Setting Up a Multi-Agency Dispatch Centre

For a county or regional dispatch centre, a mutual-aid coordination centre, or a dispatch company that pages and tracks several independent departments. In Resgrid every agency keeps its own department (roster, units, settings, records) and the centre is a department too, joined to each agency by a department link. Links share active calls and unit/personnel status in the direction you choose, and resource orders move units between agencies.

1 — Structure

Piece	How to set it up
Centre department	Its own personnel are the dispatchers (role Dispatcher); stations = the centre and any backup centre; usually no units.
Agency departments	Each agency follows its own guide (fire, EMS …) and administers itself.
Department links	From the centre's Department → Links, create a link to each agency (the agency accepts it). Choose what is shared: active calls, units, personnel status — typically calls to the agency and status from the agency.
Dispatcher permissions	In each agency, the link grants the centre the ability to create calls in that agency; the agency keeps close/delete rights.

2 — Dispatching through links

• Dispatchers use the Dispatch app (or the web) signed in to the centre department. The New Call page lists linked agencies' units and groups as dispatch targets.
• A call created for an agency lives in that agency's department (its numbering, its records, its notifications); the centre sees it on its own dashboard through the link.
• Run cards are configured per agency (the agency's types and units). A regional standard of Structure fire cards in every agency keeps behaviour consistent.
• Email / SMS import: CAD pages can go to each agency's import address; or the centre creates calls by hand.

3 — The Big Board and mapping

• Run the Big Board in the centre with linked departments' units and calls visible.
• Mapping shows units from every linked agency (subject to each agency's view unit locations permission and the link's sharing settings).
• Weather alerts subscribed for the whole region in the centre department.

4 — Resource orders

Use Orders for cross-agency moves: the centre (or an agency) raises an order (2 tenders to Station 4 for water shuttle), agencies fill it with specific units, and fills are accepted/returned — with the whole exchange audited. Agencies with Records can log the same order as a deployment with the order document as a snapshot.

5 — Communication

• Chat: create a custom channel in the centre department for coordinators; incident channels stay inside the owning agency.
• Messages / distribution lists: chiefs@ across agencies via contacts.
• Workflows in the centre: Call created → post to the regional Discord; in each agency: Call created → local notifications.
• Communication tests run per agency.

6 — Records and reporting

Records stay per agency (each agency's NERIS identity and definitions). The centre uses Reports → Active calls and resources and its own Run records for centre activity; for regional statistics ask agencies to schedule report exports to a shared mailbox, or use saved reports per agency.

7 — Workforce & Business Ops

• Certifications (free): dispatcher credentials (EMD, CPR, state telecommunicator certification as custom types) with role requirements on Dispatcher in Warn only; the compliance report for accreditation.
• Deployment Finance (free): if the centre coordinates mutual-aid strike teams for member agencies, the sending agency owns the deployment in its own department; the centre only links the Records external order.
• Invoicing (Business Ops): bill member agencies per call or per month with a rate card (Dispatched call flat per call, Dispatcher hour) and billing profiles per agency contact; aging for the board.

See the Workforce & Business Ops overview for what is free and what needs the add-on.

Setup checklist

• Centre department created; dispatchers with the Dispatcher role and Dispatch app login permission
• Each agency linked; sharing directions verified with a test call
• Regional call type / priority naming agreed and applied in every agency
• Big Board running with linked units visible
• One resource order filled and returned end-to-end
• Dispatcher certification types added; agency billing profiles created if you invoice members