PlumbingBossPro Blog — Dispatch & Scheduling

Saved Views on the Plumbing Dispatch Board

Watch a plumbing dispatcher for an hour and you will see them set the same filters over and over. Van 1, today. Van 2, today. All vans, tomorrow. Each takes a few clicks, and a few clicks forty times a day adds up. Saved views turn each of those into one click.

Filters You Use Again and Again

Plenty of dispatch work, including the after-hours follow-up from After-Hours Plumbing Calls: Setting a Dispatch Policy You Can Live With, starts with opening the board to the right view. Saved views make that the fastest step of the day instead of a small chore.

In PlumbingBossPro, the dispatch board can be filtered, and you can save the views you use so they open with their filters already set.

Views Worth Saving

Every shop is different, but these are a good start for a plumbing office:

• Each van, today. One view per van. The most-used views in the office.
• All vans, today. For balancing work and handling emergencies.
• All vans, tomorrow. For end-of-day checks and building the next day.
• Water heater van, this week. For finding room for approved replacements and installs.
• Repair and drain van, this week. For spotting days that are too full to absorb an emergency.

Start with three or four. Add more only when you notice yourself setting the same filters again.

Saved Views and the Daily Routine

Saved views fit naturally into a daily routine:

• Morning: open each van's view for today, check the load and route order, then open “All vans, today” for the big picture.
• Midday: flip between van views as skips and completions come in.
• End of day: open “All vans, today” to confirm nothing is left, then “All vans, tomorrow” to confirm tomorrow.

A routine built on saved views is quick to teach to someone covering the phones for a day.

Consistency When More Than One Person Dispatches

In a lot of plumbing shops, more than one person touches dispatch. The office manager books calls, the owner moves things around from the truck, a part-timer covers Saturdays. When everyone sets their own filters, they see the board differently and make different calls.

Shared habits around saved views help. If everyone opens “Van 1, today” to check Van 1, everyone is looking at the same thing. That cuts down on two people booking the same slot or missing the same skip.

Views for Specific Situations

Some views are only useful at certain times, but they are worth saving if those times come up often:

• A restaurant view if one van handles grease-line jetting on certain days.
• A slow-week view covering the maintenance van for the next couple of weeks, for filling gaps with due visits.
• An owner view if the owner runs estimates and inspections on their own schedule.

Saved Views and Route Sheets

When a tech wants a printed sheet, open their saved view for the day, check the order and print. Saved views make the print step quick and consistent, so every route sheet looks the same. More in Printing Plumbing Route Sheets for the Van and the Office.

Keep Views Few and Named Clearly

Saved views can turn into clutter. A few rules keep them useful:

• Name them plainly. “Van 2 · Water Heaters · Today” beats “Mike's view.” Techs change. Vans stay.
• Delete the ones nobody uses. If a view has not been opened in a month, remove it.
• Update when the setup changes. When you add a van or change what a van does, update the views to match.

What Saved Views Do Not Replace

Saved views are a shortcut, not a substitute for looking. They will show you exactly what you asked to see, and nothing else. Every now and then, look at the board without filters to catch anything that fell outside your usual views, like a job sitting on a day nobody checks or a job with no van.

Setting Up Views on Day One

The best time to create saved views is right after you add your vans and techs. Build one view per van for today, one for all vans today and one for all vans tomorrow. That is enough to run a normal day. Then use the board for a week and notice which filters you keep setting by hand. Those are the next views to save. Building views from real habits, rather than guessing up front, keeps the list short and useful.

One Click to the Right Board

Saved views are small, but they make dispatch faster and more consistent across everyone in the office. Pick the views you use most, name them clearly and build your routine around them. To see how saved views fit with the board, van filter and routing, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing dispatch software page.