How Site Visits Block Your Calendar
Arrival windows (VTF), firm times (STF), completion holds, and drive-time blocks
When a site visit has a scheduled date and time, Service Envoy builds one or more calendar blocks so technicians and dispatchers see realistic time on the calendar (and on Google Calendar when sync is enabled). This article explains how long each block is and why you sometimes see a second event after the arrival window.
The main service event
Every scheduled visit gets a main site visit event. Its title follows the standard format (client, ticket number, repair type, timeframe, rate, site, and so on). Click it to open the visit or check in.
How long that block lasts depends on the visit's timeframe type and rate limit. A Blended rate has no separate rate limit — its block is the first block plus the additional max hours (2 hours + 1 additional = 3 hours), or just the first block when the additional hours have no limit. Whatever the rate limit says, a visit always blocks at least 2 hours and never more than 12 hours, and a rate with no limit blocks 2 hours:
VTF — Variable Time Frame (arrival window)
Use VTF when the work order gives an arrival window — for example "Between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM" or "BY 4:30 PM" (parsed as a window, not a single minute).
The site visit block covers the arrival window only (start time → end time). It is not stretched by the rate limit.
If the visit's rate limit (billing cap hours) is longer than the arrival window, Service Envoy adds a second block immediately after the window ends.
Example: Window 10:00 AM–12:00 PM (2 hours) with a 4 HR rate limit → calendar shows 10:00–12:00 as the site visit, then 12:00–2:00 PM as a completion hold titled Reserved for [Client] [Ticket#]. That hold is the extra onsite time your rate allows beyond the client's arrival window.
If the rate limit is the same as or shorter than the window, you only see the single site visit block.
If VTF has a start time but no end time, the site visit block runs from start for the full rate-limit duration (no separate completion hold).
STF — Specific / firm time
Use STF for a firm start — for example "AT 2:00 PM" with no arrival window.
One site visit block runs from the scheduled start.
It lasts for the rate limit — within the 2-to-12-hour range above. STF visits have no end time, so the rate limit alone sets the length (e.g. a 4 HR visit at 2:00 PM blocks 2:00–6:00 PM).
There is no separate completion-hold event for STF — everything is in the single block.
Drive time blocks
When a visit has drive time hours entered, Service Envoy adds a pair of DRIVE TIME events on the same day:
Inbound — ends when the site visit block / window starts.
Outbound — starts when all onsite work ends (including any completion hold for VTF), then runs for the drive-time duration.
Drive blocks have no site address; they reserve travel time on the technician's calendar.
More than one visit at the same site
Send the same technician to the same site twice in a day and they do not drive in between — they finish one work order and start the next without moving the van. The calendar reflects that: one inbound block before the first visit and one outbound block after the last, with nothing between them, however many visits are involved.
Without this you would see travel that never happens, and worse: on a day with a morning visit and an afternoon one, the afternoon visit's inbound block would sit on top of the morning visit, showing the technician driving and on site at the same time.
The visits are treated as one trip when all of these are true:
The same technician is assigned — two technicians at one site each keep their own travel.
It is the same site, and the same date.
They are your own employees. Marketplace and Private Network technicians arrange their own travel, so their visits are left alone.
The gap between the visits does not matter. A schedule usually leaves room for the worst case, but the technician is on site either way — so a morning visit and a late-afternoon one at the same address are still one trip in, one trip out.
If the visits carry different drive-time hours, the longest one wins. Every visit at one site is the same distance from home, so a difference means one of them was typed wrong, and the longer block is the safer way to be wrong. A visit left blank does not drag the group down to no travel at all.
Back-to-back visits at nearby sites
When the same technician has visits at different sites on the same day, with no time to go home in between, the calendar treats them as one route instead of separate round trips:
One drive-in before the first visit and one drive-out after the last, using the drive time entered on those visits.
Between the sites, Service Envoy estimates the drive from the two ZIP codes. Under an hour, no block is added — the short hop fits around the visits. An hour or more, one DRIVE TIME (to next site) block follows the first visit, never longer than the drive time you entered.
If a site's ZIP code isn't recognized, the first visit keeps its drive-out and the next visit's drive-in is dropped.
"No time to go home" means the gap between the end of one visit and the start of the next is shorter than the drive home plus the drive back out. A morning visit and an evening visit with time in between each keep their own drive-in and drive-out.
When blocks update
Blocks are rebuilt when you save a visit with schedule or rate changes, or use the recreate button on the visit — the circular-arrows icon beside Open Calendar Event (its tooltip reads Recreate calendar event).
Saving one visit rebuilds the travel for every visit that technician has that day — not just the one you saved. That is how a second visit added later removes the now-unnecessary block from the first, whichever order they were created in. Nothing needs re-saving twice.
Older visits created before a scheduling rule change are not auto-corrected in bulk — edit or recreate the calendar event on that visit to pick up the current logic.
Visits with no scheduled date do not get calendar events until a date is set.
Google Calendar
When Google sync is enabled, these same blocks (site visit, completion hold, drive time) sync to the mapped Google calendar. See Calendar & Google Sync for connection and mapping setup.
FAQ
Why do I see "Reserved for …" with no address?
That's the completion hold — extra billed onsite time after a VTF arrival window when the rate limit is longer than the window.
Why is my calendar shorter than the rate limit on a VTF visit?
The visible arrival window is only the first block. Add the completion hold duration for total onsite time.
Does marketplace change the blocks?
The block math is the same; marketplace may change who the event is assigned to and how the title is prefixed on the client's calendar. Colors and legend details are on the main Calendar page.