Extend Workforce Scheduling
Extend Workforce Scheduling with additional features across service appointments, service resources, service territories, work types, and availability management.
Required Editions
| Available in: Lightning Experience |
| Available in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions |
Extend Service Appointments
After setting up service appointments, extend them with calendar integration, automatic resource assignment, video appointments, and group sessions. These features expand how appointments are created, displayed, and managed.
- Write Appointments to Salesforce Calendar: Show scheduled appointments as calendar events so service resources and managers can view appointments alongside other meetings. When Event Management is enabled, Workforce Scheduling writes each service appointment as an event on the assigned resource's Salesforce calendar. See Write Scheduler Appointments to Salesforce Calendar.
- Block Resource Availability on Calendar: Display before-and-after appointment buffer times on a service resource's Salesforce calendar so other users can see when the resource is preparing for or wrapping up an appointment. Requires Event Management to be enabled first. See Show Appointments with Before and After Buffer Time on Salesforce Calendar.
- Enable Anonymous Scheduling: Automatically assign a service resource to an appointment so users don't have to select a specific person during booking. The scheduling engine selects the most appropriate resource based on scheduling policy rules and, when enabled, appointment distribution. See Enable Automatic Resource Assignment and Anonymous Scheduling.
- Set Up Video Appointments: Integrate with Amazon Chime to generate video meeting links automatically when users schedule virtual appointments. Requires configuring the Amazon Chime SDK and enabling the Video Appointments setting. See Set Up Video Appointments with Amazon Chime.
- Set Up Group Appointments: Allow multiple attendees to book into a single time slot for group sessions such as orientations, classes, or workshops. The work type's Attendee Limit field controls the maximum number of attendees per group appointment. See Set Up Group Service Appointments.
Extend Service Resources
After creating service resources, extend them with skills, appointment sharing, and engagement channels. These features control which appointments a resource is eligible for, how resources are matched to work types, and how appointment access is managed.
- Create Skills: Define expertise areas such as "Wealth Manager" or "Mortgage Specialist" so you can match service resources to appointment types that require specific knowledge or certifications. Skills are used with the Match Skills scheduling policy rule. See Create Skills.
- Share Appointments with Assigned Resources: Automatically share newly created service appointments with all assigned service resources so they have the permissions to view and manage their appointments. Required for service resources who don't create their own appointments, such as those booked by customer care representatives or guest users. See Share Service Appointments with Assigned Service Resources.
- Configure Engagement Channel Types: Define communication channels such as phone, video,
and in-person so the scheduling engine can filter resources by the channels they support.
Requires shifts to be enabled. Territory managers and service resources add channels to
shifts to define per-channel availability. See Engagement Channel Types.
Note When the Engagement Channel Type preference is enabled, the Engagement Channel name must match the Interaction Type. When scheduling interactions through the API, provide both the Engagement Channel Type ID and the Interaction Type in the request.
Extend Service Territories
After creating service territories, extend them with additional functionality such as location services, address picklists, virtual territories, and geocoding. These features improve location accuracy, simplify data entry, and expand how territories are used in scheduling.
- Enable Maps and Location Services: Display territory locations on a map and let users search for nearby territories by address during scheduling. See Enable Maps and Location Services.
- Configure State and Country Picklists: Standardize address data entry so users select states and countries from predefined lists instead of typing into text fields. Ensures consistent territory address data and prevents errors when saving flow templates. See Configure State and Country Picklists.
- Extend Location Search: Let users search for and select appointment locations in scheduling flows by adding trusted URLs for the location search component. See Extend Location Search.
- Virtual Territories: Create territories without physical addresses for service resources available on virtual channels such as phone and video. Useful when a group of resources takes only virtual appointments and doesn't operate from a single physical location. See Virtual Territories.
- Data Integration Rules: Automatically geocode territory addresses using the Geocodes for Service Territory Address rule so that location-based scheduling uses accurate latitude and longitude coordinates. Also geocodes service appointments, resource absences, and service territory members.
Extend Work Types
After creating work types, extend them with work type groups, skill requirements, custom appointment types, label changes, and data translations. These features organize how appointment topics are presented to users and control which resources are eligible for each type of work.
- Create Work Type Groups: Organize work types into appointment categories such as "General Banking" or "Insurance Management" so users can select a topic before choosing a specific appointment type. A work type links a work type group to a service territory. See Create Work Type Groups.
- Add Skill Requirements for Work Types: Require specific skills on a work type so that only service resources with matching expertise appear as candidates during scheduling. A service resource can be assigned to an appointment only if the resource has all the skills that are required for the associated work type. See Add Skill Requirements for Work Types.
- Customize Default Appointment Types: Add or modify appointment type picklist values such as phone, at a branch, or video to match the engagement channels your organization supports. Workforce Scheduling uses matching utility icons from Lightning Design System for each picklist value. See Customize Default Appointment Types.
- Change Labels in Flow Screens: Rename object tabs and field labels for Service Resource, Service Territory, Service Appointments, Work Type Group, and Work Type to use your organization's terminology. Label changes apply across all applications that use these objects. See Change Labels in Flow Screens.
- Manage Data Translations: Translate work type group names, service territory names, service resource names, and custom field data so users in different locales see appointment information in their language. Supports Text, Text Area, Text Area (Long), Text Area (Rich), and URL field types. See Manage Objects' Data Translations.
Extend Availability Management
After configuring operating hours and availability work rules, extend availability management with shifts, appointment distribution, holidays, and absence tracking. These features give you more control over when and how service resources can be booked.
- Manage Shifts: Give service resources flexible scheduling by defining individual time blocks when they're available for appointments, instead of relying solely on territory operating hours. Shifts support engagement channel filtering and per-topic availability. See Manage Shifts.
- Appointment Distribution: Distribute appointments equitably across service resources based on utilization scores to prevent overloading some resources while others remain underutilized. Requires enabling the Appointment Distribution and Aggregate Resource Use settings, and defining an appointment assignment policy linked to a scheduling policy. See Appointment Distribution.
- Set Up Holidays: Block appointment scheduling during organization-wide or regional holidays so that no resources at a territory are booked during those periods. Holidays are timezone-agnostic and automatically acquire the timezone of the associated service territory. See Set Up Holidays.
- Manage Service Resource Absences: Track individual resource unavailability such as vacations or personal time so the scheduling engine excludes them from affected time slots. Supports single and recurring absences. Existing appointments during an absence period are not automatically canceled and must be manually reassigned. See Service Resource Absences.
Did this article solve your issue?
Let us know so we can improve!
