Set technician preferences for tasks

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 1 minute to read
  • Specify the technician assignment preference for a task, indicating whether a technician is marked as Preferred, Secondary, Excluded, or Required for the work order task.

    Before you begin

    Role required: wm_dispatcher, wm_manager, wm_admin

    If you’re using Technician Preferences for Dynamic Scheduling, then you must have the Prioritize preferred and secondary technicians criterion added to your task filter to add preferred technicians. For more information, see Example - configure dynamic scheduling to assign preferred technicians to tasks.

    If you're using Technician Preferences for Schedule Optimization then your administrator must Configure the policy to assign preferred technicians to tasks.

    About this task

    The system copies account preferences from the 'wm_agent_assignment_preferences' table to the 'wm_task_tech_preference' table whenever the account field on a WOT is updated. If the task is already created and the account information is added later, the system also copies the data into the task preferences table from the account agent preferences if they are maintained.

    Technician Preferences are used by Dynamic Scheduling, and Schedule Optimization. With dynamic scheduling, technician preferences are considered when you assign the task in Dispatcher Workspace, or when you auto-assign the task. With Schedule Optimization, the technician preferences are considered when the optimization engine auto-assigns tasks.

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > Field Service > Work Order > All Work Order Tasks.
    2. Select the work order task that you want to add a preferred technician to.
    3. Select the Technician Preferences tab.
    4. Select New.
    5. Add the technician details and set the Assignment Preference.
      Assignment Preference Description
      Preferred Specify technician as preferred for task assignment. Optimization prioritizes these technicians when scheduling tasks.
      Secondary Specify a secondary technician as a backup option for task assignment. This setting designates the technician as the second choice if the preferred technician is unavailable.
      Excluded Specify technicians to exclude from task assignment. These technicians will not be considered during Dynamic Scheduling or Schedule Optimization.

      For more information, see Exclude Field Service technicians from being assigned work order tasks

      Required Specify technicians as required for task assignment. When set to Required, only these technicians can be assigned to the task, overriding all other assignment preferences.
      Important:

      Required is only used by Schedule Optimization.

    6. Select Submit.

      For Schedule Optimization, use the Run Summary to view assignment outcomes for tasks with required, preferred, or secondary technician preferences, including tasks that could not be assigned to a required technician.