Dynamics 365 Field Service

After a previous update, we noticed a change in the behavior of the Schedule Board, where after the first assignment, subsequent allocations would use the default value instead of the Duration value, which led to two issues:

1. When a user wants to book multiple resources for an event, additional operations are required
2. Our previously deployed custom solution conflicts with the current behavior, resulting in a bug

Based on the above, we would like to be able to send a notice and explain the discrepancy before a modification is made to the product behavior so that we can pay attention to it in advance

To introduce functionality in the Field Service Product Table that enables tracking warranty information when assets are created as part of a work order process. The goal is to ensure that a warranty record is automatically created for assets installed on customer sites, with start and end dates derived from the work order date and the defined warranty period.

Detailed Requirements:

1. Add Fields to the Product Table:

• Warranty Period Field (Duration Field):
• A new field, Warranty Period, will be added to the Product table. This field will represent the duration of the warranty (in months or years) and will be displayed when certain conditions are met (detailed below).
• Create Warranty Flag (Checkbox):
• A Create Warranty flag (checkbox) will also be added to the Product table. This will allow users to specify whether a warranty should be created when an asset is created.

1. Conditional Display of Fields:

• The Create Warranty flag will only be visible if the Create Asset field (existing field) is set to Yes.
• If the Create Warranty flag is checked (i.e., the user selects that a warranty should be created), the Warranty Period field will become visible. This allows users to input the warranty duration at the product level.

1. Work Order Integration:

• When a product is used on a Work Order and the Create Asset field is set to Yes, the system will automatically generate a new Asset record for that product.
• If the Create Warranty flag is checked for the product:
• A Warranty record will be created for the associated asset.
• The Customer associated with the work order will be linked to the warranty record.
• The Warranty Start Date will be set to the Work Order Date.
• The Warranty End Date will be calculated based on the Warranty Period (from the Product table) and the Work Order Date (i.e., Warranty Start Date + Warranty Duration).

Workflow Overview:

1. Product Table Setup:

• A product is configured in the system with the following fields:
• Create Asset: Yes/No
• Create Warranty: Checkbox (Visible only if Create Asset is Yes)
• Warranty Period: Duration (Visible only if Create Warranty is checked)

1. Work Order Processing:

• A technician uses a product on a work order where Create Asset is set to Yes.
• Upon completing the work order, an asset record is automatically created for the product.
• If the Create Warranty flag was checked, a warranty record is generated for the created asset, with the following details:
• Customer: Linked to the customer on the work order.
• Warranty Start Date: Set to the work order date.
• Warranty End Date: Calculated by adding the Warranty Period to the warranty start date.

Example Scenario:

• A company installs a new HVAC unit (product) for a customer as part of a work order.
• The product is configured to create an asset, and the Create Warranty flag is checked, with a Warranty Period of 2 years.
• After the work order is completed:
• An asset record is created for the HVAC unit.
• A warranty record is generated, with the warranty start date being the work order completion date (e.g., January 1, 2024) and the end date set to 2 years later (e.g., January 1, 2026).

The problem we are facing right now is that while there is an API to consider the availability of the Outlook calendar, this functionality is not implemented in the existing Schedule Board. The "Consider Outlook Schedules" flag is only available through the public Search Resource Availability API, which makes the feature of little use to most customers.

We would like to implement the ConsiderOutlookSchedules functionality added directly to the Schedule Board itself, so that the availability of the Outlook calendar is considered.

It would be helpful to adjust the textarea of the inspection template to display 6-10 lines, especially on iPads or other tablets. Currently, the default setting only shows 2 lines, which makes it inconvenient for reading, especially when there is a lot of information in the textarea. We would appreciate knowing if this textarea can be adjusted to 6-10 lines or if it can automatically resize.

Hi Microsoft product team,

A client of ours needs the schedule board to be automatically refreshed upon closure of bookable resource booking.

Say, user clicks on an existing bookable resource booking on the schedule board, the form opens up and the user changes some data and clicks on save & close.

Client would prefer the schedule board to immediately reflect the changes performed by the user on bookable resource booking form.

The autorefresh functionality has some issues, it isn't working correctly in some instances but even if it did, there would be two limitations/issues :

• As far as i know, autorefresh would be applied only if starttime, endtime or resource has been updated in any of the bookable resource bookings, hence if the user changes some other fields it wouldn't work (even when the changed fields are present in the cell on schedule board)
• Decreasing autorefresh interval seconds (msdyn_scheduleboardrefreshintervalseconds) to reflet changes in less time, would cause performance issues (much usage of API to query changes)

So, we would highly recommend that Microsoft introduces a configurable option, maybe a boolean field on the entity msdyn_schedulingparameter, which when set to true would cause the schedule board to auto refresh on save & close of bookable resource booking form.

Thank you in advance,

Ilir

On the agreement booking setup we can set a prefered resource and a prefered start time. The naming for those fields leads me and the users to think that the system will be smart and schedule the order around the start time you set when the technician is free to do work. This is specially confusing since we also have the fields pre/post booking flexibility in the same section, leading us to belive that the order will be scheduled in "prefered start time" +- pre/post booking flexibility.

The ideal solution would be to improve the functionality to take technicians schedule into account but changing the naming would also help.

Hi Team,

Since Inspections is such a useful feature why tie it up only to field service ? This is a common scenario to have Questionnaire to be filled up for

1. Case
2. What are the steps followed (captured in KB) and capturing the answers
3. Conditional Health questions ( if case is a for a hospital)
4. CheckList for the CSA ( templated) to fix the issue (KB is more documentation based but not a checklist)
5. Sales
6. Checklist to be completed and conditional information to be captured before accepting an opportunity as Account
7. XRM situations
8. Enquiry questions etc.

Applications are countless. Though Customer voice is there , It is primarily designed to capture responses from external customers ( missing capabilities as lookups etc.) not relevant for System Users of dynamics. Hope this taken into consideration

Geolocation tracking can only be accessed at the Organisation Level. Not being able to restrict tracking visibility at the parent/child business unit level means any technician can potentially monitor other teams' locations without oversight.

In previous versions of Field Service, tabs in the schedule board could be moved by drag-and-drop. However, in the new version of Field Service, tabs on the schedule board cannot be moved by drag-and-drop. It is more convenient to move them by drag-and-drop as before.

By default the booking method is set to "Front load hours" but it should be possible to define what the default booking method is via a parameter. Reason is that some of our customers will always use the booking method "Remaining capacity". In this case they will always need to adjust this manually when booking the requirement.