Background

Managing time and ensuring tasks are completed is a goal of every utility professional. Most Utilities have a stack of sticky notes or a dry erase board hanging in the lab/office to keep track of these items now.  Many folks use Outlook or a Google calendar or send emails back and forth...which sort of feels better than a pile of sticky notes on a dashboard, but still keeps tasks decentralized in everyone's personal inboxes and calendars.  Not ideal as people come and go from departments, or summer help shows up and disappears, or if someone takes some unplanned PTO.


Our industry needs something simple that lets the whole team see what the rest of the team has on their list of to-dos.  Waterly is hoping our simple to-do list that follows the natural workflow most of the water stewards we serve will gradually replace the need for those old analog or personalized systems. Our guide below will help you understand how to use our Scheduled Tasks effectively to keep track of daily and upcoming tasks for both single systems, as well as contract operators and large organizations who work in multiple different facilities.  Like every part of the Waterly app, we will continue to update it and improve it over time, so please let us know your best ideas to make it better through our Support tool in the app.


The Feature

"Schedule Management" is a tool designed to help you organize and track your tasks inside of Waterly. We designed it to be useful for plant operations and water quality professionals although any type of task can be included. Think of this as a group version of sticky notes for your utility and you'll get the hang of it quickly.


General Structure

Let's discuss a few ground rules of the feature. 

  • Scheduled tasks are assigned in a specific system and are visible to everyone in that system.  However, the assigned work orders are accessible to the individual anywhere they are in their assigned system or systems if they are assigned to multiple systems. So a work order assigned to Anytown > 1st St Booster can be accessed by any  at any site/facility within the Anytown System. 
  • Work orders can be assigned to a specific operator. These can be filtered to show only ones assigned to an individual. But all tasks in a designated system are viewable, editable, and able to be completed by anyone in the system. For instance, Anytown operator, Bob, has a work order to grease the pumps at the 1st St Booster assigned to him. His co-worker, Julie, is reading the meter there and knows Bob is super busy today. She completes the work for him. Great job Team!
  • All sections of Schedule Management are accessible to all user roles. Read-only can access the feature but are unable to view or edit any tasks.
  • The Audit log will track Schedule Management, from work order creation to completion and every interaction in between. 


Getting Started

There are two main spots to find the scheduled tasks (work orders) in a system.


Today's Schedule 

Schedule Dashboard


We will look at Today's Schedule first.


Today's Schedule

This calendar icon is located in the top right-hand corner of the application and shows you the work orders assigned to YOU from any system that you have permissions to.



Clicking the icon will open the schedule shown below


Here we can see up to 15 work orders that need to be completed (if there are more assigned to today the rest will be displayed on the dashboard. If more than 15 are assigned a "View More" button will display. Click it to navigate to the Schedule Dashboard. 

Notice the details provided: 

  • What needs to be done, 
  • Date the item was scheduled for completion,
  • Details of the task,
  • The associated system,
  • The individual it was assigned to.

The check mark ☑ is the easiest way to mark a work order as completed. Once it has been completed it will not be displayed in Today's Schedule. Clicking on the work order opens the item and allows editing. This can be useful to reassign the work or to add a description of the work completed. 

Filtering the work orders can make them easier to manage. These can be filtered by the associated System and assigned User. A quick filter button is provided to only see work orders assigned to you. 

At this time Today's Schedule does not alert you to new tasks being created or assigned. This will be in a future release. We recommend checking Today's Schedule throughout the day to see if any new work orders have been assigned to you or your systems


Schedule Dashboard

The dashboard is used for order creation and management. To access the Schedule Dashboard click the "Schedule" button in Today's Schedule. 


The Schedule Dashboard will open a new page, shown here:


This view allow us to see all of the work orders assigned to the system(s) you are assigned. The default view is for plus or minus 3 days. The date range We will explore this more but for now let's create a work order. Clicking "+ ADD TODO" opens the work order creation form. 

This form is self explanatory. Some fields are required (Title, System, and Description) and the work order won't be created unless these portions are completed. Once you have filled in the required information, click create and it will display in the dashboard in sequential date order. 

Now let's examine the dashboard a little more. There are a number of ways to interact with the dashboard, These are highlighted in the red boxes shown below. 

  • At the top is the date range filter. This date picker allows you to select certain dates to see the created work orders. There are some quick links to jump to today, +/- 3 days (default view), this week, this month, or next month.
  • Next down you can see the number of filters applied to this dashboard, in this case (0). In addition there is a down arrow ?. Clicking the arrow will open the filtering panel. Here you can select:
    • Status - (Completed or Pending)
    • System - This will default to the system(s) you are assigned to.
    • Users - The designated users for the system(s)

Lastly clicking on the three vertical dots at the end of every work order will allow you to edit the work order. When the editing is completed, click save and click the "Schedule" to navigate back to the dashboard. 



Conclusion

This version of Schedule Management is a basic tool to manage tasks in your system(s). These can vary from maintenance work orders, scheduled samples, operational duties, and many more. Remember this initial version is similar to a sticky note left for the next shift or a dry erase schedule in your lab/office. Later versions will include more robust capabilities, like scheduling recurring tasks, alerting to number of your assigned tasks, and more. In addition, this feature is a foundational portion of a new, upcoming tool to schedule and manage regulatory State and Federal sampling events. 

At Waterly, we are constantly improving digital tools for operators. Our hope is that you use and enjoy the first version of Schedule Management and the updated versions to follow!