New Scheduler & Rostering Beta & v3.3.16
Sam Webster
Software Developer
We are happy to announce that the new scheduler and rostering systems are in beta and available to all organisations to start trying out. This has been in the works for many months and is a completely custom scheduling and rostering system built entirely by our team, from the top down, specifically for the aviation industry. Let’s dive right in!
Scheduler & Roster Beta
We have been working hard over the past few months to bring you this new scheduling system that we know many people have been eagerly awaiting. Our team has built this completely in house and from scratch - it’s not rebadged or repurposed. It’s a custom, purpose built scheduling system for aviation.
At the same time we took this opportunity to more holistically integrate rostering with scheduling events, as the two often go hand in hand. Flicking between the two is as easy as toggling a switch or hitting “R” on your keyboard (or, for all the power users out there, press F1 to see all of the shortcuts available).
Leaving no room to waste, we have done everything we can to place as much information as possible on the scheduler without it feeling cramped or hard to use. For most users on common screen sizes, you can see 32 resources across two days, from first light to last light on a standard office desktop monitor. We think that is best in class.
Creating and editing events opens up a drawer to the right of the screen, simply click at any point in time on the grid, or on an event to open this up. By design you can also still browse and see all of the scheduler while building events, making it easy to gather and piece all the information together.
Resource selection is now much smarter, with the system able to detect and set the instructors, students, aircraft and other resources automatically into their appropriate roles. Gone are the days of having to select the instructor three times (we know that was a pain). The system will now also detect the student’s next lesson automatically. You can now book a student’s next flight in as little as 4 clicks - that’s fast!
The Event Pool is something brand new, and something we think is a game changer that makes scheduling incredibly flexible and powerful. First, events can now be saved as a draft, which allows for partially built events to be saved with the usual checks bypassed - very helpful when you know the student’s next lesson, and want to get things ready for that flight tomorrow, but aren’t quite sure of the aircraft or instructor yet. Marking the event as a draft and saving it will put it into the event pool. To open up the Event Pool and see all events currently residing there, press “E”, or use the left-most button from the toolbar where the “Today” button is.
With the event pool open you can now drag those draft events out on to the schedule where they’re required. Likewise, you can also drag events from the schedule back to the event pool - a great alternative to cancelling a booking when the weather changes and you still need to complete the event on another day, but aren’t sure when. The event pool gives you that flexibility when scheduling, because as we know, weather, maintenance and people can be unpredictable and dynamic, so the scheduling system you use needs to be robust and able to handle the changes at the drop of a hat. This system will do that.
Rostering is now far more intuitive, click on the grid when in roster mode to add duty periods on the fly. Open the bulk roster drawer using the “Bulk Roster” button from the toolbar to quickly and efficiently roster your whole team in just a few clicks using the new visual matrix to select the days, times and period types, no more lengthy and slow forms to fill out. For a deeper dive check out Stefan’s write up on the new rostering system here
We could be here forever going through every point in detail, so some other quick things to look out for - many of which were implemented due to your feedback and suggestions - are;
- Repeating Events.
- Optional Cancellation Reasons.
- Cancel Associated Events.
- Optional Resources on Event Types.
- Default Flight Details on Event Types. – Default Booking Durations on Event Types.
- Smarter Resource Types.
This is by no means the end. We are only just getting started. The team still has a huge list of even more features and ideas to implement and build - not only in the scheduler, but across the system - and can’t wait to bring them to you. Remember that if your organisation is using the beta of the new scheduler (which can be accessed by organisation owners joining our Launchpad program from their profile), that it is beta software, so it’s not perfect yet and may still be rough around the edges. If you do spot any problems or have any feedback, please let our team know. So much of how we build and improve the system is a direct response to what you want and need on the coal face.
Everything Else
We don’t want this to drag on too long, but we have also made many other improvements and fixes across the system in this time too;
- Safety reports are now easier to use on tablets
- Daily inspections are more intelligent with their date selections
- Historic flights bypass maintenance checks when dispatching
- Lesson records & their PDF’s now show the event times and instructors more clearly
- Account rights can be changed without first needing to save all the student’s details (so they can fill them in if you wish)
- Over 30 bugs were fixed and much more - all of which can be found in the release notes on the radar.
Wrap Up
That’s it for now, when the new scheduler moves out of beta we will provide comprehensive documentation and an overview video about all of its abilities and features, but for now our team is here should you need a hand getting things setup or seeing what it can do. The old scheduler will be retired in the coming weeks, so we do encourage you to start trying the new one out now and getting comfortable before the old one disappears. Until next time!