Scheduling a Job

In a fast-paced service or transport business, efficiently scheduling and managing jobs is crucial. BigChange provides a comprehensive solution to streamline this process, taking into account various constraints such as time, skill set, and vehicle attributes. This guide will walk you through the steps to schedule and manage jobs effectively using BigChange.

There are 4 types of jobs you can create in BigChange:

1. Quick Job
2. New Job
3. New Group Job
4. Job Group Template

Quick Job Creation

Navigate to the Schedule tab.

• Select 'Quick job' to open a pop-up window.

1. Where - Enter the job location by typing and selecting from the drop-down list of contacts.
2. Type - Optionally, select the job type from your predefined list.
3. When - Choose the job timing: ASAP or specify a date and time by selecting 'Other…'.
4. Resource - Assign a resource or select (5) Scheduling assistant.
5. Scheduling assistant - using the 'Scheduling assistant'. Please refer to article on Scheduling Assistant.
6. Notes - Add any necessary notes. These notes will appear on the resources’ devices.
7. + Add another job (and group them) - Optionally, add another job simultaneously and group them together.

Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk (*).

Creating a New Job

If you wish to add a more detailed job entry to your schedule, including information on alerts, stock and worksheets, choose to add a “New Job”:

• Select 'New Job' to open a detailed job scheduling pop-up.

1. Contact: Type and select contact name (this means who the job is for, for example a customer). This is dependent upon the contact having been added to CRM. If a contact is not yet in your CRM, then a contact needs to be created; you are able to do this from here by simply clicking on the + to the righthand side of the box and creating your new contact.
2. Job Site Address: Once your contact has been entered, you may wish to click to view their details to check all is correct.  The address box will be auto-populated using the contact’s saved information.  Note that next to the address, there is now a menu button (three horizontal lines) that gives you the option to ‘Edit’ the address or ‘Add another stop’ (i.e. address) to the job:
   • Edit – choose to amend the address for the job or state how long the Resource will be stopped at the location for.
   • Add a stop – if the job requires stops at more than one address, click to add a stop. Choose either a saved contact, or change to ‘Address’ and manually type in an address.  Once the stop has been saved, you then have the option to add more stops and to choose their order.  Total stopped time, driving time and distance will now be displayed.
3. Persons: The person box will automatically fill to show the primary person for the contact, or you can select from the drop down another person, if you have multiple persons saved against the contact.
4. Single/Group Job: Choose either a single job or multiple jobs scheduled under one job reference i.e. multiple jobs performed on the same asset for the same customer.
   1. If you choose the multiple jobs option, the tab options will change and you will now have a ‘Jobs’ tab – use this to add multiple jobs under the one reference.
5. Job Contractor: This field is present if you are registered on the BigChange Network.
6. Reference number: Auto-populated or manually enter an internal job number.
7. Order number: Order number supplied by customer if required.
8. Job type: Select from the drop-down menu.
9. Worksheet: Choose which ‘WorkSheet’(s) you want to attach to the job. Note that once you have selected a job type, any worksheets associated with that job will automatically be selected. You can choose to add more. Worksheets selected for the job will now appear in the ‘WorkSheets’ tab. Worksheets can be set-up to be completed at specific time (for example before a job can start, before it can be scheduled or once the job is complete) and/or by specific users (for example, by the back-office or by the resource doing the job).
10. Job Category: This will automatically populate if the Job type selected has a saved category (or you can manually add if desired).
11. Contract: This field will display Contract reference number if part of a Contract in BigChange.
12. Date:  Enter planned date and time for the job (or use Schedule Assistant by clicking ‘Save and schedule’ when you are ready).
13. Time: Enter planned start time.
14. Duration: Enter how long the job will take to complete (its planned duration). If you have already entered the job type, this box will be auto-populated with the standard length of time for the job; however, you can edit this if you know it is likely to take more or less time.
15. Resource and Vehicle: If you already know which person it is you wish to attend the job (e.g. an engineer or a salesperson), begin typing and select their name from the drop-down list. You can also add assistant resources if more than resource will be attending the job. If you wish to use the scheduling assistant to allocate a resource, leave this box blank for now. If you wish to assign a particular vehicle to this job, use the drop-down list to select a ‘Vehicle’.
16. Job details: Any notes required to be sent to the resource (i.e. to their handheld device) can be added here and they will appear in the job notes, allowing the resource to view them on their handheld device.
17. Alert: An alert can be sent to the selected person at the contact when your resource is a set distance away from the location (i.e. on his/her way to the job). The distance can be changed manually. This feature can be enabled/disabled on a job by job basis.
18. Message: Edit the message you wish to send in the ‘Message’ box. The time shown in the blue box is the variable that will show the time of arrival when the alert is sent.
19. Send to: Choose to send the ETA alert either by text message or email; this will auto populate if information is saved in the CRM. You can add multiple email addresses or mobile numbers in the Send to box. Note that mobile numbers must be entered with their international dialling code, e.g. +447XXXXXXXXX. Note that using text message costs 5p/text.

Stock Management

Adding Stock Items

• Select the Stock tab and add necessary items by selecting "+ Add a stock item".

• You must first select what will happen with the stock item in terms of its start and finish location; a drop-down menu will give you options such as “Brought to job and left at location” or “Brought to job and taken back”.
• If the item is being taken to the job, you must define whether it will be picked up from the vehicle being used (i.e. on-board stock) or at a saved contact’s address (if you choose this option, you will be asked to confirm which contact).
• If the item is also being taken back, you must define where it will be dropped off (again, either left on the vehicle or at a specific contact).
• You must then state the make & model of the item (or consignment number if applicable); start typing and a select from the drop-down list of your stock items.
• Once you have added an item, it will appear in the list and the resource allocated to the job will be made aware of the item requirements for the job. 

Constraints Management

Adding Constraints

• Select the Constraints tab to add constraints for Time, Resource, or Vehicle.

• Time – choose when the job must be completed by, started before or started after (e.g. must be completed by the end of the week).
• Resource – if the job must be done by a resource in a particular Group, or only a certain person, specify that here. If the job requires the resource to have a particular skill to complete the job (e.g. Gas Safe Certificate), you can also state that here and the job will now only be able to be scheduled to a resource with that skill (if the ‘wrong’ person is scheduled for the job, you will see a notification of the error above the job when viewing your schedule).
• Vehicle - if the job must be done using a vehicle in a particular Group, or by a specific vehicle, specify that here. If the job requires the vehicle to have a particular attribute to complete the job (e.g. a curtain sider vehicle), you can also state that here and the job will now only be able to be scheduled to a vehicle with that attribute

WorkSheets Management

Managing Worksheets

• Worksheets added in the 'Detail' tab will appear here.

• In the ‘Detail’ tab, if you have added Worksheets to the job, they will appear in this tab.  These Worksheets will appear on the resource’s device when completing the job, but you can also edit the answers (if back-office is set to be allowed to complete them in the job type set-up) and add notes here.

Scheduling a Job

• Select 'Save' or 'Save and schedule' to allocate resources.

1. Save - The job will appear in your schedule as scheduled or unscheduled.
2. Scheduling assistant - This will open a new window where you are able to filter by group, resource,

Additional Options/tabs

Attachments tab

This tab functions like a filing cabinet for storing documents and photos, allowing you to set the visibility for each item.

1. Add documents to the job by selecting '+ Add'.
2. Select the visibility: Web users, resources on the BigChange app, booking site and Job card.
3. Download all - This option allows a webuser the ability to download all documents from the job.

Financial tab

This tab gives you the opportunity to create a financial document for the job, line-by-line. Once you have chosen which currency to work in, the first task is to add items to the job:

• Create financial documents by adding items to the job.
• Generate documents like quotations, invoices, and delivery notes.
• Financial documents associated with this will be listed under the financial lines.

Messages & Notes

If you need to send a message about the job (to any type of user) (1) or you wish to save notes (2) about the job, you can do that from here. Any existing messages or notes for the job are saved here and can be viewed by anyone who ‘Views’ the job.

• Send messages or save notes related to the job.
• Messages can be sent to various users, and notes are viewable by anyone accessing the job.

Activity Tracking

Follow the job’s activity trail (see when and who created a job, when it was scheduled etc) or review the customer’s activity (when was a job accepted by the customer, when was a quotation sent etc).

Some activities will automatically appear (e.g. job creation) but you can also add activities manually if you wish; click +Add on the Job or Customer activity tab and choose which activity you want to capture.

• Job activity - This is the job audit trail. For example when it was created, scheduled, onsite and complete.
• Customer activity - This is any activity with customer interaction. Such as quotation accepted, job confirmation, invoice paid etc.
• Assistants activity - Any activity by an assistant allocted to the job.
• Job Flags - You can also add flags to the job here. Job flags are a useful way to categorise jobs and can be used to filter your jobs when viewing your schedule.

Conclusion

BigChange offers a robust platform for scheduling and managing jobs efficiently. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can optimise your service or transport operations, ensuring the right resources are in the right place at the right time. Start using BigChange today to enhance your business operations.