Field, shop and office
Problem guides
Practical guides to the workflow problems that cost operating companies the most time and money: late tickets, unbilled changes, schedules that fall apart, quotes that go out slowly. Each lists the signs, the usual causes, and what to try this week before calling anyone.
Pick the problem that sounds like your week.
Office and systems12 guides
Customers and service10 guides
People and knowledge4 guides
Crews and scheduling people5 guides
Approvals and purchasing5 guides
Projects and jobs9 guides
Dispatch and scheduling8 guides
Field to billing8 guides
Quoting and sales7 guides
Shop and production8 guides
Inventory and parts8 guides
Office and systems
- The accounting system and the field app don't talk
- Email has become the approval system
- Finding out a job's status takes a phone call
- Month-end close takes weeks
- Nobody can see margin by job
- Overdue invoices have no next action
- Reports for the owner are built by hand
- Purchase orders get created after the invoice arrives
- Spreadsheets became the system of record
- The cash forecast is a guess
- The crew won't use the new system
- Two systems show different numbers
Customers and service
- After-hours calls go nowhere
- Billing disputes take weeks to resolve
- Customer complaints get lost
- Customers hear different answers from different people
- Customers hear nothing after the visit
- The same customer exists three times in your systems
- New customers take too long to set up
- Quotes and invoices don't match
- Service agreements renew late or not at all
- Vendor warranty claims never get filed
People and knowledge
Crews and scheduling people
Approvals and purchasing
Projects and jobs
- Closeout paperwork drags on for months
- Daily reports from job sites are late or missing
- Job costing arrives after the job is over
- Pay applications take days to assemble
- Project documents can't be found when the crew needs them
- Schedule and budget reports are always out of date
- Project status lives in one person's head
- Punch lists never close
- Questions to the engineer or owner go unanswered
Dispatch and scheduling
- Crews arrive without the right parts or equipment
- Customers call asking when the crew is coming
- Dispatch depends on one person
- Emergency calls wreck the planned schedule
- Jobs need a second trip to finish
- Preventive maintenance visits keep slipping
- Subcontractors don't know what was agreed
- The schedule falls apart by mid-morning
Field to billing
- Customer sign-off is missing on finished work
- Extra work done in the field never gets billed
- Field photos get lost or can't be found
- Invoices go out days after the work is done
- Job tickets reach the office late
- Parts used on jobs never reach the invoice
- Service reports take hours to write up
- Technician hours don't match timesheets
Quoting and sales
Shop and production
- Finished work waits for pickup or delivery
- Inspection records are incomplete
- Jobs wait in the shop for missing information
- Rework isn't recorded
- Shop priorities change by whoever shouts loudest
- Shop travelers go missing
- The shop doesn't know what the field needs next
- Work orders arrive without drawings or specs
Inventory and parts
- Material costs never reach the job cost
- Nobody knows what is in the warehouse
- Parts get ordered twice
- Reorders happen only when something runs out
- Special-order parts get lost after they arrive
- Tools and equipment go missing between jobs
- Truck stock never matches the system
- Vendor returns and cores never get credited
Questions people ask
Who are these guides for?
Owners, operations managers and office leads at companies whose work happens in the field and the shop as well as the office, and who want to fix a specific recurring problem.
Can I fix these problems myself?
Often you can make them smaller. Each guide lists steps worth trying this week. Where a lasting fix needs a tool built around your systems, the guide says so plainly.
How do I know which guide applies to me?
Start with the signs listed at the top of each guide. If three or more describe your week, that guide fits.
Why do the guides link to failure patterns?
Because most problems are one of six recurring shapes. Knowing the shape tells you which kind of fix will hold.
Do you charge for a first conversation?
No. A twenty-minute fit call is free. The first paid step is the Workflow Spec, at 15,000 dollars fixed.