Set up field work

Field work settings decide how the phone job sheet behaves for your whole organisation: when a billable extra needs the office's approval, what extra labour and a call-out cost the customer, whether a job can finish without the customer's acceptance, where each technician's materials come from, and which checklists new jobs start with.

Before you start

• Field jobs must be switched on in Settings → Apps.
• You need the right Manage Services & Maintenance. The money fields show only to people who may see prices, and the cost per hour only to people with See job costs and margins.
• To give technicians a van, create the van locations first in Warehouses.

Steps

1. Open Field jobs and select Field jobs settings at the foot of the sidebar. The page Field work settings opens.
2. Under Extras and acceptance, set Extras up to this share of the job's value need no approval (%). It is 10 % by default. Leave it empty to use the amount instead.
3. If you left the share empty, type Extras need approval above (a net amount; 0 means every priced extra waits). Or tick No approval needed (only change orders wait).
4. Type the Labour rate per hour charged for extra labour and for time-and-materials jobs (0 uses the Projects rate), and the Call-out fee.
5. Keep A job is finished only with the customer's acceptance (or why they were not there) ticked unless you do not need acceptances.
6. Choose the Default price basis for new jobs: Fixed price, Time and materials, Under contract or plan (no charge) or Warranty (no charge).
7. Under Job types, type one type per line, for example Installation, Repair, Inspection. The reports group by them.
8. Under Vans and hourly costs, choose each technician's Van (or Branch stock) and, if you see it, their Cost per hour.
9. Under Checklist templates, type a Template name and its Items, one per line (see below). Tick New jobs start with it for the template most jobs need.
10. Select Save.

Writing checklist items

Each line is one item. Start or end a line with these marks:

Good to know

• The share is worked out on each job's value, so a small extra on a large job goes through and the same extra on a small job waits. A change order always waits, whatever the limit.
• The cost per hour here is used only when HR has no pay and the staff record no salary for that person. Labour is costed at the rate in force when the time was recorded.
• Up to 30 checklist templates and 30 job types. The office can change a job's template when planning it.
• Materials are checked against the person's van. Without a van, they come from the branch stock.
• Next: Do a job on your phone.