Recurring Orders and Templates

Modified on Fri, 19 Dec at 2:26 PM

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

The Recurring Orders feature allows you to create order templates and assign them to a recurring schedule. At each scheduled recurrence, the system automatically generates orders using the selected templates, including predefined pickup and delivery windows.

If a default driver is assigned to the recurrence, the generated orders will be automatically assigned and dispatched to that driver.

Recurrences can be started or stopped at any time, giving you full control over recurring order schedules based on your business needs.

Accessing Recurring Orders

Navigate to Orders > Recurrences.
The system supports two recurrence types: Order and Route.
Use the Type column to filter and display only Order recurrences.

Recurrence List View

From the list view, you can see key details for each recurrence, including:

Recurrence name
Status (Running or Stopped)
Start and end dates
Order creation time
Default driver (if assigned)
Scheduled days the recurrence runs

Creating an Order Recurrence

Step 1: Start a New Recurrence

Click the New dropdown.
Select Order Recurrence.

By default:

Start Date is set to today
Order Creation Time is set to now
Recurrence is set to Never

Step 2: Configure Basic Details

Enter a Name for the recurrence.
Select a Start Date using the calendar or manual entry.
(Optional) Select an End Date.

Notes:

If no end date is set, the recurrence will continue indefinitely until manually stopped.
If an end date is provided, the recurrence will automatically stop on that date.

Step 3: Set Order Creation Time

Select the Order Creation Time using the clock or manual entry.
If using the clock, click Set to confirm the time.

Orders will be created starting from the selected start date and will repeat based on the configured schedule.

Orders will be created from the selected start date and repeated according to the configured schedule.

Step 4: Configure Orders Ready At Offset

Use Orders Ready At Offset if the order should be ready a specific number of days after creation.

Enter the number of days between order creation and when the order should be marked as ready.
Setting this value to 0 creates the order and marks it as ready on the same day.

Note: This setting applies only to templates without overridden time zones.

Step 5: Configure Orders Ready At Time

The Orders Ready At Time is used to calculate the pickup time based on the pickup location’s time zone.

Note: This setting applies only to templates without overridden time zones.

Step 6: Select a Recurrence Schedule

Select a recurrence option from the dropdown. Available options depend on the selected start date.

Standard Options

Never – Recurrence will never run
Daily – Runs every day (Monday–Sunday)
Weekly on [Day] – Runs weekly on the selected day (e.g., Weekly on Tuesday)
Weekly every weekday – Runs Monday through Friday only
Monthly on the last Friday – Runs once per month on the last Friday
Monthly on the last day – Runs once per month on the last calendar day

Custom Recurrence

Select Custom to access additional options:

Repeat every: Day – Same as Daily

Repeat every: Week –

The weekday from the start date is selected by default
You can modify which days of the week the orders are created

Repeat every: Month –

Runs monthly based on the start date
Supports last Friday or last day of the calendar month

Step 7: (Optional) Select a Route Name

Selecting a Route Name assigns generated orders to matching Route Plans based on Account and Service Level.

If no matching route exists, a new route will be created automatically.

Step 8: (Optional) Assign a Default Driver

Begin typing the first 3 characters of the driver’s first name, last name, or driver number.
Select the driver from the list.

All orders generated by this recurrence will be automatically dispatched to the selected driver

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

Step 9: Add Order Templates

Click Add Template to add a row.
Select an order template from the dropdown.
- You may type the template name to filter the list.

Step 10: Configure Pickup and Delivery Windows

To use windows calculated from the service level and Ready At Offset/Time, simply add the template.
To manually adjust windows:
1. Check the Override checkbox.
2. Enter custom pickup and delivery windows.

Overnight Windows: If the end time is after midnight, enter the end time later than the start time (e.g., 10:00 PM to 3:00 AM). The system will correctly handle the next-day end time.

Step 11: Create the Recurrence

Click Create and Start to activate immediately, or
Use the dropdown and select Create Without Starting to start later