Field service app

In the morning the app loads the day's jobs onto the device — with address, contact, asset history and checklist. On site the technician works through the points, takes photos, scans serial numbers and has the customer sign on the screen. The report writes itself along the way and goes to the customer as a PDF.

In the office, dispatch sees in real time which job has been started, paused or completed. Materials and working time flow straight into billing, with nobody typing up slips in the evening.

Offline capability cannot be bolted on later. The app stores every input locally first and transmits it once a connection returns. That requires deciding up front what happens when two people have edited the same job, and in which order photos and data are uploaded.

We settle this per data type: status changes win by timestamp, checklists are merged field by field, photos run in their own queue so a weak connection does not block the rest.

Standard field service software fits well when your processes follow the industry norm. A custom app makes sense when your checklists, inspection rules or billing logic are the actual competitive edge — or when per-user licence costs grow faster than the benefit as the crew grows.

We build such apps with Flutter or FlutterFlow: one codebase for iOS and Android, which matters with mixed device fleets.

The number of screens says little. What counts is how much logic has to run in the field without a connection and how many systems the app syncs with.

• Scope of offline data: only the user's own jobs, or catalogues, plans and manuals too
• Connection to ERP, warehouse or maintenance system
• Route planning and location sharing — including alignment with the works council
• Devices: private phones, rugged company devices, tablets, barcode scanners