Workshop: check dispatch and resource readiness

Use this guide to move agreed work from planning to a controlled technician handoff. Start with the current estimate decision and parts-readiness checks; continue with technician execution and QC after dispatch.

A capacity recommendation is a proposal. Accepting it creates a booking and may add a technician assignment; it does not start productive work or certify that every execution gate has passed. This guide follows the reviewed Odoo 20 source. No new runtime or complete role-acceptance test was performed.

Prerequisites and access

Use Workshop Dispatcher or Workshop Manager for the recommendation workflow, with access to the order's company and relevant records. Workshop Administrator alone is not sufficient: the reviewed package does not give that role recommendation access, even though some related buttons are visible.

Dispatchers must be listed under a site's Authorized Dispatch Users when that list is populated. An empty list leaves the site available to company-authorized dispatch users. Managers have broader site authority, subject to company access. Technicians need their own Workshop role and an active operation assignment; a planning role is not a substitute for technician access.

Install and configure Workshop, Operations and Capacity, including native Resources, Maintenance and Skills. Before daily dispatch, have the responsible administrator or manager prepare the site, time zone, resource calendars, bays, equipment, technician resources and any required skills or certifications. See the Workshop setup guide. This workflow assumes those records already exist.

1. Review the operation before asking for capacity

Open Workshop → Work Execution → Operations and select the operation under the correct open repair order.

1. Check the agreed work and current customer decision with the advisor. Dispatch does not create customer authorization.
2. Review planned start, planned finish and estimated labor hours. Set a deliberate work interval. Suggestions use the operation's planned interval; when dates are absent, the source falls back to the current time and a duration of at least 15 minutes.
3. Review blocking predecessors, active holds, Parts Readiness and Execution Parts Readiness. Confirm the whole intended parts requirement is allocated and physically ready, following the parts guide. A ready subset does not cover missing allocations.
4. On the Capacity tab, check the operation's requirements. Active mandatory requirements drive suitability checks. Defaults are copied from the operation type when the operation is created; review the actual operation requirements rather than assuming a later template change updated it.
5. Confirm the intended site. If the repair order has no current site, generation can select an active company site; verify the proposal's site before accepting it. Changing an established custody site is a separate controlled transfer procedure.

Expected result: the operation has a meaningful schedule and requirements, with any unresolved parts, dependency or hold issue assigned to its responsible team.

2. Generate and inspect the suggestions

Select Capacity Suggestions on the operation. Generation replaces its existing Proposed suggestions; Accepted and Rejected decisions retain their history. It does not assign work or move an existing booking.

Open a proposal and review Suggested Resources, Schedule and Suitability, Recommendation Reasons, Blockers and Evidence. You can return through Planning → Dispatch Recommendations. That workspace initially shows Needs Attention; clear that filter when looking for suitable proposals.

Read the reasons rather than choosing solely by rank. The source considers a bounded set of resource combinations for the planned interval. It does not search every possible combination or automatically move work to the next free slot. Its ranking reflects recorded blockers and overlapping workload, and does not establish a customer promise-time forecast.

The Suitable indication is based on the generated evidence. Correct the underlying schedule, requirement or resource information and generate fresh suggestions when conditions change; generated recommendation evidence cannot be edited in place.

3. Resolve the right kind of blocker

Check	What the source evaluates
Resource suitability	Company/site match, active and enabled resources, required bay/equipment/capabilities, capacity and configured vehicle or workspace restrictions.
Technician qualification	Required skill level and validity, and active, unsuspended certification for the planned local start date and applicable site. An ambiguous employee link also blocks suitability.
Working hours and availability	The selected resources' working intervals across the effective occupancy window, plus blocking equipment maintenance and any installed availability extensions.
Booking conflict	Overlap with a Confirmed or In Progress booking sharing the selected technician, bay or equipment. Draft bookings do not count as active bookings in this check.
Initial operation readiness	Open repair order, completed blocking predecessors, no blocking hold, and manual Parts Readiness not Pending.

Effective occupancy includes buffers: setup plus travel before the planned start, and cleanup plus travel after the planned end. A technician or bay can therefore conflict even when the unbuffered work times appear separate. Adjacent effective intervals that meet exactly at their endpoints do not overlap in the supplied check.

Resolve qualification, calendar or maintenance problems with the responsible team. Reschedule the proposed work or choose a suitable available resource when there is a conflict. Do not change recorded qualifications or reduce required buffers merely to remove a warning.

Capacity Schedule Override is limited to permitted overlap handling; it does not bypass qualification or availability failures. The reviewed initial Confirm and Accept and Book forms do not collect an overlap override reason. This guide uses conflict-free bookings. A confirmed booking's separate Reschedule dialog has an Override Reason field, subject to that role and the remaining checks; it is not a general override of blocked work.

4. Accept a suitable proposal

1. Open the intended Proposed recommendation and verify its site, technician resource, bay/equipment and interval.
2. Select Accept and Book. In Confirm Capacity Action, enter a Reason and select Apply. The dialog requires a reason for every acceptance, including the highest-ranked proposal.
3. Reopen the recommendation and inspect its resulting booking. Acceptance rechecks suitability and initial operation readiness, then creates and confirms the booking with availability and overlap checks. An existing Confirmed or In Progress booking for the operation prevents a second recommendation from being accepted.
4. Check the operation's Assignments. When the recommended technician resource has a linked user, acceptance adds an active assignment if needed: Primary Technician when none exists, Supporting Technician otherwise. A bay-only proposal adds no technician. Confirm the intended technician is actually assigned.

Expected result: an Accepted recommendation linked to a Confirmed booking, with decision attribution and the intended resource plan. A successful booking does not mark the operation Ready or Assigned, accept work on the technician's behalf, or start a work session.

Use Reject, enter a reason and select Apply when a proposal should be declined. If acceptance fails after conditions changed, inspect the current booking and blockers before generating a replacement; do not assume a formerly Suitable proposal still fits.

5. Complete the handoff without skipping execution checks

Return to the operation. Use Mark Ready for a draft operation when it is prepared, then Dispatch when an active technician assignment is present. Mark Ready itself checks that the repair order is open; it is not proof that all work blockers are cleared.

Review linked-parts readiness and required incoming handoffs separately. Recommendation readiness does not include every execution gate. The technician can still be blocked by incomplete stock execution, an unaccepted handoff, a new hold or other installed checks.

At the actual occupancy handoff, the dispatcher opens Planning → Schedule and selects Start on the Confirmed booking. Start rechecks resource qualification, availability and overlaps. The technician separately opens Work Execution → My Work Queue, checks the assignment and instructions, then uses Accept and Start Work when ready. Start Work checks active assignment, company access and the operation's execution blockers before recording productive time.

Operations with active mandatory capacity requirements need a suitable Confirmed or In Progress booking at execution. Keep that booking active through the relevant operation-completion checks. Starting or completing a booking is separate from physical repair, productive work sessions, QC and delivery.

Fictional exercise

Consider a fictional one-hour fitting operation using a technician and a shared bay. Setup and cleanup are 15 minutes each, travel is zero, and the resource calendar covers the whole day.

Situation	Expected result
Work planned 09:00–10:00; the bay already has a confirmed booking ending at 09:00	Effective occupancy is 08:45–10:15, so the buffered interval conflicts.
Planner changes work to 10:00–11:00 and generates new suggestions; all resources are free 09:45–11:15 and other checks pass	A suitable proposal can be reviewed and accepted with a reason, producing a confirmed booking.
The booking is confirmed, but a linked parts allocation remains Partially Ready	Booking status does not release technician work; the linked-stock execution gate still blocks Start Work.

After the parts team supplies the missing evidence and confirms the physical handoff, recheck all execution gates and assignments. The example predicts source behavior; it is not a performed transaction or acceptance result.

Troubleshooting and limits

Problem	Next check
Suggestions are missing or access is denied	Dispatcher/Manager role, company/site access, active site and configured candidate resources. Check the Needs Attention filter before concluding no suitable proposal exists.
Accept and Book is unavailable	The proposal must still be Proposed and Suitable. Read Blockers and regenerate after corrections. Administrator role alone does not supply recommendation access.
A suitable proposal cannot be accepted	Current conditions, an existing active operation booking, buffered calendar/conflict checks and the required decision reason.
A confirmed booking's dates need changing	Use Reschedule, enter new start/end and a reason, then Apply. Rescheduling is available only for Draft or Confirmed bookings and rechecks qualification/availability.
The technician cannot start	Active assignment, company access, open order, both parts-readiness measures, dependencies, holds, incoming handoffs and the required active capacity booking.

Suitability depends on configured requirements and recorded resource data. It does not certify a safe physical setup, guarantee all candidate resources were considered, or prove work completion. Optional addons can add further gates. Failed-QC recovery and outbound-email limitations remain as described in the existing Workshop guides; this handoff does not create invoices, collect payments or settle insurer claims.