Handle day-to-day exceptions

Most days, something on an already-set schedule needs to change — a job runs long, a customer needs a different afternoon, a technician sends something back from the field that needs a decision. This guide covers the routine exceptions: rescheduling, reassigning, putting a job on hold, and acting on what a technician reports. For a same-day urgent call that has to be slotted into an already-full day, see Handle an emergency work order.

Reschedule a visit

Drag its card to a new time or day on the board. What that move does depends on where you drop it:

• Onto a different time on the same tech's row (or a different day, in Week view) — moves the time only, keeps the same technician.
• Onto a different technician's row — moves the time and reassigns it in one drag (see below).

Either way, the move runs through the same placement checks covered in Schedule and assign a job. A double-booked tech, a time outside their working hours, or a move that lands the job past its SLA window all surface as a warning you can override with Schedule anyway. If the customer had already been confirmed for the old time, a notify customer toggle offers to re-confirm them for the new one — leave it on unless you're handling that call yourself.

Reassign a visit

Drag the card onto a different technician's row. Thermal re-checks that tech's certifications, working hours, and existing schedule for the new placement — the same checks a fresh assignment gets — and, once it applies, notifies both the outgoing and the incoming technician. To swap technicians without changing the time, drop the card on the new tech's row at the same slot it was already in.

If a change bumps someone else's appointment to make room, the board shows you the conflict — it doesn't call the customer for you. That part's still a phone call on your end.

Put a job on hold

When a job is stalled on something outside your control — a part on order, a customer who needs to get back to you — set its Hold Status from the work order's Details tab: Waiting for parts or Awaiting customer. This doesn't change the job's status or take it off the schedule; it just flags the reason on the board (as a Waiting · Parts or Awaiting customer pill on the job card) so anyone scanning it understands why a job isn't moving. Clear it by setting the field back to No hold once it's unblocked.

Field requests from technicians

A technician working a job in the field can send back a request without being able to change the schedule themselves — a reschedule ask, a recommend work writeup, a request for a follow-up visit, or a needs parts note. These land in the Field requests panel at the top of the dispatch board, grouped by type, each with the tech's own note and who asked.

Reviewing one is a two-step split on purpose: the panel's Approve only marks the request reviewed — the underlying reschedule, follow-up visit, or quote is still a separate, explicit action you take yourself (rescheduling the visit, building the estimate, and so on). Dismiss clears a request you're not going to act on. Nothing here changes the schedule on its own; it's a queue of things that need your judgment call, not an auto-apply.

Reference

• Field request types — reschedule, recommend_work, follow_up_visit, needs_parts, and every other domain value Thermal uses, generated straight from the product, are in Status & domain values.
• Who can reach Dispatch and Work Orders — Owners, Dispatchers, and Office users; not Technicians. See Roles & permissions.