Service Areas
Geographic zones used as a dispatch proximity signal and as filters in field-service lists.
A service area is a named geographic zone such as a city, region, or postal-code cluster. Service areas are workspace-wide and lightweight: no PostGIS setup is required.
Why service areas matter
Service areas affect two parts of FSM:
- Dispatch scoring. If an appointment's service area matches a technician's home service area, the technician gets a strong proximity score before coordinate distance is considered.
- Filtering. Appointment lists, the dispatcher board, and work-order lists can use service area as an operating filter.
You can run FSM without service areas. In that case, proximity scoring falls back to coordinate distance when both the appointment and technician have coordinates. If distance cannot be calculated, the workspace's unknown-distance score from FSM Settings is used.
Creating a service area
Go to /fsm/service-areas and create a new service area.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | A label dispatchers understand, such as "Brussels Metro" or "Greater London". |
| Description | Optional operating notes or exclusions. |
| Bounding box | Metadata for future map views. Not enforced by the current dispatcher. |
| Cities | Metadata and list-filter context. |
| Postal codes | Metadata and list-filter context. |
| Active | Inactive areas are hidden from pickers, while historical references remain valid. |
| Color | UI hint for dispatch surfaces. |
Assigning service areas
| Target | How |
|---|---|
| Technician | Set the technician's home service area on the technician detail page. |
| Work order | Set the service area on the work order detail page. |
| Appointment | Appointments inherit from their work order by default; override when a visit happens in a different zone. |
Updating zones
Service-area edits apply going forward. Past appointments and work orders keep their service_area_id pointer regardless of later edits. To split or merge zones, create the new zone, update technicians and open work orders, then deactivate the old zone.
Deactivating vs deleting
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Deactivate | Hide from pickers and preserve historical references. |
| Delete | Hard-delete the row; related work orders and appointments lose the service-area pointer. |
Deactivate by default after launch. Deleting a zone can remove useful historical context for reporting.
Service-type skill mapping
Service areas only affect proximity. Required skills are configured separately through the service-type skill map in FSM Settings.
Example:
{
"hvac": ["skill-refrigerant", "skill-electrical"]
}Related
- Technicians - home service areas and skills
- Dispatch - how service areas feed scoring
- Settings - dispatch weights, distance policy, and service-skill mapping