Work scheduling and diary planning is one area of field service that’s done in very different ways from industry to industry. Even within the same industries, planning and work scheduling can be done very differently from one business to the next.
One feature that we are often asked about is why we have two panes of information in Planner.
The answer is that one (left hand side) is the “Stack” and the other is the “Diary”.
The Stack is where work can be assigned to individual field workers without the need to set a determined date and time. You can set a Target date/time in Solarvista 8 Business Manager but that is only advisory, not a command. This is useful where you have work that you want your field service staff to determine when they will do the work… a kind of “list of stuff to do”. When they determine the time (“pull it off the stack” so to speak) it moves from the Stack (left hand side) to the Diary (right hand side). The mobile applications (Mobile Worker or LIVE Mobile) both have separate viewing sections for the stack for each individual field service person.
The Diary is as you might guess from the name, the place where specific work is placed or appears against a specific date and time. It shows a box for each job and the length denotes its expected duration. The Diary also has a “Now” line. This shows the status of work as of the current time. To the left of the Now line, the diary reflects actual activities. To the right of the now line, reflects expected activities.
"Using a combination of the two together is perfectly feasible indeed it’s designed to interoperate."
Solarvista are a leading provider of Service Management Software including work scheduling and diary planning applications. Our constantly evolving products are available in five editions to meet the needs of your business large or small both now, and in the future. Read more about our Field Service Management Software Editions and arrange a free trial or contact us for more information or to discuss your requirements.