A clearer view of workshop activity
In Formbird FLEET Meet-Up 32, the team introduced the new Workshop Dashboard, designed to give fleet workshops a clearer day-to-day view of what is new, what is in progress and what still needs attention.
The session focused on practical workshop visibility. For supervisors, this means seeing incoming issues such as daily driver check failures, repair requests and services that need scheduling. For technicians, it means quickly seeing the work orders assigned to them and the jobs they need to focus on today.
The new dashboard has been shaped by customer feedback and brings together several important workshop functions into one configurable view.
Why the Workshop Dashboard has been refreshed
The refresh was developed following feedback from Formbird FLEET users who wanted the dashboard to make priority work more visible.
Three major themes came through during the discussion:
The first was the need to show what requires attention right now. This includes new faults, failed checks, repairs and service work that needs to be assessed, scheduled or assigned.
The second was the need for clearer visibility of current workshop activity. Workshops need to see what is in the yard, what is expected today, what is overdue, what is in progress and what has been completed.
The third was the need to identify outstanding items that may have slipped through the cracks. This includes requests that have not been closed, work orders without time records, deferred requests and on-hold work orders.
One dashboard, configurable by role
A key change is the move towards a single Workshop Dashboard that can be configured for different purposes.
Previously, different dashboard views existed for different users. The new approach is to provide one configurable dashboard that can display differently depending on the user’s role, the workshops they are associated with and the organisation’s operating model.
For example, a workshop supervisor may see triage information, current activity, time recorders, special monitoring and outstanding items. A technician may see a simpler view focused on work assigned to them.
This helps reduce unnecessary information while still keeping the broader workshop picture available where needed.
Improved navigation and quick actions
The dashboard includes a navigation menu that brings common workshop actions into one place.
From the menu, users can reload the dashboard, open the monitoring and scheduling calendar, access request lists, view materials, open time recorders and access asset lists.
Supervisors can also create common request types directly from the dashboard, such as internal requests, repair requests and service requests.
Triage queue for incoming workshop work
One of the most important sections of the new dashboard is the triage queue.
The triage queue is designed to show new items that need workshop attention. These may include repair requests, failed daily driver checks, urgent issues, non-urgent issues and service-related work that needs to be scheduled or assigned.
The queue groups items by when they were created, including items created today, items created in the last seven days and older items. This gives supervisors a practical way to see the scale and age of incoming workshop work.
Configurable triage rules
Different organisations define triage differently. For some, an item may be considered triaged once it has been scheduled. For others, it may need to be assigned to a person or a workshop. Some organisations may require both scheduling and assignment.
The new dashboard supports configurable triage conditions so that councils and fleet teams can align the dashboard with their own workshop process.
This is particularly useful for organisations with multiple depots, different workshop structures or different approaches to supervisor review and scheduling.
Drill-down from summary numbers
The triage queue is interactive. Users can select a number in the summary table and drill into the records behind it.
For example, selecting urgent items created today will update the detail table to show the specific daily driver check, repair request or work item that requires action. The detail view includes information such as when the record was created, when it was last updated, who updated it, the assigned workshop, current status, request reason, request type and reporting user.
This allows supervisors to move quickly from dashboard summary to action.
Clearing items from triage
The session also demonstrated how an item can be cleared from the triage queue.
Users can open the item itself or use the existing workshop scheduling calendar. From the item, the supervisor can review the details, such as a failed daily driver check, and then use the assignment and status section to set an expected start and expected completion.
The graphical scheduling panel also allows users to place the work directly onto the calendar. This automatically populates the expected start time, expected completion time and expected minutes to complete.
Once the item meets the organisation’s triage rules, it can be removed from the triage queue.
Current activity in the workshop
The current activity panel brings together information from the existing workshop request view and workshop summary reporting.
This section helps users see what is actively happening in the workshop. Filters include work in the yard, start overdue, expected today, expected in the next seven days, supervisor review required and requests completed today.
The dashboard also makes it easier to manage closed requests. Closed work no longer needs to clutter the default dashboard view, but users can still access closed requests when required.
Time recorder visibility
The new dashboard includes a time recorder section that can show time recorded over a configurable period.
During the demonstration, the dashboard showed time recorders from the last seven days. Time can be grouped by work order, making it easy to see total labour recorded against a job. It can also be grouped by user and day, helping supervisors review individual technician time and daily totals.
In the Q&A, the team confirmed that technician time recorder visibility can be configured. For example, a technician can be set to see only their own time records by default.
Outstanding items that need follow-up
The outstanding items panel is designed to highlight work that may need attention before the workflow can be closed out.
Examples include requests that are not closed even though all work orders are complete, deferred requests, work orders on hold and work orders that are not complete.
Like the triage queue, the outstanding items section is interactive. Users can select a number to drill into the underlying records and investigate what needs to be actioned.
Technician view of the dashboard
The technician view is configured differently from the supervisor view.
In the example shown during the meet-up, the technician did not see the triage queue. Instead, the dashboard defaulted to show work orders assigned to that technician.
Technicians can still use filters to view broader workshop activity, such as what is expected today or what is happening across the workshop. However, the default view is designed to keep them focused on their own work.
From the dashboard, technicians can open work orders, add time, complete technician reports and record materials used.
Dashboard configuration
The meet-up also covered the configuration behind the new dashboard.
Configuration can be managed at several levels. The organisation-level configuration sets the overall boundaries for how the dashboard can be used. Role-based configurations can then be applied for groups such as supervisors or technicians.
Individual users can save their own dashboard preferences, including preferred default views. However, user preferences cannot override the organisation-level configuration.
This provides flexibility while still allowing each organisation to maintain control over how the dashboard operates.
Mobile and tablet access
The dashboard was also demonstrated on a mobile-style view.
The mobile and tablet experience provides access to the same core dashboard functions as the desktop view, with the display adjusted for screen size. Users can access the navigation menu, expand panels, create requests, interact with the triage queue, view current activity and open records.
A help option is also available from the dashboard to guide users through how to use the page.
Q&A: workshop TV and big-screen use
A key discussion during the Q&A was how the dashboard could be used on a large workshop TV screen.
The use case was to show work coming in today, items carried over from previous days, jobs that have been dropped off, jobs in progress and jobs that have been completed. This would allow workshop staff to see job status at a glance without needing to ask a supervisor.
The team discussed using a dedicated workshop display user with a customised configuration. For this type of view, panels such as triage, time recorders or special monitoring could be hidden, leaving current activity and outstanding items visible.
The scheduling calendar was also discussed as another useful big-screen option, especially where the colour of calendar tiles can show job status.
Q&A: panel ordering and default filters
There was also discussion about whether users could change the order of dashboard panels.
At the time of the meet-up, the dashboard used the Formbird template structure, meaning panel order was generally fixed. The team noted that further flexibility may be considered based on user feedback after rollout.
Another suggestion was to allow default filters for specific dashboard configurations. For example, a workshop TV display may default to “expected today” so the screen automatically shows the most relevant work without manual filtering.
Rollout approach
The team discussed the expected rollout of the new dashboard and confirmed that the intention is to provide pre-loaded configurations for supervisors and technicians.
The rollout approach is to move users onto the new dashboard rather than maintain the old dashboard in parallel for an extended period. Supporting communications and guidance will be provided to workshop staff before and during the change.
What’s next
The next Formbird FLEET Meet-Up topic was flagged as a simplified work order entry process. This will focus on making work order entry easier for sites that operate more reactively.
The new Workshop Dashboard is an important step in improving day-to-day workshop visibility. It gives supervisors, technicians and fleet teams a more focused way to see what needs attention, manage incoming work, track current activity and close out outstanding items.
