Knowledge

Overview

A Service Territory is a defined operational zone used to organize and manage field service activities. It can represent a geographic area, a department, a commercial district, or any custom boundary your organization defines.

Service Territories help you:

• Manage service requests, work orders, and field personnel by specific zone
• Ensure Technicians and Crews are only dispatched within their designated areas
• Support optimal routing — only mobilizing staff closest to the customer
• Control resource availability with precision by area and time window

How Territories Affect Appointment Assignment

A Technician or Crew only appears in the assignment dropdown when creating a Service Appointment if both of the following conditions are met simultaneously:

• Same Territory — The Appointment must belong to the exact Territory the Technician/Crew is assigned to
• Matching working hours — The Appointment's scheduled time must fall within the Technician/Crew's configured working hours at that Territory

💡 Key principle: Assigning a Technician to Territory A does not make them available for Appointments in Territory B, even if they are available at the right time.

Prerequisites

Before creating a Service Territory, ensure the following are available:

• Technicians have been created in Field Service → Technicians
• Crews have been created in Field Service → Crews

Step 1 – Create a Service Territory

1. Go to Field Service → Settings → Service Territory.
2. Click Add Territory.
   
   
3. Fill in the territory details:
   
   Territory Name: A clear, identifiable name for the territory (e.g., HCM – District 1, North Region)
   Street: Street address of the service territory
   City: City
   State: State or province
   Postal Code: Postal/ZIP code
   Country: Country
   Rate: Labor Cost per Hour – The hourly labor rate used to calculate the Labor Cost of Work Orders within this territory. The system uses this rate to calculate technician labor costs based on the total timesheet hours recorded across all related Service Appointments.
   Description: Additional notes about the territory's scope or purpose
4. Click Save 

Step 2 – Territory Detail Page

After creating a territory, open its detail page to configure resources. From here you can:

• Add Technicians to the territory
• Add Crews to the territory
• Configure working datefor each Technician and Crew within this territory

💡 Why this matters: This configuration allows the system to accurately determine available resources by zone and time — preventing a Technician in Territory A from being accidentally assigned to an Appointment in Territory B, and supporting optimal dispatch routing.

Step 3 – Add a Technician to a Territory

1. Open the Territory detail page.
2. Navigate to the Resources tab → Users sub-tab.
3. Click Add User.
   
   
4. The Add User popup appears. Fill in the following:
   
   Resource: Select the Technician to assign to this territory
   Start Date: The date the Technician begins operating in this territory
   End Date: The date the Technician stops operating here. If left blank, the assignment is open-ended (no expiry).
5. Click Save

The period between Start Date and End Date defines when the Technician is active and available within this territory.

⚠️ Overlapping Period Warning: If you receive the message "This territory already exists within an overlapping time period", the date range you entered conflicts with an existing assignment for this Technician in the same territory. Adjust the Start Date or End Date to ensure no overlap.

Step 4 – Add a Crew to a Territory

1. Open the Territory detail page.
2. Navigate to the Resources tab → Crews sub-tab.
3. Click Add Crew.
   
   
4. The Add Crew popup appears. Fill in the following:
   
   Resource: Select the Crew to assign to this territory
   Start Date: The date the Crew begins operating in this territory
   End Date: The date the Crew stops operating here. If left blank, the assignment is open-ended (no expiry).
5. Click Save

The period between Start Date and End Date defines when the Crew is active and available within this territory.

⚠️ Overlapping Period Warning: If you receive the message "This territory already exists within an overlapping time period", the date range you entered conflicts with an existing assignment for this Crew in the same territory. Adjust the Start Date or End Date to resolve the conflict.

Understanding the Overlapping Period Warning

Both Technician and Crew assignments enforce non-overlapping time periods within the same territory. This rule exists to prevent scheduling conflicts and ensure accurate availability tracking.

The warning is triggered when:

• A Technician or Crew is already assigned to a territory for a given date range
• You attempt to add the same territory with a date range that overlaps or intersects the existing one

How to resolve it:

1. Check the existing assignment's Start Date and End Date
2. Adjust the new assignment's dates so they do not overlap
3. Save again

Example:

How the Labor Rate Works

The Rate field on a territory sets the labor cost per hour for all staff operating in that territory.

• When an Work order is created under this territory, the system uses this rate to automatically calculate the labor cost for each assigned Technician or Crew member
• This allows organizations with different cost structures across territory

Territory Assignment Summary

The table below shows the relationship between territories and the resources that can be assigned to them:

💡 Both directions work. You can assign a Technician to a Territory either from the Territory detail page or from the Technician detail page. The result is the same.