Lesson #9
Calendar – Quick Assignments function
If there are too many jobs or too many changes in a day to assign tasks one at a time within each job, save time by printing out your upcoming calendar, writing your resources on your calendar, then using Quick Assignments to:
- Apply your assignments to your job calendar in RB9.
- Send resources notifications of their assignments.
Even if you don’t have so many assignments but just prefer to assign all of a day’s resources at one time, use Quick Assignments after confirming tomorrow’s jobs to drag and drop resources to related tasks, or select someone from a list of resources that have previously worked on jobs for the same case.
You can also use Quick Assignments to easily enter assignments made on past jobs that you didn’t get a chance to enter into RB9 before the job occurred.
Assign then notify in one function
Quick Assignments defaults to tomorrow’s tasks when you open the function so you can immediately start assigning resources and checking who has already been assigned. You can change the date to view, narrow the list to one or more tasks and/or business unit (BU), and assign resources to a different date.
In addition to dragging and dropping resources, there are 2 shortcut methods: Previous resources and preferred resources.
As the name implies, previous resources are any resources that were assigned to tasks in jobs on the same case. You can assign a resource from a list of previous resources with a click instead of searching for a resource to drag and drop.
If you maintain preferred/blocked resources lists for firms and contacts you can view those lists in Quick Assignments, so you can:
- Avoid attempting to assign a blocked resource.
- Assign an ordering firm’s or ordering contact’s preferred resource to a task with a click.
Whether you select a previous resource/preferred resource from a list or drag and drop a resource to a task RB9 records it in the related job’s Notes Log and asks if you want to notify the resource. (If you try to assign a blocked resource to a task, RB will alert you and not allow the assignment.) You can send the notification by either email or text message or both without leaving the function, or you can wait to send all of the day’s notifications in a batch using the Send Assignment Notifications/Cancellations function.
Notifications can be sent via text or email or both. Notification emails automatically include the reporter worksheet for the task. You can customize both the message and whether the worksheet is included in the body of the email, as an attachment, or both. You can include other attachments as you are sending the email. You can also send an iCalendar file that the resource can import into their own calendar.
Tasks listed in Quick Assignments include information such as job number/type/status/date/time/location, task times (if different from job times), assigned resource, client, witness, BU, and any notes you’ve made about the task. If you use the Notation field in jobs for your own custom codes to describe jobs (such as “RT” for Real Time), these codes appear here too to help you choose appropriate resources.
Tasks are color coded by job status, so if any job hasn’t been confirmed yet it’s easy to see and follow up with the client. And the list makes it easy to see all unassigned tasks at a glance so you won’t overlook any when applying resources to assignments.
Customize how you view assignment lists
The grid in which you view assignment lists is customizable to your individual preference:
- Re-arrange the columns so the most important information is most prominent
- Stick up to 10 columns to the left side of the grid so they do not scroll when you have a results grid wider than your screen.
- Stretch/shrink columns to fit the results.
- Hide columns you don’t need to see.
- Choose which column(s) to sort results by.
- If you select more than one column choose in what column order to sort the list.
- Choose whether to sort info by ascending or descending order in each selected column.
- Save your custom grid as your default.
You can save your custom grid as your default. Your customizations do not affect other users and you can restore the original RB grid layout anytime.
In addition to assigning tasks you can view and update any listed job’s details, remove assigned resources, and export the grid as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV(comma-separated values) file to save, share, print, or use in other applications.
NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.
TL;DR: In Quick Assignments you can quickly assign resources to tomorrow’s jobs and see if any of those jobs are not confirmed yet so you can follow up with the client.
RB concepts in this lesson
Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately, such as branch offices, other companies you own, affiliates, and profit-sharing operations.
Blocked Resource: Resource that a particular firm or contact does not want assigned to tasks on jobs they schedule or order from you.
Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition, but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >
Job Status: Stage a job is in, e.g., New or Cancelled.
Notation: Short codes (up to 24 characters) you create yourself to give key information about a job (such as “V” for video, “RT” (for realtime), “1 of 2,” or “Daily”) in a results grid, so you don’t have to click into a job’s detail window.
Notes Logs: Un-editable internal-use only notes entered either by a user or automatically by RB9 appear in chronological logs in the database record where they occurred, such as a case, job, invoice, or entity. More >
Preferred Resource: Resource that a particular firm or contact wants you to assign to tasks on jobs they schedule or order from you.
Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service, such as reporters, videographers, interpreters, scopists, account executives, other agencies that cover jobs for you, or a conference room.
Task: Service requested with a job, such as reporting, interpreting, or video, that require a separate resource (person, company, thing) to accomplish. More >
