How to make contractor-based Assignment Groups visible in the Dispatcher Workspace selection?

[Tejal Patil1]

Hi everyone,

I am running into a visibility issue with Assignment Groups in the Dispatcher Workspace and could use some guidance.

Instance Version: Xanadu

Current Setup: I have a Dispatcher Group configured to cover a total of 5 Assignment Groups:

• 3 internal (non-contractor) groups

• 2 contractor-based groups (containing contractor agents)

The Issue: When using the Assignment Group selection bar in the Dispatcher Workspace, only the 3 internal groups are available for selection. The 2 contractor-based groups are currently filtered out or hidden from the list.

My Questions:

1. Is it out-of-the-box behaviour to be able to select contractor-based groups directly within the Assignment Group selection bar on the Dispatcher Workspace?

2. If this is possible, what configurations, UI parameters, or filter conditions do I need to update to make these contractor groups visible for selection?

Any insights or steps to resolve this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Naveen20]

This is a known behavioral nuance of the Dispatcher Workspace in Field Service Management. The assignment group selection bar doesn't simply list all groups tied to your Dispatcher Group — there's additional filtering logic at play.

To answer question 1: The OOB behavior in Xanadu does apply filtering that can exclude contractor-based groups from the Assignment Group selection bar. This is by design in FSM's contractor management model, where contractor groups are typically managed through a different workflow (e.g., Work Order routing via Dynamic Scheduling or third-party dispatch rather than direct dispatcher selection).

To answer question 2 — things to investigate and adjust:

Check the Dispatcher Group ↔ Assignment Group relationship. Verify the contractor groups are properly linked in the fsm_dispatcher_assignment_group (or equivalent M2M) table. Navigate to your Dispatcher Group record and confirm all 5 groups appear in the related list for Assignment Groups — not just the 3 internal ones.

Inspect the Agent Affiliation / Contractor flag. FSM uses a contractor boolean or agent affiliation field on either sys_user_group or the FSM-specific group extension table. The workspace component's reference qualifier likely filters on something like contractor=false or agent_affiliation!=contractor. Check the group records for your 2 missing groups and compare their field values against the 3 visible ones — look for fields like Type, Contractor, or Agent affiliation.

Review the Workspace UI component configuration. In UI Builder, open the Dispatcher Workspace experience → find the Assignment Group picker component (it's typically a configurable dropdown or a declarative component). Look at its data resource or reference qualifier property. There may be an encoded query filtering out contractor-type groups. You'd want to modify or extend this filter to include contractor groups.

Check the sn_fsm_agent or agent records. Agents in contractor groups might not have the correct FSM agent records or capacity configurations, which could cause the parent group to be excluded from the picker's eligible list.

ACLs and data visibility. Confirm your dispatcher role has read access to the contractor group records. FSM sometimes applies domain separation or ACL restrictions based on group type.

Recommended approach to resolve:

The safest path is to identify the exact filter being applied. You can do this by opening the browser's Network tab, triggering the Assignment Group dropdown, and inspecting the API call (likely a Table API or GraphQL query against sys_user_group or an FSM table). The sysparm_query or filter parameter will reveal exactly which condition is excluding the contractor groups. Once identified, you can adjust the component's configuration in UI Builder or override the reference qualifier via a sys property or script, depending on how it's implemented.

If modifying OOB components isn't desirable, an alternative is to reclassify the contractor groups so they aren't flagged as contractor type (if your business process allows it), or to file a ServiceNow Enhancement Request if you need native support for mixed group types in the picker.