Job order and building workers
Choose how workers' lists are ordered, when a job counts as waiting too long, and an optional worker for each building.
On this page
Open Settings › Job order in the portal. Every manager can see these settings; only the top level can change them. Nothing here sends a message to anyone.
How a worker's list is ordered#
A worker's My Jobs is always grouped the same way: Emergency first, then Urgent, then Normal, with Need parts at the bottom. Urgent work always stays on top, whatever order is chosen. The order only sorts the jobs inside each group:
| Order | What comes first |
|---|---|
| Newest first | The job that came in last, like email. This is the starting setting. |
| Oldest first | The job that has waited longest. |
| Closest first | The job nearest to where the worker is in the building (see below). |
| Due soonest | The earliest due date. Jobs without a due date come after the dated ones, newest first. |
Pick the order every worker starts with under Workers' list order. Tick Workers may pick another order to let each worker choose their own on their phone; the phone remembers it for that person. Untick it and everyone uses your order, with no switch on the phone. You can change this at any time.
The phone and the portal use the same rule, so a list is in the same order on both. The Main Inbox stays newest first, but each manager can pick another order for their own screen with the Order menu above the list.
What "closest" means#
Operacora never uses GPS for this. It uses your floor plans:
- Where the worker is is the room of the last job they opened, or the room code they last scanned with the phone.
- Jobs in that worker's building come first, nearest first. Distance is walking distance on the floor plan: straight lines between room centres on a floor, plus the stairs or elevator between floors (the same measure as route suggestions).
- Then jobs on floors the plan cannot reach yet (no stairs drawn), nearest floor first; then jobs in that building that are not placed on a plan, by room name.
- Then the other buildings, in your buildings' order.
- If Operacora does not know where the worker is yet, jobs are sorted by building, then floor, then room name ("Room 9" before "Room 10").
- Jobs with no room at all come last in their group.
Closest first only works as well as the floor plans: rooms need to be placed and confirmed, and jobs need their room set. See Floor plans.
Waiting too long#
Under Waiting too long, choose after how many hours or days an open job counts as waiting too long, or turn it off. The starting setting is 3 days.
- The time is counted from when the job came in (the text, email or phone report), not from when it was assigned, so it matches how long the person who reported it has been waiting.
- Such jobs show a Waiting 3 days badge in the portal and on the phone. The badge is a calm caution colour, never red.
- The Main Inbox and Workers' Jobs have a Waiting filter that shows how many jobs are waiting too long and lists only those.
- It is only a flag on the screen. No push notification, text or email is sent. Alerts may come later.
Building workers#
If each building has its own worker, choose them under Building workers: one worker (or nobody) per building. Then choose what that means:
- Off (the starting setting): nothing changes.
- Suggest: when you assign a job, that building's worker is listed first in the worker picker, marked Suggested. You still choose.
- Automatic: a new job that arrives for that building from the phone app's Report a problem goes straight to its worker, who gets the usual "new job" notice. Managers are still told about every new request, and an emergency still alerts every manager at once. If that worker has been deactivated, the job simply waits in the Main Inbox. Jobs a manager creates by hand are not assigned automatically: the manager chooses. Texts and emails will follow the same rule once they arrive in the app.
Keep buildings separate#
Tick Keep buildings separate so that giving a job to another building's worker asks "Give it to …?" first. It is not a block: press Assign anyway and the worker can cover the other building. This works everywhere you assign: the job page, Quick assign, the Board, selecting several jobs, and manager mode on the phone.
Questions#
Can a worker see the building workers?#
No. Workers only see the order of their own list and the Waiting badge. Who looks after which building is shown to managers.
Does changing the order move anyone's jobs?#
No. It only changes the order on the screen. Who a job belongs to never changes because of the order.