How do I add start and end times to visits?

Originally, SortScape was designed without start and end times for visits, allowing for quick and flexible job shuffling to accommodate staffing and weather changes. This is ideal if your customers are flexible about when the work gets done, as long as the job is completed. This is called the Classic Schedule.

If you want when to arrive at and finish each job, you have two options depending on where you need those times to appear:

1. Smart ETAs — Use route optimization on the Classic schedule to automatically calculate arrival and finish times. Times appear only in the route optimization modal (click the map button on a job run). They do not show on the main schedule or on printed runsheets.
2. Calendar schedule — Enable Calendar view when you need times on the schedule, mobile app, or print view, when customers need fixed appointment windows, or when coordinating with deliveries and other time-sensitive commitments.

Smart ETAs: plan arrival and finish times in route optimization

Smart ETAs give each visit an estimated arrival time and finish time based on your day’s start time, travel between properties, and each visit’s estimated duration. They are calculated in route optimization — you do not need to enable Calendar view.

This is a good fit when:

• You are planning a day’s route and want to check estimated arrival and finish times before crews head out
• Your customers are flexible about when work gets done during the day
• You are happy to view times in route optimization rather than on the schedule or a printed runsheet

To view Smart ETAs for a job run:

1. Open the schedule and click the map button at the top of the job run
2. Enter a start time and start address (and end address if the crew returns to base)
3. Optionally click Optimize Route to reorder visits for the shortest drive
4. Review the estimated arrival and finish times shown above each visit in the route optimization list

Grey times are estimates; green times show actual logged times after a visit is completed. As the crew works through the day, remaining estimates in route optimization adjust automatically.

If you need times on the schedule, in the mobile app, or on a printed runsheet, use Calendar view instead (see below).

Enabling the calendar schedule

You can enable the calendar view and the ability to add start and end times to visit, by turning it on in Administration > Visits screen:

1. Make sure you are logged in via the web browser (you cannot enable this feature from the mobile app)
2. Go to the Administration > Visits screen which you can access from the “Cog” dropdown in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
3. Click on “Advanced Settings”
4. Turn on “Enable calendar view”

Start and end times in the classic schedule

On the Classic schedule, you can view estimated arrival and finish times as Smart ETAs in route optimization (see above). They are automatically calculated using your day’s start time, the visit’s estimated duration, and travel time — no manual entry required. These times are only visible in the route optimization modal, not on the main schedule. As you complete jobs and use the visit timer, the estimates in route optimization update with actual times.

Start and end times in the calendar schedule

When creating or editing visits, you can enter a start and end time for the visit. If you enter a start time, then you must enter an end time.

To turn a visit with a start and end time into an anytime visit, you just check the “Any time” checkbox.

Time clash warnings

If a timed visit overlaps another timed visit on the same crew, SortScape shows a yellow warning on the visit form while you are editing. This is advisory only — you can still save the visit.

The check runs when the visit has a start time, end time, crew, and due date. Back-to-back visits are fine (for example, one ending at 10:00 and the next starting at 10:00). Visits on other crews or marked Any time are not included.

For repeating visits, SortScape checks every date the series would occur within the next 52 weeks, not just the first due date. When editing an existing visit, that visit and its repeating series are excluded so you are not warned about overlapping with yourself.

The warning lists each clash with the date, visit name, time, and location. Two clashes are shown by default; click +N more to see the rest.

When some of your visits are anytime visits and some have a start and end time, you are effectively creating two visit lists for the day, as the list of anytime visits is ordered by position and the list of timed visits is ordered by start time.

Calendar schedule views

When looking at this day in a calendar, anytime visits will be shown at the top (at this stage they can only be re-ordered in the original views) and the visits with times will show in the corresponding calendar timeslots.

You can switch to the calendar view by selecting the the calendar day, week or month view from the view drop-down:

A video showing the differences between the Classic Schedule and the Calendar Schedule can be found here:

Route optimization

At this stage, the route optimization only works for anytime visits, as optimizing a day with visits that have fixed times means the route optimization will have to change those times to suit the ideal route, which defeats the purpose of adding specific times for jobs.