Guide
A dispatcher's daily checklist for a 5 to 10 tech shop
A good dispatch day is decided the evening before. This checklist covers the evening, the first hour, mid-morning, midday, end of day and the weekly review, with notes on where CalSpark helps and where it does not.
By CalSpark team. Published . Updated .
The evening before
Ten minutes tonight removes most of tomorrow's phone calls.
- Open tomorrow on the board and read every job once, top to bottom.
- Check for unassigned and pending jobs that should be on someone's day.
- Confirm access: gate codes, lockbox numbers, someone home, pets, parking.
- Check parts. If a job needs a part, is it on the truck or still on order?
- Look for overlaps and tight jumps between jobs across town.
- Leave a buffer. Rule of thumb: a gap between jobs for drive time, plus slack on any job that tends to run long.
- Keep one emergency slot open on at least one truck.
In CalSpark, the dispatch board shows one row per technician, so overlaps are visible at a glance. The pending queue and unassigned list sit beside it, and you drag a job from the list onto a technician's row. If you try to double-book someone, you get a conflict warning. Office roles can choose "schedule anyway" when the overlap is intentional.
First thing in the morning
- Check who is out. Sick calls and late starts change everything.
- Move jobs from an absent tech to others, or push them to another day and tell the customer.
- Scan for overnight requests and add them as pending jobs.
- Make sure each tech can see their day on a phone before they leave the yard.
- Check that the first job of each day has its access details and parts confirmed, since a delayed start ripples through everything after it.
Technicians open their jobs in the phone view in a mobile browser. Anything you moved last night shows up there. CalSpark can email customers a reminder, but it does not text them out of the box, so if you want customers warned about arrival windows by text, that call or text is still yours. Text messages work only with your own Twilio account and are off by default.
Mid-morning and midday
This is where the plan meets the day. Most shops lose time here without noticing.
- Mid-morning: ask the first jobs how they are running. Run-over is the main source of late afternoons.
- Reshuffle early. Moving a 2 p.m. job at 10 a.m. is a courtesy call. Moving it at 1:45 is an apology.
- Check the pending queue. Anything that came in and still has no date needs one today.
- Midday: look at the afternoon again. Fill gaps left by quick jobs or cancellations.
- Confirm the emergency slot is still free. If it was used, find the next one.
Dragging a job to a new time or another technician is one move on the board. Job photos added on site, such as the panel, the leak or the unit nameplate, are visible from the office, which saves a call back to the tech. CalSpark does not plan routes or reorder jobs by drive time. You make that call, and the buffer you left last night is your protection.
End of day
- Every job that finished is marked completed, not left in progress.
- Anything unfinished has a new date or a note on why.
- Invoices go out the same day, while the work is fresh and the customer is still thinking about it.
- Cancelled jobs are marked cancelled so they stop showing as open.
- Tomorrow's unassigned list is empty or deliberate.
- Notes from the day are written down: a customer who wants a callback, a part to order, a door that was locked.
When a job is completed in CalSpark, you can create an invoice from it with the customer and scope of work filled in. Add the prices, then send it by email or print the PDF. More on timing in getting contractor invoices paid faster.
The weekly review
| Look at | Ask |
|---|---|
| Open and pending jobs | Is anything older than a week with no date? |
| Unpaid invoices | Who needs a call or a second send? |
| Next week's board | Is any tech overloaded or empty? |
| Parts and callbacks | What came back, and why? |
Be honest about the tools. The board has a Week view, so you can plan the week in one screen. There are no reporting dashboards, though, so the weekly list above is something you read, not a report you pull. If those gaps matter to you, read what small shops need from field service software before choosing.
Questions
How long should a dispatcher's daily routine take?
The evening check is about ten minutes, the morning check about the same, and the mid-day passes a few minutes each. A shop of five to ten techs rarely needs more, as long as the plan was set the night before.
Does CalSpark send reminders to customers?
By email, yes: switch on appointment reminders in settings. Text messages are not turnkey. They need your own Twilio account and are off by default, so if your customers prefer texts and you have not set that up, confirm appointments with your own messages.
Can CalSpark plan the best driving route?
No. There is no route optimization. You order the day on the dispatch board yourself, and the buffer you leave between jobs covers drive time.
Is there a week view of the schedule?
Yes. The dispatch board has a Day and a Week toggle. In the Week view, click a day cell to create a job and drag a job chip to another day or technician.
What if I need to double-book a technician?
CalSpark warns you about the conflict. Admin and front office users can choose "schedule anyway" to override it when you mean to, for example when two quick jobs sit in the same building.
Keep reading
- Job scheduling and dispatch timelineA dispatch board with a row per technician, in day and week views. Click to create a job, drag to reschedule or reassign, and get a warning when two jobs overlap.
- Technician view and iOS app statusTechnicians use the web view on any phone today to see jobs, tap On my way, update status and add photos. The iOS app is built but not in the App Store.
- How to get contractor invoices paid fasterInvoice the same day, record deposits and partial payments, offer card payment and chase late invoices without souring the customer.
- Scheduling and invoicing software for HVAC companiesSeasonal peaks, install crews and service techs on one dispatch board, with multiple addresses per customer. $49 a month flat.
- How to import customers from a spreadsheetClean a customer spreadsheet, map columns, catch duplicates and test with ten rows before you load the rest into your field service software.
Try it with your own jobs
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