Patent ID: 8380744

Claim:
A method for generating a report indicating job availability, comprising: receiving a selection of an assignment group from a plurality of assignment groups, each of the assignment groups representing a geographic area, the report being limited to the selected assignment group; displaying, in the report, the selected assignment group; determining a quantity of status messages received by a technician in the selected assignment group, each of the status messages expressly notifying the technician that no jobs are available for the technician; displaying, in the report, a first numeric value of the quantity of status messages received by the technician in the selected assignment group; determining an amount of lost time associated with the technician in the selected assignment group, the lost time comprising a difference between a time at which the technician received one of the status messages and a time at which the technician is dispatched to a next job; and displaying, in the report, a second numeric value of the amount of lost time associated with the technician in the selected assignment group, the report comprising a spreadsheet-formatted report having a plurality of rows, each of the plurality of rows specifying one of a plurality of technicians, the first numeric value corresponding to the one of the plurality of technicians, and the third second numeric value corresponding to the one of the plurality of technicians.