Uploading the Provider Assignment Template

Owned by Joseph Yarborough (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 08, 2024 by Lamont Eddins
4 min read

Using Provider Assignment Template

The Provider Assignment Template provides an easy method of bulk uploading provider assignments for multiple sites and trades. This template allows you to Assign, Reassign or Retire providers using an Excel optimized spreadsheet.

To use the template, you will need to have available the following information:

  • Your company’s Subscriber ID & Subscriber Name
  • The Location Name & Location Number
  • A list of the Trades that service your company
  • Your Service Providers Provider ID & Provider Name

The above information can be obtained by downloading your Provider Assignments spreadsheet, under the Provider Assignment tab.

Assigning Providers to Locations and Trades using the Template

Once you have gathered all of the information needed to complete the template, download the Blank Template, enter the required data, save it as a Tab Delimited file and then upload it to your instance of Service Automation.

Ranking Service Providers

One of the most crucial tasks you will undertake when setting up Provider Assignments is the ranking of your service providers. You must decide which service provider will be the first selected when you need service for trade “A” at location “B”.

Tip: In the image below, Company A is ranked number 1 at location 002, but at location 013, Company A is ranked number 2 for plumbing. Similarly, Company A is ranked number 1 at location A for HVAC, but ranked number 3 at location 013 for HVAC. There can be many reasons why a company would be ranked number 1 at one location and ranked lower at another location. 

Ranked providers tip

For each trade that services a location, you will designate the ranking of your service providers


Formatting Alert: UTF-8 Format Required
When uploading information in the form of Spreadsheets, Templates, Text Documents and or copied and pasted to Service Automation or Provider Automation, the Content must be UTF-8 formatted. Content that is not UTF-8 formatted may be misread by our system and cause errors in how your data is interpreted.


 Windows Specific

Windows Specific

Open file in Notepad

Choose Save As

There are three items to update in the Save dialog that comes up.

Save as type: change this to All FilesFile

Name: name your file and add the .csv extension to it - e.g.: myupdates.csv

Encoding: click on the dropdown and choose UTF-8

Save!

 MAC Specific


Mac Specific

  1. Open file in Number
  2. Hover over Export

  3. In the submenu that appears, choose CSV
  4. Click on Advanced Options to show the Text Encoding dropdown
  5. Select Unicode (UTF-8) from the dropdown menu

  6. Click Next Export!




 Google Sheets Specific

Google Sheets

  1. Click File
  2. Click on or hover over Download As

  3. Choose the option Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet)

  4. After clicking on that option, your file will be automatically downloaded to your computer


⦿ How to Assign Providers using the Provider Assignment Template
  1. Navigate to the Location & Provider Assignment link. 
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the Provider Assignment tab.
    Provider Assignment tab
  3. Download a blank template by clicking the Blank Template button.
  4. Enter the information for each of the fields, for all of the sites, trades, and provider ranking.
  5. Save the spreadsheet as a Tab Delimited file.
  6. Click the Upload Template button, locate the Tab Delimited file you just saved and select it.
  7. Add a description (optional).
  8. Finally, click the Upload button.
  9. Once your file is successfully uploaded, it will appear on the Assignment Import History list, which includes the date/time the file was uploaded and the individual that uploaded the file.
    Upload confirmation

For any reports and templates downloaded for viewing and/or adding information for uploading into Service Automation, items such as decimal separators, date & time formats, currency codes and address forms displays based on your computer settings if the format is Excel (.xls) and if it is a CSV file (.csv), then ServiceChannel settings takes precedence.

If the Currency Code Support feature is enabled, a currency field is added to reports and templates. If the Localization Address Format feature is enabled, headers and values are updated with the specific country’s address format for Excel (.xls) and CSV(.csv) only headers are affected while headers and values are affected for a PDF (.pdf). 

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