What this screen is for
The standing plan for field sales. Each route is recorded with the day of the week it is worked, the salesperson it belongs to and the customers it covers. A beat is simply the list of shops a rep is expected to call on when that route runs.
When to use it
Set routes up when you take on a rep or open a new territory, and revise them when customers are added, moved between reps, or when a round changes day. Visits, targets and daily performance are all reported against these routes, so they are the backbone the rest of Field Sales rests on — a customer not on a route is a customer nobody is accountable for calling on.
What you see on this screen
One row per route:
- Route — the route's name, with its short code beneath where one was given.
- Day — the day of the week it is worked. A dash means no day has been set, and nothing will be scheduled against it.
- Salesperson — the rep it belongs to, or Unassigned. An unassigned route is a beat with nobody accountable for walking it.
- Customers — how many customers are on the route. This is the size of the beat.
- Status — Active or Inactive; see below.
- Actions — edit the route, which is where customers are added, removed and put in calling order, or delete it.
Filters and actions
New Route opens the builder for a fresh beat. There is no search or filter: the list is short by design, since a route is a standing arrangement rather than a transaction.
Deleting asks first, and the confirmation names the route, its salesperson and how many customers are on it, so you can see the size of what you are about to remove before agreeing to it.
Status values
- Active — the route is in use and is scheduled, reported and measured as normal.
- Inactive — the route is kept, with its history and its customer list, but is out of service. Use this rather than deleting a route you may want back, such as a territory suspended between reps.
Related
- Visits
- Targets
- Daily Performance