When planning a Work Order (WO) in the portal, service managers often drag and drop the work order (WO) onto a specific day and time slot for a technician. However, sometimes the system unexpectedly schedules the WO for a later date — not the one originally selected. This can be frustrating, but there’s a logical explanation: travel time calculations.
Why This Happens
During planning of a work order, when a service manager drag and drop the work order on a specific date and time on the planning slot, the system automatically calculates how long it would take for the technician to travel to the job site. If the travel time exceeds the available hours for the day, the system shifts and planned the work order (WO) to the earliest possible time the technician could realistically arrive.
For example, Let’s say you drag and drop a work order and plan it to a technician on the planning slot at 3:00 PM today, and the system estimates 50 hours of travel time. That means the technician wouldn’t arrive until 5:00 PM two days later. So, immediately you drop the work order on your desired time slot, the system will plan the work order (WO) for that future time(arrival time), not the time you originally selected.
How to Prevent This
You have two options to avoid unexpected scheduling/planning shifts:
Schedule Earlier in the Day
Assign the work order (WO) earlier so the travel time doesn’t push the job into the next day.
Disable Travel Time
If travel time isn’t relevant for your planning, you can turn off this feature entirely, so the system won’t bother calculating the travel time at all.
How to Turn Off Travel Time
Go to Service in the left navigation panel.
Select Planning.
Click the Gear icon ⚙️ in the top-right corner of the planning page.
Under General Settings, toggle off Show Travel Time.
Click Save to apply changes.
By understanding how travel time affects scheduling, you can plan more accurately and avoid surprises.
Manually Adjusting the Work Order
Even if the system schedules a Work Order (WO) for a future date due to travel time, you can still manually reschedule it to your preferred date and time.
Steps to Locate and Reschedule the Work Order:
Find the Scheduled Date and Time
Go to Services in the left navigation panel and select Work Orders.
Use filters on the Work Order page to search for the WO. For example, set Created Date: Today to view all WOs created that day.
Locate the work order (WO) in the grid below and click the three-dot menu icon on it and select Edit Work Order.
The work order (WO) will open to the Overview tab by default. In the Work Order Details panel under Technical Planning, note the Plan Date and Time.
Reschedule the Work Order
Go back to the Planning page.
Navigate to the date and time you noted from the work order (WO).
Find the work order (WO) on the planning slot. Right-click on it and select Grab Work Order.
Drag and drop it to your desired date and time slot.
Note: When you manually move the work order (WO), the system will automatically shift the travel time backward to start earlier.