What is a dispatch hold in SmartMoving?
A dispatch hold reserves truck and crew capacity for a service date while a customer is still deciding. By the end of this article you will be able to place a dispatch hold from an opportunity, find it in Dispatch Scheduling, and release it.
A dispatch hold is not a booking. The opportunity keeps its current status.
Placing a hold sends nothing to the customer or the crew on its own. If an automation rule starts when a dispatch hold is placed, that rule runs its actions.
The held job appears in Dispatch Scheduling under Unscheduled on its service date, so a dispatcher can see the demand and place it on a truck and crew when they are ready.
The hold counts against your available capacity for that day, so another job cannot quietly take it.
On an opportunity with more than one job, you choose which jobs to hold. On a multi-day move, such as a packing day, a load day and a delivery day, you can hold some or all of the days.
When the opportunity is booked, each dispatch hold turns into a scheduled dispatch automatically.
Before you start with dispatch holds
Dispatch holds are placed and released from the opportunity's Estimate page. Any user who can work the Estimate page can place or release a hold.
The opportunity status must be below Booked. Hold Dispatch Slot is available on New Lead, Lead In Progress, and Opportunity.
The service date must be set. A hold cannot be placed while the service date is set to TBD.
A job can be held only if it isn't already on the dispatch schedule and isn't closed or completed.
How do I place a dispatch hold on an opportunity?
On an opportunity with one job
Open the opportunity and go to the Estimate page.
Open the actions dropdown beside Send Estimate.
Select Hold Dispatch Slot. A confirmation window titled Hold a dispatch slot? opens. If you do not see the action, check the conditions in "Before you start with dispatch holds" above.
Read the summary in the window. It states "Reserves crew and truck capacity. This is not a booking." and lists the job number and customer name, the service date, the number of trucks, and the number of crew taken from the estimate. Nothing in this window can be edited.
Click Hold slot. The window closes and a dispatch hold banner appears on the Estimate page showing the held date, the hold's place on the board, and when the hold was placed.
On an opportunity with more than one job
Open the opportunity and go to the Estimate page.
Open the actions dropdown beside Send Estimate and select Hold Dispatch Slot. If a job is already held, select Manage Dispatch Holds instead. The Manage dispatch holds window opens.
Review the list. Each job shows its service date, service type, job number, and estimated trucks and crew. Open jobs are checked by default. Closed and completed jobs are locked and can't be newly held.
Check each job you want to hold and clear the ones you don't. A job that's held now and cleared shows "Hold will be released."
Check the summary at the bottom: the number of jobs held after saving and the trucks and crew reserved.
Click Save holds. The banner on the Estimate page shows one row for each held job.
Each row in the banner includes a View on Dispatch Scheduling link that opens the board on that held service date. The page also shows how many jobs are held, such as Dispatch Slots Held, 2 of 3 jobs.
Where does a dispatch hold appear in Dispatch Scheduling?
A dispatch hold appears in Dispatch Scheduling on the job's service date. To find it:
Go to Dispatch > Scheduling and move to the service date, or use View on Dispatch Scheduling in the hold banner on the opportunity.
Look under Unscheduled. A newly placed hold lands there and carries a HOLD badge.
Read the banner above the board. On any visible day with at least one hold it reads "1 hold is using capacity today" or "3 holds are using capacity today", and it shows a chip counting the holds still sitting in Unscheduled.
Click a held job to open its popover. The popover leads with "On hold, not booked yet" and offers one action, View Opportunity. Held jobs do not open the full job details window.
A dispatcher can place a held job on a truck and crew from the board using the Assign a dispatch slot link in the banner, or by moving the held job onto a slot. The job stays a hold after it is placed, keeps its HOLD badge, and the banner on the opportunity then names the slot instead of reading "In Unscheduled".
What happens when I book an opportunity that has a dispatch hold?
Booking an opportunity that has a dispatch hold converts each hold into a confirmed scheduled dispatch. There is no extra confirmation step and no setting to turn this on or off.
The conversion happens as part of booking, so a job never sits booked with an unconverted hold.
Once converted, the job behaves like any other scheduled dispatch. The HOLD badge is gone and the job is included in publishing, customer confirmation, crew confirmation, and the crew app.
Booking an opportunity that has no dispatch hold works exactly as it does without this feature.
How do I release a dispatch hold?
Open the opportunity and go to the Estimate page.
Release the hold:
To release one job's hold, click Release hold on that job's row in the dispatch hold banner.
To release every hold on the opportunity, select Release Dispatch Hold from the actions dropdown beside Send Estimate.
Read the confirmation window. It states that the reserved crew and truck capacity goes back to available, the job leaves Dispatch Scheduling, and the opportunity itself is not changed. When more than one job is held, the dropdown action asks to release all of them.
Confirm. A "Hold released" message confirms that the dispatch slot is available again, and the job's row disappears from the banner.
On a multi-job opportunity you can also release holds by clearing jobs in Manage Dispatch Holds and clicking Save holds. Releasing a hold removes it from the job and from Dispatch Scheduling, and you can place a new hold afterward. Follow-ups, tasks or messages that an automation rule created when the hold was placed stay as they are.
Key details about dispatch holds
Holds are placed and released from the opportunity only. Dispatch Scheduling has no action to place or release a hold. A dispatcher who needs a hold gone has to open the opportunity, which the popover's View Opportunity action links to.
A hold does not pick a truck or a crew. It reserves capacity for the day and lands under Unscheduled. A dispatcher assigns the actual slot.
Holds count toward capacity. A held job is included in the day's capacity figures. It also counts in truck and crew numbers when Settings > Dispatch > Capacity is set to Count resources from scheduled jobs, booked jobs, held jobs and crew events. A held job on a New Lead or Lead In Progress opportunity counts in truck and crew numbers only once it's on a slot.
Holds are excluded from publishing. A held job does not appear in the published or printed schedule, customer confirmations, crew confirmations, or the crew app.
Placing a hold sends no notifications on its own. The opportunity status does not change. No email or message goes to the customer or the crew unless an automation rule with the Dispatch Hold Placed trigger sends one.
Automation rules can start when a hold is placed. A rule with the Dispatch Hold Placed trigger runs each time a hold is placed, including a hold placed after an earlier one was released. It can create a follow-up, apply tasks, or send an email or text message. On a multi-job opportunity, clicking Save holds starts the rule once when at least one job gets a hold. A save that only releases holds doesn't start it.
Each job is held on its own. On a multi-job opportunity, each held job gets its own hold, its own row in the banner, and its own place on the board.
A TBD service date blocks a hold. Set a real service date before placing a hold.
One hold per job. A job that already has a dispatch hold cannot take a second one, and a job already on the dispatch schedule cannot be held.
Closed and completed jobs can't be newly held. A hold already on one can still be released.
Booking converts the hold automatically. There is no manual confirmation step.
Best practices for dispatch holds
Place a hold when a customer has picked a date and is deciding on price, so the capacity survives the decision without committing the crew.
Release holds as soon as a customer declines or goes quiet, so the capacity returns to the day's availability for other jobs.
On a multi-job opportunity, hold only the jobs whose dates are firm.
Tell dispatchers to read the board banner before judging a day as full, since holds are counted in the day's capacity.
Assign held jobs to a truck and crew from the board once the shape of the day is clear, so the held capacity sits where you actually intend to use it.
Confirm the service date is correct before placing a hold, since the hold follows the job's service date.
Troubleshooting
The Hold Dispatch Slot action is missing from the actions dropdown.
The action appears only when the opportunity status is below Booked, the service date is not TBD, and at least one job isn't closed or completed. If a job is already held, the dropdown shows Release Dispatch Hold instead, plus Manage Dispatch Holds on a multi-job opportunity.
I cannot hold a slot because the service date is TBD.
A dispatch hold follows the job's service date, so a TBD date cannot be held. Set an actual service date, then place the hold.
A job is locked in Manage dispatch holds.
The job is closed or completed, so it can't take a new hold. If it's already held, release it from the banner.
The held job is not on the dispatch board where I expected it.
A new hold lands under Unscheduled on its service date rather than on a truck. Check Unscheduled for that day, then assign it to a slot from the board.
A held job is missing from the published schedule and the crew app.
Held jobs are excluded from publishing on purpose, because the job is not booked. Book the opportunity to convert the hold into a scheduled dispatch, which is then included in publishing.
The board shows the day as busier than the booked jobs account for.
Held jobs count toward the day's capacity. The banner above the board states how many holds are using capacity that day.
Held jobs don't lower the day's truck and crew counts.
Truck and crew counts include a held job that isn't on a slot only when Settings > Dispatch > Capacity > Resource Job Types is set to Count resources from scheduled jobs, booked jobs, held jobs and crew events and the opportunity is in Opportunity status. A held job on a New Lead or Lead In Progress opportunity counts once it's assigned to a slot.
A follow-up, task or message appeared when I placed a hold.
An automation rule with the Dispatch Hold Placed trigger is active. Review it under Settings > Workflow Automation > Automation Rules.