What Are Workforce Scheduling Visits

How Visits and Service Appointments Work Together

A Visit and a Service Appointment describe the same piece of work from two different points of view.

• The Visit is for users: A case worker, inspector, dispatcher, or supervisor creates a Visit, defines the location, selects the Work Type and arrival window, and schedules it. A Visit is the primary record users interact with in list views, on the Operations Console Gantt, and on the map. Status updates on the Visit reflect real-time progress in the field. You can’t edit the Visit status manually from the record page, or through API. The status changes only through an action that updates it, such as Schedule or Change Status in the Operations Console. Users can update the status on the Service Appointment record, which automatically syncs to the Visit record. This mapping is handled automatically by system logic and isn’t configured in the context definition. See how Service Appointment status category maps to the Visit status.
• The Service Appointment is for the scheduling engine: Workforce Scheduling automatically creates a background Service Appointment and a parent Work Order for every Visit. The scheduling engine uses this underlying Service Appointment to find time slots, assign resources, and schedule the Visit according to the scheduling policies. All scheduling and optimization logic, including overlap detection, runs on the Service Appointment. Changes then sync to the Visit.

The Visit and its Service Appointment stay in sync automatically. When you schedule, reschedule, or unschedule a Visit, the scheduling engine updates the underlying Service Appointment first, and the changes immediately sync back to the visible Visit record.

The background Service Appointment and Work Order don’t appear in Operations Console list views, on the Gantt, or on the map. They do appear in the Service Appointment object list view, reports, API queries, and developer or admin views, so that the scheduling engine has the underlying records it needs while the dispatcher’s workspace stays focused on the Visit.

Key Fields

When you create or manage Visits, you work with these key fields:

• Work Type: A template that defines the work and its requirements, such as required skills, duration type, due date, and estimated duration. Instead of entering these requirements per visit, you select the Work Type — its values flow to the scheduling engine automatically.
  • Required Skills: The certifications or licenses a service resource must have to perform the Visit (for example, a licensed inspector or social worker).
  • Estimated Duration: How long the appointment should take, which tells the scheduling engine how much time to block on the service resource’s calendar.
  • Due Date Requirements: The timeframe within which the appointment must be completed.
  • Scheduling Method: Determines what appointments can be scheduled for that work; On-site, Field, or both. A work type also names the object to schedule against for each method.
• Earliest Start Permitted: The exact date and time after which a service resource can begin work.
• Visit Priority: How the scheduling engine ranks the Visit relative to others.
• Due Date: The latest date by which the Visit must be completed.
• Service Territory: The geographic or functional area where the Visit occurs.
• Account: The customer, constituent, or organization being visited.
• Address: The physical location of the Visit.

The scheduling engine also uses data from the Visit’s related Account, Asset, and Location records — including Preferred Resource, Visiting Hours, Excluded Resource, Required Resource, and Entitlement.