The Routes feature lets you compare driving distances and estimated driving times from your phone’s location to task or service request destinations. Select a job from the comparison to open its details or switch to a map app for driving directions. Each journey is calculated separately from the same starting location: the feature does not plan a combined route through multiple destinations.
Requirements and destination location
The Routes feature must be enabled for your customer account. You need an internet connection, location services enabled on your phone and location permission granted to Spotilla. Android requires precise location permission; on iOS, permission to use your location while using the app is sufficient.
The destination location comes from the latitude and longitude of the Spot linked to the task or service request. If there is no Spot or either coordinate is missing, the job is excluded from the distance comparison. Address text alone or a marker on the site map’s background image cannot replace these coordinates. The location is not automatically retrieved from a parent Spot or folder either. See Setting a Spot’s fixed location.
The comparison retrieves only jobs that your user permissions allow you to access. Displaying the route button does not grant new permissions or change job visibility.
Open the distance comparison
- In the mobile app, open Tasks or Service requests from the To do view on Android or the Todo view on iOS.
- For tasks, select Open, Late or In progress on Android (In Progress on iOS). For service requests, select On hold, Open or In progress on Android (On Hold, Open or In Progress on iOS). The route button is not shown on the tabs for completed tasks or completed and cancelled service requests.
- Press the blue route icon button at the bottom of the list. In the task list, it is next to the calendar button. The button has no text.
- Grant the requested location permission. If location services or permission are disabled, open the settings offered by the notification and allow location access. Return to the app and reopen the Routes feature if necessary.
The task comparison is titled Distances to tasks on Android and DISTANCES TO TASKS on iOS. The service request comparison is titled Distances to service requests on Android and DISTANCES TO SERVICE REQUESTS on iOS. Check that the job you expect is in the list before selecting a journey.
Which jobs are included in the comparison?
The task comparison combines searches from the Open, Late and In progress lists (In Progress on iOS). The iOS service request comparison combines searches from the On Hold, Open and In Progress lists. The comparison is therefore not limited to the tab you opened it from.
The Android service request comparison has a limitation in this version: the search for open service requests does not match the open status used by the server. Open service requests are therefore excluded from the comparison. View them on the normal Open tab.
The saved search filters for each status tab affect which jobs are retrieved for the comparison. Check the filters on the other included tabs too, using the filter icon at the top of the list. For example, filters for name, Spot, folder, priority, responsibility and category may exclude a job.
Both apps retrieve only the first page of search results for each status, normally up to 50 jobs per status. With large datasets, the comparison therefore does not include all jobs matching the filters. Sorting by distance sorts only the jobs already retrieved; it does not search for the nearest job across the entire customer account. The count of missing locations in the comparison does not cover later pages of search results either.
Interpret and sort the results
Distance means the driving route length calculated by the map service, not the straight-line distance. Time is the estimated driving time for the same route, not the time allocated to completing the job. The calculation uses driving; you cannot select walking, cycling or public transport in the comparison.
Distances under one kilometre are shown in metres. Distances of at least one kilometre are shown in kilometres, rounded to one decimal place. Driving time is shown in whole minutes, with any remaining seconds omitted. Android shows the time in minutes; iOS shows times of at least one hour in hours and minutes. For example, 1,260 metres and 3,659 seconds are shown as a distance of 1.3 km and a time of 60 min on Android or 1h 0 min on iOS.
For tasks, the number in the Due date column (Due Date on iOS) indicates the difference in days between today and the task’s due date: a positive number means a future due date, 0 means today and a negative number means a past due date. For service requests, the corresponding number in the Created at column is based on the service request’s creation date. For example, −3 means a service request created three days ago, not one that is three days late. The day count and its colour do not indicate the job’s status.
The default order is ascending by due date for tasks and by creation date for service requests. Tap a column heading to sort the list by name or title, date, estimated Time or Distance. The first tap on a new column selects ascending order; tapping the same column again reverses the order. Time and distance are sorted using the original calculated values, so values rounded to look identical on screen may still be ordered differently.
Open a job or driving directions
On Android, tap a row in the comparison; on iOS, tap the job’s name or title. In the menu that opens, Open task or View Service Request on Android (OPEN TASK or VIEW SERVICE REQUEST on iOS) opens the job’s details in Spotilla. Check the job’s content and destination there.
In the same menu, select Navigate to task or Navigate to service request on Android (NAVIGATE TO TASK or NAVIGATE TO SERVICE REQUEST on iOS) to open driving directions. Android opens Google Maps if it is installed; otherwise, it opens the map link in an app or browser that handles it. iOS opens Apple Maps. The link includes the starting location used in the comparison and the Spot’s destination coordinates.
Check the destination and starting point in the map app before starting navigation. The map app may recalculate the route and driving time, so its result may differ from Spotilla’s comparison.
Opening or sorting the comparison, or starting navigation, does not change the task’s or service request’s status, responsibility, due date or Spot location. It does not mark the job as completed or save the journey as a working time or travel expense entry. Record completion separately in the job’s own details.
Missing location or outdated result
If a notice at the bottom of the comparison indicates that some jobs have no location, tap it. This opens a separate list of those jobs, where you can open their details. The job is missing from the distance comparison, but it has not been deleted and its status has not changed.
If none of the retrieved jobs has a location, the distance comparison cannot be generated. In this case, the app may display No spot location found for tasks even when handling service requests. Check the destination’s Spot and its coordinates from the normal job list.
Closing and reopening the comparison in the same place does not always refresh the destinations. Android may use previous route results when the phone’s new location is less than 30 metres from the previous one. Android primarily uses the phone’s last known location. In a similar situation, iOS may use the previously retrieved destination list and previous starting location, even though it recalculates the route values. Changes to a job, location or search filters may therefore not appear in the comparison immediately.
To verify the job’s current details, open it from the normal list. If the driving time or distance is 0 or seems implausible, check the route in the map app: the comparison may also show zero when the map service did not return that value. If the calculation fails, check your internet connection, location permission and location services, then try again. An empty or failed comparison does not mean there are no jobs.
Show or hide the route button
On Android, open Profile from the bottom menu and select Settings on the Routes feature row. On iOS, open My profile and Routes feature.
Adjust the SHOW TASK ROUTE FEATURE BUTTON and SHOW SERVICE REQUEST ROUTE FEATURE BUTTON switches separately. Both are enabled by default, and changes are saved immediately in the app’s local settings. Hiding a button removes it from the corresponding lists; it does not remove jobs, locations or user permissions, or change whether the feature is enabled for the customer account.
If you want to carry out route maintenance included in a task and record its inspection items, see Performing route maintenance on mobile.