Availability and settings

Everything about the engineer rather than the work sits behind the avatar in the top right corner of the app. Tapping it opens Me, and Settings underneath it.

Availability and breaks

The avatar itself is the availability indicator: a coloured ring, with a glyph on it when the engineer is on a break or unavailable, so it reads without relying on colour. The same status is spelled out on Me.

Availability itself is not something an engineer switches in the app. An operator sets it from the web, and their away time carries it too. See Availability and location.

What they do control is the break. Start Break asks for a reason, one of Lunch, Personal, Driving or Other, and the reason shows on their timeline and on the dispatcher’s Resources page. Location tracking pauses while they are on a break, and the app says so. A break ends when they tap End Break, and ends itself after an hour if they forget. They get a warning in the last five minutes.

Away time

Away under Settings is for planned time off. Add a first and last day, or exact times, with All day on or off. Add away time saves it, and each window can be removed later.

Away time belongs to the engineer, not to you. It shows wherever they work, which matters for contractors serving more than one organisation: while they are away they show as unavailable for scheduling everywhere. Your own record of when someone is unavailable is separate and set from the web. See Availability and location.

Location sharing

Location is what puts an engineer on the dispatcher’s map and lets the office pick the nearest person for a new job.

Under Location Tracking they control two things: Share Location, on or off, and Update Frequency, one of Frequent, Normal or Saver. The section shows the current state, Sharing location, Paused (on break), Paused (outside working hours) or Disabled, and how many updates were skipped because they had not moved.

Going offline

Go offline, under their availability on the Me tab, is the engineer’s own off switch. It stops location sharing completely, whatever their working hours say, and dispatch sees them as Offline. The app asks them to confirm first.

While they’re offline the whole app is paused behind one screen that says so, with a single Go online button. Nothing else is reachable until they tap it, so nobody forgets they’re offline and wonders why jobs aren’t arriving. Only the engineer can go offline or come back: nobody in the office can do either for them.

They can’t go offline while they’re en route or on site at a job. Finish or leave the job first.

Outside working hours

Sharing follows the engineer’s working hours. Outside them, opening the app does not put them on the map, so checking tomorrow’s jobs in the evening or using the van at the weekend is not tracked. There is nothing to switch on or off at the end of the day: the pause starts and ends with their hours.

Two things carry on outside working hours, because they are part of doing a job. Going en route shares their route as normal, so an engineer sent out at nine at night is still tracked on the way. And while they are on site at a job, the app keeps reporting while it is open.

Until you set an engineer’s hours, they get the default: Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00. Change them on their resource record.

One thing overrides their choice. If you have turned on Require location sharing while working under Settings > Security, the engineer cannot switch it off, and the app says it is required by their organisation.

The background disclosure

Before background tracking starts, the app shows the engineer what it is about to do: WorkWing collects location in the background, including when the app is closed, so dispatch can see progress to the job and keep the customer updated. Sharing starts when they go en route and stops when they arrive. They accept or decline it themselves.

The privacy notice

Learn about location tracking tells the engineer in plain terms what is recorded, why, how long it is kept, who can see it, and that they can object and turn sharing off. The retention figure is the one you configured. It links to your organisation’s privacy policy. See Privacy and data.

App settings

Under Settings, the App Settings block holds the choices an engineer makes about their own phone.

• Theme: Auto, Light or Dark.
• Live Activity address tap: whether tapping the address on the lock-screen activity opens directions or opens the job.
• Outbox: what has not reached the office yet, with a count badge. See Working offline.
• Navigation app: which app opens when they tap Navigate. Left unset, they are asked the first time and the choice sticks.
• Keep screen on during active jobs: stops the phone auto-locking while working. It is only offered when you have allowed it for the organisation, because it leaves an unattended phone unlocked.
• Clear Cache: frees storage and forces a fresh sync.

App Icon sets the home-screen icon: Dark, Light or Green. Security carries the biometric lock, which requires Face ID, Touch ID or a fingerprint to open the app and locks it again after a minute in the background.

Screenshots

Screenshots and screen recordings work by default. A Tenant Admin can switch Allow screenshots on mobile off under Settings > Security if customer and job data should not leave the app that way. See Security policies.

Reporting a problem

Report a Problem under Settings sends a report straight to WorkWing. The engineer describes what happened and taps Send report. The app version and account details go with it, so nobody has to copy build numbers off a screen. If the report cannot be sent, the app keeps what they typed and gives them an email address instead.

The Build block at the bottom shows the release channel, the runtime version and which bundle is running, which is what support will ask for.

What’s next

• Working offline: the Outbox and queued work
• Security policies: the organisation-wide switches behind several of these