Job management tablet and app for contracting - help needed.

BenEadir

Hi all,

I posted this on the Android technology forum but I'm going to post it here as well given the subject is farm related.

A family member runs a small agricultural contracting business. From now until September he'll have 3-4 lads out doing various jobs from cutting turf to silage to emptying slurry tanks etc.

In the past he has tried to keep track of the jobs in a notebook (an actual notebook with a pen he keeps in his jeep :eek:) where he records the name of the customer, his contact phone number, the date a job was done, which employee did the job and what the job entailed e.g. 60 minutes emptying a slurry tank or making 60 bales or cutting 200 yards of turf etc. He gets paid by the various units of "production" so it's critical he keeps track of this info and it's a constant battle to keep it up to date. This manual system worked ok until he lost the notebook last August and had to go back to all his customers and ask them what work his lads had done for them over the preceding weeks and months. Total disaster as you can imagine.

He has asked me to explore whether it would be viable to give his staff a small tablet/big phone where they could update the work done for each customer as they went and it would all sync to a master document/database he controls.

In simple terms he would set all his customers up in a spreadsheet type manner and each day each employee would add in what they had done for each customer as they go with the info sync'ing to some cloud hosted service.

Does this sound feasible? If so I'm looking for two recommendations:-

1. A simple but tough phone/tablet (must have a sim card) which he can buy and give to each of his employees to update as they complete jobs.

2. An app which would facilitate this type of job tracking.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

hurling_lad

BenEadir wrote: »

Hi all,

I posted this on the Android technology forum but I'm going to post it here as well given the subject is farm related.

A family member runs a small agricultural contracting business. From now until September he'll have 3-4 lads out doing various jobs from cutting turf to silage to emptying slurry tanks etc.

In the past he has tried to keep track of the jobs in a notebook (an actual notebook with a pen he keeps in his jeep :eek:) where he records the name of the customer, his contact phone number, the date a job was done, which employee did the job and what the job entailed e.g. 60 minutes emptying a slurry tank or making 60 bales or cutting 200 yards of turf etc. He gets paid by the various units of "production" so it's critical he keeps track of this info and it's a constant battle to keep it up to date. This manual system worked ok until he lost the notebook last August and had to go back to all his customers and ask them what work his lads had done for them over the preceding weeks and months. Total disaster as you can imagine.

He has asked me to explore whether it would be viable to give his staff a small tablet/big phone where they could update the work done for each customer as they went and it would all sync to a master document/database he controls.

In simple terms he would set all his customers up in a spreadsheet type manner and each day each employee would add in what they had done for each customer as they go with the info sync'ing to some cloud hosted service.

Does this sound feasible? If so I'm looking for two recommendations:-

1. A simple but tough phone/tablet (must have a sim card) which he can buy and give to each of his employees to update as they complete jobs.

2. An app which would facilitate this type of job tracking.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

Could he not just use email - i.e. each staff member has a smartphone and after they finish a particular job, they email the details to the boss?

Not as elegant a solution as an app, but won't cost anything and all the job details are at least stored somewhere safe.

Gard1

I know a guy who is developing an app with a local agri contractor. He has each machine and driver and each job each driver uploads each evening works on any android phone. Not sure how developed it is but I'm sure he could help

_Brian

Well.
I think for lads out on site contracting the big problems will be flat batteries and broken screens.

What's wrong with low tech.
You can get customised time sheet duplicate books printed cheaply.

Each job gets a sheet filled in ad te lads submit their sheets when getting paid. These are filed away for accounting bit there is a copy in each book.

I know someone with six lads working different jobs/sites and this system works a dream.

BenEadir

Gard1 wrote: »

I know a guy who is developing an app with a local agri contractor. He has each machine and driver and each job each driver uploads each evening works on any android phone. Not sure how developed it is but I'm sure he could help

Thnaks Gard, if you can send (or PM) me a link to the app I'd happily see if it will do the job or if your contact is looking for beta testers.

BenEadir

_Brian wrote: »

Well.
I think for lads out on site contracting the big problems will be flat batteries and broken screens.

What's wrong with low tech.
You can get customised time sheet duplicate books printed cheaply.

Each job gets a sheet filled in ad te lads submit their sheets when getting paid. These are filed away for accounting bit there is a copy in each book.

I know someone with six lads working different jobs/sites and this system works a dream.

Poor writing, lost books, poor discipline etc.

I agree that a low tech solution along the lines you outlined should work but I think he tried getting his lads to keep a journal of some sort in the past and it didn't work.

uck51js9zml2yt

BenEadir wrote: »

Thnaks Gard, if you can send (or PM) me a link to the app I'd happily see if it will do the job or if your contact is looking for beta testers.

If your beta testing ensure you keep a hard copy just in case.

_Brian

BenEadir wrote: »

Poor writing, lost books, poor discipline etc.

I agree that a low tech solution along the lines you outlined should work but I think he tried getting his lads to keep a journal of some sort in the past and it didn't work.

Discipline is whats needed.. If they couldn't be arsed filling in a time-sheet so they get paid then why does he think spending a pile of money on an app and tablets (and repairs) will work ??

Solve the problem not throw money at it - not the same thing at all.

cjpm

BenEadir wrote: »

Poor writing, lost books, poor discipline etc.

I agree that a low tech solution along the lines you outlined should work but I think he tried getting his lads to keep a journal of some sort in the past and it didn't work.

Why not a simple text from each employee as soon as they start and finish each job. If the boss has a good phone then he can see exactly what each employee did at the end of the week. Could also back up the phone to PC once a week. And if he lost his phone each employee would have the job details in their sent text messages

eamond

Hi BenEadair,
Please check your Inbox. I've sent you a PM on this.

Rgds,
Eamon

twofish101

We use a book system, and a weekly time sheet, sheets returned to office on payday. books are triplicate, details are logged by operator and signed for by customer, customer gets top copy, second one is submitted with worksheet, third one stays in book unless needed. books are A5 so not too big. system works well and all hours etc are agreed upon while fresh in everyone's mind when works are being signed off. 'No sheets no pay' is what we say and it works well.

blue5000

I'm with Brian on this, iphones/tablets and drivers/contractors don't mix very well. Have you ever seen a contractors phone with a clear screen, and no cracks?

BenEadir

As a courtesy to you all for the helpful suggestions and feedback you have given me I'm updating this thread to let you know that having discussed the issues and suggestions raised here with my brother in law (let's call him Bill) I have identified a potential solution but before I explain what the solution is it's important to understand that one key issue which has driven me towards the proposed solution is the fact that one of his key employees is actually dyslexic so written docket books, texting etc isn't practical for that chap and Bill wants whatever solution we put in place to be something everyone can use easily.

With that in mind we're going to try the following:-

1. We're going to securely mount a cheap €100 Android phone in the cab of each machine in landscape mode with the charging cable wired into the machine electricals rather than rely on a cigarette charger so the phone is permanently charged.

2. Each phone will have it's own Play store identity e.g. Bill#1, Bill#2 by setting up bill#1@gmail.com email accounts.

3. Each phone will have a prepaid sim which is data only.

4. Each phone will have What's App on it with an account dedicated to each machine so Bill can send instructions to each machine i.e. instruct each machine to be at X farm at 4pm to wrap 50 bales or whatever. Because of the way Whats App works Bill can tell that the message has been received and that it's been read by the machine operator. No need for the operator to reply unless he has a query in which case he can call bill using his regular phone.

5. Each phone will have the Voxer App - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rebelvox.voxer. This is the key piece of the solution. At the end of each job each operator will simply speak what they did "50 bales for Tom Murphy" or whatever including any comments which may be relevant and the sound file will automatically be sent to the office Voxer account which will also have a phone/tablet specifically to receive the job information and transcribe same into a word doc or Excel worksheet for each customer which simply lists what work was done for the customer based on the information recorded in the voxer file. Because the voxer file has a time stamp and we know which operator it came from that info is automatically captured without the operator having to verbally confirm it.

Because Bill is a relatively small operator the max number of files/jobs to be transcribed each day is likely to be +/-25 and Bills wife has offered to do it on a daily basis. the Voxer files will flow into her tablet and at the end of each day (or once a day) she'll transcribe them and archive the Voxer files in case there is a requirement to reference them at a later date.

The above will be simple to operate, low cost and allow Bill to capture all the work his lads do in a manner which is easy for his lads to use.

I know it doesn't integrate with an invoicing/accounting system, it requires transcribing and it doesn't get a signature from the customer but they currently don't get signatures from customers as they are frequently not available when the work is being done and it has never been a problem as his customers are all well known to him and don't dispute the work he has done for them.

Maybe it will work, maybe it won't but that's what he's going to try.

We'll see how it goes.

Happy to get your thoughts, positive or negative!!

blue5000

Good luck OP, you won't really know how it works out until you try it. Keep us posted.

Carrigogunnell

have u any updates on the system is it set up working or in the process very interested to see how it goes good idea best of luck

Toplink

BenEadir wrote: »

As a courtesy to you all for the helpful suggestions and feedback you have given me I'm updating this thread to let you know that having discussed the issues and suggestions raised here with my brother in law (let's call him Bill) I have identified a potential solution but before I explain what the solution is it's important to understand that one key issue which has driven me towards the proposed solution is the fact that one of his key employees is actually dyslexic so written docket books, texting etc isn't practical for that chap and Bill wants whatever solution we put in place to be something everyone can use easily.

With that in mind we're going to try the following:-

1. We're going to securely mount a cheap €100 Android phone in the cab of each machine in landscape mode with the charging cable wired into the machine electricals rather than rely on a cigarette charger so the phone is permanently charged.

2. Each phone will have it's own Play store identity e.g. Bill#1, Bill#2 by setting up bill#1@gmail.com email accounts.

3. Each phone will have a prepaid sim which is data only.

4. Each phone will have What's App on it with an account dedicated to each machine so Bill can send instructions to each machine i.e. instruct each machine to be at X farm at 4pm to wrap 50 bales or whatever. Because of the way Whats App works Bill can tell that the message has been received and that it's been read by the machine operator. No need for the operator to reply unless he has a query in which case he can call bill using his regular phone.

5. Each phone will have the Voxer App - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rebelvox.voxer. This is the key piece of the solution. At the end of each job each operator will simply speak what they did "50 bales for Tom Murphy" or whatever including any comments which may be relevant and the sound file will automatically be sent to the office Voxer account which will also have a phone/tablet specifically to receive the job information and transcribe same into a word doc or Excel worksheet for each customer which simply lists what work was done for the customer based on the information recorded in the voxer file. Because the voxer file has a time stamp and we know which operator it came from that info is automatically captured without the operator having to verbally confirm it.

Because Bill is a relatively small operator the max number of files/jobs to be transcribed each day is likely to be +/-25 and Bills wife has offered to do it on a daily basis. the Voxer files will flow into her tablet and at the end of each day (or once a day) she'll transcribe them and archive the Voxer files in case there is a requirement to reference them at a later date.

The above will be simple to operate, low cost and allow Bill to capture all the work his lads do in a manner which is easy for his lads to use.

I know it doesn't integrate with an invoicing/accounting system, it requires transcribing and it doesn't get a signature from the customer but they currently don't get signatures from customers as they are frequently not available when the work is being done and it has never been a problem as his customers are all well known to him and don't dispute the work he has done for them.

Maybe it will work, maybe it won't but that's what he's going to try.

We'll see how it goes.

Happy to get your thoughts, positive or negative!!

Not a bad solution. Getting the guys to speak clearly and without the engine running will be the key here I feel. I can picture your sister in law scratching her head as she listens to the files

BenEadir

Carrigogunnell wrote: »

have u any updates on the system is it set up working or in the process very interested to see how it goes good idea best of luck

Na, Bill is a disaster for organising things in advance. I went down over Easter with a view to buying and setting up a few cheap Android phones to test the concept but whilst there the turf cutting machine was being overhauled in preparation for the new season so that was the centre of his focus. I don't want to drive this as then it becomes "my" project. If he gets back to me looking for help I'll help but if he doesn't I'm going to let sleeping dogs lie.

Anyone who wants to try out the solution I designed can send a licence fee equivalent to 17% of the revenue generated via jobs recorded using the solution to BenEadir account # 123456789 @ Bank Of Ireland

Carrigogunnell

ha u never know look it's a good idea tbh. I'm lookin for an app that u can have different section lik farm. Contract work grass seed. Milk replaced.u mite have a lad in each of them but wen u search his name all stuff to do with him comes up