Service Director Overview

The Service Director application helps you manage equipment service calls by consolidating technician information, schedules, and work orders into one module. After you have set up the system, Service Director tracks your work orders from entry to completion by scheduling dispatches, recording service call work, and maintaining work order history.

Service Director associates regularly-serviced equipment with your customers, then uses that information when you enter work orders. The work order is the heart of the system: it records a service request action with a dispatch, which in turn contains labor and parts lines to record what was done during that service call action. When the work order is complete, the system maintains the work history for both the work order and the serviced equipment so that you can view service details, identify recurring problems, or plan routine maintenance.

Service Director also allows you to manage your internal equipment through service orders. By working with the Traverse Fixed Asset application, you can track the ongoing maintenance costs of your equipment during its service life. Like work orders, service orders record a service request with a dispatch for labor and parts, and allow you to record what was done during that service call action. You can plan routine maintenance, view service details, and identify recurring problems with your equipment while maintaining equipment history.

Service Director simplifies scheduling with scheduling tools. These tools allow you to create schedules, specify holidays and dates your company is closed, and enter any advance schedule changes for specific technicians to plan future availability and manage workflow. When you need to schedule a service order or work order dispatch, you can ask the system to suggest a time based on technician availability or view a specific technician's calendar to create a booking. Once you have booked dispatches, use the built-in calendars to view scheduled dispatches and plan activities.

Service Director works with the Traverse Accounts Receivable application to record invoice and payment information for completed service calls. Posting completed work orders in Service Director creates open invoices in Accounts Receivable. After you post work orders, use Accounts Receivable to print or reprint invoices and record payment information.

Finally, use the reporting tools to view service order, work order, profitability, and productivity information to analyze your business, identify trends, or introduce new types of services.

The Service Director application provides a tool for managing your service calls from scheduling the initial dispatch to creating the final invoice. As such, there are tasks you must perform on a regular basis as part of your workflow. The processes you use as you work with Service Director include the following:

  • Daily Work Order processes.
  • Business processes.
  • Maintenance processes.

This high-level overview of processes and procedures is meant to give you an idea of how Service Director works with other applications and what you may need to keep in mind as you work. Your actual workflow processes may differ.

The Work Order is the center of the Service Director application. It drives how service calls are scheduled, recorded, and completed. The following procedures should give you an idea of what you need to do to create a work order and follow it through to completion. Keep in mind that the following procedures are suggestions; your actual workflow might differ slightly.

Track Work Orders

A typical work order might proceed through these steps:

  1. Enter a new work order in response to a service call.
  2. Use the Work Order Entry function to create and schedule a dispatch.
  3. Print the Work Order Report or the Scheduled Dispatch Report and give it to the technician servicing the call.
  4. Record the work order information as you receive it.
  5. When the work order is complete, use the Print button on the Work Order Entry screen to print an invoice for the customer, then post it.

Schedule Work Orders

Follow the steps below to schedule a work order:

  1. To schedule a dispatch as you enter it, click the Schedule button on the Work Order Entry screen’s Dispatch tab, then click OK to schedule the work order once you find an appropriate time. You can also enter schedule details manually by entering date and time information directly into the fields. If you schedule dispatches manually, be sure to click OK to actually book the dispatch; dispatches are not booked until you click OK.
  2. To identify dispatches that need to be scheduled, print the Unscheduled Dispatch Report.
  3. Use the Calendar View function to identify conflicts and availabilities.

Post Work Orders

The work order status changes to 'Complete' when you click the Complete button and enter a completed date and tech ID into the Completed Date box on the Work Order Entry screen’s Dispatch tab. After you complete a work order, use the Post Work Orders function to post the work order and create an open invoice in Accounts Receivable, then use the Accounts Receivable Hold/Release Invoices and Cash Receipts functions to release the invoice, record payments, and finish the work order.

If your company deals with a large number of work orders, you may want to post work orders daily.

Business Process

Service Director includes reports that access work order history records, giving you the information you need to analyze your business practices. To make the most of your business information, use the procedures described below.

  • Analyze Profitability - Print the Profitability Report monthly or quarterly to review price and costing data. You can print this report for a range of customers, work orders, technicians, or completion dates. The report will list how much you’re spending on labor and parts and the resulting profit, allowing you to identify practices that may be costing you money or services that are especially in demand.
  • Analyze Productivity - Print the Productivity Report monthly or quarterly to view technician productivity. You can print this report organized by customer, work order, technician, or completion date. Use the information on the report to adjust dispatch time estimates, identify time-consuming tasks or dispatches, and determine service call trends.

Verify Work Order Completion

Print the Order History Report as often as necessary to verify that work orders are completed in a timely manner. Print the Scheduled Dispatch Report and Unscheduled Dispatch Report to identify lost work orders and analyze your company’s response time to work order requests.

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As your business grows, you’ll need to add new information to Service Director to remain current. Follow the procedures below to add and maintain your company’s information.

Add New Employees/Technicians

Follow these steps to add a new technician:

  1. Determine whether the new technician’s skills fit in with the skill levels you have defined. If necessary, use the Skill Levels function to add a new skill level.
  2. If you need a new labor code for the technician, add the labor code using the Labor Codes function.
  3. Use the Schedules function to enter the new technician’s schedule changes, if necessary. If the technician does not have any schedule changes, assign the technician a schedule control record that contains only the schedule ID for the hours he or she regularly works.
  4. Add the new employee to your employee base using the SM Employees or PA Employee Information function.
  5. Use the Technicians function to add the new technician.

Add New Parts or Equipment

As you gain new customers, you need to enter information about their equipment or the parts necessary for its service if this information is not already present in the system. If Inventory is installed and interfaced with Service Director, use the Items function to enter new Item information; otherwise, use the SM Description Items function to enter this information. Once you enter the new equipment/parts information into the system, you can use it in Service Director’s Site Equipment, General Equipment, and Work Order Entry functions.

Add New Service Contracts

Follow these steps to add a new service contract:

  1. If the service contract is for a new customer, record the new customer’s information using the AR Customers function.
  2. If the contract involves a new piece of equipment or uses new parts, enter the new equipment and parts information into either the IN Items function (if Inventory is installed and interfaced with Service Director) or the SM Item Descriptions function.
  3. Use the Site Equipment function to enter information about the equipment that will be serviced.
  4. Use the Service Contracts function to enter the new contract.
  5. If the contract involves regular dispatches, enter a recurring entry in Accounts Receivable for the service contract and use the Billing tab in the Service Contracts function to link the service contract to the AR Recurring Entry. Use the Generate Service Orders function to set up a recurring billing record for the customer.

Add New Services

If your company is adding a new type of service, follow these steps to record the new service information:

  1. Determine what information you need to add—will you need to add new items, skill levels, labor codes, technicians, Work To Do descriptions, schedules, or is this information already present in your system?
  2. Use either the IN Items function (if Inventory is installed and interfaced with Service Director) or the SM Description Items function to enter information about new site equipment your company will service or new parts your technicians will use.
  3. Use the functions on the SD Setup and Maintenance menu to enter the information you gathered above.
  4. If the new service occurs regularly, use the Generate Work Orders or Generate Service Orders function to speed work order or service order entry.

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