What is the difference between Equipment and Skill?

Equipment is something you need to bring, like a lift. A Skill is something you need to know or be allowed to do, like an authorisation. Planning treats them the same. The type just helps you keep things tidy.

Does a worker need all the Competences, or is one enough?

All of them. If an order requires both a ladder and an authorisation, planning sends it to a worker who has both (themselves or through their car).

Does an order get stuck if nobody has the Competence?

No. If no available worker has every required Competence, the order is planned as before, and the order card shows which Competence the worker is missing. Only when someone has it but none of them has room does the order land under Unassigned orders with the reason Missing Competence.

What happens when a certificate expires?

From the day after Valid until, the Competence no longer counts when planning shares out orders. The worker keeps it on their list, marked Expired, so you can see it needs renewing.

Can workers in the field change their Competences?

No. They can see them, but only the office can change them.

If I change what a service requires, does that change my existing orders?

No. It applies to new lines. Orders and subscriptions that already have the service keep what they required. To change an existing line, change it on the line.

Can two Competences have the same name?

No. Each Competence needs its own name.

Can I delete a Competence?

No, but you can archive it. It then no longer steers planning, but it stays wherever it has been used.

Which plan do I need to use Competences?

Professional or Enterprise. The car register is included in every plan.

Competences: Send the job to someone who can do it (Help center)

Some jobs need a lift. Others need an electrical authorisation, or someone used to working at height. With Competences you tell Clientflow what a job requires and who has it, so planning sends the job to a worker who can do it.

What is a Competence?

A Competence is something a job can require. There are two kinds:

Type	What it is	Examples
Equipment	Something you need to bring	Ladder, Lift
Skill	Something you need to know or be allowed to do	Authorisation: electrical, Window cleaning at height

Each Competence has a Name, a Type, a Colour, and optionally a Description and an Icon. The name and colour show up on the workers, cars, services and jobs that have or require it.

Who can have a Competence?

A Competence only does something when it sits in two places: on what requires it, and on whoever has it.

Who	What it means
Service	The service requires the Competence. New order lines with the service require it too.
Worker	The worker has the Competence, optionally only until a set date (Valid until).
Car	The car has the Competence, for example because the lift is mounted on it. The worker driving the car that day has it too. By default, that is the worker the car is assigned to.

The car is handy for equipment: if the ladder lives on the car, you don't have to give the ladder to every single worker. Whoever drives the car has it automatically.

Setting Competences up

Step 1: Create the Competences

Go to Settings → Competences (under Operations).
Tap New competence.
Give it a Name, choose a Type (Equipment or Skill) and a Colour. Description and Icon are optional.
Save.

If the list is empty, the page shows a few suggestions, such as Ladder and Lift. Tap one to start from it.

Step 2: Set what each service requires

Go to Settings → Services & prices and open the service.
Choose the Competences the service requires under Competences.

The field only appears once you have created at least one Competence.

Step 3: Give the workers their Competences

Go to Settings → Workers and open the worker.
On the Basic tab you'll find Competences. Add the ones the worker has.
If a Competence is only valid for a period (a certificate that needs renewing, say), set a date in Valid until.

As the date approaches, the Competence is marked Expires soon (30 days before). Once it has passed, it is marked Expired.

Step 4: Give the cars their equipment

Go to Settings → Fleet, the Vehicles tab, and open the car.
Add the Competences under Competences.
Make sure the car has an Assigned Worker and that its Status is Active. Otherwise the car does not pass its Competences on.

If a worker drives a different car for a single day, the office chooses Car for the day in the calendar, or the worker picks it in the Day Plan. That day the worker has the day's car's Competences instead of the fixed car's. See Calendar and route optimization.

How planning uses Competences

When planning shares out the orders, it looks at what each order requires and sends it to a worker who has all the Competences the order requires.

A worker has a Competence on the visit date if:

the worker has it themselves, and Valid until is empty or has not passed on the visit date, or
a car the worker drives on the visit date has it, and the car is Active. By default that is the worker's assigned cars. If a Car for the day is chosen for that date, it is that car.

So a certificate that expires on the 15th still counts for a visit on the 14th, but not for a visit on the 16th.

When nobody can take the order

Planning never throws an order away because of a Competence. One of three things happens:

Situation	What happens
Someone has the Competence and has room	The order goes to one of them.
Someone has the Competence, but none of them has room	The order lands under Unassigned orders with the reason Missing Competence, and you can see which Competence it is about.
No available worker has every required Competence	The order is planned as before, without the requirement. On the order card in the calendar, the missing Competence shows with a yellow warning, so you can see it.

What comes before a Competence?

Two things weigh more than the Competence:

A locked order. If you have locked the order to a specific worker, it stays with that worker, even if they don't have the Competence.
The order's worker requirements. If the order must (or must not) be done by specific workers, that comes first.

In both cases the order card shows the missing Competence with the yellow warning.

Live replanning (when Automatically adjust the rest of the day is switched on for a worker) does not look at Competences. Regular planning does.

When you move an order yourself

You can always drag an order to a worker who doesn't have the Competence. The order is moved, but you get a warning: Missing Competence. The message names the Competence the worker is missing and says the next planning may move the order again.

Order lines and subscriptions

When you add a service to an order or a subscription, the line copies the service's Competences. The field shows From the service as long as the line requires the same as the service.

You can change what a single line requires without changing the service. Only the office can do that, not workers in the field.
If you later change the service's Competences, that applies to new lines. Lines that already exist keep their own.
If you change the Competences on a subscription line, its upcoming orders follow: the ones you haven't edited individually and that have not yet been notified or started.
Goods and materials never require Competences.

Archiving a Competence

You can't delete a Competence, but you can archive it. An archived Competence:

no longer steers planning
stays on the workers, cars and lines that have it, so the history stays intact
sits under Archived at the bottom of the page, where you can tap Restore

Which plan do I need?

	Starter	Professional	Enterprise
Competences in planning	—	Included	Included
Car register (Settings → Fleet → Vehicles)	Included	Included	Included
Car for the day	Included	Included	Included
GPS tracking of the cars	—	—	Add-on

On Starter you can open Settings → Competences, but the page is greyed out and can't be clicked. A Go to subscription button sits on top.

If you move to a smaller plan

Your Competences stay put. You can still see them, edit them, archive them, remove them from workers and cars, and change Valid until. But:

planning ignores them
order cards no longer show missing Competences, and you get no warning when you move an order
you can't create new Competences, add them to workers, cars and services, or restore an archived Competence
you can't give a single order or subscription line other Competences than the ones it inherits from the service

Upgrade again and everything works the way it did.

See the prices on the pricing page.

If something goes wrong

Problem	Fix
The Competences field doesn't show on the service	Create at least one Competence under Settings → Competences first.
A worker doesn't get jobs they should be able to do	Check Valid until on the worker. If the Competence comes from the car, check that the car is Active and assigned to the worker, and that no other Car for the day is chosen for that date.
An order sits under Missing Competence	The people who have the Competence have no room. Give it to more people, or move the order yourself.
An order went to a worker without the Competence	No available worker had it, the order is locked, or the order's worker requirements weighed more. Give the Competence to more people, or change the lock.
The Competences page is greyed out with a Go to subscription button	Competences in planning need Professional or Enterprise.

Calendar and route optimization: how to plan the week, and what the reasons under Unassigned orders mean.
Integrations and billing: the car register and GPS tracking of the cars.
Getting started: create workers and services the first time you use Clientflow.

Competences: Send the job to someone who can do it