There are few things a scheduler dreads more than someone calling in sick when the service calendar is full of service activities. With the following steps, you can keep your business running smoothly:

• Block off the employee’s work day to prevent additional service activities from being scheduled.
 
• Find and reschedule existing service activities.
 
• Assign an activity to call the customer to let them know of the change. 
 
The following scenario takes you through the steps to take care of that sick employee, at least at work.

As the scheduler for your organization, you receive a call from Terrance, a shop technician. He’s sick and will not be coming in today. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, you view the schedule and see that Terrance has a day full of service activities that you are now going to have to reschedule.

Block the user’s schedule
First, you must block Terrance out of today’s work schedule.

1. In the Navigation Pane, click Service, and then click Service Calendar.

Tip: If you do not see Service Calendar in the Navigation Pane, make sure that you have the correct permissions. The Service Calendar is not available in Microsoft CRM Client for Outlook, unless your system has been customized.
 
2. To find Terrance’s schedule, enter the first few letters of his first name in the Look for box, select User in the Type list, and then click Find.
 
3. In the list, double-click the name to open Terrance’s user record.
 
4. Under Details, click Work Hours.
 
5. In the calendar, make sure that today’s date is selected.
 
6. On the Set Up menu, click Time Off.
 
7. In the Schedule Time Off dialog box, in the Reasons box type “Out Sick” or another explanation.
 
8. Make sure the All Day Event check box is selected.
If Terrance were going to be out for more than one day, in the Duration list, you could select the number of days.
 
9. Click OK. In the Calendar, a red color block displays the time off.
 
10. Click Save and Close to close the user record. The Service Calendar remains open.

In the Service Calendar, Terrance’s time slots will show that he is unavailable and his name will not be returned for any scheduling.

Note: Direct appointments and service activities can still be made for him, but an alert will be displayed that Terrance is being scheduled outside his work hours.