Availability and location
Three separate things decide whether you can send someone to a job, and they answer different questions. Availability says what they’re doing right now. Working hours say when they normally work. Time off says which specific days they’re gone. Their location tells you who is closest.
Availability right now
Section titled “Availability right now”Every resource is in one of four states.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Available | Working and free to take a job |
| On Break | On a break, with the reason shown beside it |
| Unavailable | Off duty: shift over, sick, gone home |
| Offline | The field worker has switched themselves off in the app. No location is shared |
Field workers set their own from the app. You can set it for them from the dropdown at the top of their resource page when someone phones in. That needs the Operations Manager, Brand Administrator or Tenant Admin role, or a custom role with permission to manage status on someone’s behalf.
There’s no busy status. Working a job is tracked by the assignment status on that job (Assigned, Confirmed, Acknowledged, En route, On site, then Completed or Failed), which is a different thing. Someone can be Available and en route at the same time, and the resource hub shows the combination, counting them under On Job.
Offline is the exception: only the field worker can go offline or come back online, from the app. You can see it, but the dropdown on their resource page is replaced by a note saying they set it themselves, and nobody in the office can change it. It exists so that no one can track a person by editing their working hours: whatever their hours say, nothing is shared while they’re offline. Auto-assignment skips them, and they drop off the dispatch map.
On the resource hub, Filter narrows the list to any combination of the four states, with a count next to each.
Breaks
Section titled “Breaks”In the app, Start Break asks for a reason: Lunch, Personal, Driving or Other. The status becomes On Break with the reason next to it and a running clock. Location sharing pauses for the duration.
The break ends when they tap End Break, or by itself once it reaches an hour. The app warns them five minutes before that happens. An automatic end is recorded on their activity timeline, so a break nobody closed is visible rather than silent.
Scheduled working hours
Section titled “Scheduled working hours”Each resource has a weekly pattern: for every day of the week, a switch for whether they work it and a start and end time. Out of the box it’s Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00.
Open a resource, go to the Working hours tab, set the days and times, and click Save. The end time has to be after the start on any day you’ve switched on. It needs the Operations Manager, Brand Administrator or Tenant Admin role.
Working hours are advisory. Schedule a job outside them and WorkWing warns you as you assign, naming the reason: they aren’t scheduled that day, their shift starts later than the job, the job runs past the end of their hours, or the job runs overnight. It never refuses the assignment. Auto-assignment and route optimisation read the same hours, so the warning agrees with what they would have chosen.
The wallboard leaves out anyone who isn’t scheduled to work today.
Working hours also bound location sharing. Outside them the app stops reporting where someone is, unless they’re en route or on site at a job. See Where everyone is. The Working hours tab says so above the editor: agree changes with the person before you save them, because widening someone’s hours widens when they’re tracked.
This is per person. Your organisation’s own opening hours, which shade the dispatch timeline, are separate: see Business hours.
Dated unavailability
Section titled “Dated unavailability”Availability answers “right now” and working hours answer “in a normal week”. Neither answers “is Priya off on the 14th”. Time off is a specific window with a start and an end.
WorkWing records the window and nothing else: no reason, no note, no approval step, no leave balances. It is not an HR system, and it isn’t trying to be.
Recording it
Section titled “Recording it”From the resource page, open the Time off tab and click Add time off. Choose All day and pick a First day and a Last day, or turn it off and give exact From and Until times. The tab also shows a month calendar with time off shaded, and clicking a day starts an all-day window there.
From the dispatch console, right-click a resource’s row in the scheduler and choose Add time off. Same dialog, already filled in with the time you clicked.
Recording time off needs the same access as editing the resource.
When it clashes with work already booked
Section titled “When it clashes with work already booked”Saving always works, even when the person already has jobs in that window. WorkWing records the time off first and then tells you: the dialog lists the jobs that overlap so you can reassign them yourself. Nothing is moved automatically, because deciding who covers a job is not a decision to hand to software.
What it changes
Section titled “What it changes”- The wallboard drops them while the window covers the current moment.
- In the assignment picker they sink to the bottom of the list with an Unavailable badge, and assigning them anyway takes an extra confirmation.
- Auto-assignment skips them for any date the window covers.
- On the dispatch scheduler their row shows striped blocks behind the jobs.
Field workers marking themselves away
Section titled “Field workers marking themselves away”Anyone can set their own away time from Account > Profile under Away, on the web or in the app. It counts exactly like time off you recorded for them, and it applies at every organisation they work for, which is what makes it useful for contractors who work for several. See External workers.
Where everyone is
Section titled “Where everyone is”Positions come from the mobile app. It reports while the app is open during the field worker’s working hours, and in the background from the moment they set off for a job until they arrive on site. There is no tracking when the app is closed and they’re not en route.
Outside their working hours the app reports only while they’re en route or on site at a job, so a job sent after hours is still tracked on the way there. Opening the app in the evening to look at tomorrow does not put them on the map. Someone whose hours you haven’t set gets the default, Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00.
The field worker controls it under Location Tracking in the app: Share Location switches it on and off, and Update Frequency picks Frequent, Normal or Saver. Positions are skipped when they haven’t moved, so a parked van doesn’t drain a battery. Sharing pauses during a break.
Your organisation can require it. Settings > Security has Require location sharing while working, which takes the switch away from the field worker.
Each pin on the map says how long ago the position arrived, so you can judge whether to trust it. Someone with no pin has the app closed, has location sharing off, is outside their working hours, or is offline. How accurate a fix is depends on the phone and where they’re standing: indoors is worse than a street.
Past positions build the Routes tab on each resource. How long they’re kept is a retention policy you set under Privacy and data, starting at 90 days.
Putting it together when you dispatch
Section titled “Putting it together when you dispatch”Filter the hub to Available, check nobody you’re considering has time off covering the slot, look at the map for who is nearest, and check the job type’s required skills against their Skills tab. The assignment picker flags time off and people who can no longer log in, and from the dispatch console it lists people nearest first with travel times. Skills are yours to check. See Assigning resources.