With our newest update, you'll be able to re-order the statuses on your status dashboard, choose an icon for your statuses that can be seen within the Worker App, determine if a field worker will be able to see estimates and jobs in a certain status, require certain information to be collected or parameters met on an estimate or job before progressing in the workflow, and even trigger text/voice/email notifications based on status.
*NEW* Re-order Statuses on the Status Dashboard
Now when accessing the Estimate & Job Statuses Dashboard, estimate and job statuses will have their own dedicated tabs to make it easier to distinguish which statuses are used for which part of the work flow.
Each status on these tabs will have a six block icon to the left of the status name. These icons can be used to change the order of the statuses in each of these tabs by holding left click and dragging the status where you would like it to be!
Creating a New Status or Editing an Existing Status
Many parts of the status interface will feel familiar: name, short code, background color, status category, is active, and "field workers can assign this status" are a known part of Service Fusion statuses. Here is a brief recap on these functions.
Status Category
- Estimates will always use the single existing category, Estimate Requests.
- Jobs may be in the Open Jobs, Open Jobs That Are In Progress, or Closed Jobs. Open Jobs have not yet begun, and an example status may be Scheduled. Open Jobs That Are In Progress have begun, and an example status may be On The Way or Started. Closed Jobs have been finished, and these statuses are available only after the job has been placed into the Completed status and an invoice has been generated, and example statuses include Invoiced or Paid In Full.
Name
- This is the name of your status, such as Scheduled, On The Way, or Completed.
Short Code
- On statuses that come with Service Fusion, the Short Code is system-protected and cannot be changed, because logic is tied to the code. On custom user-created statuses, the short code does not carry logic and is generally an abbreviation of the status name.
Background Color
- This is the visible color associated with your status, visible in the back office on the Dispatch Grid, Calendar, and anywhere job and estimate statuses are viewed.
Is Active
- Possibly better known as the Active/Inactive switch, this indicates whether a status can be currently selected or not. An Active status is available for use and can be freely assigned, where an Inactive status cannot be assigned.
Field Workers Can See Jobs in This Status
- If this is set as YES, a field worker can see jobs that have been assigned to this status. If this is set to NO, a field worker will not be able to see jobs that are assigned to this status.
Field Workers Can Assign This Status
- If this is set as YES, a field worker in the mobile app can assign this status to a job or estimate. If this is set to NO, a field worker cannot assign this status; only a user with access to the back office, or desktop website, can assign this status to a job.
*NEW* Choosing an icon
When editing or creating a new status, an icon can be selected to represent this status within the Worker App. Select the Icon symbol within the Edit Job Status dialogue to select the icon that will best fit your status.
(Note: This functions the same way when creating Estimate statuses)
Available icons include:
*NEW* Field Workers Can See Jobs/Estimates In This Status
A new toggle switch has also been added to the status customization that will disable field workers from seeing estimates and jobs in a specific status. This can be used with Worker App Estimate & Job Visibility settings in Workforce Management to give admins an additional level of empowerment over job and estimate visibility.
*NEW* Only Allow To Select Status If..
We now offer the functionality to restrict the ability to assign a status to a job or estimate unless certain conditions are met first.
The available options to require for status selection are as follows:
- Pre-Work Signature is present: If this option is selected, the field worker will need to collect a pre-work signature prior to assigning this status to the estimate or job.
- Post-Work Signature is present: If this option is selected, the field worker will need to collect a post-work signature before they will be able to assign this status to the job. (This does not apply to estimates)
- Completion Notes are present: If this option is selected, the field worker will need to add notes into the Completion Notes field before they will be able to assign this status to the estimate or job.
- At least __(Number of pictures)__ are uploaded: If this option is selected, the tech will need to have at least the indicated number of pictures uploaded to the estimate or job prior to assigning the status to the estimate or job.
- Current status is any of..: If this option is selected, the field worker will only be able to assign this status if the job is indicated to be in one of the statuses chosen from the drop down in this section. The drop down will be populated by current existing statuses in the system. This function will prevent field workers from skipping statuses. For example, if the field worker wants to use On Site, a prerequisite status may be On The Way, to ensure drive time is correctly calculated every time.
*NEW* When This Status Is Selected
Communicate with your customers like never before possible with this new functionality. Previously, the primary tools to automate communication with the customer included Reminder Presets and the On The Way text message. Communication Templates can be leveraged now to communicate with your customers via text, voice, and/or email when a status is selected. (Communications will not send more frequently than once per hour, in the event the status is selected multiple times.) Need to opt out for any reason? Check the box "Allow tech to skip sending notifications", and your field workers can make the decision to send or not send the communications.
Please Note: In order for your customers to receive emails triggered by status changes, you will need to enable your customers to receive this correspondence. You'll do so by navigating to the Customer Account and selecting the cogwheel to the right of the email address.
In the resulting dialogue box, you'll check the box for Status Updates.
You can also set this up as a default setting for any new customers created after this setting is changed by navigating to My Office > Company Preferences. Scroll about half way down the page to the section that reads "Default Customer Email Settings" and make sure the toggle switch for Status Updates is set to Yes.
Requires worker app update to v1.9.50
• Android available August 5
• iOS available August 6
Add System Logic to Custom Statuses! You can now apply system logic to stop labor time and allow invoicing on a job status that you create in the Open Jobs That Are In Progress status category. When adding a new status to the system, the short code field has been replaced by a drop down menu labeled Status Workflow Logic.
Click the above image to enlarge
With this update, you'll find three options within the new drop down menu: Generic Status - No Workflow Logic, Job is Completed/Ready to be Invoice - Stops Labor Time, and Job is Partially Completed - Stops Labor Time
Generic Status - No Workflow Logic: This option will keep the status as a purely informational resource. This status will have no effect within the Service Fusion system other than organization on the Jobs Dashboard or indicating necessary information to other Service Fusion users.
Job is Completed/Read to be Invoiced - Stops Labor Time: This option will apply the familiar logic that the Completed status has had by default. A status with this logic applied will stop a technicians labor time as well as allow for the job to be invoiced if the My Office > Company Preferences permission to Allow Invoicing Prior to Completion is set to No. This permission is discussed here!
Job is Partially Completed - Stops Labor Time: This permission will apply the familiar logic that the Partially Completed status has had by default. A status with this logic applied will stop a technicians labor time only.
Please Note: The above feature is only available when a status is placed within the Open Jobs That Are In Progress status category. If the status is in the Open category or Closed category, the option to change the logic will be grayed out with the cursor showing as a red circle with a slash through it.
Any default status that has logic added by default via the system will still have this section listed as Short Code with the section grayed out. These statuses have logic that cannot be altered. The new update applied to custom statuses only.
Phase Two of the Estimate & Status Management System has been released! This enhancement introduces two new requirements: to require all Tasks assigned to the job to be marked as completed, and requiring equipment information on the job.
- Require Completed Tasks
Selecting this option will require all Tasks assigned to a job to be completed before the specific status can be selected. In the example above, this option is selected on the Completed status. This means that a Field Worker will not be able to select this status until they mark all of the Tasks assigned to that job as complete. This can be used in tandem with Task List Presets if you have a regular Task List used!
- Required Equipment Information
When this option is selected, a sub-menu will appear that allows you to further customize the equipment requirements. The first option is to only apply this requirement for certain Job Categories. When a selection (or multiple selections) are made in this drop-down selection box, any equipment requirements indicated here will only apply to jobs with that job category assigned. If there is a check next to the "Only require if category is any of:" requirement, then Service Fusion will require at lease one job category to be selected in the associated drop down menu, but the requirements will be enforced only on jobs with the selected job categories.
The next set of options (model, serial, SKU, installation date) will be used to indicate what specific equipment information you would like to require the Field Workers to record. If the option is checked to require equipment information, the user must specify which equipment information is required (model, serial, SKU, installation date).
In summary: If "Equipment Information is Present" is selected, then the user must select one or more of the following to require: model, serial, SKU, installation date. If "Only require if category is any of:" is selected, then the user must select one or more job categories in the associated field.