busy morning need to know fast — can we change the dispatch board colors based on job priority? right now everything looks the same and im missing urgent stuff. high priority needs to stand out more red or something. is this built in or do i need a workaround
Yes you can do this! Go to Settings > Dispatch Board > Color Coding and turn on Priority-based colors.
Here's what we use: • Critical/Urgent = Red • High = Orange • Normal = Blue (default) • Low = Gray
Pro tip: You can also add a secondary color rule based on Job Type — so emergency calls show red AND have a bold border. Makes it impossible to miss.
One thing I'd suggest — train your dispatchers to update priority when jobs escalate. The color only helps if the priority field is accurate. We learned that the hard way when a "normal" HVAC call turned into a no-heat emergency in January and stayed blue for two hours because nobody updated the field.
The steps Gwen shared are spot on. Here's the full path with a bit more detail:
1. Click your profile icon → Settings 2. Select Scheduling > Dispatch Board Appearance 3. Toggle Enable Priority Colors 4. Choose your color scheme (or keep defaults) 5. Click Save — changes appear immediately, no refresh needed
Your dispatchers will see the new colors on their next board load. See this article for full steps including how to customize the color palette if your team needs different visual cues.
If you're not seeing the option, your account may need the Advanced Dispatch feature enabled — I can check that for you if you DM me your account name.
only thing i'd add — the color coding is per-user not per-account so if you've got multiple dispatchers they each need to enable it... learned that when i set it up and my coworker was still seeing everything blue. took us a day to figure out why she was missing urgent jobs i'd already flagged
also if you're using the mobile dispatch view colors dont transfer. web only for now
Another way to think about this — if the built-in colors aren't sufficient for your team's needs, you might also consider combining priority colors with the Job Status filter. We've found that narrowing the dispatch view to "In Progress" and "Scheduled" — with priority colors enabled — reduces visual clutter significantly.
From a broader operational perspective, the visual priority system works best when paired with a clear SLA policy. If your team doesn't have consistent criteria for what constitutes "urgent" versus "high," the colors lose their meaning over time. Something worth establishing if it isn't already documented.
