Definition

The release notes refer to different sections of the application:

Back Office: Where Customer Service Representatives (CSR) create and edit orders, create accounts, review drivers, etc.

Dispatch Board: Where Dispatchers assign orders to drivers, get notifications for invalid orders, etc.

Auto-Dispatch: This section refers to the automated order assignment setup and its process.

Administration: This section is in the Back Office but refers to sections only an administrator will use like Settings and Pricing.

Customer Portal: Where account users log in to create orders, view their order history, enter a credit card, etc.

Tracking site: Where customers enter a tracking number like the order ID or a reference number to view the status of their order.

Account API: API provided to your accounts to create, update and get orders. For documentation, please follow this link:https://api.dispatchscience.com/
Tenant API: API provided to you to create orders for your accounts, retrieve invoices and change invoice status. For documentation, please follow this link: https://api.dispatchscience.com/  

Recurring Orders

This new feature allows you to setup order templates and assign them to recurrences. At the recurrence time, the order templates are used, along with pickup and delivery windows if set, to create a set of orders that can be dispatched automatically to a driver is setup as part of the recurrence information.

Order Template

An order template is similar to an order with an exception: order templates do not have pickup and delivery windows since this will be set once the order is created.

View Order Templates

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders.

To open order templates, click on Manage Order Templates.

2) In the order template list, you can view some order template information. 

To see more information, click on an order template name to open its detail.

3) You can view and edit the order template information.

Create an Order Template

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders.

To open order templates, click on Manage Order Templates.

2) Click on New Template and type an account number, account name or account user and select an account user.

Note: You cannot create a user on the fly in the account template. Make sure the account user is created before creating an order template.

3) The account information, the account user and if defined, the default pickup will fill in. Default parcel type will be selected as well as the default service level and vehicle. System extra fees as well as extra marked as required will also be displayed. 

Enter the name of the order template and check Use for Recurring Order. Click on Continue.

4) Fill in the order template:

Pickup, delivery, parcel types, service level, vehicle, extra fees, notes, reference fields, COD and ID verification, attributes and notifications then click on Create Template.

Note: 

If you are using a contact from the account, the contact will be linked automatically. Email, phone number, address lines 1 and 2, company will not be saved in the order template, instead it will be retrieved from the contact when the recurring order is created. You can unlink a contact if needed. This will then use the information in the order template when the recurring order is created. 

Fuel surcharge is not showing on the order template and will be calculated automatically when the order is created.

If delivery price is modified, the modified delivery price will be used when order is created otherwise delivery price will be calculated at the time of order creation using the most recent account's price list. 

If extra fee unit price or total is modified, the modified price will be used when order is created otherwise extra fee will be calculated at the time of order creation using the most recent account's extra fee schedule. 

If price list or extra fees are updated and selection from the order templates are removed, please update the order template to select the correct items:

   - If price list is updated, removing the vehicle or the service level, the order will still be created with no service level and no vehicle selected, keeping the delivery price that was displayed in the order template.

   - If extra fee schedule is updated, removing one its extra fees used in the order template, the order will still be created but the extra fee that was removed will not be added to the order. New required extra fees will not be added to the order. 

Edit an Order Template

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders.

To open order templates, click on Manage Order Templates.

2) In the list of order templates, click on the Order template name.

3) Click on Edit on any section that you wish to edit, make the changes and click on Save.

Delete an Order Template

Only an order template not used in a recurring order can be deleted.

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders.

To open order templates, click on Manage Order Templates.

2) In the list of Order templates, locate the template you wish to delete and click on the garbage can located to the left:

3) Click on Delete to delete the template or cancel to if you wish to keep the template.

Note: If the template is used in a recurring order, an error message will be displayed:

Click on X to close the message. Open the recurrence-s noted in the message and remove the template. You can then return to the order template and delete it. 

Recurrences

Recurrences can be setup once order templates are created. Recurrences can be started and stopped. 

View List of Recurrences

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders.

2) In the list, you can view the name of the recurrence, its status (running or stopped), its start and end dates, its order creation time, its default driver if assigned) and number of order templates associated to each recurrence.

Create a Recurrences

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders.

2) Click on New Recurrence. By default, the start date shows today, orders creation time shows as now, Recurrence shows as Daily.

3) Enter the name of this recurrence, select using the calendar or enter the start date of the recurrence.

Select using the calendar or enter an optional end date.

If the end date is left blank, the recurrence will continue to create orders until it is stopped. 

If an end date is entered, the recurrence will stop automatically on the indicated date. 

4) Select using the clock or enter an orders creation time. If entering using the clock, make sure to click on Set once the time is selected. 

The order templates will be created starting on the start date and recurring according to the recurrence at the indicated orders creation time. 

5) Enter the Orders Ready At Offset 

If order should be created the day before it will be ready, you can set a Orders Ready At Offset. Simply enter the number of days when the order will be set to ready from the creation date. Setting this field as 0 will create the order and have it ready at the same day.

6) Enter the Orders Ready At Time.

The Order Ready At Time will be used to calculate the Pickup and Delivery window or to set the Ready at on the order. 

7) Select a recurrence from the list. Depending on the day selected in the Start Date, the Recurrence drop-down will display the day of the week as the weekly schedule (Weekly on ...), which day of the month as the monthly schedule (Monthly on the ...).

Daily: will run every day of the week from Monday to Sunday

Weekly on a day: will run every week on the day

Weekly every weekday: will run from Monday to Friday, will not run on Saturday and Sunday

Monthly on the xth day: will run once a month on the xth weekday of the month. 

Custom: if you need additional choices, you can select custom

Repeat every: Day

Will create the order every day, this is the same as daily.

Repeat every: Week

The day of the start date is automatically selected.

You can select which day of the week the orders should be created.

Repeat every: Month 

The day of the start day will be used in the drop-down automatically. Monthly on day x will create the order on the xth of the month.

Monthly on the x day will create the order on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th day of the week indicated.

8) Select an optional driver by typing the first 3 characters of the driver first or last name or number to filter the list of drivers. Select the driver.

Every order created in the recurrence will be dispatched to the selected driver. 

9) Add the order templates to the recurrence.

Click on Add Template to add a row, select the template from the drop-down list.
Note: You can type the template name in the drop-down list to select the template or find it in the list.

10) To use the pickup and delivery windows calculated using the service level and the Ready At day offset and time, simply add the template.

To bypass the calculated windows and enter your own, check the override checkbox and enter the pickup and delivery windows taking into account the + days. 

Note: If the end time of the pickup or delivery window should be on the next day, simply enter the time after the from. 

For example, if delivery should be between 10h00PM and 3h00AM, simply enter these time in the windows. If the end is set for after midnight, it will allow you to save for that time. 

11) Click on Create and Start or using  the Create Without Starting to start at a later time.

Edit a Recurrence

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders.

2) Click on the name of a recurrence to see its details.

3) Make modification and save or if not started, Save and Start

Stop a Recurrence

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders.

You will see the running recurrences in the Status column.

2) Click on a recurrence name to open it then click on Stop.

Start a Recurrence

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders. You will see the stopped recurrences in the Status column.

2) Click on a recurrence name to open it then click on Start.

Trigger a Recurrence

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders. Open a recurrence by clicking on its name.

2) In the recurrence, click on the arrow beside the save to open the menu and click on Trigger Now.

The orders in the recurrence will be created using the creation date and time to calculate the windows or using the overridden windows. 

Note: The Trigger is only available when the recurrence is started. 

Delete a Recurrence

1) Click on Orders then click on Recurring Orders. You will see at the end of each recurrence.

2) Click on   to delete a recurrence then confirm the delete by clicking on Delete or cancel the delete by clicking Cancel.

Note: A delete recurrence cannot be undone.