Service Tasks
Service tasks are subtasks or child tasks that you can add to a service. When you want to handle a service that is a composite task consisting of several activities, then creating service tasks for the service will come in handy. For example, consider remodelling a house as a service. This would involve several subtasks which in turn would comprise other tasks. In the case of remodelling a house, let's consider that the tasks involved are home painting, and flooring. The composite tasks of home painting would consist of subtasks such as cleaning and prepping walls, sand or repair surfaces, applying primer, and painting. Similarly, flooring would involve preparation, installation, and finishing. In this case, you can create services for home painting, and flooring and create service tasks for each of the subtasks.
Features of a service task
- Service tasks help in capturing the different facets of a work request that is essential to completing it.
- Ability to breakdown a complex or composite task into multiple subtasks and create appointments for them. The subtasks can be assigned to multiple agents and its progress can be easily tracked.
- The work for a service task can be partially completed and can be resumed later. Partially completed tasks can be assigned to different appointments. Thus, a work can be started by one agent and then assigned to another agent. This would also enable agents to switch between tasks at different customer locations seamlessly.
- At anytime, you can delink a service task from an appointment but retain it in the parent work order.
In the subsequent sections, as you learn about the usage of service tasks, you will understand the context of the features mentioned here.
Using service tasks involve the following steps:
- Adding service tasks to the service
- Creating a work order with the service having the service tasks
- Creating appointments for the desired service tasks
Create Service Tasks
Service tasks are added for a service. Consider remodelling a house as the work request received. This work request comprises of two major tasks: home painting, and flooring. These two tasks can be added as services. The subtasks for each of these tasks can be added as the service tasks. In this section, home painting is added as the service with service tasks clean and prep wall, sand or repair surfaces, apply primer, and painting.
To create service tasks:
- Select the Services And Parts module.
- Click Create and select Service from the dropdown.
- Enter the details of the service.
- Click +New Line for Service Tasks.
- Enter a Service Task Name. If needed, add a Description, and Duration for the service task.
- Click Save.
You can also add the service tasks later by clicking the + Add Service Task in the Services And Parts Details page or by editing the service.
Use Service Tasks in a Work Order
Once services are created with the service tasks, you can use them in work orders. A work order for house remodelling can be created with the services home painting, and flooring.
Following are the steps to use a service task in a work order:
- Select Work Orders from the Work Order Management menu and click Save.
- In the Create Work Order overlay, enter the details of your work order.
- When you select a service, its associated service tasks will get added to the work order. You can remove the service tasks that you don't require. The duration for each service task, if provided during the service task creation, will be populated. This duration can be modified, if required. While creating a work order, you can add new service tasks to a service, but these won't get added to its parent service. You might want to add a subtask, waterproofing, for home painting which is specific only to this work order. Waterproofing will be available as a service task for home painting only in this work order.
In the Service and parts tab, you can view the appointment associated with a service. Click on 
to view the associated appointments.
Use Service Tasks in a Service Appointment
You can create service appointments for one or more of the services or service tasks. You can create the appointments depending on how you plan to carry out the work. For example, you can create an appointment for the service Home Painting or create an appointment for the service tasks Clean and prep wall, and Sand or repair surfaces.
Following are the steps to use a service task in a service appointment:
- Select Work Orders from the Work Order Management menu and click the work order you want to add the service appointment to.
- Select the Appointments tab and click Create Appointment.
- Enter the following details, then click Schedule or Schedule and Dispatch:
- For Service, select services or service tasks.
All the unscheduled services and service tasks will be populated in this field. Click on the field to see the list of the services and service tasks. Retain the ones you want to be part of the appointment. Uncheck the rest. - A Summary for the service appointment
- The values for Scheduled Start Date Time and Scheduled End Date Time.
The Scheduled Start Date Time and Scheduled End Date Time can be scheduled for different dates. - A Field Agent or a Crew
One or more resources can be assigned to the appointment.
Work on appointments
You can start work on an appointment in two different ways:
- Start work on one or more service line items
- Start work on individual service tasks
Start work on one or more service line items
You can start work on one or more service line items in a service appointment in the following ways:
- Start work on an appointment
- Start work for the service line item
- Create time sheet for the service line items
Start work on an appointment
You can start work for an appointment when you want to initiate the work for one or more of the service tasks or for all of them. For example, when multiple agents are available, the work on an appointment can be started even if it involves several tasks. The work for a service appointment that includes the service home painting can be started if you plan to simultaneously start work on all its service tasks.
- Select the Service Appointments menu from the Work Order Management menu.
- Select the service appointment you want to start work on.
- Click Start Work.
- Click Start Work in the confirmation message. Click Edit Details to view the Add Time Sheet overlay.
In the Add Time Sheet overlay, edit details if necessary and click Save:
Start work for the service line item
When you have more than one service line items in an appointment, you can choose to start work on only one of them. When you have, say, two service line items for Home painting, and Flooring, you can start the work on either of them as per your convenience.
- Select the Service Appointments menu from the Work Order Management menu.
- Select the service appointment you want to start work on.
- Under the Service and parts or Service tasks tab, click Start Work for the service line item you want to work on.
- Click Start Work in the confirmation message. Click Edit Details to view the Add Time Sheet overlay.
In the Add Time Sheet overlay, edit details if necessary and click Save:
By default, the available services/service tasks will be selected. You can remove the ones you don't want to start the work on.
Create time sheet for the service line items
You can also start the work on a service line item by adding a time sheet for the it.
- Select the Service Appointments menu from the Work Order Management menu.
- Select the service appointment you want to start work on.
- Under the Time sheets tab, click Add Time Sheet.
- In the Add Time Sheet overlay, provide the following details and click Save:
- Select the Service Resource
- A Start Date/Time
- Select the services/service tasks you want to start work on.
Start work on individual service tasks
You can start work on individual service tasks in a service appointment. To do so:
- Select the Service Appointments menu from the Work Order Management menu.
- Select the service appointment you want to start work on.
- Under the Service tasks tab, click Start Work for the service task you want to work on.
- Click Start Work in the confirmation message. Click Edit Details to view the Add Time Sheet overlay.
In the Add Time Sheet overlay, edit details if necessary and click Save:
Once you start work, you can partially or fully complete a service task.
Complete work on individual service tasks
You ca complete a service line item or service task. To complete a service task:
- Select the Service Appointments menu from the Work Order Management menu.
- Select the service appointment you want to complete.
- Select the Service tasks tab and click Complete Work for the service task you want to complete.
- Click Complete Work in the confirmation message.
Partial Completion
A service line item or service task once started can be partially completed. To partially complete a service task:
- Select the Service Appointments menu from the Work Order Management menu.
- Select the service appointment you want to partially complete.
- Select the Service tasks tab and click Partially Complete for the service task you want to partially complete.
- Click Partially Complete in the confirmation message.
- Choose Keep it in "In Progress" in the confirmation message.
This message will be shown only if the status of the service appointment is In Progress.
The status of the service task will change to Partially Completed. The status of the service appointment will remain as In Progress.
If you choose Complete Appointment in the above confirmation message, then the status of the service appointment will change to Completed. The status of the service task will change to Partially Completed.
If a service task is partially completed, then the following actions can be performed on the service task:
- In the parent work order, you can create a new service appointment for the partially complete service task
- Link the partially complete service task to another existing appointment from the parent work order
- Resume work
Create new service appointment
When a service task is partially complete, you can create a new service appointment for it under the parent work order. In the original appointment, the status of the service task will continue to be partially complete.
Link to existing appointment
When a service task is partially complete, you can link it to another appointment in the parent work order. To do so:
- Click on Link Service in the appointment to which you want to link the service task.
- In the Link Service pop-up, click Save.
Resume work
You can resume work for a partially completed service task at anytime.
Complete Work
You can complete work for a partially completed service task at anytime.
In the confirmation message, click Complete Work to continue.
In case there are partially completed line items in the service appointment and the status of the service appointment is In Progress, then you will be shown a confirmation message.
The status of the service task will change to Completed. If you choose Keep it in "In Progress" the status of the service appointment will remain as In Progress. If you choose Complete Appointment in the above confirmation message, then the status of the service appointment will change to Completed.
Appointment Billing Status
The Service Appointments will have a Billing Status that will be determined based on the invoices created for the service line items in the service appointment.
- None: When no invoice has been created for any of the service line items of the service appointment
- Partially Invoiced: When at least one of the service line items of the service appointment is invoiced
- Invoiced: When all the service line items of the service appointment have been invoiced.
- Partially Paid: When all the service line items are invoiced and at least one of the invoices has been paid.
- Paid: When all the invoices created for the service line items of the service appointment have been paid.
- None: When no invoice has been created for any of the service line items of the service appointment
- Partially Invoiced: When at least one of the service line items of the service appointment is invoiced
- Invoiced: When all the service line items of the service appointment have been invoiced.
- Partially Paid: When all the service line items are invoiced and at least one of the invoices has been paid.
- Paid: When all the invoices created for the service line items of the service appointment have been paid.
These appointment billing status will be displayed on the horizontal bars in the Gantt view of the Dispatch Console.
Remove Service Tasks
You can remove the service tasks from a service appointment or a work order in the following ways:
- Delink from appointment
- Delete from work order
- Delete service tasks
Delink from appointment
You can delink a service task from an appointment from the Edit Service Appointment overlay. When you delink a service task from an appointment, it will be removed from the appointment, and its status in the work order will be changed to New.
If the service task you are trying to delete is part of a timesheet, then you will encounter the error shown in the screenshot below.
Delete from work order
From the Edit Service Appointment overlay, you can delete a service task from the work order.
Delete service tasks
You can remove service tasks from the Edit Work Order overlay. Click on the remove icon [
] to delete the service task from the work order.
If the service task you are trying to delete is part of a timesheet, then you will encounter the error shown in the screenshot below.
View Service Tasks in Dispatch Console
For each appointment, its related Services and Service Tasks will be listed in the tabular view of the left panel.
Using service tasks in the mobile app
The service task can be used in the work order and service appointment from the mobile app.
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