Trades businesses
TodayFriday's timesheet turns up on Wednesday. Illegible.
Information gets lost between the site and the office. Not through carelessness, but because the route there runs over notes, phone calls and voice messages.
Also for construction and fit-out trades, electrical, plumbing and heating, painters, roofers and metalwork.
Does this sound familiar?
- Timesheet W38It turns up days later, or not at all.
- Voice message, 2:14 minThe agreement made on site sits in a WhatsApp group.
- Extra work, Müller bathroomIt was done, but recorded nowhere.
- Photo from the siteThe documentation is on a private phone.
- Invoice, three weeks laterHalf the month goes by before everything is gathered together.
What happens on site has to reach the office: hours worked, material used, extra work, photos for the documentation. As long as that route runs over paper and WhatsApp, part of it arrives late and part of it does not arrive at all.
It shows most clearly at invoicing. What was not documented is hard to charge for – and what is invoiced weeks later often has to be explained.
What the workflow could look like
Not every company needs every stage. But each one gets easier when the previous one has prepared it.
01 Enquiry
Whichever route it takes
Phone, form or message: address, trade and request land in one place.
02 Customer
Created once, always there
With the property, the contact and what was done last time.
03 Job
The enquiry becomes a job
With a number, a scope and planned time – traceable for everyone working on it.
04 Scheduling
Who goes where and when
Visible to everyone, including those already on the road.
05 On site
Hours and material right there
Captured on the phone, in seconds, including without a signal.
06 Photos
Documentation belongs to the job
From the phone into the job file, not into the photo gallery.
07 Invoicing
The basis is already there
Hours, material and extra work sit on the job instead of being gathered before the invoice.
What we build or connect for it
- Capture of hours, material and photos on the phone – reduced to a few large buttons, including without reception
- A job file with customer, property, parties and history
- Scheduling that is readable on a phone
- Extra work recorded on site instead of remembered in the office
- A handover to accounting without anyone typing everything in again
What changes day to day
- What is captured on site is visible in the office without anyone transferring it.
- One job that holds customer, property, hours, material and photos together.
- Extra work is documented by the time the invoice is discussed.
- Who is scheduled where and when can be looked up instead of asked for.
From applications we have built
What follows are excerpts from applications we have actually built. No mocked-up interfaces and no invented figures.
The parts most often needed here
- 01
Customers & data
Record companies, contacts and objects once — and find the same details everywhere afterwards.
View: Customers & data - 02
Projects & cases
Projects, people, tasks, documents and open items in one place — instead of spread across mailboxes and folders.
View: Projects & cases - 03
Automation
The steps someone otherwise has to remember every time now run by fixed rules.
View: Automation - 04
Documents
Documents are built from the data you already have — and end up where people look for them.
View: Documents & information
Questions from the industry
Our people are not computer people. Does this work?
That is the decisive question. Capture that takes longer than the paper note will not be used. We build it so that a few large buttons are enough – and try it out with your people before it goes into daily use.
There is often no signal on site. What then?
Then it is stored locally and transfers as soon as there is a connection again. That is a precondition, not an extra feature.
We already use a trades program. Is there still a point?
Often yes, but differently. If the program handles the invoice and does not reach the site, we build the capture in front of it – rather than replacing the program.
What does it cost to start?
That depends on where it jams most. We usually begin with one area, so the benefit shows before larger decisions come up.
Also searched astrades software · digital timesheets · site documentation · job management for trades · invoicing for trades · variations