After a lot of work, we’re happy to announce the release of our new job page which is cleaner, faster and hopefully makes it more easy to see which filters you have applied.

The changes

• We’ve moved the job button to the top of the screen so it’s more readily available.
• The layout of the top navigation bar has been improved and simplified.
• The job filter is now in the middle of the page and away from the global search.  This helps differentiate between the two and makes it more obvious when a filter has been selected.
• When you sort on a column, the colour of the relevant column header changes to make it stand out
• The calendar and job settings buttons are now bigger and more easy to see.

New scheduling view

• We’ve added a new scheduler view which which allows you to more easily see at a glance who is doing what and when.
• The scheduler is available by clicking on the Calendar icon and then day view.
• Each of your engineers and subcontractor are listed down the side of the page with their jobs listed horizontally.
• You can also view all jobs for the week or month in the same way as you can on other calendar software.

We hope you like the new features. We’re also interested in your comments or suggestions, so don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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The post Jobs on Okappy – v2 appeared first on Okappy.

Okappy’s ‘Fastest Fingers’ competition

We ran a competition at the event. It was supposed to be like those famous horse vs people competitions where we pitch our job management network against the best that paperwork can throw at us.  Unfortunately no one wanted to actually write their information on paper jobs sheets which I guess is testament to the ease of use of the Okappy app on mobile devices compares to having to pick out a pen and write our your answers.
It was a good example of our technology with live scores being instantly updated on the Okappy job management dashboard and available for everyone to see.

The final results are shown the table below.  Each “contestant” received the chance of an Okappy branded cupcake although as the demo was held after lunch, take up was not as great as expected.

Name	Job sheet format	Time
Richard	iPad	64 seconds
Donald	iPad	1 minute 20 seconds
Potential Investor	iPad	1 minute 40 seconds
Linda	iPad	1 minute 54 seconds
Xihao	iPad	2 minutes 20 seconds
Howard	iPad	2 minutes 30 seconds
Lena	iPad	3 minutes
Nadeem	iPad	3 minutes
Lindsay	iPad	3 minutes 10 seconds
Zhiyi	iPad	3 minutes 30 seconds
Richard	iPad	3 minutes 50 seconds
Store deliveries	iPad	4 minutes
Gerry	iPad	5 minutes 3 seconds
Steve	iPad	5 minutes 20 seconds
Angel investor	iPad	6 minutes 20 seconds

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Here are our tips for the impact it can have:

1) Paper and Printing

With job automation software such as Okappy, everything is cloud-based, meaning it can be accessed wherever you are with a huge reduction in the amount of printing your business will need to do. It might seem like a minor saving, but in the long run, reducing paper and printing costs, can have a huge impact. It also demonstrate a professional, contemporary and environmentally friendly side to your business. It has a knock on effect, reducing the amount of filing and space needed to store paperwork, resulting in a much more organised and streamlined approach. If you’ve been wanting to make more space in your office for a while, this could be the solution!

2) Duplication of Work

It’s amazing how much duplication happens at work without you ever realising it. It might be entering duplicate information into different applications or entering team job sheets into more than one system, then filing away. Job automation really helps you to look at your process from the outset, see how it can be improved, and efficiencies achieved. Okappy provides invoice management, so you can immediately raise an invoice once a job is complete and be able to see at a glance who has paid and who hasn’t. Once an invoice is raised, this information can be integrated with accounting software such as Xero or Kashflow, saving you time and avoiding duplicate information.

3) Chasing Invoices

Chasing invoices is without a doubt the biggest downside to owning your own business. However, it’s essential to keep your business moving. Job management software can really help with this, making the whole process much smoother. Once a job is complete, you can raise an invoice straight away, without having to wait for your paper job sheet to come back to the office. The sooner you raise an invoice, the sooner you get paid. It’s easier for them to pay too, as rather than receiving a paper invoice that they’ll need to remember to pay through a bank transfer or by cheque, they’ll receive their invoice electronically with regular reminders if the invoice remains unpaid. With Okappy, even better, customers can pay directly within the platform.

4) Fuel Costs

It was reported this week that the happy days of low fuel costs will soon be over as there’s a hike on the way! Whether that happens or not, you need to keep an eye on your fuel costs. Job automation can help as you can analyse how long journeys take and plan out the most effective route. Okappy’s Radar function generates reports so you can see where time was wasted, allowing you to identify heavy traffic spots that your team can avoid to allow you to save fuel costs.

5) Improving Communication

Job management software can also help to improve communication between you, your team and your clients. Being able to confidently tell a customer where their electrician or plumber is located, for example, makes you and your business more trustworthy to their eyes, and could hopefully lead to more bookings! The ability to send jobs quickly and easily to your team via job management software, as well as giving them the chance to update it throughout the day, means that less time and money is spent on repeated phone calls to update on job progress, and more time can be spent on making money!

6) Maximising Job Opportunities

Chasing invoices, duplicating work, trying to get in touch with your field workers, all results in one thing – lost opportunities! Whilst you’re in the office battling through paperwork, you could be out earning on a job, or pitching for new business. Job automation gives you peace of mind. Knowing that everything is being taken care of, allows you to focus on growing your business.
Keeping costs down and profits up, is of course, the aim of any business, and job automation can really make a difference. Considering job management software like Okappy could be just the cost saving that you really need to drive growth throughout 2016.
You can find out more about our job management here.

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Inefficiencies that constrain small plumbing companies can be eliminated with the use of job management software, according to project management company Okappy.

Gerry So, the company’s finance director, says automating the cycle of jobs for engineers can be beneficial because it reduces the time taken to chase incomplete job sheets or invoices, while increasing visibility for the user.

Using the software’s desktop site or mobile application to create a job task and allocate it to an engineer or subcontractor starts the process, sending an automatic job alert to the selected employee.
The engineer or subcontractor then updates the job status onsite using a mobile phone, filling in check sheets or extra job details, attaching photos and obtaining a customer’s signature for acknowledging completed work as the job progresses. Job status can be tracked via the software.

Once complete, an invoice can be raised, with the user given the option of exporting it to accounting software such as Sage or Xero.

In addition to removing the need to email and print off check sheets or invoices at either end of the chain, a manager’s visibility of their workforce is improved to the point where it is unnecessary to repeatedly telephone to check on worker progress or request documents.

One key feature of this job management software is the ability to manage jobs that have been allocated to subcontractors outside the company.

The software also enables users to customise how features are displayed according to their individual needs, and save this setup as a template to reuse. The company says this could be used to create a unique check sheet or a uniform customer feedback questionnaire.

“A lot of the feedback we got was around the problems plumbers face with missing phonecalls, filling in paperwork, admin and invoicing. Using software like Okappy will remove these unnecessary headaches,” Ms So said.

“As a business owner, it doesn’t matter if you are on site, in the office or at home, you can monitor your business from any location.”
Graham Warby, managing director of EPR Response said “Monitoring the exception rather than having to watch every job is a godsend. It means we can take on more work in more areas and really grow our business.”

Okappy Job Management Software is available on iOS operating systems from the Apple App Store, or registration is possible via www.okappy.com. Fourteen days of free usage is offered before customers opt-in to a monthly plan for continued use.

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1) Missing, late or incorrect invoices

This is one of the biggest drivers for our customers. With lots of paperwork it’s too easy to forget about an invoice.
With handwritten job sheets, if information is ineligible it may lead to disputes or complaints and if you’re waiting for your job sheets to come back from your guys, then this can lead to delays in getting your invoices sent out and ultimately paid.
This is often a direct cost to the bottom line and one of the first things that can be eradicated by moving over to a paperless job sheet system.

2) Not enough time in the day

In the past, customers would often spend more time doing paperwork than running their business.
Several hours each week would be set aside just for paperwork. Whether that’s writing out job sheets and given them to your guys, whether its your guys having to fill out their job sheets at the end of the week or month or whether you’re then having to collate the information and input it into your accounting package, it all takes up valuable time.
This is time which could be better used on other things, whether that’s building the business, training for your guys or even freeing up more time to spend on the golf course!

3) Forgotten information

We were finding that a lot of guys would fill in all their job sheets in one go, typically at the end of the week or month. The problem with this is that information is not fresh and is often forgotten. If there’s a dispute later on, there is no backup available which often led to invoices being cancelled or reduced.

4) Better employee relations

Having to continually chase employees for job sheets is not only time-consuming and stressful for you but it can cause tension in the team.
By automating the process, everyone knows what is happening in real-time. There’s no more arguments and a lot less anxiety trying to find out what is going on with each job.

5) Better customer relations

If the customer has to ring you to find out what is happening with their jobs, if you don’t have the information to hand then this can also lead to poor customer service and disputes.
We often saw customers having disputes with their own customers as they thought an engineer was on site for less time than they billed for.
Find out more about Okappy Job Management Software and how it could benefit your business.
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The post Top 5 Reasons for Getting Rid of Paper Job Sheets appeared first on Okappy.

What are the benefits?

1. Real-time update of job status

Having the ability to view the status and details of each job from anywhere at anytime, enables you as an owner to know exactly what’s going on with your employees and business as a whole. No more chasing phone calls, no more frustration!

2. Raise invoice as soon as the job is completed

With real-time update of job completion, you can raise an invoice straightaway without having to wait for job sheets to come back to the office. The sooner you raise the invoice, the sooner you get paid! The sooner you get paid, the better your cashflow, in return giving you the opportunity to invest back into your business.

3. Less chance of disputes or forgotten information

While on site, your engineers can update the job details, attach pictures before and after, fill in all your required check sheets and finally get the client to sign for confirmation. No more reminders and no more forgotten information. Happy engineers, happy customers and happy you!

4. Time saving

Having all information stored in one system, you can access and retrieve information within seconds from anywhere at anytime. It’s simple, you can action tasks and transfer data with just a click of button. No more going through files after files nor digging through piles of paper to find that piece of information. No more copying and pasting data from one system to another.

5. Saves you Real Money

No more missed and forgotten invoices. Save money from postage, printing, servicing and even rent as you won’t need all that space for your files! The time saved on doing admin and filling in job sheets by each of your engineers, can be better spent on doing an extra job which generates revenue.

6. Extras

Software like Okappy gives you the additional benefit of connecting to your customers or subcontractors. Removing the need to email or print and send off job sheets or invoices at either end of the chain, they can simply log onto the network and have visibility of their own jobs.
Also you can customize how features are displayed according to your needs. You can upload your own check sheet or even customer feedback form. Produce reporting based on the search criteria with just a few clicks. These are all essential and right tools for running a well-managed business.

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