PestBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Routes

Saved Views: Opening the Pest Control Schedule the Way You Actually Use It

Everyone who schedules pest control has a few ways they look at the schedule over and over. The owner checks every truck for the week on Monday morning. The office manager checks tomorrow's residential route every afternoon. Someone else checks the commercial truck before the monthly accounts go out. Setting up those views from scratch every time adds up. Saved views keep them one click away.

The Views Behind the Routine

Reviewing skips and rescheduling, covered in Rescheduling and Skips: Handling the Pest Control Stops That Didn't Happen, is part of a daily routine that looks at the schedule in several ways. Saved views make each of those looks quick.

What a Saved View Is

The dispatch board can be filtered and arranged in different ways, such as by truck or by day. A saved view keeps a way of looking at the schedule so you can come back to it without setting it up again. Instead of opening the board, choosing a truck and finding the right days, you open the saved view and you are there.

It is a small thing. But the schedule is the screen a pest control office uses more than any other, and small things on that screen add up over a year.

Think about how often you open the schedule in a day. First thing in the morning to see who is out. Mid-morning when a customer calls. After lunch when a skip comes in. At the end of the day to set up tomorrow. Each of those visits is a little faster when the view you need is already waiting, and in a small office that time comes straight out of the owner's day.

Views Worth Saving

Here are a few views that pest control offices commonly find useful. Set up the ones that match how you work:

• Each truck. One view per truck. When a tech calls with a question, open their view and you are looking at the same list they are.
• Residential, mosquito and commercial. If trucks are split by work type, one view per type matches how you think about the work.
• The whole week. All trucks, all days, for the Monday check on balance and capacity.
• Tomorrow. The view you open at the end of each day to finish setting up the next one.
• The owner's truck. For owner-operators who also run a route, a view of just their own day.

Views for Different People

In a small office, different people need different things from the same schedule:

• The owner wants the big picture: Is the week balanced? Are routes full? Is anything overdue?
• The office manager wants the details: Is tomorrow's route in order? Did every skip get rescheduled? Are interior services at the right times?
• A lead tech who helps with scheduling might only care about their own truck and the one they back up.

Saved views let each person jump straight to the view that matches their job. Office user roles control who can do what in the office, so everyone sees the parts of the system that match their job.

Saved Views in a Daily Routine

A typical end-of-day routine might use three saved views in a row:

• Open today's view to review skips and completed stops.
• Open the Waiting List to circle due accounts for the next few days.
• Open each truck's view for tomorrow to auto-route and set the order.

Without saved views, each of those steps starts with setting up filters. With them, each step starts with one click. The full routine is covered in The Daily Pest Control Scheduling Routine: A Short Habit That Sets Up Tomorrow.

Keeping Views Tidy

Saved views are easy to create, which means it is easy to end up with too many. A few habits help:

• Name views clearly: “Truck 2 — Mosquito” is better than “View 4.”
• Delete views you no longer use, like one for a truck you sold.
• Update views when routes change, like when mosquito season ends and the mosquito truck goes back to residential.

Views and Printing

Saved views pair well with printed route sheets. Open a truck's view for tomorrow and print it, and the tech has a paper backup of their day. Printing is covered in the next guide.

To see how saved views fit with the dispatch board, the Waiting List and routing, visit the PestBossPro pest control scheduling software page.