FieldOne Sky for Microsoft Dynamics CRM contains a feature that allows for the creation of agreements, which can then be used to automatically schedule work orders for routine maintenance. In this post I will explain the concepts connected with agreements.
Agreements are often used for preventative maintenance as they support recurring jobs for a set period of time using an agreement schedule. For example: A quarterly inspection over a two-year contract. Work orders can be automatically generated from the agreement.
Each agreement can have multiple agreement schedules, then each schedule will have one or more associated incidents types. Work orders and work order schedules can then be automatically generated for each schedule based on its incident types.
Each agreement schedule has a recurrence, very much like a recurring appointment in your Outlook calendar.
Each agreement schedule is then associated with one or more incident types, services, products and service tasks. (in a very similar manner as you’d expect on a work order!)
Agreements start off in as “Estimate” state whilst they are being build, they then become “active” once ready and once past the end date the agreement status will change to expired. (Plus if required agreements can also be cancelled.)
You can think about the process for creating an agreement as being in three parts;
Part one – Creation of the agreement foundation. (Account details, duration, price list etc)
Part two – creation of the agreement schedule
Part three – Definition of the work to be completed
To access agreement, load the agreements option from the FieldOne Sky navigation menu.
Part One – Agreement Foundation
When you create an agreement the “header” of the agreement looks like this; below I will explain the meaning of each field.
| Field | Description |
| Agreement number | The agreement number is a read only field, it is automatically calculated by the system when the agreement is saved. |
| Service and billing account | The service account is the account who will receive the serviced outlined in this agreement. The billing account is the account that will pay for the work. (if the billing account is blank then the service account will be the billing account.) |
| System status | Agreements start with a status of “Estimate”, become “active” and then progress to “Expired” when the end date is reached. Alternatively, agreements can be set to cancelled if they are terminated.
Tip: |
| Sub status | The sub status is an option user configurable status field that can be sued to give more granular detail about the status of the agreement, if required. |
| Description | A text field describing the agreement. |
| Owner | The owner of the agreement, typically the person who created the agreement. |
| Start Date | The date the agreement started. |
| End Date | The date the agreement ends. |
| Duration | The length of the agreement. The duration is automatically calculated based on the start / end of the agreement.
Alternatively, you can enter just a start date and enter a duration. This will calculate the agreement end date. |
| Service Level | The service level field is simply a look up to a text description of the service level to be offered. (e.g. Standard or Gold etc.) It does not have any meaning other than as reference information and for reporting. |
| Agreement Details | A second text field to further describe the details of the agreement. |
| Agreement Value | A field that will be calculated based on the services to be conducted as part of the agreement. |
| Customer PO | Space to record the customers purchase order number for this agreement. |
| Originating Agreement | If this agreement has been created from another agreement, then this field will link back to the original. Typically, this will be populated when the copy / renew option is used. As you might want to copy an expired agreement and re-activate as part of a renewal process. |
| Price list | The price list is mandatory and important; this will be the source for all prices applied on work orders associated with this agreement. |
| Service Territory | An optional field describing the geographical area this agreement covers. |
| Currency | The currency that will be sued for all work orders / invoices associated with this agreement. |
| Taxable | Is sales tax to be applied to work orders associated with this agreement is applicable? |
Part two –Agreement schedules
Having saved the agreement foundation, you will next create the agreement schedule(s)
| Section | Field | Description |
| Summary | Name | A text name describing the agreement schedule |
| Owner | The owner of the schedule, typically the same as the agreement owner. | |
| Agreement | The number of the related agreement. | |
| Description | A detailed description of the schedule. | |
| Work Order Settings | Auto Generate WO | Set to Yes, if work orders are to be automatically generated. |
| Work Order Type | When work orders are generated, either automatically or manually against this agreement this field will define their type. | |
| Generate WO days in advance | Work orders can be generated “n” days in advance of their required date. Setting this value high could create a large number of work orders but it needs to be set high enough to ensure that work orders are generated far enough in advance to allow the dispatcher time to schedule. | |
| Priority | A user defined field to indicate the priority of the work orders. | |
| Work Order Summary | A text description giving a summary of the work which is added to the work orders. | |
| Schedule Settings | Auto generate schedule | If the work order is automatically generated, then optionally a schedule can also be generated.
If set to No, a work order will be generated but its status will be “Open – unscheduled”, it can then be scheduled by the dispatcher. Either manually or by using the scheduling assistant. If set to Yes, the work order will be automatically scheduled using the settings / preferences below. |
| Schedule duration | The amount of time to schedule for the job. | |
| Pre and post schedule flexibility | How many days pre (and post) of the proposed start date that can be allowed for flexibility. | |
| Preferences | Preferred Resource | A mandatory field if the work order is going to be automatically scheduled. Otherwise optional, implying the dispatcher will select the resource when the work order is scheduled. |
| Time window start & end | The time window the job could start. | |
| Preferred start time | The preferred start time. |
Having entered and saved the schedule detail, you can now define the schedule recurrence. Using the ribbon button “schedule recurrence”.
The recurrence pattern can be daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. And / or specific custom dates can also be entered. Meaning the flexibility available for the recurrence pattern is extremely high.
Part three – Definition of the work to be completed
The next step will be to define the work that needs to be completed. Typically this will involve adding one or more incident types to the agreement. Assuming you are already familiar with creating work orders this should be a straight forward task.
When adding the incident types, you can also optionally associate the incident with e specific customer asset. This allows service records to be maintained to specific pieces of customer equipment.
You can also optionally, add specific service tasks, products and services directly to the agreement.
Once the agreement has been activated one (or more) agreement schedules will be created. The status of each agreement schedule will change to “Processed” when a corresponding work order is created.
NEIL PARKHURST 
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