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How To Schedule A Maintenance

This article outlines how to schedule Maintenance Visits in BuildOps.

Written by Angelene Rosario

Things to consider: Prior to starting this workflow, verify that your Service Agreement Settings are configured accordingly.

How To Schedule A Maintenance Visit

There are 5 ways to schedule a Maintenance Visit:

  1. From the Maintenance Table

  2. From a Maintenance Page

  3. From a Service Agreement

  4. From the Unassigned Tray on the Dispatch Board

  5. Using the Schedule Assistant (Smart Dispatch)

From the Maintenance Table

  1. To access the Maintenance Table, hover over Operations → click Maintenance.

  2. On the Maintenance Table, you'll see all Maintenances. To quickly filter for only Unscheduled Maintenances, click the Unscheduled tab at the top of the table.

  3. Check the box next to the Maintenance(s) you want to schedule a Visit for.

  4. Click CREATE VISITS (upper right corner).

  5. Select Bulk Visit Creation to create multiple Visits based on one set of inputs, or select Manual Visit Creation to manually assign a time, date, and technician(s) for each Visit. Click CREATE VISITS.

  6. Click the arrow in the upper left to expand the Visit Information. Fill in the data fields and click CREATE VISITS.

Note: A date, starting time, and technician must be selected for this Visit to appear as Scheduled on the Dispatch Board. If one or more of these fields is missing, the Visit status will be Unassigned.

After you create the Visit, the Visit status and the Maintenance status will change to Scheduled.

From A Maintenance Page

  1. Click on the Maintenance number to open the Maintenance page.

  2. You'll automatically land in the Scheduling tab. Click SCHEDULE (under the relevant Visit).

  3. If there is no Visit on the Maintenance, click ADD VISIT (right side of the page) and fill in the details to create a scheduled Visit.

  4. Add a date, time, and primary technician. Fill in the other data fields (if applicable).

  5. Once you've added the required fields, click SAVE (upper right corner). The Visit status and the Maintenance status will change to Scheduled.

If you need to make changes to the Visit details later, click RESCHEDULE.

During Service Agreement Creation (Step 4: Schedule Maintenances)

  1. To access a Service Agreement, hover over Operations → click Service Agreements → click the Service Agreement name or number. Or use the global search.

    When you create or revise a Service Agreement, you can schedule the resulting Maintenance Visits directly as part of setup — this happens in Step 4: Schedule Maintenances, before the agreement is activated.
    ​

    1. In Step 4, review the maintenances generated from Step 3 — check the asset, maintenance tasks, and discipline involved (e.g. HVAC, plumbing, controls) before grouping them.

    2. Select the maintenances you want to schedule together using the checkboxes next to each maintenance number.

    3. Click Edit Maintenances.

    4. Complete the maintenance group details:

      • Maintenance Group Name — e.g. "Spring Maintenance" or "Fall Maintenance"

      • Maintenance Tags (if needed)

      • Maintenance Type (required)

      • Budgeted Hours — auto-populates from the checklist labor estimate

      • Primary Technician

      • Additional Technicians (if needed)

      • Number of Visits — set to 1 or more if you want BuildOps to create Visits for all maintenances in the group

      • Schedule Visits — leave at 0 unless you want the Visit created a set number of days before the due date

      • Crew (if applicable)

      • Service Description

      • Forms (if a visit-level form is needed)

      • Visit Duration

      • Start Time

    5. Click Save. The selected maintenances move out of the main maintenance table and into their own maintenance group.

    6. Repeat this process until all maintenances are scheduled, then click Next Step to continue setting up the agreement.

    Note: If you later revise the Service Agreement and make changes to Step 3 (Create Maintenance Plan), you'll need to redo Step 4 before you can reactivate the agreement.

    Before activating the agreement, open the Maintenances tab and confirm that each maintenance has one Visit assigned.

From The Unassigned Tray On The Dispatch Board

  1. To access the Dispatch Board, hover over Dispatch → click Dispatch Board.

  2. At the bottom of the Dispatch Board, click the Unassigned tab to expand the tray. This tray contains all Visits missing a date, time, or technician.

  3. Filter for specific Visits or use a saved table view.

  4. Click and drag the Visit onto the Dispatch Board, or click anywhere on the Visit line to open the Visit Side Panel.

  5. From the Visit Side Panel, scroll to the Scheduling section. Select a Date & Time, adjust the Visit duration if applicable, then add a Primary Technician in the Departments & Technicians section.

  6. Click SAVE and the Visit will appear as Scheduled on the Dispatch Board.

Note: To move a Visit back to Unassigned at any point, open the Visit Side Panel, remove the date, time, or technician, and click SAVE. The Visit will revert to Unassigned and can be scheduled later using any of the methods above.

Using the Schedule Assistant (Smart Dispatch) — new

If Smart Dispatch is enabled on your account, the Schedule Assistant gives you a faster way to find an available, qualified technician while creating a Visit — useful when a customer is on the phone waiting to confirm a time.

  1. Navigate to the Maintenance and open the Add Visit panel.

  2. The Schedule Assistant panel appears on the right side of the screen.

  3. Select the Department for the Visit. The Schedule Assistant populates with technicians in that department and their next available time windows, including date, time, and distance from the job location.

  4. Add Required Skills or Required Certifications to the Visit if applicable — the technician list automatically filters to only those who qualify.

  5. Click a time slot card in the Schedule Assistant to automatically fill the technician, date, and time into the Visit fields.

  6. Confirm the appointment and click SAVE.

For the full Smart Dispatch walkthrough — including the Optimizer, Dispatch Settings, and exclusions — see OpsAI: Smart Dispatch.

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQs

Q: What happens if I don't add a date, time, and technician when scheduling a Visit?
A: The Visit will be created with an Unassigned status instead of Scheduled. You can complete it later from the Unassigned tray on the Dispatch Board, or from the Maintenance page.

Q: What's the difference between a Maintenance and a Visit?
A: A Maintenance is not the same as a Visit. Every Maintenance needs one or more Visits scheduled for the work to actually be dispatched and completed.

Q: Can I schedule a Visit for a date in the past?
A: Yes. However, the office will need to manually mark the Visit as complete so it appears correctly as Past in the technician's mobile app.

Q: How do I make changes to a Visit after it's already scheduled?
A: Click RESCHEDULE from the Maintenance page, or open the Visit from the Dispatch Board to update the date, time, or technician from the Visit Side Panel. Don't forget to click SAVE.

Q: I don't see the Schedule Assistant panel when creating a Visit — why not?
A: Smart Dispatch (which powers the Schedule Assistant) may not be enabled on your account.

Q: Do I need to set up Required Skills and Certifications for the Schedule Assistant to work?
A: No. If those fields are left blank on a Visit, the Schedule Assistant will show all available technicians in the selected department. Adding skills and certifications narrows the list to only qualified technicians.

Q: If I revise a Service Agreement, do I need to reschedule Maintenances?
A: If your revision changes Step 3 (Create Maintenance Plan), you'll need to redo Step 4 (Schedule Maintenances) before the agreement can be reactivated.

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