Problem guide
The accounting system and the field app don't talk
The accounting system and the field app don't talk because each was bought to do its own job well, and nobody owned the handoff between them, so a person became the connection. The lasting fix is a tool that takes what the field app captures and delivers it to the accounting system in the shape it accepts, so nobody retypes it.
What it usually looks like
A service company runs its crews on a field app and its books on a separate accounting system. Every morning the billing coordinator opens yesterday's completed jobs on one screen and the accounting system on the other. She copies the customer, the hours, the parts and the notes, one job at a time. When a part code in the field app does not exist in accounting, she sets the job aside and texts the technician. By Thursday the set-aside pile has grown, and the jobs in it are the ones most likely to be billed late or wrong.
Signs you have this problem
- Someone in the office reads completed jobs in the field app and types them into the accounting system
- Customer names, job numbers or part codes are spelled differently in each system
- Invoices wait until the person who does the transfer has time
- Mistakes are found when a customer questions an invoice, not before it goes out
- When that person is out, billing stops
What usually causes it
- Every completed job is keyed twice, once in the field and once in accountingThe re-entry trap
- The field app was chosen for the crew and the accounting system for the office, and neither was set up with the other in mindThe field-to-office split
- Nobody can see which completed jobs have not yet reached accountingThe invisible queue
- Jobs that do not fit the normal pattern are held aside and handled by memoryThe exception swamp
What to try this week
- Watch the transfer for one weekSit with the person who moves jobs from the field app into accounting. Write down every field they retype, every lookup they make and every question they have to ask the crew.
- Measure the gapFor each job, note when it was marked complete in the field and when it appeared in accounting. Use your own numbers, not a guess, to decide how much the gap matters.
- Agree on one name for everythingPick one spelling for each customer, job type and part code, and use it in both systems from now on. Mismatched names are a common source of lookups and corrections.
- Keep a visible transfer listKeep one shared list of completed jobs not yet in accounting, oldest first. Review it daily so nothing sits unnoticed.
- Write down the exceptionsEvery time a job cannot be transferred as is, record why. After a few weeks the list shows which cases are common and which are rare.
Put a number on it
- The cost of retyping calculator: Calculate the office hours and dollars your company spends each year retyping job information from the field into other systems.
Where do-it-yourself stops
These steps make the gap visible and cut the lookups. They do not remove the second entry, which is where most of the time and errors come from. Removing it takes a tool built around your actual field app and your actual accounting system, so a completed job arrives in accounting in the right shape without anyone retyping it. That is what a Workflow Spec designs.
Questions people ask
Why don't our field app and accounting system talk to each other?
Usually because each was chosen to solve its own problem, and connecting them was left for later. Later became a person typing between two screens.
Should we replace both with one system that does everything?
Sometimes that works. Often it fails because the crew and the office need different things, and one system serves one group well and the other poorly. The gap moves instead of closing.
Can the office just enter jobs directly in accounting?
That is usually what already happens, and it is the problem. The information was complete when the crew captured it; retyping it adds delay and errors, not information.
What is the risk of leaving it as it is?
Billing depends on one person's time and memory, invoices go out later, and errors reach customers. Measure your own delay and correction rate before deciding what it costs you.
What should a fix handle besides normal jobs?
The exceptions. Any connection that only works for clean jobs leaves the hard ones to a person, so the exceptions you record now matter as much as the routine work.