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 and nothing to the crew.
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.
When the opportunity is booked, the 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 job must have a service date. A hold cannot be placed while the service date is set to TBD.
The opportunity must have exactly one job. Dispatch holds are not available on a multi-job opportunity.
The job must not already be on the dispatch schedule and must not be closed.
How do I place a dispatch hold on an opportunity?
To hold a dispatch slot for an unbooked job in SmartMoving:
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.
The banner includes a View on Dispatch Scheduling link that opens the board on the held service date.
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 the 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 the 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?
To release a dispatch hold in SmartMoving:
Open the opportunity and go to the Estimate page.
Click Release hold in the dispatch hold banner, or select Release Dispatch Hold from the actions dropdown beside Send Estimate.
Read the confirmation window titled Release this dispatch hold?. 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.
Click Release hold. A "Hold released" message confirms that the dispatch slot is available again, and the hold banner disappears from the Estimate page.
Releasing a hold leaves nothing behind on the job or the opportunity, and you can place a new hold afterward.
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 consumes capacity for its service date and is included in the day's capacity figures, which is what stops another job from taking the same capacity.
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 notifies nobody. No email or message goes to the customer or the crew, and the opportunity status does not change.
One job only. A dispatch slot can be held only for an opportunity with exactly one job.
A TBD service date blocks a hold. Set a real service date on the job 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.
A closed job cannot be held.
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.
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 job has a service date that is not TBD, the opportunity has exactly one job, and the job is not already held. Check each condition on the opportunity. If the job is already held, the dropdown shows Release Dispatch Hold instead.
I get a message that holding a dispatch slot is not enabled for this company. Dispatch holds are not turned on for your account. Contact SmartMoving support to have the feature enabled.
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 on the job, then place the hold.
I cannot hold a slot on an opportunity with more than one job. Dispatch holds are available only on an opportunity with exactly one job. Hold capacity by scheduling those jobs in Dispatch instead.
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.