The day's round

The round is under The round in the sidebar. It shows each stop in time order with the drive from the one before it.

There is no "add a stop" button

A stop is a booked appointment marked as mobile. Book the client as you would any other; if they are one of your mobile regulars it is marked for you, and if not you can change it in one click.

Salon or mobile, and changing your mind

Every appointment is one or the other. On the calendar, the small Salon / Mobile button on a booking switches it — so "she would rather we came to her this time" is a click rather than a cancellation and a rebooking.

New bookings are worked out for you: a client whose address is in an area your van covers gets a mobile booking, and everybody else gets a salon one. A salon that does no mobile work never sees the question at all.

For a mobile appointment to appear on a van's round

Either of these puts it there:

• It is recorded as being in that van. Bookings the van drives to are put in a van when they are made; you can change or set it from the booking's card on the calendar, or from the round itself.
• Or the van has coverage on that weekday with a driver named, and the appointment's service is assigned to that driver. This is how visits booked before vans were recorded are found.

Either way the appointment must not be cancelled or a no-show.

Not on a round yet

A mobile appointment that no van picked up is listed under "Not on a round yet" rather than disappearing. Choose a van beside it and press Put in this van, and it moves onto that van's round. You need permission to edit appointments to see the choice, and only vans in use are offered.

A mobile stop with no usable address still appears, marked "No address on file" or "Address not checked", with a link to fix it. It stays off the map until it can be placed — a pin on a route map reads as a fact about where the van goes, and a wrong one sends somebody thirty miles.

Checking whether a different order would be shorter

On a van that has two or more stops with a placed address, the round has a Check this day's order button. It compares the day as booked with the shortest order of the same stops, and says about how many minutes of driving the shortest order would save.

• It is a suggestion. Nothing is moved, because the times are the ones your clients were told. Following it means agreeing new times with them.
• It works out the true shortest order, not an approximation, which is why it stops at eight stops. A longer day is not checked.
• A saving of under five minutes is called close enough: the drive times are estimates, and moving a client is not worth that.
• The drives are estimates for one time of day, taken as the same in both directions, and the last drive home is not counted. A stop whose address has not been placed on the map is left out and named.
• Pressing it can use drive-time lookups the first time; the answers are kept, so pressing it again for the same day costs nothing.

Telling a client you are on your way

On a van visit that is today and has not started, the calendar card and the round both have an On my way button. One press texts the client that the van is on its way, with about how many minutes and around what time.

• The estimate is the drive from the previous stop, or the depot for the first visit, worked out when you press the button. It is not live tracking: the van does not report where it is.
• If the drive cannot be worked out (no van recorded, the address is not placed on the map, or the lookup fails), the text still goes, saying you are on your way without a time.
• It goes once. Pressing it again shows when the client was told instead of sending another.
• It needs the client to have agreed to appointment texts and your texting number to be live. If it cannot be sent you are told why, and the button stays so you can try again after ringing them.

Anybody who can check pets in and out can press it, which includes groomers. It counts as an appointment text, not a marketing one.

The calendar by van

On a salon that does mobile work, the calendar has a Groomers | Vans switch at the top. Vans puts a column down the page for each van in use, with the visits for that van in time order. Visits not yet in a van are in a No van yet column, and visits at the salon are in a Salon column, so nothing on the day disappears when you switch. The choice is remembered while you step between days.

Before each visit that has a drive, a hatched band shows how long the van has to drive from the visit before it (the depot, for the first). The band is as long as the drive, including the loading time set on the van. When the van has the time, the band sits in the gap. When it does not, the band reaches back into the visit above and turns red, and the page lists each one with how many minutes short it is, so you can see as soon as you add a visit whether the van can get there.

• On the calendar it is a warning about visits already booked. Nothing on the page is moved for it.
• The gap is measured from when the earlier visit is booked to end, to when the next one starts.
• A visit whose address has not been placed on the map exactly gets no band, and neither does a drive that could not be worked out. It is never guessed.
• You need permission to see all appointments to use the Vans view.
• It uses drive-time lookups the first time a day is opened; the answers are kept, so opening it again costs nothing.

When the drive does not fit, at booking and when moving

The same check runs before a van visit is booked or moved: can the van drive here from the visit before in the time between them, and on to the visit after? If it cannot, you are told with the numbers, for example "Van 2 needs 25 min to drive here from the visit before, and has 10 min."

• Find a time leaves out times the van could not reach in time, so it does not offer one the client then cannot have. Somebody allowed to book over a conflict also sees the best few it held back, each with the reason, and can book one anyway.
• Booking or moving into such a time is stopped with that sentence. Somebody allowed to book over a conflict can move it anyway.
• With two vans covering the street that day, the visit goes in the one that has the time.
• The drive includes the loading time set on the van. The first visit of the day is not checked, because there is no booked time before it to compare with.
• If the drive cannot be worked out, or the address has not been placed exactly on the map, nothing is stopped for it.
• Moving a visit now also follows the van's driving rules (how far or how long between stops), as booking always has.

Moving a visit in the Vans view

Drag a van visit to another time in its column to move it, or into another van column to move it to that time and into that van. You are asked to confirm, with the same checks and the same option to text the client as moving it in the Groomers view. The groomer does not change.

• Moving needs permission to edit appointments.
• Visits at the salon are moved in the Groomers view, where their groomer has a column.
• The No van yet column and a van no longer in use do not take a drop. To take a visit out of its van, use the van choice on its card.
• Moving to another day is done from the Groomers view.

The map

Each van has a line in its own color through its stops in booked order, starting at its depot (the small square) when one is set, with arrows showing the direction. The line is straight from stop to stop, not the roads the van takes, so it shows the shape of the day rather than directions. A stop whose address is not placed exactly on the map is not on the line.

If the map is blank but the list is fine, the map key is not set up on this installation. The list is the half that matters and it keeps working regardless.

Drives that show a dash

A leg we could not work out shows a dash rather than a guess. The stops and their order are still right.