The work happens away from the desk
The storekeeper is at the rack, the driver is at the gate, the technician is under somebody's machine and the manager is in a car. The app is the same system they would sign into at a computer, with the screens each of them actually needs and nothing else.
Android today · One sign-in shared with the web · Keeps working off the network
One app, and each person sees their own work
Nobody chooses a module from a menu. The app asks who is signed in, finds what they are entitled to do, and opens on that. A driver never sees the payroll and never has to be told not to.
Quotations built at the client's table, a visit logged before leaving it, and the invoice chased from the car park.
Counts, issues, returns and equipment out on hire, recorded where the stock is rather than remembered until later.
The job, its history, the parts used and the customer's signature, captured at the site and sent when there is signal.
Leave, expenses, credit notes, bank-detail changes and dual approvals, each with what it is and who asked.
Timetable, attendance, marks, fees and the live session, for a student, a facilitator and a parent on three different screens.
Their own orders, their own invoices and their own payments. No account to chase, no spreadsheet emailed back and forth.
It keeps working where the signal stops
Most software sold here assumes a connection and tells the user to try again. The parts of this app that are used in a warehouse, a van or a basement do not assume one. The work is taken, held on the phone and sent when there is signal, and the person doing it is told exactly which of those three it is at.
- The action is taken, not refused
A delivery confirmed with no signal is confirmed. It joins a queue the person can see and count.
- Photographs are held, not lost
A proof-of-delivery photograph taken out of coverage sits on the phone until it can go, at the size it was taken.
- It sends itself when signal returns
Nobody has to remember to press anything. The queue drains in the background and says so when it has.
- And it says when something would not go
A queued action the server refuses is shown with the reason, on the phone that made it, rather than disappearing.
A delivery, from the van
Four taps, no paper, and the accounts know about it before the driver is back.
- The run is already on the phone
Loaded before the van leaves, so the list is there whether or not there is coverage at the third stop.
- The customer signs on the screen
A signature and a photograph, against the actual line items, not against a note somebody writes afterwards.
- A short delivery is recorded as short
Six of eight accepted is six of eight, entered at the gate. Nobody reconciles it from memory on Friday.
- The invoice knows before the driver is back
The delivery closes the order line, and what can be invoiced becomes invoiceable without being re-typed.
The same chain runs for a service call, a stock issue and a site visit. The object changes; the handover does not.
Built for the phones and bundles people actually have
Software built for a fast connection and a new handset is software that works in the demonstration and not in the yard.
The Android build is the one that exists. It is not a wrapper around the website in a frame with the address bar hidden.
Each screen fetches the rows it needs and no more. A page that pulls a megabyte to show nine lines is somebody's airtime.
A twelve-megapixel proof of delivery is resized on the phone. The record is the same; the bundle it costs is not.
A six-digit PIN or the phone's own fingerprint, on a device that has already proved who it belongs to. Typing a password at a loading bay is how passwords get written on a wall.
Who signs in, and what they see
The app decides which of these a person gets from what they are entitled to do, not from a setting somebody has to remember to change.
| Surface | Who signs in | What opens |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Sales staff and account managers | Pipeline, quotations, client visits, invoices, payments and reminders |
| Stores | Storekeepers and yard staff | Stock checks, issues and returns, equipment out on hire and back in |
| Procurement | Buyers | Requests, orders, chasing, deliveries, exceptions, suppliers and spend |
| Field | Technicians and drivers | Today's jobs, confirmations, alerts, a timesheet and the offline queue |
| Finance | Accounts staff | Approvals, expense claims, payables, receivables and period close |
| HR | People managers | Leave, starters, leavers, bank-detail changes, claims, documents and training |
| School admin | Registrars and school managers | Cohorts, enrolment approvals, timetable, exams, fees and live sessions |
| Facilitator | Teachers and trainers | Register, marking, results, mentoring, hours, announcements and the live room |
| Student | Learners | Timetable, attendance, materials, assessments, results and fees |
| Parent | Parents and guardians | Each child's attendance, results, fees and consent, plus absences and meetings |
| Candidate | Applicants | Jobs, applications, interviews, offers and the documents each one needs |
| Client | Your customers | Their own orders, their own invoices and their own payments |
| Projects | Programme and project staff | Board, tasks, budget, expenses, people, intake, timeline and workload |
| Staff | Everybody else | Notifications, documents, profile, privacy and device security |
A person entitled to two surfaces chooses between them once and can switch at any time. A person entitled to none is told so plainly rather than shown an empty screen.
What is coming to the app next
This list is kept here rather than in a conversation, because a limitation a buyer finds out about after signing is the one they remember.
Publishing to the App Store needs an Apple Developer enrolment, which needs a company DUNS number. The registration is in progress. Until it completes, Android is what we can put in somebody's hand.
The structure of every surface is laid out ahead of the work, so a screen that is coming is navigable and labelled rather than absent. Where it has nothing behind it yet, it says so instead of showing an empty list.
Taking work offline is built where the work happens offline -- field jobs, deliveries, stock. A report that has to add up a year of ledger entries needs the server, and asks for a connection rather than pretending.
Push works where the phone's own notification service does. A handset sold without it still gets everything inside the app; it just will not buzz.
The questions people ask about the app
Does a person on the app cost extra?
No. A person is a person whether they sign in on a phone or a computer, and most people do both. See the pricing page for what a person costs.
Can a driver see the accounts?
Only if somebody gave them the entitlement to. The app shows a surface because the person is entitled to the work on it, and the server enforces the same rule a second time on every read.
What happens if the phone is lost?
The device is removed from the account and stops working immediately. Anything still queued on it was never on anybody else's system, and the person signs in on a new handset and carries on.
Does it need a new phone?
No. It is built for the handsets already in the yard. The heaviest thing it does is take a photograph, and it makes that photograph smaller before sending it.
Can customers use it without being charged for?
Yes. A customer reading their own orders, invoices and payments is not a person who signs in to run your firm, and is not counted as one.
Put it in their hands before you decide
Every account comes with a sandbox carrying the same screens and make-believe records, on every plan. Give a phone to the person who would actually use it and let them try to break it.
We will set the sandbox up with your own module list, so what they are holding is what they would be buying.