Creating a new job
Creating a job in Zuper streamlines your business workflow for managing work orders. Zuper also lets you customize the jobs with additional properties tailored to your business. Once created, the job will appear on your schedule board and be visible to assigned technicians through their mobile app.
Let’s get started with creating a new job in Zuper!
Navigation: Jobs -> + New Job
To create a new job
- On the jobs listing page, you will see an overview of existing jobs, including work order numbers, categories, statuses, and more.
- Click the “+ New Job” button at the top right corner of the page to begin creating a new job.
The new job page has a three-panel layout to facilitate keying in the relevant data.
- The left panel lets you enter the job title, schedule, and address.
- The center panel lets you enter other necessary information about the job.
- The right panel enables you to associate related records, such as customers, properties, assets, etc.,
A. Job details
- Job Title (Mandatory)- Enter the title of the job.
B. Primary details
- Job Category (Mandatory): Choose the Job category from the drop-down menu. Selecting a category enables the “Check Availability” option in the “Job Schedule” section.
- Other Fields (optional): Choose/enter in the Job Priority, Job Type, Parent Job (in case of revisit job), Job Tags, Job Skills, and Job Description.
C. Job schedule
You can choose the start and end dates to schedule the job based on the contact’s preferences. Either due dates or start and end dates are mandatory to create a job.
If the job is a one-off, choose “Non-Recurrence; ” if it has recurring schedules, choose “Recurrence.”
Assisted Scheduling in Zuper is a game-changer for businesses looking to optimize their workforce management. Combining real-time data on availability, skills, shifts, and territories into an easy-to-use interface removes the guesswork of scheduling. Whether juggling multiple jobs or ensuring the right technician is assigned at the right time, this feature empowers you to make informed decisions quickly and efficiently.
Pre-Requisites:
Ensure Business hours and work hours are configured correctly.
For teams working across multiple time zones, ensure “Enable Switching Timezones” is set to “Yes” under Organization settings > General settings. Additionally, ensure that teams are assigned to the appropriate time zones.
Slots and usage:
To use Assisted Scheduling, start by selecting a preferred date from the calendar on the left-hand side of the interface. You can use “Resource View” or “Slot View.”
Slot View: Displays all available time slots for the selected date.
Resource View: Displays available slots by individual users in the chosen time zone grouped by teams.
Slot Availability
When displaying slots, business hours, work hours, shift hours, user assignment to other jobs or non-job events, user time off, and holidays are considered. These slots can be further filtered, as discussed in the next section. Below is how the above factors are considered when displaying slots:
Business Hours vs. Work Hours vs User Shifts
Depending on whether “Consider User Shifts” is set to “Yes” or “No,” how business hours, work hours, and shift hours are considered varies.
For an instance,
Fire & Ice is an HVAC service company with business hours between 9 AM to 5 PM. John is a field technician at Fire & Ice, working from 8 AM to 4 PM on all days of the week. On November 20, 2024, John had to work a shift from 7 AM to 3 PM EST.
When “Consider User Shifts” is toggled off:
i. If the user has a shift created during this period, slots overlapping with business and shift hours are displayed. In the above scenario, John’s slots would be displayed from 9 AM to 3 PM PST on November 20 since these slots are within business hours, and John has a shift created till 3 PM on that date.
ii. If the user does not have a shift, slots overlapping with business and work hours are displayed. In the above scenario, if John did not have a change, the slots would be displayed from 9 AM to 4 PM on November 20 since his work hours are until 4 PM.
iii. When “Consider User Shifts” is toggled on:
Business and work hours are ignored, and only the shift hours are considered. This means that only slots falling during shift hours will be displayed to a user. This also means that if no user shifts were created on a specific date, no slots would be displayed in the slot view for the date. In the above example, John’s slots would be displayed for the 7 AM to 3 PM EST shift on November 20, irrespective of his work and business hours.
User Assignment to Jobs and Non-Job Events
- When a user is assigned to a job or a non-job event (with availability set to ‘Busy’ for the non-job event), the corresponding time slot is blocked in the Resource view.
- If all users are occupied at a specific time, that slot is also blocked in the Slot view.
- However, a slot remains available if the assigned job is ‘Completed,’ ‘Closed,’ or ‘Cancelled.’
User Time off:
- When users are on time off, their slots won’t be displayed in the Resource view.
- If all users are on time off during a specific slot, it won’t be shown in the Slot view.
Holidays:
In Zuper, holidays can be assigned to all users or specific teams. Users also have the option to allow or restrict job scheduling on holidays. Below is how different types of holidays are represented in Assisted Scheduling:
- Holiday for All Users – Jobs Allowed
- The holiday is marked in the date picker.
- Users can select the date for scheduling jobs.
- Holiday for All Users – Jobs Not Allowed
- The holiday is marked in the date picker.
- Users cannot select the date for scheduling jobs.
Example:
- June 3 (Wednesday) can be selected, as jobs are allowed.
- June 2 (Tuesday) cannot be selected, as job scheduling is restricted.
- Holiday for a Specific Team – Jobs Allowed
- The holiday is indicated next to the team’s name.
- Users can select the team to schedule jobs.
- Holiday for a Specific Team – Jobs Not Allowed
- The holiday is indicated next to the team’s name.
- Users cannot select the team to schedule jobs.
Applying Filters
To refine the list of available slots, you can apply these filters :
- Time Zone: Available slots are listed only for teams in the selected time zone. As mentioned, business and work hours are considered in the selected time zone.
- Duration: Slots are displayed in the selected duration; the maximum duration allowed is 8 hours. If a category is selected, the category duration will be pre-filled (if the category duration exceeds 8 hours, 8 hours will be pre-filled). If no category is selected, the duration will be pre-filled to 1 hour.
- Consider User Shifts: Adjust based on shift settings (as detailed above).
- Service Territory: Limit slots to users in a specific geographic area.
- Skills: Show slots for users with the required skills.
Team: Selecting “Any Team” will list the slots for all the teams that satisfy the Time zone, Service territory, and Skill filters. Selecting “Selected Teams” will allow users to pick specific teams that fulfill the time zone, service territory, and skill filters.
Best Practices
- Double-check the “Consider User Shifts” setting to ensure it aligns with your scheduling preferences.
- Use filters to narrow down options when scheduling for specific teams, skills, or territories.
- Adjust time zones carefully to match customer or operational needs.
- Click the “+ Add Organization/Contact” button at the right of the page to add an organization or contact.
- The “Service Address” will be automatically pre-filled based on the selected organization or customer. You can use the same or a different one for the billing address.
Note: To modify the service address, click the edit icon. Make sure you select either the address or geo-coordinates.
The Service Territory is auto-populated if the selected organization or contact service address falls within the geo-radius, geo-fence, and zip Code defined for that service territory.
Alert: You may encounter the following Conflict(s) pop-up indicating issues that need to be resolved for proper territory assignment.
- Multiple Territory: The system will choose the first territory by default if the job address falls under more than one Service Territory. You can manually select the most suitable territory by clicking the ‘Assign’ button from the list of available territories on the job detail page.
- No Service Territory: The job’s Service Address does not fall within any predefined service territory; you can manually assign the appropriate service territory on the respective job’s detail page.
- Assignment Mismatch: If the team/user(s) assigned to the job does not belong to the selected service territory, you can reassign the job to the appropriate team or user(s) on the job’s details page.
Remember, you can only assign and update service territories on the job detail page.
D. Service tasks
D. Service tasks
Service tasks are used to create process steps or checklists for the field technician to follow when completing a work order. They can be added manually or by associating service tasks with each job category.
By default, service tasks are pre-filled based on the selected job category. If not, add them manually.
- Click the “+ Add” button from the Service Tasks tab. You can select existing service tasks or create a custom task.
- Select the tasks and click the “Add” button to add them to the job.
a. How to create master service tasks?
Navigation: Settings —> Configuration Settings —> Service Tasks
The master service tasks help you pre-define the child jobs according to the sequence.
- Select the “Settings” module from the left navigation menu, and under the “Configuration Settings,” select “Service Tasks.” The service tasks listing page appears.
- Click ”+ New Task” at the top right corner of the page to create a new service task.
- A “Create New Service Task” dialog box appears. Fill in the following details.
- Title (Mandatory) – Enter the service task’s title.
- Description (Optional)– Enter the description of the service task.
- Estimated Duration (Mandatory) – Enter the estimated time frame to complete the task.
- Has Inspection Form (Optional)- Check the small square box to include an inspection form.
- Inspection Form (Optional)– The drop-down box will appear to choose the inspection form from the list. (This option is visible only if you check the “Has Inspection Form” option).
Click the “Create” button to create the new service task.
- The new master service task is created successfully.
- After creating the service task, you can perform the following actions from the service tasks settings listing page.
- Edit – To modify the service tasks.
- Deactivate / Activate – This disables the task. Once deactivated, you can delete it if needed. Deactivated tasks can also be reactivated if required.
- Delete – The delete action will permanently delete the service tasks.
Note: The delete action will be available only if the service task is deactivated first.
After creating the Master Services Tasks, link service tasks to the Job Category.
b. How do you link service tasks with the job category?
Navigation: Settings —> Configuration Settings —> Job Settings —> Service Tasks
Linking the service tasks with the job category allows you to quickly assign relevant tasks when creating a job.
- Click the “Settings” module from the left navigation menu, and under the “Configuration Settings,” select “Job Settings.”
- On the Job Settings page, under “Configurations,” select “Service Tasks” and choose the job category for which you want to map the service task from the dropdown.
- Click the “+Add Task” button.
- Select the tasks to be mapped to the job category and click the “Add” button.
- The service tasks are mapped successfully to the job category.
- After mapping the service tasks with the job category, you can reorder or delete the service tasks as needed.
- Select the “Reorder” option to change the order of the service tasks.
- A “Reorder Service Task” pop-up will appear. Drag up and down to reorder the tasks and click the “Reorder” button.
- The service tasks are reordered successfully.
- To remove any of the linked service tasks, click the delete icon next to them. A pop-up will appear.
- Click the “Remove” button to remove the service tasks from the job categories successfully.
After linking the service tasks with the job category, you can quickly assign relevant tasks when creating a job.
E. Part/Service details
The part and Services module is critical to creating and managing all the products and performing all the inventory management actions. To learn more, see How to create new parts/services in the Zuper web app.
Note: When adding a new group, if any parts within the group have already been added, the system will not create a new line item; instead, it will simply increase the quantity of the existing item.
- Click the “+ Add” button in the Part/Service Details section. A drop-down menu will appear, prompting you to choose the parts & services:
- Add from “Line Item,” “Bundle,” “Header,” “Item Group,” or “Custom Line Item.”
Note: Custom line items will only be added to the specific job, not to your inventory.
- Select the required part from the pop-up that appears, fill in the details, and click the “+ Add Product” button.
- Once the product is added, click the “Ellipsis” icon next to the part and choose “Edit.”
- A dialog box will appear. Under the serial number section, select the required “Serial Number” from the drop-down list and click the “Update Line Item” button to save the changes.
F. Associations
When creating a job, you can associate various modules with the job as needed to streamline field service operations and maintain a centralized record of all relevant information related to the job. These associations help ensure seamless contract execution and tracking.
Click the “+” icon next to each section to associate the modules, further enhancing the contract management process and keeping all pertinent information in one easily accessible location.
- Complete the “Other Details” section (any custom job fields will be displayed here). Click the “Create Job” button to finalize the job.
- A new job is created successfully.
Creating a job in Zuper is a comprehensive process designed to enhance your workflow by integrating all essential job-related details in one place. By leveraging Zuper’s intuitive interface, you can efficiently create jobs and associate them with relevant modules such as contacts, assets, contracts, etc.