The Repeating Jobs feature enables dispatchers to automate the process of creating and scheduling jobs that recur on a regular cycle. This feature saves time, helps reduce the workload for dispatchers, and makes sure jobs that must be regularly scheduled aren’t forgotten.

There are two versions of Repeating Jobs in vWork:

Repeating Jobs v1 - the standard Repeating Jobs feature used to schedule the same job for one customer at one location.
Repeating Jobs v2 - an optional Repeating Jobs feature that works with the optional Assets feature. This enables recurring jobs to be scheduled for one or many Assets. It is more flexible and powerful than Repeating Jobs v1.

This article focuses on Repeating Jobs v2 - with Assets. You can read about the differences between both Repeating Jobs versions in the article, What are Repeating Jobs?

If you need further information about Repeating Jobs v2, or want to add this to your account, please email support@vworkapp.com. We’ll get back to you to talk through your requirements.

Repeating Job v2: Process and Planning

Using Repeating Jobs v2, you can set up a repeating job to create jobs for one or more Assets based on a single job template. The repeating job is set up in the Jobs tab under the Repeating Jobs v2 option.

Process

Once you have opened the Repeating Jobs v2 page, there are 4 steps to set up a repeating job:

Complete the mandatory fields
Add Rules
Attach Assets to the repeating job
Configure the attached Assets

This shows you what part of the Repeating Jobs v2 page you use to complete each of these steps.

We explain how to complete the Repeating Jobs v2 page to create a repeating job later in this article. First, we recommend you do some planning for the repeating job to work out new jobs will be created and scheduled using Repeating Jobs v2.

Plan the repeating job

Repeating Jobs v2 is both powerful and flexible. Using this feature you can set up a single repeating job that creates and schedules recurring jobs on a regular cycle for multiple assets. Repeating Jobs v2 allows flexibility for when jobs are created, scheduled, and assigned. This can add some complexity to the repeating job but, with a bit of planning, the setup process is straightforward.

Following are some questions that will help you plan your repeating job. These questions are listed under the step in the Repeating Jobs v2 process, described in the previous topic, that they apply to.

Complete the mandatory fields

What job template will you use for the repeating job?
Note: We do provide an optional add-on to Repeating Jobs v2 that enables you to use up to 3 templates on a rotating cycle in a repeating job. You can read more about this in the article, Use Template Cycles in Repeating Jobs v2
How many days before each job is scheduled to start should they be created and added to the vWork Schedule and, if you choose to assign jobs at the time they are created, show on the mobile app?
What time do you want jobs to be created? The default is 12:00 am on the date they will be created.
Note: The Create At Time is the time the job is created in vWork. It is different from the planned start time - this specifies the time the job is scheduled to begin.

Add rules

What date and time do you want to start the first repeating job? All repeating jobs are scheduled from this point in time going forward.
Do you have a date when you want the repeating job to end? After this date, no more jobs are created or scheduled.
Note: While you can set an end date, this is optional.
How often will jobs need to be done; ie., daily, weekly, monthly? This is known as the job interval.
Does the schedule for the repeating job need to adjust by season or some other factor over a given period of time? Are there different job intervals used in different seasons; eg., do jobs need to be done weekly in summer and monthly in winter? When you set up recurring seasonal jobs with job intervals that are different for each season you must set up each season with its own Rule and have a start and end date for each rule. Start and end dates can’t overlap for each set of Rules.
Does the job need to be done on the same day of the week every time; eg., on Monday?
Are there some days and dates, such as statutory holidays and weekends, that you want to exclude from the repeating job schedule?
Are there some months that you want to exclude from the repeating job schedule? You can do this by setting up different Rules for each block of jobs, or excluding specific months from a single Rule.

Attach Assets to the repeating job schedule

Do you want the same job to recur for more than one Asset?
If you have multiple Assets you want to schedule repeat jobs, do you plan to bulk attach the assets using a CSV file, or add each Asset individually? You can configure the attached Assets in the CSV file used to attach the Assets to the repeating job. This is useful when you want to attach a lot of Assets.
For more information on bulk attaching assets to a repeating job, please read the article, Attach Assets in bulk to a repeating job with Repeating Jobs v2.

Configure the attached Assets

When you create jobs for multiple Assets in the repeating job, can the jobs be done on the same day, or do some Assets need jobs scheduled on different days?
What time do you want to schedule the jobs to start for each Asset?
Do you want to assign jobs to workers at the time they are created? It is important to consider this in relation to the Create Days Before setting in the Mandatory fields.
Will jobs for some assets take a shorter or longer time to complete than the planned job duration saved in the template? You are able to override the planned job duration from the job template when you configure an Asset in the repeating job.

When you have the answers to these questions you’ll be ready to set up the repeating job.

Create a repeating job with Assets

In the following topics, we explain the steps to create a repeating job with Assets. We will follow the process described above and use an example to demonstrate how to set up the repeating job.

Repeating job example

In this example, we will create a repeating job to mow reserves and sports fields (Assets) for our customer Mainland Regional Parks. This repeating job has the following parameters:

Jobs are to be created 5 days before they are scheduled to start.
The mowing schedule varies from summer to allow for changes in seasonal grass growth rates. In summer the grass will be mowed weekly and in winter it will be mowed every three weeks.
We will exclude a 2-month period of time in April and May when all reserves have annual reseeding and sprinkler maintenance done.
We will exclude statutory holidays from the repeating job.
The repeating job will be linked to 4 Assets. Each Asset will be mowed at 8:30 am on a different day.
As the sports fields and reserves vary in size, layout, and the type of mower that will be used (tractor vs ride-on) the templated job duration isn’t an accurate estimate for every Asset. We will vary the job duration for some Assets to better reflect the actual time it takes to mow.
Jobs will be assigned to each worker when they are created by the repeating job.

Open a new repeating job

To set up the new repeating job you begin by opening the Repeating Jobs v2 page. This is where you specify the parameters for the repeating job.

To begin creating a new repeating job:

Go to Jobs > Repeating Jobs v2.
This page shows a list of all repeating jobs currently saved in your account. You can open an existing repeating job to edit it from this page and also create a new repeating job.
Click to open the Repeating Jobs v2 page.

Complete the mandatory fields

The top section of the Repeating Jobs v2 page is where you give the new repeating job a name, specify the template that will be used to create the jobs, and set how many days before the scheduled start time each job is created.

These fields display a red asterisk next to them to show they are mandatory fields. Mandatory fields are the only fields that must be completed to save the repeating job. Once these mandatory fields are completed, if the button is clicked, then the schedule is saved and added to the list of repeating jobs. It can always be edited later to add more details.

To complete the mandatory fields:

Click in the Repeating Jobs Name field and type a name for the repeating job. This will help you identify this repeating job later.
Click in the Using Template field and select a job template from the options that display in the drop-down list.

In this example, we selected Mow standard as the template to use.
Click in the Create Days Before field and click the up and down arrows to select how many days before the scheduled start date you want the job created. You can choose jobs to be created from 1 to 35 days in advance of the scheduled start date.

In this example, we have selected 5 days. (Use the shortest duration you can to avoid clogging up your schedule with future jobs and slowing down the schedule performance.)
The Create At Time specifies the time of day that new jobs are created. The Create At Time defaults to 12:00 am. Click in this field and select a different time if you don’t want to accept the default.

In this example, we have accepted the default of 12:00 am.
Enabled is a toggle button. Click it to toggle it off and on. When it is toggled to blue (the default) Repeating Jobs v2 starts creating new jobs at the point the repeating job is saved. When disabled the repeating job is inactive and Repeating Jobs v2 won’t create jobs until you choose to enable it.

Note: If you don’t attach Assets to the repeating job it is automatically disabled when it is saved.

In this example, we have left the Enabled toggle in its default position of Enabled.

Add rules

The Rules specify when a repeating job begins and ends, when jobs should and should not be created, and how often jobs are to be created.

Note: When you have more than one set of Rules in the repeating job, the start and end dates for each Rule can’t overlap with another Rule.

You can’t save a repeating job until you have added at least one set of Rules.

To add a Rule:

Scroll to the Rules section and click . This adds a new rule line with two default fields; the Starting field and the Finishing field.
- The Starting field is the first day you want the first job to be created. If this is earlier than the Create At Time then the first job is created the moment the repeating job is created. The default date for this field is the current date.
  
  Note: The Starting field is the only mandatory field for the Rule. No other fields need to be added to the Rule for it to be applied to the repeating job.
- The Finishing field has no date entered. This can be left blank if you want the repeating job to repeat forever, or a date can be added if the repeating job should have an end date.
Click in the Starting field and select the start date for this repeating job. If required, also click in the Finishing field and select a date for it to end.

In this example, we’ll add two rules to enable us to have different job intervals for the summer and winter seasons. This first rule is for the summer season. We have set it to begin on October 1, 2022 and run through to April 1, 2023.
To add more parameters to the Rule, click to display a drop-down menu showing the parameter options. Click to select the parameter you want to apply.

In this example, we selected Every Interval as we want to set the repeating job to create jobs at a weekly interval for the summer season. We will choose the type of interval next.

Note: You can see the job distribution as green blocks in the calendar below. This changes as more parameters are added to the rule and more rules are added to the repeating job.
Once selected, the Every Interval option adds two new fields to the rule where you can select the interval period.

In our example, we want the jobs to be created every week so we have selected a period of 1 and the interval as Weeks to set the interval at every 1 week.
Add as many additional parameters as you want to apply to this rule. Click to add a new parameter and display the settings for that parameter.

In this example, we have several additional parameters added to the first Rule. We have also added a second Rule for the Winter season.

- For Rule 1, the summer rule, jobs will be scheduled every week on Monday. We have excluded some statutory holidays and Saturday and Sunday from the schedule.
- For Rule 2, the winter rule, we have set a starting date 2 months after Rule 1 ends and scheduled jobs to recur every 3 weeks on Monday. We have also excluded Saturday and Sunday in Rule 2.

Note 1: The job distribution has changed on the calendar to reflect the two rules and their parameters.

Note 2: While the calendar currently shows all jobs scheduled for Mondays that will not be practical when we add multiple Assets to this repeating job. We will need to schedule jobs for some Assets on other days. We can manage this when we configure the attached Assets in the next steps.

Attach Assets to the repeating job

Once the rules are set for the repeating job you attach the Assets to schedule recurring jobs for.

Assets can be attached one at a time. We explain how to do this in this topic. However, if you have a lot of Assets to include in the repeating job, you can attach Assets in bulk. The article, Attach Assets in bulk to a repeating job with Repeating Jobs v2, explains how to configure and attach multiple assets using a CSV file.

To attach a single Asset:

Click in the Select an Asset field and start typing the name of the Asset. This displays a drop-down list of Assets that match what you have begun to type. Click the Asset from the list to select it and attach it to the repeating job.

In this example, we select the Mercy Bay Domain as our first asset to attach.
Repeat step one to attach additional Assets. Once attached the Asset is ready to be configured.

Note: As each Asset is added it is placed in alphabetical order. The order can’t be changed.

In this example, we have attached 4 assets.

Configure the attached Assets

Once Assets have been attached, either one at a time or in bulk, the Assets can be configured. When you configure the Asset you can adjust the scheduled start day and time, adjust the job duration to make this different from the template job duration, assign a worker, and assign the asset to a Group.

To configure assets:

Click in the Planned Start Time for each Asset and select the time you want the job scheduled to begin on its scheduled start date.

Note: You must enter a Planned Start Time if you assign a worker to the Asset. If no Planned Start Time or Worker is saved against the Asset, jobs are created for the Asset on the scheduled date at the Create At Time, with a status of Unassigned.

In this example, we have set the Planned Start Time as 8:30 am for every Asset. We will use an Offset to make sure jobs aren’t created on the same day.
If you want some Assets to be scheduled to start on a different day from that set in the Rules you can add an Offset. The Offset specifies the number of days after the scheduled day, specified in the Rules, the job for this Asset is scheduled to start.

Click in the Offset field for each Asset and type an Offset number.

In this example:
- Gropper Bays Reserve has an Offset of 0. Jobs for this Asset will be scheduled for the start day specified in the Rules. This is Monday for both seasons.
  Note: 0 is automatically entered in the Offset field as the default.
- Mercy Bay Beach has an Offset of 1. This schedules jobs for this Asset for 1 day after the scheduled start day specified in the rules. This is Tuesday for both seasons.
- Mercy Bay Domain has an Offset of 2 scheduling jobs for this Asset on Wednesdays for both seasons, 2 days after the scheduled start day.
- Finally, Mercy Bay Village Green has an Offset of 3 scheduling jobs for this Asset on Thursdays for both seasons.
  
  The calendar now shows jobs starting on multiple days due to the offsets that were added.
If the job duration saved in the template is not an accurate estimate for completing the job for this asset you can change this in the Duration field.

In the Duration field enter a new job duration in minutes to change the job duration from the default defined in the template.

In this example, Mercy Bay Domain is the only Asset where the Job Duration saved in the template is an accurate estimate. We have left this field blank as no adjustment is required. For the remaining Assets, the estimated job duration is either 1 hour or 1.5 hours. We have entered this as 60 and 90 minutes in the field for each of these Assets.
In the Worker field, you can click to change the assigned worker brought through from the template, or assign a worker when no worker is assigned to the job for this Asset. When a worker is assigned by a repeating job the job is published to their mobile app when the job is created.

In this example, we have assigned Serge Major to the Assets that have jobs scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, and Moe Lawne for the Assets with jobs scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday.
If an Asset belongs to multiple Groups, you can assign the Asset to a Group from the Groups field. This also restricts the workers who can be assigned to Jobs for the Asset to those who belong to the same Group. Click in the Groups to display a drop-down list of Groups and select the Group you want.

In this example, we are not using Groups.

Delete an Asset from a repeating job

You can delete an Asset from a repeating job.

Note: Once an asset is deleted from a repeating job, no further jobs are created for that Asset, but jobs that have already been created remain scheduled.

To delete an Asset from a repeating job:

On the Repeating Jobs v2 page scroll to the Attach Assets section.
Find the Asset that you want to delete in the list of Assets.
Click to open a dialogue box that asks you to confirm you want to remove the Asset, then click Remove Asset.

Create the repeating job and view it in the list

The final step to creating a repeating job is to click at the bottom of the page. This saves the repeating job and returns you to the list of all the v2 Repeating Jobs.

You can click at any time after the mandatory fields have been completed and when the Starting Field is completed for the first Rule.

Note: The repeating job is automatically Disabled if no Assets are added before it is created.

In this example, we have created the repeating job called Mainland Regional Parks: Standard mow. You can see this in the list of repeating jobs on the Repeating Jobs v2 page. Notice that the Rules are shown under the Schedule heading.

How to set up Repeating Jobs v2 (with Assets)

In this article

Repeating Job v2: Process and Planning

Process