How to Schedule Additional Tables on the Schedule Board
Field Service out of the box gives you access to Work Orders to be scheduled on the schedule board but sometimes that is not enough, and in other instances, the tables and processes around Work Orders are too much.
This is where we can look at creating other tables that can be scheduled on the schedule board. Do you need to schedule MOT bookings? What about collecting parts every week from a warehouse? Maybe you need to start scheduling a new area of the business that only does a small part of what full Field Service gives you.
Creating a New Table for Custom Job Types
The solution lies in creating a new table within the Power Apps environment. Let’s say you need to manage ‘Warehouse Visits’ as a separate task type. Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up this new entity:
1. Access Power Apps: Navigate to make.powerapps.com to start the process
2. Create Your New Table: Name your table— in this instance, ‘Warehouse Visits. (prx3_warehousevisits)
3. Define the Columns: Your table will need specific fields to capture all necessary data.
Field Name | Schema Name | Type | Additional |
From Date / Time | prx3_fromdatetime | Date | Date & Time |
To Date / Time | prx3_todatetime | Date | Date & Time |
Duration | prx3_duration | Number, Calculated, Duration | DIFFINMINUTES(prx3_fromdatetime, prx3_todatetime) |
Territory | prx3_terrotiryID | Lookup | Territory |
Latitude | prx3_latitude | Floating Point | 5 dec min -90 max 90(IME Disabled) |
Longitude | prx3_longitude | Floating Point | 5 dec min -180 max 180)(IME Disabled) |
Work Location | prx3_worklocation | Global Choice | Work Location – Default Onsite |
Booking Status | prx3_fieldservicestatus | Global Choice | Booking System Status |
4. Establish Relationships: Create necessary 1:N relationships, for Bookable Resource Bookings and Resource Requirements.
5. Set Up Views and Publish: Don’t forget to add your new table to the sitemap of your Field Service or Customer Service app, and create a view for jobs that are not yet scheduled
Integrating with the Schedule Board
Once your table is set up, you need to integrate it with the Resource Scheduling App:
1. Enable the New Entity: Go to the settings within the Resource Scheduling App, select your table, and enable it.
2. Set the Booking Status: Make sure the booking status is aligned with the field service status (msdyn_fieldservicestatus), ensuring that the scheduling logic applies correctly.
3. Attribute Mappings: Map the attributes from the fields you created to ensure the data flows correctly between your custom table and the scheduling system.
4. Resource Scheduling Optimization (RSO): If you want these new tasks to be part of the Resource Scheduling Optimization process, set the default scheduling method to ‘Optimize.’
Automating Resource Requirements
The next step involves automating the creation of Resource Requirements whenever a new job is added:
1. Power Automate (PA) Flow: Create a flow that triggers when a new row is added to your table.
2. Add Resource Requirement: Ensure that every new job type (like a Warehouse Visit) creates a corresponding Resource Requirement.
3. Custom Schedule Board View: Finally, customize your Schedule Board or create a new one that includes a view for unscheduled records, ensuring that no job slips through the cracks.
Conclusion
By following these steps, you can enhance the functionality of the Schedule Board, tailor it to your specific needs, and ensure that your field service operations are as efficient and streamlined as possible. Whether you’re handling standard work orders or custom job types like Warehouse Visits, this approach provides the flexibility needed to keep everything running smoothly.
If you need to start scheduling your business please reach out to sales@proximo3.com or complete our ‘contact us’ form here.
