Creating Categories

Set up categories in Passport365 and understand how they are used

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Written by Tim Rattley
Updated over a week ago

What are categories?

Categories are used in the Passport365 system to classify the skill sets that each staff member has in order to make assigning jobs easier. 

Categories are sub-divided from the Primary classification with up to four sub-categories. The purpose of categories is to be able to filter your Passport365 by preset filters so you can quickly assign jobs. 

Let's work through an example.

Setting up Categories

Start by selecting the 'Settings' icon from the left-hand menu bar and then choosing 'Categories' from the sub-menu.

You will then be faced with a screen like this:

Ignore the 'Import' function for the moment whilst we work through how you manually set-up your categories. We will come back to the import function late on. 

Let's say that your business specialises in both electrical and plumbing services. Your Primary category could be the services you provide, so let's start by adding our first Primary category.

In the header of the first column, select the + function:

You can see that this brings up a New Category which is yet to be defined:

Selecting the text twice allows you to can change the name of this category. Let's call this one 'Services'.

In the header of the second column, we can then click on the + button to add some subcategories to our primary category of 'Services'. Let's call these 'Electrical' and 'Plumbing':

Under each new category you can then add further skill sets that separate your field workers. Let's take 'Electrical' and add some subcategories to this.

Selecting 'Electrical' and then clicking on the + button at the top of column 3 will allow us to add subcategories specifically relating to 'Electrical':

You can sub-classify your categories down to four levels if you wish so that your categorisation is very specific.

By adding additional primary categories you can also expand just how specific you can be when it comes to assigning jobs later. 

Your next primary category could location with sub categories of your geographical area with further categories getting more specific. If you have multiple offices then this is a useful way to use categories.

The format of your categories is up to you and allows the ultimate flexibility to suit your business and the activities of your field staff.

Using the upload template

We have provided a template for you to use which makes adding categories easier. This is particularly useful when you are first setting Passport365 up. The file is in the form of a spreadsheet which gives you an example of the format you need to use to upload your categories:

Column A is your primary category, Column B your secondary and so on with each entry being entered on a new line and directly below the category to which it belongs. 

Once you have populated your own spreadsheet then save it and use the 'Upload' function to add to the system.

Once your categories are all set up you will need to assign your staff to each category. See our guide on 'How to assign categories' for further information.

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