On Monday morning, the problems with Monday are already locked in. The tech who is out Wednesday was out on the calendar since last month. The two installs that need the same lift were booked by different people. The empty Thursday afternoon on the north side could have been sold, if anyone had looked on Thursday of the week before.
A weekly schedule review is a short meeting, usually Thursday or Friday, where the dispatcher, the office manager and whoever owns sales look at next week together. It is not a post-mortem. It is the last cheap moment to fix next week.
Who attends and when
- Dispatcher or dispatch lead (runs it)
- Office or customer service manager (owns rescheduling calls)
- Service or ops manager (owns techs, time off, training)
- Sales or estimator, if installs are on the board
- Thursday or Friday, 30 minutes, standing time, same screen everyone can see
The agenda
Copy this into the meeting invite.
- Headcount (3 minutes). Who is working each day next week. Time off, training, vehicle in the shop, a new hire still on ride-alongs.
- Capacity vs booked (7 minutes). Fill in the table below for each day.
- Gaps (5 minutes). Days or areas under 70 percent booked. Decide what fills them.
- Overloads (5 minutes). Days or techs over 95 percent. Decide what moves.
- Risks (5 minutes). Jobs that need parts not yet in, permits, a second tech, special equipment, or a customer who has rescheduled twice.
- Drive (3 minutes). Any tech crossing the territory more than once in a day.
- Actions (2 minutes). Read back each action with a name and a deadline.
The capacity table
| Day | Techs working, T | Bookable hours per tech, H | Capacity, T × H | Booked hours, B | Booked share, B ÷ (T × H) | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | ||||||
| Tue | ||||||
| Wed | ||||||
| Thu | ||||||
| Fri | ||||||
| Sat |
Bookable hours per tech is not the shift length. It is the shift minus drive, breaks and the buffer you hold for emergencies and overruns. If a tech works 9 hours and typically spends 2 driving and 1 on breaks and buffer, H is 6. Use your own numbers; the technician capacity calculator helps estimate them.
Over 100 percent booked does not mean the day is impossible. It means the day only works if nothing runs long, and something always runs long. The gap between booked and actual time is covered in booked utilization.
What to look for in each section
Gaps
A gap a week out is inventory you can still sell. Options, in order of how fast they fill:
- [ ] Offer the open times to customers waiting on a later date
- [ ] Book maintenance or plan visits into them
- [ ] Call customers with open estimates and offer the slot
- [ ] Offer the time to a partner company that sends you overflow
Overloads
- [ ] Move flexible work first: maintenance, follow-ups, non-urgent estimates
- [ ] Check whether a tech with lighter load and the right skills is nearby
- [ ] Call the customer early with two specific alternative times, not "we need to reschedule"
- [ ] If the whole week is over, that is a capacity problem, not a scheduling one. Note it for capacity planning.
Risks
- [ ] Parts ordered and confirmed arriving before the job day
- [ ] Permits and inspections booked
- [ ] Two-person jobs have both people on the same day and area
- [ ] Customers with a history of no-shows got a confirmation
Drive
Look at each tech's day on a map, not only as a list. A day that goes north, south, then north again was usually created at booking, by taking whatever time each caller asked for. Our guide to planning a dispatch day around drive time covers how to fix it, and schedule density explains why tight clusters matter.
How to adapt it
Small shops (2 to 4 trucks). The owner and the person answering the phone can do this in 15 minutes. Keep the table; skip the separate sections.
Install and project crews. Review two weeks ahead, not one. Add a row for materials delivery and a row for weather risk.
Recurring routes. The routes are mostly fixed. Focus the review on adds, cancellations, skipped visits to make up and techs out.
Multiple branches. Run the table per branch, then compare. A branch at 60 percent next to one at 105 percent is a reason to share techs or work across the boundary.
If you run your board in CrewLink, the week view shows next week's schedule and the booking page only offers open times a qualified tech can reach, counting the drive from the previous job, so new bookings into the gaps you found will not create the north-south-north day. The review itself is still a meeting with people in it.
What to take away
- Review next week, not last week, while changes are still cheap.
- Capacity is techs working times bookable hours, and bookable hours exclude drive, breaks and buffer.
- Fill gaps a week out with waiting customers, maintenance visits and open estimates.
- Over 100 percent booked means the day only works if nothing runs long.
Common questions
What day should the weekly schedule review happen?
Thursday or Friday works for most service companies. Next week is mostly booked, but there is still time to call customers and move work before the weekend.
Who should run the weekly scheduling meeting?
The dispatcher or dispatch lead, because they know the board best. The office manager and service manager attend because they own the calls and the tech changes that come out of it.
What booked percentage is too high for next week?
It depends on how much your jobs vary. Many companies treat anything above 90 to 95 percent a week out as a warning, because same-day calls and overruns still have to fit. Track your own same-day volume to set the number.
How is this different from reviewing yesterday's schedule?
A daily look back compares plan with actual to learn what went wrong. The weekly review is forward-looking and decides what to change before it happens. Both are useful; they answer different questions.