Before getting started, we recommend reading the article 📘 How to create and optimize your route, to make sure you understand everything that follows.
Daily routes are used to create runs for your employees, whether they are based on your calendar scheduling or not.
There are two ways you can create a daily route :
With scheduled visits : Once you have filled your resource's day with visits in the calendar, you can generate a run based on that planning.
With unscheduled visits : Create an empty run and then assign visits that haven’t yet been scheduled in the calendar.
Create a run with scheduled visits
This is the most commonly used method and allows you to plan the time of visit with your clients. However, route optimization in terms of distance travelled will need to be done manually, based on your own knowledge.
💡 Display the Map to help plan a logical schedule in relation to the geographic locations of your service addresses.
Here’s how to do it :
In the Plannit Calendar, open the Planner to view the list of visits.
You can use various search tools to filter and identify visits to add to the calendar.
Once visits are filtered in the planner, plan your resource's day by dragging the visits onto the desired resource. This will create visit tiles in the calendar.
❗ Don’t forget travel time between visits! Make sure to account for enough travelling time in between each visit to stay on schedule.
ℹ️ If you want to assign more than one resource, you can do so when creating the run.
💡 You can also extend the time frame or move visit tiles in the calendar using your mouse.
Once your resource’s day is fully scheduled, click the small arrow next to the resource's name.
Now click on New run.
Name your run, set the start and end time, and assign additional resources if needed.
📝 The start and end times defined here only block the time in the calendar. It will not affect the planning of your visits during the day.
Every allocated resource will see their day assigned to the run, based on the time range set.
Click on the run's tile to edit the name, schedule, and allocated resources.
You also have two shortcuts buttons to Open run and Edit route.
⚠️ Warning! Note that If you edit and optimize your route, optimization will be based on distances to cover and not agreed customer schedules. Changing the order of visits may cause you to miss your scheduled appointment times!
For the employee, under the My Day section of the app, will appear the assigned run and they can open it by clicking on its name.
💡 They can also expand the list of visits by clicking the arrow on the run's tile, to open and view a specific visit, for example.
Create a run using unplanned visits
With this method, you can create a run where you will add unplanned visits, allowing thus the route's optimization as well as defined itinerary, before you share the schedule with your customers.
To do so :
Select a time frame on a resource's agenda, then click on New run.
Name your run, adjust start and end times, then assign additional resources if needed.
In the Plannit agenda, open the Planner to view the visits list.
You can use different search tools to filter and retrieve visits you want to add to your run.
Select your visits in the planner and press Add to run, then select the desired run.
ℹ️ Visits will schedule automatically on the run's time frame. You can leave them as they are or modify them in a subsequent step.
Once all visits have been added to the run, select the run in the agenda, then press Edit route.
Click on Optimize and Calculate your route, then save it using the Save button.
See article 📘 Optimize and calculate a route for more details.
You wish to define specific times on your visits and advise your customers in advance?
To achieve this, open the run and click on a visit's tile. You can edit the time of visit and send a confirmation. Repeat this step for every visit.
💡 Here is another method that consists of sending a communication to all customers included in a run before its execution:Using the Actions / Send communications button in a run, as well as a preformatted message, you can inform your customers of the day's schedule. For example : « You have an appointment with our team scheduled for today. We will send you a message when we are on our way to your address. ».
Once on your way to your customer, use the On my way
button in the visit to inform your customers of your upcoming arrival.
In the My day section of the app, your employee can find their assigned run, which they can open by clicking on it's name .
💡 They can also extent the view of the visits list using the arrow situated on the run's tile, to see and open a specific visit, for example.
📚 See also
📘 Customize the address fence for your routes
📘 Edit the starting address of a route or run
📘 Add an internal note, audio or written, to an address on a route
📘 Start a route from a computer or the mobile app