What a job is
A job in OBC Calendar is a time-bound assignment. It has:
- A title (e.g., "Heathrow → Frankfurt parcel").
- A start and end time (or marked all-day).
- One or more assigned couriers.
- Optional notes and a client name.
Creating a job
- Go to Jobs → New.
- Fill in title, time, and (optionally) notes.
- Pick assigned couriers from the multi-select. The form blocks couriers who have overlapping confirmed jobs.
- Set Couriers needed if you're looking for more than one.
- Save.
The job appears on:
- The firm's Schedules calendar (blue bars on the assigned couriers' lanes).
- Each assigned courier's My Calendar (blue, marked Job).
- The Dashboard Planning Gantt for the job's day.
Inviting couriers to apply
If you don't know yet who will work the job, use the Invite to apply section in the job form. Add courier emails (one per line). Each one gets an email with an Accept this job link.
When a courier clicks Accept:
- They're added as an assigned courier on the job.
- The job appears on their My Calendar.
- Their slot in the "Couriers needed" count decrements.
- A confirmation email goes out to your firm address.
If the slot is full by the time they accept, they're shown a polite "slot already filled" message.
Open invitations
Couriers see pending invitations under their Jobs → Open invitations section. Each shows the time, title, and an Accept button.
Editing a job
Click any job from the list (or its bar on a calendar) to open the detail/edit view. You can:
- Reassign couriers (add or remove).
- Move the time or change to all-day.
- Add invoice attachments (see Invoices).
- Delete the job (also deletes its calendar entries).
Locked / read-only jobs
Managers (firm admin or dispatcher) can lock an individual job so the assigned courier can't change it. Inside the job edit form, tick "Read-only — courier can't change this job" and save.
While locked:
- The courier sees the job on their calendar and on their Jobs list with a small grey Locked pill next to the title.
- The courier's Edit button is hidden on that row, and any attempt to drag/resize the bar on My Calendar is rejected.
- The courier can still view all the job's details — locking hides the ability to change, not the ability to see.
- Managers (admins and dispatchers) keep full control regardless of the flag.
To unlock, open the job again and untick the same checkbox. The flag is per-job and there's no bulk action — each job locks independently.
The checkbox is only visible to managers. If a courier opens an unlocked job they're assigned to, the flag is preserved silently in the form so editing other fields can't accidentally clear a lock a manager set later. (RLS would reject the write anyway, but preserving the value avoids an awkward bounce.)
Conflict detection
When you create, move, or resize a job, the system checks every assigned courier's existing entries. Conflicts (overlapping confirmed jobs on the same person) are rejected with a clear error pointing at the conflicting entry.
Cross-firm unavailability
If a courier has a job with another firm in the time slot you want, their time appears on your calendar as a red Unavailable bar and the form rejects the conflict with the same "Unavailable" message you'd see for any other block.
By design, you can't tell whether the unavailability came from the courier blocking the slot themselves or from another firm booking them — both render identically. That preserves the other firm's privacy while still giving you the dispatch signal you need: don't book here.