want the original Sales Opportunity to be copied over to the new Job, yes/no?
12. Do you want the original Skill Constraints to be copied over to the new Job, yes/no?
13. Do you want the original Vehicle Constraints to be copied over to the new Job, yes/no?
14. Do you want the original Attachments to be copied over to the new Job, yes/no?
15. Do you want the original Flag to be copied over to the new Job, yes/no?
16. Do you want the original Custom Fields to be copied over to the new Job, yes/no?
17. Do you want the original WorkSheets to be copied over to the new Job, yes/no?
18. Mapping options for dependent fields will be determined by your selection in ‘Fields type’ and on the responses which you set up in the back office/Resource notes.  For ‘Original job’ the ‘Field type’ options are: For the ‘New job’ they are:

An example completed form might look like this:

In order to easily identify which jobs have been created by the automation, the job reference for the job that triggered it is included in the comment under the activity tab.

Automatic Document Sending (e.g. Financial, Job Card, Template)

The final tab available when creating a Job Type is Documents.

Navigate: My account → Administration → [Quick links menu] Manage job types → Add/Edit → Documents tab.

Clicking on it will take you to the following screen.

This screen will allow you to set up which types of documents or templates are automatically sent at the different stages of a Job. An example of this would be that a booking confirmation email is sent when a job is scheduled, and once the job is completed, the Job Card is sent.

Click Add to to open the Automatic document sending popup window:

The Document Type allows you to choose to send the Job Card, Financial Documents (such as an invoice), a custom template document, or none (a template message only).

The Document will allow you to choose the document to send based on the Document Type in the previous option.

The Report Parameters will allow you to select whether the information reported is actual or planned, and what information is included and hidden from the job card.

The Format allows you to choose the format the document is sent in, such as Word, Excel or PDF.

The Send when job for contacts in group field allows you to select a specific group to send the email to, eg depots, engineers.  The default behaviour is ‘any group’

The Send when job is field determines at what point the document is sent. For example, a job confirmation could be sent at the point that the job is scheduled, but a job card might be sent after the job was completed.

Additional options are offered here, including: setting delays; selecting email recipients by name, flag, etc; whether the documentation is sent to the site or the parent; and what the email subject is to be.

Once you have set this, click Save.

Please note, you can set up multiple instances of automatic document sending on the same job type. For example, if you want to set up automatic job card and invoice sending to two different people, this can be achieved by repeating the process described above and selecting ‘Job card’ the first time and ‘Financial document’ the second.

Where a third party accounting system is in place, automatic document sending for invoices will be delayed until synching has occurred and the reference number has been updated.

Job Custom Fields

Custom job fields are used to create additional fields which are not present by default. This can be particularly useful in gathering additional job specific information. If you build your own templates, or ask BigChange to build a custom JobCard, these can be added to appear. For example, you might want to capture site access requirements, or whether parking is available on site.

To create the Job Custom Fields navigate: My Account → Administration → Schedule → Job custom fields:

From here, select the Job Type you wish to add the field to.

And from the screen above, click Add to add the field.

On Booking Site means that if your clients have access to a booking site created by you, this field will appear on this booking site for them to fill in.

On Devices means that when viewing jobs on devices, this field will also appear. If the field pertains to information that a field-based engineer should be able to see (for example is parking available on site, yes/no), selecting this option will allow the field and its value to be available.

Here you may add the information into the field and click Ok.

The ‘Statement’ option opens the conditional field ‘Statement text’, allowing you to add an extended amount of content:

This will then appear as a custom field at the bottom of all jobs:

‘Required answer’, appears when the ‘Mandatory’ option is ticked.  This provision is for scenarios where a specific response is essential before continuing, eg ‘do you agree to these terms?’. An additional ‘Message to display if required answer not given’ field appears when there is a value in the ‘Required answer field’, allowing you to set the text which will appear when the required answer is not met:

A conditional field ‘Default value’ appears when ‘Date’ is selected.  Navigate: My account → Administration → [side menu] Contacts & Notes → Contact custom fields → Add-Edit → [Type] Date:

Adding Attachments to Jobs

Multiple files can be added to a job on a device.  To find out more about which file types are supported, read Adding Files & Attachments in JobWatch.

From a job’s detail, a device user can tap on the + icon to add attachments to the job:

Once the user has tapped to add attachments to the job, a new menu will open.  Select Downloads

A list of available downloaded files on the device will be displayed:

Once the required files have been located, the user can tap and hold to select one or multiple attachments; once selected they will be highlighted blue and the number of files selected will be displayed at the top:

The multiple selected attachments can then be seen listed on the job’s details:

Add Multiple Images to Job

You can also add multiple image files at once from the gallery.

From a job’s details screen, a user can tap on the add photo section at the bottom

You will now be able to see the ‘Add Photo’ menu options. By selecting the ‘Choose multiple files from Library’ option, all available images on the device will be displayed, allowing the user to select the required pictures for the job:

To select an image, the user should tap on the bottom left corner – a small tick in a blue box will signify the image has been successfully selected. The screenshot example below shows all three images have been selected:

Once all required images have been selected, the user should tap on ‘+ Save’ in the top right-hand corner to save the images to the job.

A message will display telling you that the images are being added to the job:

Finally, if you scroll down you will see that the images have now been added:

Job Weather Forecast

A ‘Current weather’ icon has now been added to the Job popup, displaying the current weather at the Job’s location:

Hovering over the icon will display descriptive text, whilst clicking on it will display the  forecast for the next 5 days at the Job’s location in 3 hourly increments:

Default Job Contact and Secondary Persons

There may be occasions when the Primary Person you have for a contact is not the person most appropriate as the point of contact for a specific job.  In these instances, having a job-specific contact or secondary person is most useful.

Calculate Driving After Job

There may be occasions when you wish to include the cost of the driving time after a job to the total cost of the job itself, for example you may wish to charge the cost of driving from the customer’s premises back to Head Office.   Providing that you have a version of the app newer than V.659 this can be done as follows:

1. Create or edit a Job Type.  Navigate: My Account ➔ Administration ➔  [side menu] Schedule.  You can now choose to either Add a new job type or edit an existing one.
2. Once the desired Job type is open, click on the Device tab as seen in the example below.  If you tick the checkbox against ‘Resources can record driving duration after job completion’ this will then add an additional checkbox option below it entitled ‘Resources can change the time when recording driving duration‘. Both of these should be ticked and then saved.

3.  Now move on to the financial tab and add some rates, then click Ok to save:

It will now look like this:

4. Now set up a job as usual.  Once the job has been carried out the resource’s device will display the following option “Do you wish to start recording your driving time from this job to your next location?”:

5.  If the resource now clicks on ‘Yes’, the device will display as shown below:

6.  When the resource arrives at their destination they should now click to reopen the job.  They will now be able to click on one of the two tabs outlined below which will give them the option of cancelling the previous instruction or end their journey:

Clicking on the second option, ‘End driving job’ will bring up the message below:

7.   The device screen will now show a calendar, then a clock to confirm the date and time of completion:

8.  The Travel costs will now have been added to your Financial tab for the job as a line item. Please note this includes both travel to and travel from the job (if applicable):

No Touch Signature

Instead of handing over their device or obtaining no signature confirmation at all, with NoTouch signature capture, the mobile worker simply shares the signature capture link which the recipient can receive via email, WhatsApp, SMS or whatever app they use.

This allows sign-off remotely and will also be useful more generally where customers are not normally on site, such as installations, deliveries and services work at unmanned or remote sites.

For a demonstration as to how this feature works along with settings which are configurable please view the video below. To use this feature, please ensure you are running JobWatch version 5.10.1 on your Android device. For iOS users, an updated version of JobWatch will be available shortly.

Customers can create their own template for No-Touch Signature capture, as shown in the example below and then select NoTouch signature capture confirmation in Usage:

Only one template can be assigned to this Type at any given time.  The template will be optimised for display on a Users screen.  Where no Template has been added, the standard message will be displayed to customers.

Importing a Note to a Job Group

The icon ‘+ Import note’ allows you to import an existing Note.

Clicking on a Note will also provide the option to remove the Note from the specific job:

Job Import/Export, SLA & Recurrence Patterns

When users create a blueprint for jobs they can include the relevant fields for recurrence patterns and SLAs.

When importing, users can manually map a column to match SLAs.

Mark Jobs As Actioned En Masse & Add Customer Activity En Masse

We know how busy you are and that time-savers are hugely appreciated, so rather than having to add everything individually, we give you the option of actioning Jobs and customer activities en masse.

Schedule > [side menu] Display > [tab] List > select the jobs using the tickbox > [icon] Selected jobs…> Edit

Configure Job Alerts Based on the Job Result

We all love our Alerts function but sometimes it would help if they could be refined by using results as a trigger. This can now be achieved when you select a Job type in the first (Who) field:

Automatic Document Sending – Document Visibility

BigChange Network

Default Job Contacts & Secondary Persons

Default Job Description

Duplicating Job Options

Edit Assistant Activity

Follow on Jobs

Job Filters

Job Group Templates

Job Hints & Statistics

Job Import/Export, SLA & Recurrence Patterns

Job Weather Forecast

Multi-Select Job Types On List View

Network Sharing of Attachments

No Touch Signature

Predefined Invoice Items With Linked Worksheets

Recurrence of Jobs In A Group

Recurrence Patterns

Select & Action Multiple Jobs

Select Which Attachments to Download