Field service app: jobs, visit report, van stock
Crews in the field will not fill in a spreadsheet after they get back. A technician app shows today’s jobs, navigation, a checklist and visit photos — the office sees live status, the customer gets a report without waiting for paper.
HVAC, gates, boilers, networks, machines — the same picture: a dispatcher on the phone, a technician on paper, an invoice two days later when someone decodes the handwriting. A field service app reverses that: the job lands on the phone, the report and signature happen on site, the office raises the document before the van returns to base.
What you lose without an app in the field
- Nobody knows where the crew is and which job is actually “in progress”.
- A visit report written in the evening — gaps, customer disputes, no photos.
- Van stock does not match the warehouse.
- The customer calls “when will you be here” and the dispatcher guesses.
- Hours and travel billed from memory at month-end.
A technician’s day in the app
- Morning job list: address, time window, asset history, what to bring.
- Navigation, customer call, status “on the way / on site / done”.
- Checklist + photos + optional readings (hours, pressure, error codes).
- Parts used from van stock, customer signature on screen.
- The office sees the report and raises the invoice without retyping.
Who this pays back in the first season
Several crews, repeating inspections, service contracts, a customer who wants SLA. If you are one person with five jobs a week — a calendar is enough. When the dispatcher drowns in calls and reports vanish, the app pays for itself in disputes and office hours. Same direction as workshop software, except the bay is at the customer’s site.
Describe crew count, job types and whether you need signature / parts / SLA. We will propose an MVP: day list + visit report. The rest (van stock, contracts, IoT) only once that works.
Frequently asked questions
- Will it work without signal?
- Yes, offline for the job and the report. Upload when the network returns. Maps and new jobs need a connection.
- Does the technician need to be “good with systems”?
- No. Large buttons, checklist, photo, signature. An hour of training, not a week.
- What about service contracts?
- Inspection schedules, automatic “every 6 months” jobs, asset history. A common second phase.
- iPhone?
- Android first — that is what most field crews in PL carry. iOS is quoted separately when it is really in the fleet.
Describe your project