> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.shortcutco.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.shortcutco.com/readme/dispatch.md).

# Dispatch

Dispatch is where you run the day: put every stop under the right crew, in the right order, keep an eye on the field, and close the day out.

Think of Dispatch as the whiteboard in your shop, except it updates itself. Every scheduled visit shows up here on its date, grouped under the crew that's doing it, in the order they'll drive. You move things around, the crews' phones update, and the invoices are ready when the work is done. [Open Dispatch →](https://shortcutco.com/dispatch)

{% embed url="<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A87jdXEjtjo>" %}
Video: a rain day on the Dispatch board, start to finish (2:39).
{% endembed %}

This page covers the screen and a typical day. The linked pages go deeper on each part.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Who can use it:** Dispatch is for admins. Crew members don't see Dispatch at all — they see their own stops for the day in the [Worker app](/readme/worker-app/worker-app-overview.md) at **Today**, in the order you set here.
{% endhint %}

## A quick tour of the screen

Click **Dispatch** in the left navigation. Here is what you're looking at, top to bottom.

<figure><img src="https://2299783971-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FOhi7KtJ4vY1pDKwWu5SV%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-b908619d1dfbeeea974187387e0c74d5b6afa328%2Fdispatch-board-overview.png?alt=media" alt="The Dispatch board on the Scheduled tab: the header with the job count and four tabs, the filter row with the date, status, Team, Service and All filters controls, and today&#x27;s stops grouped under a crew lane with a status icon, service, crew, last service, category and a Complete button on each row"><figcaption><p>The Dispatch board: header, tabs, filter row, and the day's stops grouped by crew.</p></figcaption></figure>

**1. The header.** On the left, the word **Dispatch** and a running count such as *"38 jobs • 12 completed"* for whatever the board is showing. In the middle, the four tabs (below). On the right: a tray icon that opens the **side panel**, a **Map** button, and a **⋯** menu with **Assistant**, **Optimize routes**, **Print**, **Share**, and the save-view options.

**2. The four tabs.** Each one is a different way of looking at your work:

* **Scheduled** — the day's plan. This is where you'll spend most of your time.
* **Needs attention** — everything that needs a decision from you: skipped stops, stops with no crew, double-bookings, and so on. The red number on the tab is how many. See [Needs attention](/readme/dispatch/needs-attention.md).
* **Unscheduled** — jobs that exist but have no date yet, with a **Schedule** button on each row.
* **Close out** — yesterday's completed work, with the money columns showing, so you can check totals before invoices go out. See [Closing out the day](/readme/dispatch/closing-out-the-day.md).

Any views you save yourself appear as extra tabs after these four. See [Views, filters, and columns](/readme/dispatch/views-filters-and-columns.md).

**3. The filter row.** The first chip is the **date**, with ◀ ▶ arrows on either side to step forward or back. Next to it: a search box, the **Status**, **Team**, and **Service** chips, and an **All filters** button for everything else (tags, last serviced, red flags, chemical rounds, and snow if you run snow removal). Once you change a tab's filters, a **Clear filters** button appears next to **All filters**; click it to put the tab back the way it was saved. On the far right, **Columns** lets you choose what the table shows, and **Group** lets you group rows by crew, by status, by red flag, or not at all.

**4. The board.** Rows are stops (one row per customer visit). Rows are grouped into **lanes**, one per crew, plus an **Unassigned** lane at the bottom for stops that don't have a crew yet. The small number at the left edge of each row is the crew's **route order** — stop 1, stop 2, and so on. Hover a row and that number turns into a checkbox so you can select it.

Each row shows a small status icon (a blue calendar check for **Scheduled**, a green check for **Completed**, and so on; hover it for the name, and the **Status** filter uses the same icons), the customer and address, the service, the crew, when that customer was last serviced, and a single most-useful button under **Actions** — usually **Complete**, or **Reschedule** if the stop was skipped or sent back. The **⋯** at the end of the row opens everything else you can do with that stop.

**5. The side panel and the map.** The tray icon opens a panel with two tabs: **Backlog** (customers with services waiting to be scheduled) and **Unclosed** (hourly visits from earlier days that nobody finished). The **Map** button opens a map band below the table showing every crew's route. See [Route map](/readme/dispatch/route-map.md).

{% hint style="info" %}
**On a phone** (in the [mobile app](/readme/mobile-app.md) or a browser), Dispatch becomes a card list with the same four tabs, a search box, a filter button, and a full-screen map. You can assign, reschedule, and complete stops from your phone. Writing customer messages and running Optimize are desktop-only; see [Messaging from Dispatch](/readme/dispatch/messaging-from-dispatch.md).
{% endhint %}

## Your day in Dispatch, start to finish

Here's the routine most dispatchers settle into. None of it is mandatory, but it's the fastest way to a calm morning.

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

### The afternoon before: look at tomorrow

Open the **Scheduled** tab and click ▶ once to move to tomorrow. Two things to check:

* **Is anything in the Unassigned lane?** Those stops won't appear on anyone's phone. Click the crew chip on the row (it says **Unassigned** in red) and pick a crew, or drag the row into a crew's lane. See [Assign crews and set the route order](/readme/dispatch/assigning-and-ordering-routes.md).
* **Does each crew have a reasonable amount of work?** The count in each lane header tells you at a glance.

If you run recurring work, most stops arrive already assigned to the crew that owns the job, so this step usually takes a minute. See [Crew ownership](/readme/dispatch/crew-ownership.md).
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Put the stops in driving order

Grab a row by the grip at its left edge and drag it up or down within the lane. When you drop, a dark pill appears in the corner with two buttons, **Keep every Tuesday** (or whichever day it is) and **Undo**. **Keep every Tuesday** saves this as the crew's regular order for that weekday, so you don't have to do it again next week. See [Making an order stick](/readme/dispatch/assigning-and-ordering-routes.md#making-an-order-stick-keep-every-tuesday).

To let Shortcut work out the order instead, choose **Optimize routes** from the header's **⋯** menu (all crews) or **Optimize** from a crew's own **⋯** menu (just that crew). You'll see a preview before anything changes. See [Optimize routes and the Assistant](/readme/dispatch/optimize-routes-and-the-assistant.md).
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Check who's actually on each truck

Click the **⋯** on a crew's lane header. It lists the people rostered on that crew today. From here you can mark someone **Out today**, **Swap with...** someone else, or move a person from another crew, all **for today only**. Crew membership in **Settings → Teams** stays as it was.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Leave instructions for the crew

Open a stop (click the customer name), scroll to **Operational notes**, and click **Add note** to leave something like *"Gate code 4412 — dog in the back yard"*. You can make it apply to this visit only or every visit. The crew sees it on their phone; customers never see it. See [Operational notes](/readme/dispatch/operational-notes.md).
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Tell customers, if you need to

Tick the stops, then click **Send update** on the black toolbar that appears at the bottom. Pick SMS or email, write the message or choose a template, and click **Review recipients**. Before anything sends, Dispatch shows exactly who will get it and who won't (no phone on file, opted out, and so on). See [Messaging from Dispatch](/readme/dispatch/messaging-from-dispatch.md).
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Print the day's invoices (optional)

If your crews leave paper invoices, open **⋯ → Print** to print one invoice per stop on the board (or just the rows you've selected). See [Printing invoices](/readme/dispatch/closing-out-the-day.md#printing-invoices).
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### During the day: let the board come to you

Leave Dispatch open. It refreshes itself every few seconds, silently, without losing your place or your selection. As crews work, rows change status and small icons appear beside customer names when something needs a look — a crew note or photo, a stop still open from a previous day, a past-due balance.

When a crew can't do a stop, they tap **Reschedule** or **Skip visit** on their phone. That stop's button in Dispatch changes to **Reschedule**, and the stop lands on the **Needs attention** tab. Nothing gets lost.

If you move a stop onto or off a crew's day, the crew gets a **"Your route changed"** push notification that names the stop. A reorder notifies them only when it changes their next three stops, and the notification tells them where to go next. On their **Today** list, changed stops are marked **Added** or **Moved**. See [What your crew sees](/readme/dispatch/assigning-and-ordering-routes.md#what-your-crew-sees).
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### End of day: close out

Open the **Close out** tab. It shows yesterday's completed work (use the date arrows for today) with the money columns, so you can check totals before invoices go out.

Then glance at two counters: the red number on **Needs attention**, and the **Unclosed** count in the side panel. Clearing both each day is the single best habit in Dispatch. See [Closing out the day](/readme/dispatch/closing-out-the-day.md).
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

## Things worth knowing early

* **Most changes don't ask "are you sure?"** Assigning, reordering, rescheduling, and completing just happen, and each one gives you an **Undo** for a few seconds. Only **Cancel** and **Mark handled** ask you to confirm, because they can't be undone. See [Closing out a stop that won't be rescheduled](/readme/dispatch/needs-attention.md#closing-out-a-stop-that-wont-be-rescheduled).
* **Search finds any customer, on any date.** If you search a name and get nothing, they really aren't scheduled anywhere, not just on the day you're looking at.
* **Dragging a stop to another crew moves this visit only.** The job still belongs to its owner crew, and next week's visit goes back to them. To change the crew for good, open the stop and use **This and future visits**. See [Crew ownership](/readme/dispatch/crew-ownership.md).
* **You can't reorder while a filter or sort is on**, or while looking at more than one day. The drag grip greys out and tells you why. **Clear filters** gets you back to the saved tab in one click.
* **Route order is per day.** Setting this Tuesday's order doesn't touch any other day, not even next Tuesday, unless you click **Keep every Tuesday**.

## Related pages

* [Assign crews and set the route order](/readme/dispatch/assigning-and-ordering-routes.md)
* [Views, filters, and columns](/readme/dispatch/views-filters-and-columns.md)
* [Optimize routes and the Assistant](/readme/dispatch/optimize-routes-and-the-assistant.md)
* [Route map](/readme/dispatch/route-map.md)
* [Operational notes](/readme/dispatch/operational-notes.md)
* [Crew ownership (recurring jobs)](/readme/dispatch/crew-ownership.md)
* [Split visits and sending more than one crew](/readme/dispatch/split-and-shared-visits.md)
* [Needs attention](/readme/dispatch/needs-attention.md)
* [Messaging from Dispatch (SMS + email)](/readme/dispatch/messaging-from-dispatch.md)
* [Closing out the day](/readme/dispatch/closing-out-the-day.md)
* [Calendar](/readme/jobs-and-scheduling/calendar.md)

<details>

<summary>Still stuck?</summary>

Email **<hello@shortcutco.com>** with the date, the crew name, and a screenshot of your Dispatch board.

</details>