Note: This feature is currently in alpha testing and is not available to all customers.
Note: During the alpha stage of Appointments it is required that Time Tracking is turned off. Please review this help article on how to toggle Time Tracking on or off.
In this article you'll find an overall explanation of what's changing within the Appointments alpha. You will learn about how Appointments can be used by both employees in the field office staff.
Table of contents:
Creating a new job
The introduction of multiple appointments on a single job functionality shouldn't complicate the process of creating a job with a single appointment (single visit). The flow of adding a new job remains almost unchanged.
The only change you will notice is the name of the card will now say "Schedule" instead of "Appointment":
It is still possible to:
create a job without a schedule (which means without any appointments)
or to create a job with a schedule (which means a job with a single appointment)
Please note it is still possible to schedule an unscheduled job by dragging it to the selected date and time, from the unscheduled list next to the calendar.
Adding appointment to an already existing job (currently available on Web only)
Once a job is created (as a single job or without any appointment), it is possible to add an appointment to it, by adding each appointment one by one.
It is possible to add appointments either:
by clicking on the ADD APPOINTMENT blue button at the top of the page
or by clicking on the ADD APPOINTMENT button visible in the new section of the job details page, called Appointments (please note that this section appears only when a first appointment is scheduled for the job)
How many appointments are added to a job?
It is possible to see how many appointments have been added to a job by looking at the information below the ADD APPOINTMENT button at the top of the page, or by looking at the Appointments section of the job details page. If you'd like to see the details of each appointment (the status of an appointment, date and time range, arrival window, and who is assigned to it), you can expand the Appointments section.
Please note, for an appointment to be created, it needs to have information about the date and time range, and at least 1 employee assigned.
Status of an appointment
There are three possible statuses of an appointment:
Scheduled- when an appointments is created, have the date and time range, and at least 1 employee is assigned to itIn progress- when any of the employees click OMW or Start buttons for a particular appointment (this can be done either from the mobile app or from web)Note: Admins/Office staff can still change the status even if they're not assigned to an appointment)
Finished- when any employee clicks the Finish appointment button for a particular appointment
Please note, that an appointment cannot be in an Unscheduled status, and that it's possible to delete appointment from a job. Once deleted, an appointment cannot be retrieved.
Changes to an appointment status automatically changes the job status, in a way that:
Job status changes from
UnscheduledtoScheduled- when the first appointment is added to a jobJob status changes from
ScheduledtoIn progress- when the first appointment status changes to In progress
In order for a job status to change from In progress to Completed, an employee with sufficient permissions has to change the job status manually - by clicking Finish button and then selecting Finish job on web or Finish job button on mobile app.
What can I do with an appointment?
Reschedule (currently available on web only)
In order to change the date and time range:
either click on a pencil icon next to the appointment you'd like to reschedule (when clicked, calendar view as on job details should open)
move appointment tile on the schedule tab calendar view
Reassign (currently available on web only)
In order to assign an appointment to another employee:
click on a pencil icon next to the appointment you'd like to reassign (when clicked, calendar view as on job details should open), and then click on Edit team icon to the upper right corner of the screen... once selection is changed as desired, click Save
Change arrival window (currently available on web only)
In order to set an arrival window for each appointment:
click on a pencil icon next to the appointment you'd like to reassign (when clicked, calendar view as on job details should open), and then click on Arrival window icon to the upper right corner of the screen and select desired option (if you'd like to save it as default, please remember to check the box on the bottom), and then click Done
Delete (currently available on web only)
In order to delete an appointment:
click on three dots icon next to an appointment you'd like to deleted and then choose Delete
and then confirm you really want to delete selected appointment
Sending OMW notification
With introduction of the appointments, it is now possible to send On My Way notification multiple times on a single job - once per each appointment. In order to do that either:
click OMW button at the top of the page -> then select for which appointment OMW should be send -> and then decide if customer notification should be send?
or click on three dots icon next to an appointment you'd like to send notification for and then choose Send OMW (you can also decide if the notification should be sent to the customer)
Please note that the timestamp of OMW notification at the top of the page will always present the time of selecting the first OMW for any of the appointments on the job.
Change status
Job statuses, as well as employee statuses (available on mobile app) remain unchanged with the introduction of appointments, but appointments themselves have their own statuses, which can be changed either from web or from mobile app.
How to change status from web?
Start
You can either select the Start button at the top of the page -> then select which appointment should be started -> and then confirm
or click the three dots icon next to an appointment you'd like to start and then choose Mark as in progress (you can also decide if the notification should be sent to customer)
Finish
You can either select the Finish button at the top of the page -> then select which appointment should be finished -> and then confirm and decide if customer notification should be sent?
or click the three dots icon next to an appointment you'd like to finish and then choose Mark as finished (you can also decide if the notification should be sent to customer)
Please note that you can, at any time, finish the whole job; and each appointment status will remain as is.
In order to understand how to change appointment status from a mobile app, please go to How are the appointments displayed on the mobile app section? below.
How are the appointments displayed on the calendar?
Each appointment for a single job is visible on every calendar in Housecall Pro as a separate item (this is because each appointment has a different date and time range).
In order to recognize which appointments are scheduled for the same job, you can either hover over an appointment and look for job information or invoice number information. Invoice number information should be selected in the calendar display settings.
Please note, that currently it might look like there are duplicates of the same job on the calendar, because appointment name/number is not displayed - this will be fixed in the future.
Styling of each appointment is done according to the job status, not the appointment status, and based on the assigned employees - as described in this help article What do the different job, estimate, and event colors in the calendar mean?
How are the appointments displayed on the mobile app?
How to get to a single appointment:
From a mobile user perspective, there's no change in the way to open an appointment. You will see the list of appointments in all of the places you currently can see jobs. All permission rules apply.
What's changing?
When a single appointment is opened (from any available place in the app, see above), a job details page is opened that presents information about the whole job. A new section is also visible, that adds information about the exact appointment date, time range, and assigned employees.
What should field employees do in order to report on the status of work?
There should be no recognizable change to employees working in the field. Getting to an appointment, sending OMW notifications, and starting and finishing work are done exactly the same way.
Below is the video presenting the mobile app (on the right) where an assigned field employee is using a standard flow of actions on a typical job (or appointment):
The biggest change occurs when there is more than one appointment on a single job, and all others were already finished. In such case, after finishing an appointment a question prompts whether the whole job should be finished or not.
Below is the video again presenting the mobile app, but this time it's the last appointment on a job:
What can Owner/Dispatcher/Office employees do with appointments on the mobile app?
The same things that field employees can, even if not assigned to an appointment. Owner/Dispatcher/Office employees can finish a job by clicking the Finish job button (this button is not visible to field employee permissions).
