🧪 Beta Program: This feature is currently available to Beta Program participants only. If you're unsure whether your organisation has access, contact your HappyCo account manager.
Overview
Work Order Auto Assignment automatically selects the best available technician for a work order the moment it's created. The system matches jobs to technicians based on their skillset, property or team assignment, and working hours — removing the need for manual triage and routing. Coordinators and property teams retain full control and can override any assignment at any time. Auto assignment is always running, as new work orders are created, or changes are made to technician profiles, the Auto Assignment process will run.
How to Enable Auto Assignment (Admins)
- In Happy Property, navigate to Settings > Property > Auto Assign.
- Select one or more properties you want to enable auto-assignment for.
- Toggle Auto Assignment on for the selected properties.
- Save your changes.
When enabled for a property the auto-assignment workflow will run across all unassigned work orders for that property(ies).
- Technician profiles must be configured with work order categories and availability before auto-assignment can route correctly. As a part of this feature, HappyCo have introduced a new role, Maintenance technician, Incomplete profiles may result in work orders remaining unassigned or being assigned to any technician with the correct property access.
How to Configure a Technician's Skillset
Technicians must have work order categories set on their profile for the system to match them to relevant jobs. This is only available to Admin users at this time.
- Navigate to Admin Center > Users.
- Select the technician you want to configure.
- Under the Skills section, select the work order categories this technician is qualified to handle.
- Save the profile.
The system will only assign work orders to technicians whose skillset includes the relevant category. If no skillsets have been configured on any technician profiles, the system will fall back to assigning work orders to any user with the Maintenance Technician role, regardless of skillset.
How to Set a Technician's Availability (Admins)
- Navigate to Admin Center > Users.
- Select the technician.
- Under Availability, set their working hours and any exceptions (e.g. PTO).
- Save the profile.
How to Set Your Own Availability (Technicians)
When Auto Assign is enabled, Technicians can update your own working hours directly in HPMA
On desktop:
- Navigate to your Profile.
- Under Availability, update your working hours.
- Save.
On mobile:
- Open the HappyCo app.
- Go to your Profile.
- Update your Availability settings and save.
Note: Your availability settings will always reflect the selection(s) made by the last user to make a change
How to Override an Assignment
Auto-assignment never prevents manual changes. You can reassign any work order at any time.
From the Work Order
- Open the work order you want to reassign.
- Click the Assignee field.
- Select a different technician from the list.
- The change is saved and logged automatically.
From the Work Assignment Board
- Open the Work Assignment board
- Drag and drop the work order to the technician best suited to the ask
How Auto-Reassignment Works
If a technician assigned to an urgent work order becomes unavailable, the system will automatically reassign the work order to another eligible technician. This is triggered when:
- A technician's working hours are changed
- A technician is deactivated
- A technician's skillset is updated to exclude the relevant work order category
- A technician's property assignment is updated
Non-urgent work orders are not auto-reassigned — these must be manually reassigned if needed.
Tips
- Set up technician profiles before enabling auto-assignment: If skillsets are not configured, work orders will be assigned to any Maintenance Technician regardless of qualifications. If working hours are not set, technicians may receive assignments at any time of day. Run a quick audit of your technician profiles before go-live.
- Use per-property enablement to pilot gradually: Enable auto-assignment on one or two properties first to validate results before rolling it out across your full portfolio.
FAQs
Q: What happens if technician skillsets or working hours haven't been set up? A: The system uses fallback behaviour for both. If no skillsets are configured, work orders will be assigned to any user with the Maintenance Technician role, regardless of qualifications. If working hours aren't set, that technician may receive assignments at any time of day. Configure both before enabling auto-assignment to get the best results.
Q: What happens if no eligible technician is found when a work order is created? A: The work order remains unassigned and no error is shown. You can manually assign it as you normally would.
Q: Can I still manually assign or reassign work orders? A: Yes — manual override is always available. The system will never block a manual reassignment, and all overrides are logged.
Q: Does this work on mobile? A: Auto-assignment runs automatically at work order creation on the web. Technicians can manage their own availability on mobile if enabled by your admin.
Q: Is Work Order Auto Assignment available for Happy Force work orders? A: No. This feature does not apply to Happy Force customers in this release. Happy Force support is planned for a future phase.
Q: What's the difference between Auto Assignment and Smart Assign? A: Smart Assign helps coordinators recommend a technician — a coordinator still selects and applies the assignment manually. Auto Assignment goes one step further by automatically applying the best assignment at work order creation, with no coordinator action required. Both use the same underlying allocation engine.
Q: What if a technician is assigned a work order but then calls in sick? A: If the work order is marked urgent, the system will automatically reassign it to another eligible technician once the unavailability is recorded. For non-urgent work orders, a supervisor will need to manually reassign.