Industrial AppsDistributionBeats and route planning

Beats and route planning

A beat is an ordered list of outlets a field sales rep visits on a schedule — by weekday or every other week. Beats drive the rep’s “today’s route” screen on the phone and are the denominator for on-schedule and coverage KPIs.

Who uses it: channel / sales managers create and adjust beats; the assigned approver reviews AI route-optimisation suggestions.

Before you start

  • Permissions: view distribution:read, create/edit distribution:write. The list, weekly view and beat detail follow the viewer’s data scope (out-of-scope beats are hidden).
  • Approved outlets (Outlets and care) and field sales rep profiles (Field sales rep journey) exist.
  • Toggle Field salesman profile required (distribution.salesman_profile_required): when on, beats can only be assigned to people with an active field sales rep profile.

Steps

Create a beat

Go to Distribution → Beats and create a beat: code, name, assigned rep, territory, weekdays it runs (or every other week).

Add and order outlets

Add outlets to the beat, then drag and drop to change the visit order.

Clone a beat

Use Clone to create a new beat from an existing one (the new code gets a -COPY suffix), then change the rep or the days.

View the weekly calendar

The weekly calendar shows which beat runs on which day — using the same rule as the rep’s “today’s route” screen.

Print the route sheet

Click Print route sheet for an ordered outlet list the rep can carry.

Beats page with outlet order and weekly calendar
Beats page with outlet order and weekly calendar

AI-suggested visit order

The route optimiser assistant (distribution_route_optimizer) runs every Monday morning and computes a shorter visit order from outlet GPS coordinates (keeping the first outlet fixed). It never writes on its own: each suggestion is an action waiting for an authorised approver; the beat’s outlet order only changes once approved.

A suggestion is only made when it saves at least 10% and 500 m. Beats missing coordinates or with fewer than 3 outlets are skipped. If the beat’s outlets changed after the suggestion was made, approval is refused — wait for a fresh suggestion.

Limits and tips

  • Inactive territories/distributors cannot be newly assigned to a beat.
  • Enter GPS coordinates for every outlet so the AI can suggest an order and the check-in distance flag is meaningful.

Related

Outlets and careVisits and check-in