Guidelines for Creating Service Resources for Field Service

View Service Resources

View service resources on the Create Service Resources page in Guided Setup or the Service Resources tab. In addition:

• Resources that are assigned to a service appointment appear in the Assigned Resources related list on the appointment detail page.
• Resources that belong to a service territory appear in the Service Territory Members related list on the territory detail page.
• Resources that belong to a service crew appear in the Service Crew Members related list on the service crew detail page.

Create Service Resources

Create service resources from the Create Service Resources page in Guided Setup or the Service Resources tab. Service resources can represent users or groups of users (known as service crews). When creating service resources, follow these guidelines:

• To create a service resource that represents a user, select the user in the User lookup field and select a Resource Type of Technician.
• To create a service resource that represents a service crew, select the crew in the Service Crew field and select a Resource Type of Crew. Service resources that are crews can’t be activated unless the crew has at least one active member.

Assign Service Resources to Service Appointments

Manually assign a resource to a service appointment by scheduling an appointment to the service resource in the Classic Dispatch Console or by using automated scheduling mechanisms. When you assign a service appointment to a crew, Managed Package allocates crew members to the appointment at relevant events during the appointment’s workflow. See Manage Field Service Crew Membership.

We recommend manually creating only one Assigned Resource record per service appointment.

Deactivate Service Resources

For tracking purposes, resources can only be deactivated, not deleted. To deactivate a user, deselect Active on their detail page.

Service resources that belong to service crews can’t be deactivated. If you deactivate a service resource, make sure to update records that were associated with that resource. For example, if a deactivated service resource was a required resource for an account, update that account to prevent scheduling issues.

Deactivating a user deactivates the related service resource. You can’t create a service resource that is linked to an inactive user.

Reactivating a user doesn’t reactivate the related service resource. If you reactivate a user, you must reassign the user permissions to activate that service resource.

Note After a user account is deactivated, the user is no longer visible on the Gantt. Let’s say a user just left your company. To enable the dispatcher to work on the user’s service appointments and prevent the user from logging in to your organization, freeze the user account before deactivating the user. Keep in mind that even though the user account is frozen, the service appointment can be assigned to a service resource related to the user.

View Service Resource Schedules

The Service Appointments related list shows all appointments that a resource is assigned to, while the Absences related list shows define periods of time when the resource is unavailable to work. The Service Resource Availability work rule type ensures that resources aren’t assigned to appointments when they’re absent. Otherwise, resources can be manually assigned to appointments that conflict with their absences.

Note Create a trigger that sends an approval request to a supervisor when a resource creates an absence.