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Visual Assignment Scheduler

Visual Assignment Scheduler

The Visual Assignment Scheduler provides a powerful tool for managing the diary activities of employees, organising job schedules and visually assigning employees to jobs.

With the Visual Assignment Scheduler, you can view a graphical display of any technician or group of technicians in a convenient daily, weekly or employee calendar view. You can even print out a selected schedule at any time.

The Visual Assignment Scheduler can be accessed by pressing ALT-F10 anywhere within TSM (or selecting Visual Scheduler from the TSM Actions Menu or Taskbar.

The Visual Assignment Scheduler screen comprises the following sections:

Press the navigate buttons to quickly change the calendar dates displayed.

Move the calendar to the previous day / week

The currently selected date. Double click on the date to choose today’s date.

Move the calendar to the next day / week

Choose the view type you would like from the menu

Select on the view button to view the assignment attached to the selected job

Use this button to show / hide the right side options. This gives you more real estate to work with when you want to manipulate assignments

Redraw the calendar display to display updated assignments.

Assign an employee to the selected assignment

Unassign the employee from the selected assignment

Delete the selected assignment

Print the assignment calendar

Exit from the Assignments screen

Scheduling an Assignment

There are a number of ways to schedule assignments in the Visual Assignment Scheduler.

Firstly, select the calendar view you wish to use (Day, Week or Employee) that displays the day and time you want to schedule the assignment for.

Creating an assignment directly on the Job Centre

Select the desired date and start time on the Visual Assignment Scheduler calendar. Hold the left mouse button down on the selected date / start time and drag it over the calendar view to the desired completion time of the Assignment.

Creating an assignment from a job on the Job Centre

Select any job from the Job Centre. Hold the left mouse button down on the selected job number and the cursor will change to look like a hand dragging. Drag the job into the calendar view at the desired day and time you want to schedule the job assignment for. The assignment will now appear in the Visual Assignment Scheduler calendar view at the selected date and time. You can adjust the assignment duration by holding the left mouse button down on the bottom bar of the scheduled job and dragging it down to extend the length of the assignment to the desired duration.

Creating an assignment from a job Card

Select the Add Assignment button from the Assignments Tab.

Printing Assignments

Assignment information can be printed in two ways:

  1. In the Visual Scheduler click the Print button. This will print out the displayed calendar view, one day per page.
  2. In Assignment Reports choose the required criteria and click Print to generate the Assignment Summary report.

The Assignment Maintenance screen also allows an individual assignment details to be sent to an employee via Email or SMS.

Assignments Local Menu

Pressing the right mouse button over any assignment will display the Assignment Local Menu.

Assign Employee

In the Day/Week view, select the assignment you want to assign an employee to and then select the employee from the Selected Employee list. Press the Assign button or select Assign Employee from the Local Menu and the employee will be assigned to the selected assignment. The assignments left column colour will change to match the colour of the assigned employee. In Employee view, the employee is automatically assigned to whichever employee's column you drag the assignment to.

Unassign Employee

In the Day/Week view, select the assignment you want to unassign the employee from. Press the Unassign button or select Unassign Employee and the employee will be removed from the assignment.

Delete Assignment

To delete an assignment, select the assignment you want to delete and press the Delete button or select Delete Assignment and the assignment will be deleted.

Acknowledge Assignment

An employee can acknowledge that they have seen the assignment by acknowledging it. Select the assignment you want to acknowledge and press the Acknowledge menu option. The Acknowledged By fields on the assignment will be populated with an Employee ID and date/time. This field can then be used in Reporting.

Complete Assignment

An employee can note the completion of an assignment (not the linked job) by completing it. Select the assignment you want to complete and press the Complete Assignment menu option. The Completed By fields on the assignment will be populated with an Employee ID and date/time.

View Job

Select the job linked assignment you want view the assigned job for and either select View job or double click on the assignment. The linked job will be displayed.

Print Job

Pops up the print Destination screen allowing you to select which Job Card report to generate.

View

If you want to change any details of an assignment, select the assignment in the calendar and select View from the local menu. The Assignment Maintenance Screen will be displayed.

Current Assignments

Displays the Current Assignments screen to display all assignments currently in progress. This is also accessible via a button the Assignments tab of the job card, or the Job Centre.

Send Email

Send an email to the allocated employee

Send SMS

Send an SMS message to the assignee. See the SMS section for more info.

Set Job Status

Select the Status Code to assign the linked job and press the Save button to confirm. Note: This option is only available when the assignment is linked to a job.

Create Timesheet

Pops up the Time Sheet screen already populated with the relevant date, time, and labour information for this assignment. Once the timesheet is saved, the assignment is marked with a bell icon. This icon will also appear if the timesheet is created using the Time button on the Assignments Maintenance module but not if it was added using the Add Time button on the Job Card. It is there as a visual aid.

Set Assignment Colour

Allows the assignment colour be set to something other than that of the job.

Set Primary Assignment

Flags this assignment as the primary one for the job. See the Linked Primary Assignment option in Setup.

Create Local Outlook Appointment

An appointment will be created in your Outlook calendar. Please note that any changes made in Outlook will not be updated into tsm.

Create Shared Outlook Appointment

An appointment will be created in your shared Outlook calendar. Please note that any changes made in Outlook will not be updated into tsm.

Additional Notes
  • Tsm Visual Scheduler can now be registered to display the Visual Scheduler as a stand alone option which can be displayed on an external monitor in the room. This will not use an additional tsm licence.
  • You can choose to see the employee ID or the employee name when using the employee view by changing the setup option (go to Utilities / Setup / Setup / Miscellaneous / 'employee column heading is' field
  • When part(s) is used in the job, a key icon will show on the assignment of the visual scheduler.

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