The interactive slot search allows you to easily and effectively assign assignments to a resource. For each assignment, you can see which resource can work on the assignment the fastest. If a resource has time to complete an assignment, a free slot is displayed for it. In addition, you can see how long the individual resources need for the assignment and when the assignment is expected to be finished. This way, you can distribute your assignments among your resources in a time-saving manner.

The target hours are not a mandatory field marked with *.

Furthermore, the assignment must be in the worklist and not already assigned to a resource. In addition, it can be helpful to activate the "Automatic update of the planning board" function. To activate this, click on under "Display" on the left side of the planning board. For more setting options that can give you a better overview, read Navigation in the Planning Board and Filtering the Planning Board.

Activation

To be able to activate the slot search, you have to select the worklist first with under "Display". You can then switch the interactive slot search on or off with the checkbox of the same name.

If the interactive slot search is activated, you cannot edit resources, assignments etc.

You can make the following settings in the interactive slot search:

Start: Here you can specify from which day forward to search for free slots. You can only plan assignments that are scheduled from today onwards with the interactive slot search. Depending on the setting, even from the current time including an offset, which is added to the time. These settings can be found in the general settings in the section "Automatic assignment distribution".

Filtering the resources

If you do not want all resources to be displayed, you can filter the resources. A resource will then only appear in the interactive slot search, if its details match the details in the assignment info. You can consider the following information in your search for free slots or also optionally switch off:

Flags
Main group
Group
Skills
Geo coordinates
Resource filter
Debug mode

Using the debug mode

The debug mode serves to show you why a tag was not specified as a free slot. To do this, you must click on the in the right-hand area (within the context information ).

If you select a day or a resource in the planning board in debug mode, the context info in the right area jumps to the corresponding text location.

You can switch off the debug mode as described above.

Further planning

In addition, the assignment is not planned for the weekend or a public holiday. You can also specify in an assignment which assignment is the first assignment or which assignment is an additional trip or which assignment is the last assignment. If an assignment overlaps with an already scheduled assignment or the address data has not been geocoded, then the assignment cannot be scheduled. The resource must also have correct address data to be considered by the interactive slot search. If you do not consider geo-coordinates, then it does not matter if the addresses are geocoded or not.

For the skills that are checked, only numeric and date skills can be considered. The skill check is optional and can be switched off.

You can move the slot search in another browser window with the -button in the top right-hand corner of the slot search. If you would like to have the slot search opened again in the same window as the planning board, then close the slot search window.

Color delimitation

The free slots that are displayed to you vary in color. You can define which colors are used in the User Settings. You can for example use colors to highlight how far the resource would have to travel to the assignment. The divisions of the colors can look like this:

Red: The assignment is far away.
Yellow: The assignment is a little closer.
Green: The assignment is very close.

A gray slot always means that information are missing. For example, if no address is in the resource info, the distance to the assignment cannot be calculated. Resources that cannot complete the assignment in one working day due to e.g. too far travel distances will not be displayed to you.

Information

When you hover over a free slot, various information are displayed.

Outward/ return journey: The distance the resource would have to travel to or away from the assignment and the respective estimated duration.
Bee-line or Google Maps: Tells you whether the outward/return journey is calculated using Google Maps routing or via bee-line. Google Maps routing is used up to a fixed number of kilometers. You can change the kilometer limit in the User Settings.
StartIst/ EndIst: Shows you at what time the assignment for the resource would start/ end. Travel times are taken into account.
Work start/end: Tells you when the resource is expected to start or finish work.

To assign an assignment to a resource, you must select the desired free slot and right-click to select "Use free slot".