Scheduling and Dispatch Workflow

Overview

This workflow covers how you plan your own work visits in MyApprentice, a web-based job-management platform. Work is organised into shifts, not added directly to jobs — a job can have one or many shifts, each with its own date, time, and shift instructions. As a sole trader you schedule your own work and are assigned to your own visits; there is no team and no dispatch or assignment to others. This guide walks through creating shifts, setting up recurring visits, using the schedule board, and editing, rescheduling, or deleting scheduled work.

Who This Workflow Is For

This guide is for a sole trader — a single operator who runs the business alone, plans their own visits, and carries out the work themselves.

Before You Start

The job must already exist before you can add shifts to it. A shift can also be created directly from the schedule board, where calendar-first planning is supported.

End-to-End Workflow

Step 1: Open the Schedule Card or Schedule Board

Choose the starting point for adding a visit.

1. Open the relevant job and scroll to the Schedule card, or open the Schedule page from the sidebar.

The job’s Schedule card is the starting point for adding a visit to a specific job; the schedule board is the starting point for calendar-first planning.

Step 2: Add a Shift Using Fast Schedule or Choose on Board

1. Select Add, then choose one of two pathways:
   • Fast Schedule — use when you already know the date and time. Enter the date, start time, end time, and shift type, then book the visit immediately.
   • Choose on Board — calendar-first shift creation. The schedule board opens so you can review your existing commitments and pick an open slot before finalising the time.

Step 3: Set the Shift Type and Details

1. Select the shift type (for example, Ad Hoc, Inspection, or Reschedule).
2. Add Shift To-Do’s for any tasks specific to this visit.

Step 4: Set Up Recurring Shifts (Optional)

For work that repeats — such as maintenance contracts or regular client visits — set up a recurring series.

1. Select Recurring.
2. Set the start date, end date, the days of the week to repeat on, and confirm the start and end time that applies to all occurrences.
3. MyApprentice then creates an individual shift entry for each occurrence.

Note: assigning workers to a shift is a Teams-only feature. As a sole trader you are the only operator, so there is no separate worker-assignment step — your scheduled shifts are your own work.

Step 5: Confirm the Shift

1. Select Confirm Shift (or Save Shift).
2. The shift is saved against the job and appears on the schedule board.

If a shift is missed on email, it is still visible on your dashboard schedule.

Step 6: Monitor and Adjust on the Schedule Board

Use the schedule board to review and manage your scheduled work.

1. Switch between Day, Week, Month, and Person views, and apply filters by date, job, or status. (The Team view is hidden in Sole Trader mode.)
2. Hover over a shift to preview the time and linked job; select it to open the full shift detail panel.
3. From the detail panel you can:
   • edit a shift (update the date, time, shift type, Shift To-Do’s, or job link, then save). There is no separate “reschedule” action — changing a shift’s date or time is itself the reschedule.
   • delete a shift that will not go ahead. Deleting a shift using Delete Shift in the detail panel removes only the visit, not the underlying job.

Common Issues & Limitations

• Recurring option not visible: Confirm the shift has a start date and time entered before selecting Recurring.
• Each recurring occurrence is a separate shift entry. You can edit or delete individual occurrences without affecting the others. To remove all remaining shifts, delete each one — only the individual occurrence is removed when you delete from a series.
• Shift not on your dashboard: Confirm the shift is saved.
• Deleting a shift removes only that scheduled visit — the job itself is not deleted or cancelled. The deleted shift record is kept and can be restored from Document History. If the work needs to go ahead later, add a new shift.
• In-progress shifts can be deleted. The platform does not block deleting a shift that is already in progress. Check the shift status before deleting so you do not remove work that is underway.
• Shift reappears after deletion: Refresh the schedule board.

What Happens Next

Once shifts are scheduled, work moves into field execution — you open the shift, clock in, complete tasks, and clock out. See the Timesheets and Time Tracking Workflow for how scheduled hours feed into your timesheet.

Related Guides

• Timesheets and Time Tracking Workflow
• Creating a Job and Completing the Work
• Field Execution: From Shift Start to Completion