Routing in CLIP
There are two ways of doing this currently: Google Maps, but the other method is manually done using Routing Sequence numbers on the job.
What is the Routing Sequence Number?
Routing Sequence number is what tells CLIP the order in which the crew will perform this job in relation to other jobs. To arrive at the best routing for your company, follow these steps:
Lay out a map of the area you service.
Place markers for every property you service.
Decide which route you would take if you were going to visit each and every property in one day.
Assign the first property a routing sequence number of 10, assign the second 20, the third 30, and so on. This leaves you room to add future customers in-between existing accounts.
After this initial assignment of numbers, adding a new customer is simple; just add him to the map and assign him an appropriate unused number. If he is located between number 20 and 30, assign him 25. It does not matter whether or not this new job will be done on the same day as 20 or 30 (that is scheduling). What does matter is that this customer's property is between 20 and 30, and should have a corresponding routing sequence number. Eventually, as your company grows, you will run out of "in between" numbers to use and will have to "Renumber Route Numbers", found in the Files menu.
You now have your routing sequence numbers. You can now enter the appropriate routing sequence number for this job. The routing sequence numbers will determine which job will come out at the top and which on the bottom of that day’s route sheet. The lower the routing sequence number, the closer to top of the route sheet the job will appear, and of course the higher the number, the closer the job appears to the bottom.
Now you are ready to manually route your jobs. In the screenshot below, you will see the Routing Sequence number field in the job detail screen:
Helpful Tips for Manual Routing
To make the process easier, we recommend a report from Reports > Job Reports > Crew / Route.
Once you have this report open, you will see the Modify option. Use this instead of the preview so that you can easily modify information regarding the details of the jobs including the routing sequence number.
From the Route Sheets screen, select Manual/MapPoint from the Sort Options then select Manually Order Rt. Sheets button.
This screen is only meant to temporarily route since your route will change the next time someone refreshes the work bank. if you need a more permanent solution for routing, we reccomend that you do not choose this option as you will need to continue to due to do this continuously day in and day out.