Technician scheduling optimization
Technician scheduling optimization means putting each job with the right tech, in the order that drives least. In Business Genie, scheduling and dispatch work with route optimization: jobs go on the calendar, and each tech’s day is put in drive order automatically.
How the program runs
The program runs in five steps: the job is booked online or by the office, put on the calendar and dispatched to a tech, and route optimization orders each tech’s day. When a job is added, the day is re-routed, and techs drive with turn-by-turn directions and clock in with GPS time tracking.
Nine jobs booked for Tuesday, each with the window its customer was promised. Nobody is assigned yet.
Sample day, simulated: two techs’ jobs as booked, then routed by a simple model made for this page (not Business Genie’s engine), on a street grid at 25 mph.
Driving as booked 65.0 miles (2h 36m); as routed 44.0 miles (1h 46m).- 1Mon
Book the job
Customers book online, or the office books the job for them. Either way the job arrives with the two things every later step has to respect: the window the customer was promised and how long the work takes. Online booking is part of Business Genie.
- 2Mon
Assign and dispatch
Put the job on the calendar and send it to the tech doing it. Assigned as the calls came in, a day keeps its windows but not its miles — on the sample day, two techs criss-cross the same streets. Business Genie does both: scheduling and dispatch.
- 3Tue 7:30
Route each tech’s day
Route optimization orders each tech’s day automatically, splits jobs across techs, and keeps appointment windows and job lengths. On the sample day, routing moves 5 of the nine jobs to the other tech and takes 21.0 miles off the two days’ driving, and every window still holds.
- 4Tue 10:15
Re-route when the day changes
Add a job and Business Genie re-routes the rest of the day around it. In the sample, a 10:30 job comes in at 10:15. Alex is free from 9:50 and 4.0 miles away, so it goes to him; what he has finished stays as it was, and his afternoon is ordered again from the new stop.
Adding the 10:30 job in the app, and picking the tech. Sample job. - 5Tue 10:30
Drive and clock in
Techs get turn-by-turn directions to each job and clock in and out with GPS time tracking. Business Genie runs on the web and in the iOS and Android app.
Questions about technician scheduling
Can I bring my customers over from another system?
Yes. Setup and data migration are free: the Business Genie team sets up your account and moves your existing customers in for you. Onboarding is done the same day, where enterprise field service platforms take weeks, so the first schedule you build in Business Genie goes out to your techs without a customer list typed in by hand.
What happens after the job is done?
It moves on to getting paid, in the same app. Business Genie sends the invoice and takes payment by card, Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo or Cash App, syncs with QuickBooks Online, and follows up automatically, including the request for a review. Job costing then shows what each job cost against what it brought in.
What does it cost, and can I try it first?
Plans start at $50 a month, and route optimization is on every plan, so the scheduling and routing on this page are not an add-on. The first month is free with no credit card to start, twice as long as Jobber’s or Housecall Pro’s 14-day trials: time to run a few weeks of real days through it before you pay.
Route tomorrow’s jobs
Add tomorrow’s jobs, give them to your techs, and let route optimization put each day in drive order. When a job comes in mid-morning, add it, and the rest of the day is routed again around it. The first month is free, with no credit card to start.