HOW THIS SCREEN WAS DESIGNED…

The call details screen is where you will find all the information on a call from A to Z and where you will perform most of the critical actions relating to it (if not directly from a table of calls). 

Considering that not all calls are fully detailed, some fields of lesser importance will oftentimes be empty. As mentioned in the “Taking a New Call” lesson, only the type of service (service code) and the origin (location of the intervention site) are required to be able to create a new call.

The layout of this screen was designed so that the most important details are listed at the top and the actions you can perform are located to the right.

We’ll go over each of the sections, one by one, below.

THE SECTIONS OF THE CALL DETAILS SCREEN

1- Person in charge section (optional) -> Contact information of the person in charge of the call at your client (if any). *This section will not be displayed if the fields are left empty.

2- Client with account section -> Contact information of the client account for which you are doing the job.

3- Client on site section -> Contact information of the person who requires your services on the intervention site (ie. vehicle owner or else).

4- Call management details -> Depending on the parties involved on this job, whether it be legal authorities or else, this is where you’ll see the Invoice, Police Event as well as the P.O. number for the call. Additionally, the branch (company) of your towing business that’s in charge of the call will be listed. If you only operate one branch, then you will always see the same company name there.

5- Call Info & Status -> The call number, the date & time at which the call was created in the system, the call status as well as the ETA that was given to the client when the order was accepted.

Call Details section (optional, only displayed if motor club call coming through E-dispatch) -> The details provided by the motor club regarding the call. The information that is displayed is customized according to the motor club’s requirements.

Origin section (where your services are required) -> Details on the intervention site. Most of these are entered by the dispatcher and will get auto-completed when an address is filled in.

Destination section (where the vehicle/load will be dropped off) -> Details on the vehicle/load drop off location. Again, most of these are entered by the dispatcher and will get auto-completed when an address is filled in.

Vehicle or Load section -> Details on the vehicle or load that requires your intervention.

Dispatch section -> Details on the driver whom the call was dispatched to, the chosen truck & trailer (if any).

Heartbeat -> The heart icon (hearbeats) is something that is used by the TowSoft technical support team for troubleshooting purposes.

Geolocation tracking -> The location icon indicates if geolocation data points were collected during the call (if displayed in green) or not (if displayed in red). Note that this is only accessible if the driver to whom the call was dispatched is using the TS4 mobile app OR if the truck is equipped with a GPS tracking device that is hooked up with TowSoft.

Send notification to mobile with call details -> The mobile phone icon allows to resend a notification to the phone of the drivers who are using the TS4 mobile app. If they are still on the former app, this icon will not appear.

Service code -> Details on the service to be provided on this call. 

Notes -> Notes added by the dispatcher at the time of the creation of call in order to provide further information on the scene and/or intervention to be performed.

Invoicing notes -> Notes that will be added to the invoice in order to help the client (vehicle owner) better understand why some items may have been charged.

Other billing notes -> Notes that will only be visible to the office staff to help with the invoicing.

Charges -> Charges applied to the call as per the type of service that was selected. Any other special charges that need to be added according to the circumstances (client, time of day) will show up in that section. You can click on the line of a charge to edit it manually or delete it.

Manage applicable taxes -> Click on the tax name in the “Taxes” column and check/uncheck what needs to be applied on a specific charge. Otherwise, click on the dollar bill icon in the top right corner of the section to manage the applicable taxes for all charges and to which company’s tax report they need to be added to (if you have more than one)

Print charges -> Click on the printer icon in the top right corner.

Add charges -> Click on the “+” icon in the top right corner.

Map section -> Shows the route that was used by the operator and the points where changes in the advancement status of the call were recorded. This section will be all the more detailed if you use GPS tracking devices that are integrated with TowSoft.

Call chat section -> Messages between the dispatch and the driver regarding the call. The driver will see these messages in the TowSoft Messenger chat.

Invoice section -> Details of the invoice if an invoice has already been produced for a call. Click on the envelope icon in the top right corner to send the invoice, once in it produced. Otherwise, the section will be empty.

Payment section -> Payment details *if payments have been made. Otherwise, only the “Payment by card” button will appear. Click on the “+” icon in the top right corner to add a payment. Click on the pencil or “X” icon at the left of the payment line to edit or delete a payment.

Call logs section -> Records of call advancement status changes that have been made for the call. These can be added manually, edited (if entered by a driver) or removed by a dispatcher or an admin.

Media & Documents section -> Images (pictures), videos, documents and disclaimers that have been collected and, in some cases, sent to the customer. You can add items from this section using the “+” icon, consult, edit, delete, send and print them if needed.

THE BUTTONS OF THE CALL DETAILS SCREEN

Below, we present you the specific buttons that you will find in the call details screen, according the the status that the call is in (ie. Order, Scheduled, Standby, Ongoing, Impounded, To Validate, To Bill). Of course, some buttons are not specific to specific call statuses, and we listed all of these in the “Ongoing” status section below.

WHEN THE CALL IS IN THE “ORDER” STATUS…

Validate call -> Accept the call from the motor club who sent it to you.

Refuse -> Refuse the call of the motor club who sent it to you.

WHEN THE CALL IS IN THE “STANDBY” STATUS…

Dispatch call -> Dispatch the call to a driver.

WHEN THE CALL IS IN THE “SCHEDULED” STATUS…

Schedule dispatch -> Dispatch the call to a driver in advance. By doing so, dispatchers will not have to think about dispatching the call later and the drivers will see the call in their “Scheduled calls”. 

WHEN THE CALL IS IN THE “ONGOING” STATUS…

Modify -> Allows you to modify the details from the top part of the call details screen.

Impound vehicle / Standby for impound (displayed only if you are using the impound module) -> Allows you to place the vehicle in an impound.

Cancel -> Opens a window in which you have to specify the reason for the cancellation of the call.

Request P.O. (optional, depending on client) -> Opens a window in which you will be able to send an email to someone in order to request a purchase order.

Duplicate -> Opens a window in which you can select details to clone from this call to a newly created call.

Split bill with amount (optional, depending on client) -> Use this option if the bill needs to be split, leaving a balance to be paid by the customer/vehicle owner because it exceeds the client’s (motor club) coverage. Note that this will also create another call # as any new invoice = a new call in TowSoft.

Validate -> Use this option to validate the charges and emit the invoice for the call. This will officially change the call status from “Ongoing” or “To validate” to “To bill”. Note that you will not this button for a call that is merged to another one.

Merge several child calls -> Use this option to merge other calls that were generally performed for the same client or for the same event and that you want to group on the same invoice. Some of your clients will appreciate that you can simplify the payment/accounting and send only one invoice for many calls.

Link calls -> Use this option to link other calls that were generally performed for the same client or for the same event but that you want to keep separated when it comes to invoicing.

Add disclaimer -> Manually add a disclaimer in case it wasn’t done with the app by your driver.

Add call log -> Manually add a call log (advancement status change).

WHEN THE CALL IS IN THE “IMPOUNDED” STATUS…

Release -> Use this option when the vehicle is released from the impound and handed over to the owner or someone else.

Dispose -> Use this option when the vehicle is released from the impound, but IS NOT handed over to the owner or someone else (ie. sent to the scrap for destruction or for parts). 

Transfer -> Use this option if the impounded vehicle will be delivered to another location after it leaves your impound (ex. garage for repair, other impound, etc.). This will end the current call, create a new one for the “delivery” of the vehicle and you will have the possibility to merge or link the current call to the newly created one. 

Partial invoice -> Use this option when you want to send partial invoices (and receive partial payments) for a call for which the vehicle has been placed and is still sitting in your impound after a given period of time. This option contributes to a health management of your cash flow.

WHEN THE CALL IS IN THE “TO VALIDATE” STATUS…

No button specific to this call status.

WHEN THE CALL IS IN THE “TO BILL” STATUS…

Send back to validation -> Use this option when the invoice that was produced for the call needs to be modified. This will take it back to the “To validate” status, from where you’ll be able to edit the charges, validate it again and produce a revised invoice.