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Read-only Invoices for Mobile Tech

We are relatively new ESC users and are struggling a bit with mobile invoicing (in some instances), where the invoices become a "read-only" status.  We have seen cases where invoices become read-only when parts are added via dispatching, whether added on the Parts tab or imported from a quote. Additionally, when dispatches are transferred from one technician to another and the invoice has been started by the first assigned technician, the invoice becomes read-only.  In both cases, the customer has not provided an authorization or acceptance signature. 

There are times when it is necessary to hand-off a dispatch from one technician to another.  Also, some jobs require additional parts and/or labor that was not included in invoices initiated by office staff.  I can understand one technician not being allowed to edit another one's line item(s).  However, it would helpful to know what the business/programming rules are in regard to both examples, as well as tips from other ESC Tech users as to a workaround. 

 

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  • I'll be interested to hear/see the dESCo answer.

    Our experience has been that adding techs, parts, etc. does not make the invoice read only.  The only instance I can think of where this happens is if you merge a customer location into another customer location.  The invoices don't get transferred and are read only afterwards.  So make sure you are done with them before merging.

    Just out of curiousity, in the case where the original tech starts a job and another takes over, you are adding a second tech and completing the first one, yes?  If not, I can see where it might confuse the system, and you won't get an accurate track of technician whereabouts and times.

    ::swat:::  Scott?  It's in your court.   : )

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  • When you say complete, do you mean literally setting the status to "Complete," or something like "Off Job"?  Thank you for your feedback, Rick!

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  • Any time a tech is done with a job they should actually be set to complete.  This won't complete the entire dispatch if you have someone else still assigned, or if it's on the schedule for a later day.  It just completes that line.

    My rule of thumb is that "Off Job" should only be used if the the same tech is going back to the job the same day.  I have a separate status they can use to indicate that that need to continue the job on another day.  That is simply "Need Time", which tells the dispatcher that he/she needs to talk to the tech and get more time scheduled, although hopefully the tech follows through and calls to explain.  Need Time becomes a bit of a cross check in that regard.

    Off Job has been severely abused at time, to the point that I have considered removing the tech's ability to use it on mobile.  Because realistically, even if the tech leaves the job to get parts, tools, whatever, I'd rather just leave them on the job accumulating time as that is time burned by that job.   So, we only use it if a tech has to leave to go to a different job, and will return the next day.

    But I ramble, again.

    Bottom line, if you have to switch techs mid job, Complete the line on the dispatch for schedule, and add a new line for the new tech.  Now you know who was actually there, and the times involved.

    If you need to change techs before anyone arrives, it's up to you.  You can just change the tech, or if you want a record of who was unable to get to all their jobs, create a new line and complete the previous one.   If you just drag the dispatch to a new tech on the EDB, the system will create a Transfer status for the first tech which tells you what happened, but if you do it very often you get annoying  little Transfer droppings in your reports. : )

     

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  • Just a thought, when you said the invoice was read only, are you talking about after it's imported from mobile?  Or are you getting the message that techs are still assigned and need to be Completed before you can import?

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  • Hey guys, sorry about the delay.

    It's hard to retroactively determine what action someone took to cause an Invoice to go "read only" on mobile.

    While, I can confirm that creating a Dispatch from a pre-existing Invoice will result in a Read Only message on Mobile. There are also some other unique scenarios, specific to a users work flow with Mobile Tech and Dispatching that will cause it. But it requires individual investigation to what they're specifically doing.

    The best solution is to use the method we created when we launched mobile that eliminates the risk of "read only" or "missing parts" scenarios. It just works. And while it may require a specific process, clients that dive in and trust it, find that it ends up saving them time. On average, that time adds up to (at least) one extra job per day.

    https://descohelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/217111277-Ordering-Parts-for-a-Mobile-Dispatch

    We're here to help our clients succeed, so if we need to take this conversation offline and have a support tech help discuss this further, we are absolutely able to do that.


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  • Scott, I couldn't agree more - each case requires individual investigation.  Thank you for the article!

    Rick - the read-only scenario I described is one the techs see on their mobile devices.  I greatly appreciate your feedback, as well!

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