October 13, 2026 · 3 min read
Your dispatcher should know who is out before they drag a card, not after the customer calls asking where the tech is. Dispatch Scout now puts time off right on the schedule and warns you when a visit lands on it.
This update touches the Job Schedule, the appointment form, FlexShift and the TV boards. The goal is simple. If a tech is off, every screen that hands out work should know it.
Time off usually lives somewhere other than the board. A text to the owner, a sticky note, a calendar the dispatcher forgot to check. So a tech on PTO gets a Wednesday install, someone notices Tuesday night, and the office reshuffles three customers.
Each day header on the Job Schedule now shows a small moon and a chip for every person with time off that day. The chip says who and when: All day, From 1:00 PM, Until 3:00 PM, or a range like 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. Hover for the reason.
When you assign, move, resize or schedule a visit on the Job Schedule, or save the appointment form, Dispatch Scout checks every tech on that visit. If one of them is on time off, a Heads up message names the tech and when they are off.
It does not block the save. Sometimes a tech wants the overtime, or the time off was entered wrong. The point is that nobody books it by accident.
A warning, not a wall. The dispatcher still makes the call. They just make it knowing who is out.
FlexShift ranks techs so the next call goes to the right person. Before this update, a tech who wrapped a job at 11:55 and started PTO at noon could still look like the warmest pick. Now a tech on real time off is moved down the roster behind the other techs in the same group, and the TV board shows an Off badge with the same hover note The Burndown uses.
A tech who simply has no hours set that day is treated differently from one on actual time off, so on-call rules keep working the way you set them up.
Time off reasons are now a fixed list: PTO, Sick, Holiday, Unavailable and Other, plus an optional note. Existing free-text reasons were mapped onto the list, and anything that did not map was kept in the note, so no history was lost. The same label shows everywhere: the tech’s Time Off tab, the calendar overview, the Job Schedule, the vertical tech schedule, The Burndown rail and the warning.
Included in the flat $40/user/month. Time off on the schedule, the heads up warning and FlexShift awareness are part of scheduling and dispatch. No add-on.
On the Job Schedule. Each day header lists the people with time off that day and the part of the day they are off, such as All day or From 1:00 PM. The list follows your department filter.
No. It warns you. A Heads up message names the tech and the time off, and the visit still saves. Sometimes a tech offers to take the call, and that is your decision.
A tech on real time off is moved down the FlexShift roster, behind the other techs in the same group, so a recent completion no longer pushes them to the top. The TV board shows an Off badge.
PTO, Sick, Holiday, Unavailable and Other, with an optional note. Older free-text reasons were mapped to the new list and any leftover text was kept in the note.
No. It is part of scheduling and included in the flat $40 per user per month.
See how scheduling and dispatch work in Dispatch Scout, or start a trial and add your team’s time off.
Scheduling & dispatch Start Free TrialDispatch Scout is field service management software built for growing home service businesses. Scheduling, dispatch, invoicing, call tracking and payments in one platform, at one flat price of $40 per user per month.