If you own a business that employs lots of people or are involved in workforce management for a large corporation, the idea of remote working may not be new. Of course, this is largely down to the pandemic forcing businesses to adopt working from home (WFH) while everyone was in lockdown. But, what is new is just how many companies are considering a hybrid working approach as a long-term model for their operations.
So, what does ‘hybrid working’ actually mean? To put it simply, hybrid working is a flexible working model which allows employees to work from a variety of different locations. Employees can be trusted to get the work done, standards haven’t dropped and the approach has several other benefits for the individual (not least for their work-life balance and overall productivity).

In larger companies, facilities managers are generally tasked with the job of adopting hybrid models because they play a central role in workforce management. But, saying that you want to take on new working practices like this is one thing. Delivering hybrid working is an entirely different ball park – especially when you may be dealing with multiple sites. And it gets more complicated as the size of your business grows.

Here are 5 of our tips for adopting a successful hybrid working model in the Facilities Management Sector…

Building a virtual community that works for everyone in your business is not as easy as it sounds. The first place to start is speaking with your employees to ease them into the idea of a partially online workplace. This is particularly crucial for those who are least likely to engage with online activities – perhaps because of their job type or age – and so, as a consequence, may feel left out. Slowly build confidence by offering training resources to get them up to speed.

As we come out of lockdown, it may be that some employees will want to work from home more, others may prefer to get back into the office. Getting the balance right and not damaging productivity and business growth (or staff morale) involves being honest with staff and showing that you have a clear and coherent strategy in place.

Not all work can be successfully handled from home. If most of your work is office-based, then it’s relatively easy to work remotely if you have the right software in place. If you’re running a maintenance department, where most of the state-of-the-art equipment is in one location, or spread out across multiple sites, it may not be so obvious.

Each department is different, but it’s important to nail down the jobs or tasks that can be carried out remotely and those that can’t. Employers need to be clear about the reasons so they don’t feel their needs are being ignored. Companies also need to be flexible enough to change things if business growth is being affected or new solutions are found.

Running a hybrid working model without an official strategy in place may be okay for small businesses. The larger your payroll, however, the more important it is to have a hybrid working strategy document with clearly defined OKRs/KPIs.

Your strategy is going to need to factor in ways of monitoring employees – another reason why you need complete buy-in from employees. This can often be the most contentious part of WFH and requires a good deal of trust, thought and openness. Like most strategy documents, your hybrid working strategy isn’t set in stone. There should be regular reviews of how it’s working, including analysing data to evidence any updates.

Hybrid working models should be viewed in a holistic way, alongside your business goals. Facilities Management leaders should have a mechanism for monitoring performance and measuring how remote working delivers, not only for the company as a whole, but on an individual level.

Understanding the challenges employees face and what resources they require to do their job properly is key to making sure the model is fit for purpose. Make sure you schedule in check in calls with your employees to gather feedback, keeping your KPIs in mind. You should be seeking to continuously improve the ways of working within your organisation to meet both employees and business needs.

One of the areas that has advanced and made hybrid working more viable is technology. But making sure you’re using the right tools can make or break the success of a particular department or company as a whole. Collaboration software is vital and there are several key considerations for businesses to make when choosing a package.

Many FM companies require multiple packages, others find that one workforce management software works well for them. Another key consideration is how employees engage with the software – it needs to be intuitive and easy to use, not just for those working from home but those in the office and out on site too.

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Great hybrid models are agile and can be adapted to different circumstances. Understanding this and knowing how to implement different strategies, while keeping control of the ‘whole vision’ is critical.

Okappy Portal+ is here to help bridge communications, not only between people within the company but, between your company and it’s subcontractors and external parties.

Okappy Portal+ is a business to business workforce management platform. It applies social and market networking technology to a real business need. The need of communicating and collaborating with employees, subcontractors and customers, who are often at different locations – now more than ever!

We take a look at the top 5 benefits of using Okappy Portal+ to help forward looking and dynamic companies grow their businesses.

Often job information is copied from one company’s system into another. This increases costs and administration. It also increases the risk of errors with jobs getting missed and invoice disputes. But Okappy Portal+ keeps all the job information in one place with no need to copy and paste between different systems. You can connect to your subcontractors and send them the job details with one click. Say goodbye to the days of resorting to email or whatsapp to get a subcontractor to do work!

Because duplication is dramatically reduced, the chances of missing job information also reduces. Information flows seamlessly from the order maker right down to the end engineer. Whether they work for your company, for your subcontractor or for your subcontractor’s subcontractor. Instead of scrambling for lost paperwork or digging for that one email attachment sent 16 months ago, all the job details are easily traceable on Okappy Portal+.

With one connected platform, everyone can see what is happening in real–time. This means you don’t need to chase your subcontractor. And they don’t need to chase their employee or subcontractor. Everyone knows what is happening as it happens on Okappy.

Did you know that the amount of time for invoices to be paid when raised one week after the work is completed doubles compared to when an invoice is sent off straight away? Ideally, an invoice would be sent the minute the job is completed, while the job details are still fresh in everyone’s head and to ensure a client’s payment run isn’t missed. But not everyone is on top of their accounting and admin – and spending more precious time on it isn’t the answer either.

Okappy Portal+ automatically notifies users when a job is complete and allows them to create an invoices at the click of a button. This level of automation means that you can not only send invoices as soon as a job is done, but improve cash flow for the whole chain of work.

In 2017, a Gartner report predicted that by 2020, 40% of field service work will be done by engineers or technicians who are not directly employed by their organisation. In 2021, outsourcing work to third party service providers is a widespread strategy for organisations operating in this sector.

And the changed working landscape brought about by Covid-19 has only accelerated the need for more remote and flexible set-ups. But how can customer service be assured if the person seeing your customers is not employed by you?

With Okappy Portal+, you can easily connect to your customers and subcontractors from the dashboard. Once connected you can receive jobs from your customer, allocate them to your employee or subcontractor, and ensure they are updated in real time. Okappy Portal+ also tracks the whereabouts of all employees, contractors and subcontractors with it’s radar feature. This means that you can give customers real-time information as to where the individual service engineer, technician or installation team member is. The app also gives field engineers the ability to upload photos and videos to improve transparency and ensure they’ve delivered a quality service.

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To sum up, Okappy Portal+ gets rid of duplication, excessive admin, ensures your jobs are updated as they happen and allows you to raise your invoice at the click of a button. To find out exactly how this happens, join our webinar ‘Using The Network To Grow Your Business (The Network Approach)’ on Wednesday 23rd June 2021.

The current pandemic has raised newer challenges for how trades, construction and facilities management companies can efficiently deliver their services, with increased remote working and social distancing measures having an impact on day-to-day delivery. The world of work has changed as we know it and it has required industries to radically rethink their business models. The trades sector is no exception.

By nature, projects in the construction and facilities management sectors almost always involve a number of different organisations and individual consultants working towards a common goal. These different entities are tied together by different types of contract. But often, this chain of work can become fragmented, which is not only inefficient but also leads to errors. So, how can this be improved?

In 2017, a Gartner report predicted that by 2020, 40% of field service work will be done by engineers or technicians who are not directly employed by their organisation. In 2021, outsourcing field service work to third party service providers is a widespread strategy for organisations operating in this sector. And the changed working landscape brought about by Covid-19 has only accelerated the need for more remote and flexible set-ups.

A more recent report on field service management by Gartner listed subcontractor enablement and management as a key functionality emphasis for deploying new technologies. The report strongly recommended organisations should look for software that serve the use of subcontractors and can help align vetted vendors, onboard new vendors and assign work to other organisations in a way that integrates with internal scheduling.

Here are Gartner’s 8 components of successful outsourced field service management:

1. Avoid overbooking by tracking availability and capacity
2. Help dispatchers choose the best subcontractor by understanding what skills are available at the expected time
3. Ensure flexibility to assign specific technicians or offload assignment of bulk work to the contractor’s dispatchers
4. Ensure mobile apps provide data that enables subcontractor technicians (securely)
5. Use an extensible mobile app to enable technicians to capture debrief data and secure site evidence
6. Assess tools and technologies that help remote supervisors monitor, mentor and evaluate subcontractors’ technicians
7. Develop integrations to enable the exchange of work orders and invoice data with as many organisations as possible
8. Evolve your employee onboarding process to mitigate the risks of using uninsured, uncertified or unprofessional technicians

The Gartner report suggests that by 2025, over 50% of field service management deployments will include mobile collaboration and knowledge-sharing tools, up from less than 10% in 2019. And by 2025, over 50% of equipment manufacturers will offer outcome-based service contracts that rely on access to digital data, up from less than 20% in 2019.

The pandemic may have created an even more complex environment to be working in, but it has also opened up a wide range of potential opportunities for evolving relationships with stakeholders, based on trust, proactive support and new technologies to simplify the process. So, if you haven’t started using these types of technologies to help you manage the workforce then now is the time to begin.

Okappy Portal+ is one solution to keep employees, customers, contractors and subcontractors connected, whilst streamlining workforce management processes and freeing up valuable time. With Okappy Portal+ you can communicate with your network, send and receive jobs, manage your workforce remotely, run reports, and raise invoices – all on one platform. You can receive updates to job details as they happen and view all important documents needed for the work in one secure place. To learn more, request a call here.

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The VAT Reverse Charge legislation was introduced in March 2021.  Over 20 minutes we discussed how the VAT reverse charge works, when you should use it and how to configure Okappy along with your other systems to provide VAT reverse charge invoices to your customers.

Okappy is a business two business connected workforce management platform which applies social and market networking technology to a real business need using our unique Portal+ platform. The need to communicate and collaborate with your employees who are often at different locations (and now more than ever). With your subcontractors and with your customers.

Okappy helps the most forward looking and dynamic companies increase transparency, reduce duplication, costs and errors and increase efficiency. Ultimately making a significant contribution to bottom line profits.

With Okappy, you can connect to your employees, customers and subcontractors.

• Send and receive jobs
• See the status of those jobs as they’re updated by your engineers and subcontractors
• Then raise your invoices at the touch of a button

It’s that last stage which was the reason for the webinar.

From 1st March 2021, if you supply goods and services to the construction sector, then you will need to implement VAT reverse charging on your invoices

Before VAT Reverse charge, you would have paid VAT on products or services bought in the UK. You would declare the total amount of VAT you are going to pay to HMRC that quarter, and also the total amount of VAT you are going to reclaim.

Domestic VAT reverse charge legislation (DRC) is a change in the way Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) registered construction businesses handle and pay VAT. It was introduced at the start of this month, having previously been delayed from October 2019.

The reason why HMRC are introducing it is because they’ve identified construction as one of the leading sectors for VAT fraud where some sub-contractors claim VAT but never pay it.

By moving the VAT charge to the end user, HMRC intends to make this kind of fraud impossible. So now, sub-contractors will require the contractor employing them to handle and pay the VAT directly to HMRC.

The new legislation affects all VAT registered businesses who supply or receive construction and building services that are reported under the CIS.

• Check when you must use the reverse charge
• Find out how the charge works if you supply products and services
• Find out how the charge works if you purchase products and services
• Understand how your systems work with the VAT reverse charge
• Consider the impact on your cashflows
• Provide training to staff

We talked about how the VAT reverse charge works with Okappy and with Xero. If you’re using other accounting software, you’ll need to check that your software is up to date, especially if you have older desktop based systems.

You also want to think how it could affect your cashflow especially if you are paying a lot of VAT on supplies but now not receiving VAT from your customers.  It may be worth changing over to HRMC’s monthly repayment trader scheme. Either way, it is worth planning out your bills over the next couple of quarters when cash flow will be at its most difficult.

It must be used if you’re a VAT registered company operating within the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS).  But, it must only be used in specific circumstances.  It applies to materials if they’re used as part of a service provided under CIS. Not if they are provided independently.

• Your customer must be VAT registered in the UK
• The payment for supply is reporting within CIS
• Services are being supplied at the standard or reduced rate
• You are not an employment business
• You’re customer is not an end user or intermediary supplier.

Invoices should clearly indicate the reverse charge applies. They should show the percentgate of VAT which was charged (whether reduced rate or standard) and have a label advising that the “Customer to account to HMRC for the reverse charge output tax on the VAT exclusive price of items marked ‘reverse charge’ at the relevant VAT rate as shown.

There has been discussion around whether the amount of VAT which would otherwise have been calculated should be shown. The general consensus seems to be that it shouldn’t and certainly mostly other software provides are doing it this way.

I think the fear is that, and particularly with accounting software is that if there is a calculation then the VAT will end up someone in your accounts which it shouldn’t. My feeling also is that it’s the responsibility of the ultimate contractor to calculate the VAT and they shouldn’t be blindly copying your invoices.

Two set up VAT reverse charging on Okappy depends on whether you are using Xero or other.

If you’re not using Xero, you first need to check the VAT reverse charge option in the Connections screen > Customers > Account settings

Then set up an item or items which will be used for VAT reverse charge.

This menu is available from the Invoice screen > Invoice options > Account settings

When you raise your invoices, if you select the VAT reverse chargeable item for a customer that has the VAT reverse charge flag set, then the VAT will be set to Zero and the line will show that VAT reverse charge has been used.

With Xero, it’s a bit different as Okappy pulls in the items automatically from Xero.

To set up VAT reverse charge in Xero, first go to the Accounting menu within Xero > Advanced > Tax rates

And then add the reverse charge tax rates

Then from the Business menu, select Products and Services and either add or edit the tax rate on a product or service to use the new VAT reverse charge tax rate.

Then it’s the same as before, select the relevant item when raising your invoice and the VAT will automatically be set to Zero and the relevant labels added.

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