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Hi All,
Last year, whilst working for a plumbing firm, we managed our team and office with a web and mobile app. Rather than use anything off the shelf, I built my own system using with an app building software. Think Wix/Wordpress but for apps and a lot more complicated. This worked out a lot cheaper than the ready made options available and crucially it could be customised at will to suit our needs. A little breakdown of how it worked;
Scheduling
Invoicing
Expenses
Out of Hours
Other features that were discussed;
I've deployed similar systems for other non-trade business but I think it would be a really great model for other trade firms. It doesnt have to look like the flow above; the whole point is that it's bespoke. I've seen the apps other teams are using and they seem to have a lot of limitations as they try to be a one size fits all. Plus you are at the mercy of the app provider if something goes wrong.
Look forward to your feedback.
Last year, whilst working for a plumbing firm, we managed our team and office with a web and mobile app. Rather than use anything off the shelf, I built my own system using with an app building software. Think Wix/Wordpress but for apps and a lot more complicated. This worked out a lot cheaper than the ready made options available and crucially it could be customised at will to suit our needs. A little breakdown of how it worked;
Scheduling
- Diary management for jobs and internal meetings
- Scheduled jobs created a draft invoice with all known details
- All diary entries linked to invoices for traceability
Invoicing
- Sub-contractor invoiced the customer on site; using a form to select the rate and hours + logging material receipts
- Different invoices are produced depending on wether the firm the customer is in the trade or a normal home owner, taking into account VAT and CIS respectively
- Material markups are calculated based on standard rate and can also be over ridden
- Submitting an invoice triggers email to customer with attached invoices. A second invoice between the sub-contractor and our company is simulatenously logged
- Automatically push to bookkeeping software e.g. quickbooks
- All calcs are done by the app including pay for engineer, CIS breakdown, profit per job etc.
- Subcontractors can view their pay for a given job as well as download the internal invoices for their own accounting needs.
Expenses
- Internal expenses and sub-contractor expenses can be logged with photos
- Report shows status of claims. Completed claims can be downloaded by subcontractor for their own company records.
Out of Hours
- Team can show if there are on call for a given night or weekend
- After hours employees or virtual reception service accesses app to manage jobs and send engineers to site.
Other features that were discussed;
- Inventory management for van stock
- Holiday requests with approvals
I've deployed similar systems for other non-trade business but I think it would be a really great model for other trade firms. It doesnt have to look like the flow above; the whole point is that it's bespoke. I've seen the apps other teams are using and they seem to have a lot of limitations as they try to be a one size fits all. Plus you are at the mercy of the app provider if something goes wrong.
Look forward to your feedback.
