Managing Crews

A crew is a group of workers that you manage as a unit. Instead of assigning 3 individual people to a job, you assign the crew, and all 3 come along. Crews make scheduling faster and help you think in terms of teams rather than individuals.

When to Use Crews

Crews are useful when:

• The same group of people regularly works together
• You have dedicated teams for different types of work (e.g., a roofing crew, a landscaping crew)
• You assign equipment to a team rather than to individuals
• You want to simplify scheduling by working with groups

If your team members are mostly interchangeable and you mix them freely across jobs, you may not need formal crews.

Creating a Crew

1. Go to Equipment → Crews.
2. Click Add Crew.
3. Give the crew a name (e.g., “Crew A,” “North Team,” “Roofing Crew”).
4. Save.

Adding Members to a Crew

1. Open the crew.
2. Click Add Member.
3. Select a team member from the list.
4. Assign their role within the crew:

5. Save.

A crew can have 1 lead and multiple helpers. The lead is typically the most experienced person or the person responsible for customer-facing communication.

Assigning Crews to Jobs

When scheduling a job:

1. Open the job and go to the scheduling step.
2. Instead of picking individual people, select a crew.
3. All crew members are assigned at once, with their roles preserved.

You can still adjust after assigning a crew. Remove someone who’s unavailable, add a temporary helper, or swap the lead.

Crew Equipment

Equipment can be assigned to a crew rather than to individual jobs. This is common for vehicles and tools that always travel with a specific team.

1. Open the crew.
2. Go to the equipment section.
3. Assign equipment to the crew.

When the crew is assigned to a job, their equipment comes with them. The system tracks this for checkout/checkin and availability purposes.

PTO and Availability

When a crew member has approved time off, the system flags this during scheduling. If you try to schedule a crew on a day when 1 of its members is off, you’ll see a warning. You can then:

• Schedule the crew anyway (the absent member won’t be expected)
• Swap in a temporary replacement
• Reschedule the job

A Realistic Example

Mountain Fence Co. has 3 crews:

Crew A: Installation Team

• Jake (Lead), 10 years experience, handles complex installs
• Carlos (Helper), strong on materials and prep
• Equipment: Truck #1, Post Hole Digger, Fencing Toolkit

Crew B: Repair Team

• Sarah (Lead), specializes in repairs and small jobs
• Mike (Helper), good with customers
• Equipment: Van #2, Basic Toolkit

Crew C: Seasonal Team

• Tom (Lead), summer hire, handles overflow work
• 2 rotating helpers

How it works in practice:

• The dispatcher sees 3 new installation jobs for the week.
• She assigns Crew A to the big install on Monday-Tuesday.
• She assigns Crew B to the 2 repair jobs on Wednesday and Thursday.
• Crew C picks up the overflow landscaping job on Friday.

Each assignment takes 1 click (assign the crew) instead of individually picking people and equipment for each job.