Jobs

Set up the bidirectional message flow between Dime.Scheduler and the jobs/projects module in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. This page walks you through enabling the module, configuring how jobs become tasks, and planning those jobs on the planning board or Gantt chart.

Ad-hoc planning

Long-term project planning

Setup

Enable jobs solution

To enable this module, tick the Enable Job Planning switch.

Creating tasks

Two checkboxes configure the default data source in BC for creating tasks in Dime.Scheduler:

• To create a single task in Dime.Scheduler for the job: select Send Job as Task.
• To create a task for each job task line or job planning line: select Send Tasks with Job.

These are default values. You can override them per project when a project calls for different settings. See below for more information.

Default duration

When you drag and drop a task from open tasks to a resource on the planning board, the planned task defaults to a duration of 1 hour.

To use a different duration, enter it in Default Duration Job Task.

Indicators

The Default Category field controls which BC field sets the color of a planned task when you drag and drop a task from open tasks to a resource on the planning board:

• Select a job posting group.
• Leave blank to use the default color (blue).

The video below shows this functionality in action. It uses service orders, but the capabilities are the same for this module:

Filters

Select Create Person Responsible Filter and enter a name for the filter that users see in Dime.Scheduler. The FastTrack Wizard creates the necessary configuration for the Person Responsible Filter, and BC then sends the person responsible for a job to Dime.Scheduler.

Gantt planning

• Select Plan In Gantt Chart to use the Gantt Chart to plan your jobs. The scheduling mode can be one of the following:

  • Normal
  • Fixed Duration
  • Effort Driven
  • Dynamic Assignment

Timesheets

Select Update Time Sheet from Planning Board to automatically create or update the resource's time sheet in BC whenever a task is allocated to a resource or a planned task is modified in Dime.Scheduler.

Usage

Actions

The default actions on this page are extended with the following items.

List Actions

See common actions for an overview of the list actions for this type.

Card actions

The following actions are added to the job card:

• Send job
• Delete job

Creating jobs

The mechanism is straightforward: when you create a job and invoke the send to Dime.Scheduler action, the connector fetches all the relevant data about the job and its job tasks, then sends it over to Dime.Scheduler.

The following entities are used:

• Job
• Job tasks
• Job planning lines
• Customer
• Contact

As with the other modules, the general setup lets you connect a field of the job or item to an appointment's visual indicators. For example, a category can reflect the job's posting group. That is the default behavior, but you can BYOBL (Bring Your Own Business Logic) to Dime.Scheduler and use other fields as the source for an appointment's color-coded visual indicator. More configuration is available to tweak the defaults, such as default duration job task, which sets the default duration of an appointment when you drag the task to the planning board.

The Dime.Scheduler connector for Business Central adds a few more capabilities for tweaking the behavior of a job in Dime.Scheduler:

Planning levels

Dime.Scheduler maintains the relationship between a job and a job task: information about the job is captured on the Job level, while job tasks are mapped to a Task record. When a job has multiple lines, those lines link to the same job in Dime.Scheduler, so once planned they trace back to the same job.

That is the default behavior. Three planning levels are available:

• Job
• Job task
• Job planning line

When you select Job, there is a 1:1 relationship between a job and a task in Dime.Scheduler: the task is the job. Otherwise, the job tasks or the job planning lines are used as tasks in Dime.Scheduler.

Budget level

The budget works much like the planning level, but its function is limited to managing the budget: a generic term for the maximum allowed time for the task to be scheduled.

The budget is expressed in time, and a task is not meant to be scheduled longer than planned. Each time an appointment is created, updated, or deleted for a task, the remaining budget is recalculated. When the remaining budget hits zero, the task is considered closed and the record is removed from the open tasks list.

There are four levels:

• Job
• Job task
• Job planning line
• Infinite

When the job level is selected, the Planning Budget field will be used.

When the job task level is selected, the planning budget column in the job tasks subsection will be used:

Similarly, when the job planning line is selected, the quantity field will be used to determine the task's budget:

Finally, an infinite budget means there is no limit to a task's duration. The task therefore never disappears from the open task list until the project is completed.

Planning status

The planning status has three possible states:

• Open
• Planning
• Completed

The Planning status is the mode that lets you plan the job. An Open job is considered unconfirmed. A job is Completed when everything has been scheduled and finished. Only jobs with status Planning appear in the Dime.Scheduler open tasks list.

Planning modes

Jobs in Dime.Scheduler can be scheduled in two different components, each serving a very different purpose. Ad-hoc job planning is usually done through the planning board, whereas long, complex projects with dependencies and milestones are a good candidate for the Gantt chart. These are the two options of the planning mode.

When the planning mode is set to the planning board, the job is not available in the Gantt chart. Conversely, when the Gantt chart mode is selected, the planning board is not available for this task; you have to use the Gantt chart to do the resource planning. The records still appear in the open tasks list, but drag and drop is disabled.

Gantt Scheduling Mode

When the Gantt chart mode is selected, an advanced feature can be configured to set the project's scheduling mode:

• Normal
• Fixed duration
• Effort-driven
• Dynamic assignment

Consult the Gantt chart docs to learn more about this functionality.

Planning behavior

When a task for a job is scheduled in Dime.Scheduler, it has to be linked back to Business Central. You can choose to:

• Create a budget job planning line
• Create a billable job planning line
• Create a budget and billable job planning line
• Do nothing

Planning jobs

There are two ways to schedule jobs in Dime.Scheduler: the planning board and the Gantt chart, each targeting a different job planning type. Once planned, both are processed in exactly the same way.

• The open task grid shows the work that needs to be planned in. To plan a task, drag it onto the desired timeslot for the right resource on the planning board. You have just registered a task for a job.
• Gantt chart project tasks appear in the open task list but cannot be dragged to the planning board. The planner opens the project in the Gantt chart and assigns resources to the tasks. After saving the project, Dime.Scheduler generates the appointments and sends the data over to Business Central.

Behind the scenes, a job planning line for the job, job task, or job planning line is created automatically in Business Central according to the job's planning settings. The record holds the information of the appointment you just planned in Dime.Scheduler. The job planning line and the appointment in Dime.Scheduler are directly linked: any change to the appointment is reflected automatically and immediately in Business Central.

info

When the budget is set on the job planning line, the budget planning line's quantity is decreased by the same amount as the appointment scheduled on the planning board. In the example above, the original budget was 16 hours. After scheduling a task, the remaining budget is 8 hours.

You can also link the planning to the time sheets module in Business Central. When the Update Time Sheet Service flag is activated, the connector automatically inserts, updates, or removes a time sheet entry.

In short, Dime.Scheduler builds on standard Business Central functionality and adds visual capabilities for scheduling jobs.