Whitepaper: Queues in TimeTrak

November 11, 2022 General,Whitepapers,

Introduction to Queues

Introduction to Queues

This Queues Whitepaper covers TimeTrak Versions 4.0 up to 21.3

Queues allow users to see upcoming work organised with filters to assist scheduling and workflow management. Queues can also behave like a “To Do” list from which users can work without the need to schedule appointments on the calendar.

Queues are visible in both TimeTrak Professional, TimeTrak Mobile and TimeTrak App.

A Queue can be added manually from a Job, Client, Serviceable Unit or Task,

or it can be generated from a custom SQL script to show any Job, Client, Serviceable Unit or Task based on set criteria.

Queues have also extended the functionality of Maps within TimeTrak Professional.

Examples of Queues:

Jobs will move from one Queue to another:

Project Phase 1
Project Phase 2
Project Phase 3

Jobs allocated to a Queue from the Maps:

Location North
Location South
Location East

Jobs allocated to a Queue for a user:

Staff Person 1
Staff Person 2
Staff Person 3

Jobs that meet filtering requirements:

Jobs by Due Date by Status
Jobs by Location by Due Date
Jobs by Job Manager by Due Date by an extra field
Jobs by extra fields

1. Profile Settings

Queue visibility is enabled in the TimeTrak Administrator Console, which is located under Profiles < Queues (1) tab.

Enable Queues (2) must first be activated, followed by the queue/s that are required to be seen by the users allocated to that Profile.

These can be ordered (3) specifically for each Profile.

Mobile Users can optionally have the ability to add Appointments, add Time Entries and Add Disbursements (materials) directly or see the Details (4) of the Queued item.

2. Customising Information on Queues

There is the ability to customise the queue item field layout, which displays to users on Queues, Maps, Tooltips and Pins.

Settings are located in the TimeTrak Administrator Console under the Profile < Customisations (1) tab.

By default, the layout is the fields shown greyed out (2)

When set, these customisations will be applied to all queue views for users allocated within the Profile.

In addition, Layout Customisation (3) can be applied. The default (4) can be activated as a base to build on and/or add additional fields as required. (5)

3. Creating a Queue

A Queue can be basic, where users manually assign items to the Queue, or the Queue can get complex with custom SQL scripts narrowing down the list and allowing it to be rerun by the users, repopulating on refresh.

Queues can also control some behaviors of the Jobs or Tasks.

In the TimeTrak Admin Console, select Queues and then Add to create a new Queue.

1. Queue Name

Enter a meaningful name for the Queue. This is what both the TimeTrak Professional and Mobile users will see.

2. Colour

Set a Queue Colour, as it will help identify one Queue from the next in screens.

The item itself will display a dot beside the Pin icon with the colour of the Queue. Refer to this section.

3. User

A user can be assigned a queue, like a To Do List

This feature is designed for TimeTrak APP users in environments where a group of field staff all have their own Queue, but for management purposes, they are all assigned to the same Profile.

The Profile would have all the users’ queues enabled (allowing these to be accessed by all staff against the Profile). However, the logged-in user’s Queue (which they are the user against), will display expanded on the APP home screen by default.

For more information, Click Here

4. Email

From version 20.1, Email has been added for sites who wish to email the contents of a queue to an email address on a set frequency.

An excellent working example of this could be where sub-contractors are allocated jobs. A queue is a setup to “house” these jobs. A scheduled report could then be set up to email the list of jobs to the contractor on a set frequency using the email address specified against the Queue.

For more information, Click Here or view our quick demonstration video below

5. Description

The description is useful information, displayed in Professional, about what the Queue is for e.g. if it’s a Manual or Automated queue and what the criteria/rules need to be met for the items to appear in the Queue.

6. Set Map Location

If the Queue is location-based, then you can set a Map Location against the Queue, and it will show in the Maps with that location as the home base.

This is helpful for different branches or remote teams.

7. Updates on Appointment Creation

When an appointment is created from the Queue, then TimeTrak can automatically update settings on the Job, Task or Appointment.

Jobs:

Tasks:

8. Appointment Creation/Check in Behaviour

Queue Duration:

Because many appointments can be created at once from the Queue Items, there are two methods for saving the appointment’s duration.

It can pick up the user’s minimum time units value and create all appointments at that value, or it can be set per Queue. This is to cater for different types of work, some of which might take longer than others.

Select from the Queue Duration drop down

Visible Columns:

In the Queue itself, users can see the total for the duration of the Queue and its items, the estimated time of each item, the remaining time of each item, or the estimated and remaining columns.

Estimated Time from a Job is the total of the Quoted lines set to Copy to ‘T’
Estimated Time from a Task is the estimated value saved on the Task.
Remaining Time on the Job is the Estimated time minus the actual time in the Timesheets tab in MYOB Job Costing and any time entered against the job in TimeTrak.
Remaining Time on the Task is the Estimated time minus the time already assigned to the task.

Note: from Version 20.1, there were changes made to Totals in TimeTrak, where “Actual” time can be defined at a global level based on how the time hits the job.

For example, Written Off time can be included or excluded from Actual time and appointment totals can be included or excluded from these values.

For more information Click Here

From Version 20.1, Scheduled Time and Actual Time are available on the grid

Remove Items After Scheduled:

This setting will cause the Queue to diminish in size as each Queue item is converted into an appointment.

Indicate Queue Items are Scheduled:

If enabled against the Queue, and there are appointments scheduled against the queue item, the first appointment user/ date and time will be displayed as per below.

There is also the ability to filter out queue items that have been scheduled via the “Toggle Scheduled” icon. This will reduce the queue list to only those that have not been scheduled

9. Updates on Appointment to Time Entries Creation

When a Queue item is appointment is converted into a time entry, that Job, Serviceable Unit, Task, or Client can then be moved into another Queue.

This is ideal for situations when a job would be worked through different stages

10. SQL

Give the SQL Query a Name.

TimeTrak expects the first column to be a LinkID (this will be the Jobno, Accno, TaskID, SeqNo from SU_MAIN), and the second column to the LinkType.

LinkTypes are:

1 – Clients
5 – Jobs
6 – Serviceable Units
7 – Tasks

Hover over the following icon to see more hints:

There is an example of SQL code, which needs to be modified based on the data filter requirements.

Click Preview to see the basic columns of information that will pull through

11. Clear Existing Queue Items

When the Queue is refreshed, it will clear the list of items from the Queue. This is used in conjunction with the Auto Populate feature.

12. Auto Populate

The Queue can run a SQL query at a set time interval and update the Queue with the new results of the SQL Query.

4. TimeTrak Professional Queues

Against the Clients, Jobs, Tasks and Serviceable unit’s panels in TimeTrak Professional, Queues will show depending on the Users Profile settings

A Queue can be a combination of Jobs, Tasks, Serviceable Units and Clients which are denoted by the corresponding icons.

IMPORTANT:

If a Client or a Serviceable Unit is going to be added to a Queue, they will need to have a Default Job assigned to them so they can be assigned.

The underlying understanding is that the time will end up on a job.

To assign the default job open a Client or Serviceable Unit, go into the item.

Go to the Jobs Tab

Right-click on the Job, which is to be the default job, and Set as Default Job:

Client:

Serviceable Unit:

5. Adding Items to A Queue and Search

A Queue can be generated from the SQL it might have embedded into it.

If there is a SQL Query to be run, then the database icon will be visible on the Queue

Click on the Database icon to reload the data in the Queue.

If the Queue does not have a SQL query behind it, items will be manually assigned to the Queue by the Service Coordinator. This can be done via the Jobs, Clients, Serviceable Units or Tasks Panels.

Right-click on the selected item and assign it to the required Queue.

As the items are added to a Queue, the item itself will display a dot beside the Pin icon with the colour of the Queue. The count will also increase as queue items are added and removed.

To reorder the list of Jobs in a Queue click on the padlock icon to unlock the ordering and drag and drop the Queue items into the order required before scheduling.

The ability to search queues was introduced in version 19.2.4.

The data that is available to be searched against a queue is dependent on the data displayed against each queue item.

This was enhanced in version 21.3 where a queue timeline view can also be searched, for more information, Click Here

6. Scheduling From a Queue

A Queue’s items can be scheduled in bulk against a single user.

For example, if a Queue was set up to contain a person’s workload for the day, based on the location of the jobs, then the Scheduler can select time in another user’s calendar and paste from a Queue.

6.1. Fill a Day

Right-click on a user’s calendar without selecting a period and select Paste from Queue.

Select the correct Queue

This will fill the selected user’s day with as many Appointments as it can based on the user’s time units or Queue Appointment Durations that is applied against the Queue’s setup.

6.2. Fill Part of a Day

Select a period on a User’s Calendar

Right-click on a user’s calendar without selecting a period and select Paste from Queue.

Select the correct Queue

6.3. Add a Quick Appointment From Queue Item

From version 20.1, when an item in a queue is “pinned”, there is the ability to add a New Quick Appointment. This will add an appointment using the system’s defaults without the need for the appointment form to pop.

Against the Clients, Jobs, Tasks and Serviceable unit’s panels in TimeTrak Professional, Queues will show depending on the Users Profile settings.

6.4. Return Items to Queue

If an Appointment is allocated to a user that needs to be removed from the calendar to be rescheduled, it can be returned to its Queue.

The returning options are to return each Appointment or the entire days’ worth of Appointments.

6.5. Return the Day to Queue

Right-click on the calendar but not on a particular Appointment

Select Move Day back to Queue

6.6. Return Appointment to Queue

Right-click on a particular Appointment

Select Move Item back to Queue

7. Check-In to a Queue Item – TimeTrak Professional

From version 20.1, if users have the ability to “Check In” enabled within their Profile, then any queues they have enabled, will have a new “Check In” icon.

On clicking the Check In icon (1), the Checked In icon will then display (2) with the logged in users name and the time they checked into the queue item.

Other users that have access to the Queue can also see this information. This provides further visibility of what staff are currently working on.

For more information on Check In features in Professional, Click Here

8. TimeTrak Mobile Queues

8.1. TimeTrak Mobile App

If Mobile users have queues enabled against their Profile in the TimeTrak Admin Console, they will be able to see these queues automatically in the App

For more information on Queue display in the App Click Here

8.2. TimeTrak Mobile (Web Browser)

If Mobile users have queues enabled against their Profile in the TimeTrak Admin Console, they will be able to see these queues but need to enable this against their Mobile profile at a user level.

When logged into TimeTrak Mobile, users will need to select the Profile option as per below

8.2.1 Activate access to the user’s Profile in the Administration Console

Generally, an admin user would activate this setting temporarily to add and then switch off again once the users access to queues has been set up.

8.2.2 Update the Profile

In Mobile Profile < Home Screen Configuration, Queues can be ticked on. The Queues widget will then be visible under the View Items panel on return to the Home Screen.

This will allow the user to view queues they have enabled against their Profile in the order they are in against their Profile.

Additionally, if users would like specific queue information available from the home screen, this is also possible at a user level.

As per above, click on Profile when logged into Mobile. Under Home Screen Widgets there are three queue options available as per below – select the required queues and specify where you would like the information positioned on your Mobile home screen.

9. Queues from the Home Screen

Once the visibility of the Queue is set, then a user may have this set to a queue on the home screen – available in the mobile browser only.

Users can Start Travel or Check Into, Add Time and Materials to a queue item from the home screen, or see the Queue Items’ details.

There are extra permissions around adding a time entry directly to the queued item, adding disbursements or seeing the details of the item.

A Queue can replace Appointments if needed.

Mobile App – options are accessible by a double-click function on the queue item

Mobile Browser – note the layout has charged to the following from version 21.3.

10. Allocate the Job Manager and/or Task User from a Queue Item in Mobile & the App

From version 21.3.10 onwards, there is now the ability to assign the Job Manager and/or Task User from a Queue item. For more information on this Click Here

11. Queues States and Maintenance

Once queues are set up, then it’s important to note the State of the Queue.

The State of a Queue is either Idle, Busy or Failed. Generally, the State of a queue should sit as Idle.

For Automated queues, the State will sit as Idle until the Queue’s SQL query runs, making the Queue Busy,and will revert back to Idle after the query has run.

Sometimes a Database connection to the SQL Server can be temporarily disrupted/lags. In this instance, the automated Queue will attempt to rerun five times. If a connection can not be made on the fifth attempt, the Queue will show as failed and at which the Queue will need to have the State reset.

If the connection to the server can not be made at all or the SQL query has an incorrectly written script, e.g. server is down for server maintenance, then the Queue will fail instantly. In this case, the queue/s will need to have the state reset.

To reset the State of the Queue, go into the Administration Console < Queues, click on the failed Queue once to highlight it and then click Reset State, this will set this back to Idle.