All Collections
Scheduling
Adding and Editing Routes
Adding and Editing Routes

Read this article to start building your routes for the schedule board!

Aspire Software avatar
Written by Aspire Software
Updated over a week ago

Table of Contents


What Are Routes Used For?

Aspire uses the term Route to describe a crew of employees set up to perform work on scheduled work tickets for a given time period.

Multiple routes can be created underneath a manager, but only one crew leader can be assigned to a route.


Requirements

✅ To create a route, you must have System Admin role or Branch Admin role with Enhanced Branch Admin checked.

✅ To activate or deactivate a route, you must have the View Routes permission enabled for your user role.


How To Create A New Route

Instructions:

  1. Starting at the home screen, click on the Scheduling module.

2. If you have any routes currently in use, your routes will appear under the selected Manager's Name. At the top right of the screen, click the three dot menu. A drop down menu will appear. Select Manage Routes from the list.

3. The Manage Routes screen will appear, which will show any current routes in the system that you can edit. To add a new New Route, select the blue New Route button in the top right of the screen.

To edit a route, click on it in the Route list.

The New Route screen will look like this:

An existing Route screen will look like this:

4. For new routes, enter the unique name of that route in Route Name.

📌 Note: Keep the naming consistent. Examples of route names include:

  • Using the crew leader's name (John),

  • Mow1,

  • PHC,

  • and Fert Sub.

5. Enter the Branch that this crew will be performing work under. Only one branch per route can be assigned.

6. Select the Manager who oversees this crew. Typically, this will be your Operations Manager.

7. Select the Crew Leader who will be responsible for performing this work. Only one crew leader can be assigned per route.

8. Select the Division that represents the type of work this route will include. For example, Maintenance, Snow, Enhancement, Lawn Care.

📌 Note: This will be important to determine when setting up routes for snow.

9. If needed, enter in a Percentage of Travel time.

If an estimator includes travel time to the customer's site, they will want to bill the customer for this time. However, the job can be completed in 9 hours and not 10. To show the crew's 9 hours, put in 10% in for Percentage of Travel Time. This means when a 10 hour job is scheduled, Aspire will subtract 1 hour (10% of 10) from the scheduler as well as the Work Ticket screen in Aspire's mobile app. Again, this means that the crew will only have 9 hours budgeted for the visit, but the customer will be charged for 10.

10. Enter in how many Man Hours per day the crew is expected to work. This is man hours per man, not the entire crew. 8 – 12 hours is normal.

11. Enter in how many employees will make up the crew in the Route Size.

🧠 The Man Hours Per Day field and Route Size field will be multiplied together to give your route its daily budgeted hours. If work is scheduled on this route, and goes above the budgeted hours, the route will show red in order to indicate the route is scheduled above capacity.

12. Enter in a Display Order.

📌 Note: The lower the number, the higher the route will appear on the schedule board. It is recommended to order all routes in multiples of 10. If the routes are numbered, 1,2,3, etc., then there is no space for when a new route is created and needs to be viewed higher up on the schedule board.

13. Select a color for the crew's route name to show in on the schedule board.

It will show like the below:

14. Optional: Select a Primary Vehicle that this crew uses.

Aspire allows a primary vehicle to be tied to a route supporting GPS equipment tracking for the route. The association between the primary vehicle and the route is defined by selecting the equipment item representing the vehicle in the Primary Vehicle field. The combo-box that displays the selection options displays all active equipment associated with the route’s branch that has not been assigned to another route.

For each equipment item in the selection list, Aspire shows the following information: Asset Number, Model, and Equipment Description. Each equipment being used at the Primary Vehicle can only be selected once and will need to be removed before it can be moved to a new route.

15. Check the Show Daily Plan box if the Crew Leader assigned to that route should see the daily plan on the main screen of Aspire's mobile app when logged in. The Daily Plan allows crew leaders to view the list of materials that will be required for the jobs they have scheduled for the day.

16. Check the Allow Equipment Time Reporting box to allow Crew Leaders to allocate usage times for the equipment items that are defined in the item catalog and included on the estimate.

When equipment usage time is logged, it is tied to the employee work ticket time. The Allow Equipment Time Reporting checkbox must be checked to allow Crew Leaders to allocate equipment time usage for the route.

17. Once you are finished, click Save in the upper right corner.

Optional functions are available at the bottom before clicking save. These will be discussed below!


Managing Routes

In addition to creating and editing Routes, you might need to activate a route if the route is to be used for a new group of crew members. You might need to deactivate a route if it will no longer be used, or if it will be used in the future.

You can manually deactivate routes when on a Route detail screen, but if you need to complete this action for multiple routes, consider using a Bulk Action to complete your task efficiently.

  • Select the Scheduling module from the blue side menu.

  • Click on the three dot menu and select Manage Routes.

  • Select the checkbox of the routes that you want to activate or deactivate.

  • Click on the Bulk Actions menu and select Activate Routes or Deactivate Routes.

  • Select confirm to apply your changes.

⚠️ You can only complete Bulk Actions on routes that appear on the same screen, if you change pages on Routes will deselect everything from the previous page.

⚠️ Once a Route is deactivated, it no longer appears on the Schedule Board.


Adding Crew Members to a Route (Optional)

Adding crew members to a route will automatically place those employees on the time entry screen for that route. This is not mandatory but is helpful when managing employee time and is frequently used with snow operations. You should leave this blank if the route will have changing crews or crew members.

⚠️ Aspire suggests only setting up the crew on a route if you're not using Aspire's mobile app. Aspire does not suggest setting up the crew on a route if the crew members change routes consistently or if the company is using Aspire's mobile app for daily time entry by the crew leader.

Instructions:

1. In the Scheduling module, on the Schedule Board, you can see the Crew Leader assigned to the route and the any existing crew members assigned to the route.

2. Click the triple dot menu on the Schedule Board and select Manage Routes. If you are creating a new route, click the New Route button.

If you are adding to an existing route, select the existing route that should have a crew assigned.

3. On the bottom half of the screen, there is an option to select crew members from the drop down menu that work on this route.

4. Under the Crew Member Title, click the Select One drop down menu. Select the crew members that belong on this route.

If the crew member is not listed, then a Contact record with a Contact Type of Employee needs to be created. (To learn how to create a Field Crew member contact, click here.)

5. Click the Save button if finished with the Route record.


Adding a Property to a Route (Optional)

Adding a property to a route is often used for snow routes but can be used as well for other work performed during the summer months. This option is used when companies are not scheduling tickets on the schedule board for that route.

Instructions:

1. At the top right of the Schedule Board screen, click the three dot menu. A drop down menu will appear. Select Manage Routes from the list.

2. The Manage Routes screen will appear, which will show any current routes in the system. To add a New Route, select the blue New Route button in the top right of the screen.

If you are adding to an existing route, select the existing route that should have a property assigned.

3. In the Property section of the screen, click the drop down menu where it says Select One.

4. Select the desired properties for this route, and it will automatically number the display order as you select properties. If the order needs to be rearranged, click on the property to move and drag it to the desired order.

5. When complete with the Route record, click Save.


Adding a Service to a Route (Optional)

Adding services to a route is often used for snow routes but can be used for other work performed during summer months. If no services are added, then the route can support all services.

⚠️ This should only be used only with the adding properties to a route function.

Instructions:

1. At the top right of the Schedule Board screen, click the three dot menu. A drop down menu will appear. Select Manage Routes from the list.

2. The Manage Routes screen will appear, which will show any current routes in the system. To add a New Route, select the blue New Route button in the top right of the screen.

If you are adding to an existing route, select the existing route that should have a property assigned.

2. Select whether the route will handle the service type or service. Then select the needed services or service types for this route.

3. Select Save once complete with your Route record.

Did this answer your question?