Knowledge

1. Overview

Three settings work together to define when service appointments can and cannot be scheduled:

• Business Hours: The days and hours during which the organization operates. All appointments in the system
• Holidays: Specific calendar dates when the organization is closed. All appointments in the system
• Time Off: Individual leave periods for a specific technician. Appointments assigned to that technician

Important: These three settings act as scheduling guardrails. When creating or editing a Service Appointment, the system checks all three and warns the user — or blocks saving — if any constraint is violated.

2. Business Hours

2.1 Configure Business Hours

Step 1. Go to Field Service → Settings → Business Hours

Step 2. Select one of the three Business Hours options: 

• Option 1 - 24 Hours × 7 Days
  
  

  Appointments can be created at any time on any day of the week. There are no time or day restrictions.
  No additional configuration is needed after selecting this option.
  

  Use this when: Your organization provides round-the-clock service coverage, such as emergency response or 24/7 infrastructure support.

• Option 2 - 24 Hours × 5 Days
  
  Appointments can be created at any hour of the day, but only on the specified working days. The 5 business days are configurable — you choose which days of the week count as working days.
  

  After selecting this option, a Business Days checklist appears. Check the days your organization operates.
  

  Use this when: Your organization works standard weekdays but handles calls or jobs at any hour — for example, a managed IT services team available 24 hours on weekdays only.

• Option 3 - Custom Hours
  
  

  Appointments can only be created within specific hours on specific days. This is the most restrictive and precise option.
  After selecting this option, two additional sections appear:
  Business Timing — choose one of:
  - Same Hours Everyday: All working days share the same start and end time. Enter one Start Time and one End Time that apply to every working day.
  - Different Hours Everyday: Each working day can have its own start and end time. Useful when some days have shorter operating hours (e.g., Friday closes at 1:00 PM).
  Business Days — check all the days your organization operates.
  

  Use this when: Your team works defined office hours and appointments should only be scheduled during those hours — for example, Mon–Fri 08:00 AM to 05:00 PM for a facility maintenance company.

Step 3. Configure the additional fields that appear based on your selection (days and/or time slots)

Step 4. Click Save

Note: Business Hours is a single global setting — there is only one configuration for the entire Field Service module. All appointments across all territories are subject to the same Business Hours.

2.2 How Business Hours Affect Appointment Creation

When creating or editing a Service Appointment, the system validates the Scheduled Start Date/Time and Scheduled End Date/Time against the Business Hours configuration.

If the scheduled time is outside Business Hours:

The system displays a toast warning in the top-right corner of the screen:

🔔 "The selected time is outside business hours"

In this case, the Appointment cannot be saved until a valid date and time within the allowed working hours and days is selected.

3. Holidays

3.1 Add a Holiday

Holidays are specific calendar dates when the organization is not operating. Adding a holiday prevents appointments from being silently scheduled on those dates without awareness.

Step 1. Go to Field Service → Settings → Holidays → click Add Holiday

Step 2. Fill in the Add Holiday form:

• Days Off: The date of the holiday
• Reason For Time Off: The name or description of the holiday (e.g., "National Day", "International Children's Day", "Lunar New Year")
• Department: Restrict this holiday to a specific department. If left blank, the holiday applies to the entire organization
• Automatically repeat by year: Check this box to have this holiday automatically recur on the same date every year (e.g., a fixed national holiday)

Step 3. Click Save

3.2 How Holidays Affect Appointment Creation

When creating or editing a Service Appointment, the system checks whether the scheduled dates fall on any configured holiday.

If a holiday conflict is detected, a "Conflict found" popup appears listing the conflicting holiday(s):

The user must click Close to dismiss the popup. The appointment cannot be saved until the scheduled time is moved away from the holiday.

4. Time Off

Time Off records the leave period of an individual technician. When a technician is on leave, the system prevents appointments from being assigned to them during that period.

4.1 Create a Time Off Record

Step 1. Go to Field Service → Settings → Prefix Settings → scroll to the Time Off Number section. Fill in: 

• Time Off Number Prefix: Short text label added to the beginning of every Time Off Number
• Next Time Off Number: The sequence number the system will use for the next record created
• Time Off Number Format: The format pattern for the number portion

Step 2. Go to Field Service → Time Off → click Create Time Off

Step 3. Fill in the Create Time Off form:

• Time Off Number: Auto-generated unique identifier (e.g., TO-00006-09062026112224) — not editable
• Technician: Select the technician who will be on leave
• Start Time: The exact date and time when the leave begins (format: dd-mm-yyyy hh:mm:ss)
• End Time: The exact date and time when the leave ends (format: dd-mm-yyyy hh:mm:ss)
• Reason: Description of the reason for the leave (e.g., "Annual leave", "Medical appointment", "Training")

Step 4. Click Save

4.2 How Time Off Affects Appointment Creation

When creating or editing a Service Appointment and a technician is selected, the system checks whether the scheduled time overlaps with any Time Off record for that technician.

If a Time Off conflict is detected, a "Conflict found" popup appears listing the conflicting leave records:

The user must click Close to dismiss the popup. The appointment cannot be saved until either the scheduled time is changed or a different technician is assigned.

⚠️ Time Off conflicts block saving. You must either reschedule the appointment to a time outside the technician's leave period, or assign a different technician who is available at that time.