Getting Started with Scheduling

Overview

The Calendar provides an easier way to maintain and keep track of appointments, ticket requests, job scheduling, and employee activity. The Calendar is the master list of appointments, tickets, service reminders, support call follow-up reminders, and timecards set up throughout the software.

Calendar Management Features

Calendar Management provides selection criteria to create your view or manage schedules:

• Monthly, Weekly, Daily Schedules - By type of employee and type of activity
• Employee Schedule Views - Show appointments, activity, and timecards
• Interactive Calendar - Drag and drop capability for assigning tickets
• Unscheduled Appointment Requests - Manage requests and avoid missed service calls
• Service Ticket Identification - Find tickets without appointments or tickets that cannot be scheduled due to parts shortages
• Lapsed Appointments View - See scheduled dates without completion or received requests not yet scheduled
• Timecard View - Track employee time

What You Can Create from the Calendar

Select Insert or double-click to create:

• Appointment (not associated with a Ticket)
• Ticket Appointment
• Timecard for a Ticket
• Timecard (not associated with a Ticket)
• Support Note Follow-up
• Service Reminders

Getting Started: Best Practices

1. Review Employee Profiles

Navigate to Utilities to identify employees by type:

• Admin
• Sales
• Technicians

Benefits:

• Employees appear on the correct filter
• Easier scheduling and tracking

Maintenance: Inactivate past employees so they don't show in current views.

2. Use Calendar for Real-Time Scheduling

View your techs' schedule and availability when scheduling appointments and assigning technicians. This prevents double-booking and ensures efficient resource allocation.

3. Set Up Timecard Tracking

Decide if you want employees to track their time and what categories to use.

Common Timecard Categories:

• Admin
• Meetings
• Service
• Installation
• Training

Add these categories to your list to enable proper time tracking and reporting.

4. Configure Employee Calendar Access

Consider allowing employees to log in and view only their calendar schedule.

Use Cases:

• Technicians can see their daily assignments
• Sales people can view their appointments
• Reduces access to unnecessary information

5. Clean Up Historical Data

Take a look at historical tickets or appointments (Lapsed) that may have been completed but never received a completion date.

Bulk Cleanup: Cornerstone can bulk close these if you provide a date range. This cleans up your views and improves data accuracy.

6. Manage Unscheduled Requests

Easily take requests for appointments or work and keep them on a list until you schedule them. This prevents lost service requests and provides visibility into your scheduling backlog.

7. Invoice Billable Time with Timecards

Use Timecards attached to Service Tickets to invoice billable time instead of a "Labor" Inventory Part on the invoice.

Benefits:

• Ensures you invoice all billable time
• Billable "yes" Timecards without corresponding invoices get flagged
• Calendar view of tickets and timecards helps ensure complete billing

8. Track Technician Productivity

Estimate the time jobs should take and use timecards to track actual time.

Analysis Opportunities:

• Compare estimated vs. actual time
• Identify training needs
• Optimize job estimates
• Improve scheduling accuracy

Key Calendar Views

Unscheduled View

Select Unscheduled to see all appointments, tickets, reminders, and follow-ups that have not yet been assigned a date and time.

Use for:

• Managing your backlog
• Prioritizing incoming requests
• Preventing missed appointments
• Ensuring timely response to customer requests

Lapsed View

Select Lapsed to see all appointments, tickets, reminders, and follow-ups that were assigned a date and time, but do not have a completed date.

Use for:

• Identifying incomplete work
• Following up on pending jobs
• Cleaning up old records
• Ensuring jobs are properly closed

Schedules View

Select Schedules to see the availability of your employees for assigning appointments or tickets.

Use for:

• Real-time scheduling decisions
• Balancing workloads
• Preventing technician overload
• Optimizing route efficiency

Interactive Scheduling: Drag and Drop

The interactive calendar features drag and drop capability, making it easy to:

• Assign tickets to technicians
• Reschedule appointments
• Balance workloads
• Adjust to changing priorities

Simply drag an appointment or ticket to a different time slot or technician to reassign.

Filtering Options

Control your view by:

Type of Schedule:

• Appointments
• Tickets
• Timecards
• Reminders
• Follow-ups

Category of Employee:

• Technicians
• Sales
• Admin

Time Range:

• Daily overview
• Weekly overview
• Monthly overview

Benefits of Effective Calendar Management

For Management

• Complete Visibility - See all scheduled and unscheduled work
• Resource Optimization - Balance technician workloads
• Productivity Tracking - Monitor estimated vs. actual time
• Revenue Protection - Flag unbilled timecards

For Dispatchers

• Efficient Scheduling - View availability at a glance
• Drag and Drop Assignment - Quick, intuitive scheduling
• Parts Availability - See which tickets can't be scheduled due to parts shortages
• Backlog Management - Prioritize unscheduled requests

For Technicians

• Clear Schedule - Know exactly what's expected each day
• Route Optimization - See appointments in order
• Time Tracking - Log time directly to tickets
• Appointment Details - Access all job information from calendar

For Sales

• Appointment Tracking - Never miss a sales call
• Follow-Up Reminders - Automatic prompts for next steps
• Schedule Visibility - Know availability for new appointments

Common Workflows

Scheduling a New Service Request

1. Request comes in (phone, email, online)
2. Create ticket or appointment in Calendar
3. Leave unscheduled initially if needed
4. View technician availability in Schedules view
5. Drag to appropriate tech and time slot
6. Technician sees appointment on their calendar

Managing Parts-Dependent Tickets

1. View tickets without appointments
2. Identify tickets short on parts
3. Place parts order
4. When parts arrive, schedule ticket
5. Prevents scheduling jobs that can't be completed

Invoicing Billable Time

1. Technician completes work and logs timecard
2. Marks timecard as "Billable: Yes"
3. Calendar flags unbilled timecards in red
4. Create invoice from timecard
5. Flag clears when invoiced

Additional Resources

For detailed instructions on using the Calendar for scheduling and timecards, see the Calendar User Guide.

Need Help?

Still have questions? Contact Cornerstone Holding Co. 847-405-9517 or email us customer.success@alarmbills.com