How do I book Multiple Resources to a Single Workorder as a group in Dynamics 365 Field Service Manager

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Posted on by goodreau

Often times a workorder will require more than a single resource to complete. In my case we typically have an equipment operator, the equipment, often a truck and trailer and possibly other required equipment. I have been trying to create a resource group that can be scheduled but it appears at least in the online version of Dynamics 365 for Field Service Management that there is no way to add resources to the "group" resource type or to group together multiple scheduled resources to one workorder in a clear method for scheduling.

Please help!

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Field Service

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Al Iggs on at

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RE: How do I book Multiple Resources to a Single Workorder as a group in Dynamics 365 Field Service Manager

Hi Michel,

if this is for a temporary team, then it's a good use case for the new Requirement Groups in the Fall release. The allow you to dynamically assemble a group of resources to converge at the same time for intraday scheduling. Resources can be teamed together to meet onsite at a customer location, work together remotely, or fulfill appointments at facilities.

The idea of Crews however is that people will work together for the whole day. In both cases the bookings are linked, i.e. changing a booking can affect the other(s).
Community Member on at

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RE: How do I book Multiple Resources to a Single Workorder as a group in Dynamics 365 Field Service Manager

To complicate indeed when it is just for a temporary team.. Would be nice to have the possibility to drag and drop, with CTRL , a booking from 1 resource to another to create a linked booking . Not?

How do I get such requests to a developer ?
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RE: How do I book Multiple Resources to a Single Workorder as a group in Dynamics 365 Field Service Manager

The Resource Groups in the settings section was for the native service scheduling that's included with Dynamics CRM (not sure if it's still there in version 9, I recall reading it would be deprecated). Shame too, because with the native service scheduling you can create "Services" which utilize rules that allow you to Dynamically allocate Resources, Resource Groups, and Facilities when you're scheduling a Service Activity (scheduling can be done by navigating to Service->Service Calendar). So, you could create a Service which had a rule like Pick 1 of the Training Rooms and 2 of the Least Busy Instructors from the CRM Instructors Group for X duration.

The resource groups in Field One seems pretty inflexible, rather than having a rule like what's described above, it picks everyone from the group (and the group is not easily shown as moko pointed out)
Saif Ehsan 360 on at

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RE: How do I book Multiple Resources to a Single Workorder as a group in Dynamics 365 Field Service Manager

* I also notice that the Resource Groups only work when the members are of resource type "User". Other resource types won't work in the schedule board as members. Do you guys find the same issue?

* Some people might confuse the "Resource Groups" in the Business Management section of Setting with this. These two are completely separate. Even though the Resource Groups in the Setting section explicitly says in the description that it is for Service Scheduling, I still can't seem to find how these Resource Groups (in the Business Settings section) works Any suggestions?
moko33 1,788 on at

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RE: How do I book Multiple Resources to a Single Workorder as a group in Dynamics 365 Field Service Manager

I had tried it only with Work Orders.
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RE: How do I book Multiple Resources to a Single Workorder as a group in Dynamics 365 Field Service Manager

Hi moko33,

Does it only apply to work order? Have you tried it with case entity?

It seems that schedule a case to resource group doesn't schedule to its members automatically.

Thanks
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moko33 1,788 on at

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RE: How do I book Multiple Resources to a Single Workorder as a group in Dynamics 365 Field Service Manager

Of cource you can do that. However it was not really intuitive to use since it was still called Field One Sky. But in the end it works pretty nicely.

1. go into Resource, create a new Resource as Resource Group by naming it i.e. "test group", set Resource Type to Group.

2. within this Resource Group Record go to Submenu=>"Resource Groups (Parent)".

3. Add a record there and substitute the already filled "Child Resource" with the person/Resource you want to be member of this Resource Group. Name the intermediate record however you want. Add the time frame for which this Resource shall be member of this Group.

4. Repeat step 3 as many times as you want to have Members in your Group.

Alternatively you can add a Subgrid to the Resource form (maybe in a closed tab) by using the View "Bookable Resource Groups (Parent Resource)" and label it i.e. "Resource Group Members".

Now if you go to the Schedule Board, one strange thing I identified is, you cannot simly extend the filter criteria on the default filter to also display Groups, but what you can do is: click "Options" on the upper left side and choose "Select Resources". There you can choose your Resource Group (and for this showcase also the Group Members).

Now drag and drop a Resource Requirement from the list on the bottom of the Scheduling Board onto the Resource Group. You will recognize it gets scheduled for all the Group Members automatically as well.

Also if one of the Resources changes its Booking Status, all other Booking Statuses of the Group Members (including the Group Booking itself) inherits this new Booking Status.

So my recommendation is: rename some of the fields and add the members subgrid (maybe add a javascript that the member subgrid gets displayed only if Resource type is "Group"). And play around a bit with this feature.

It was also recommended to only use Respource Groups when they have the character of a longer living time. If you're looking for Groups who only work together occassionaly, it might bemore efficient to Schedule every Resource separately than creating Resource Groups.
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TheMarkChristie 10,328 Moderator on at

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RE: How do I book Multiple Resources to a Single Workorder as a group in Dynamics 365 Field Service Manager

Hi

You cannot directly book multiple resourced on a work order, However what you can do it drag the Work Order onto resources multiple times and it will book another resource against it
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RE: How do I book Multiple Resources to a Single Workorder as a group in Dynamics 365 Field Service Manager

I am also looking for an answer to how this is done. In my case, we sometimes use multiple resources that function as teams, and would like to be able to book this team, and have them all recieve the bookings.