Mobile Work Order Management App Development

What a custom work order app from Tepia replaces

Most field service companies arrive at Tepia with the same setup: a paper or PDF work order, a group text for dispatch, a photo roll on each technician’s phone, and an office administrator retyping everything into QuickBooks at the end of the week.

A custom mobile work order management app gives every job one record that travels with it. Tepia builds that single record so the office stops being a data entry department.

If you are deciding between a platform and a custom build, read custom field service app or ServiceTitan first, then come back here.

The work order lifecycle Tepia designs around

Every work order app is a state machine. Getting the statuses right in discovery is the difference between an app technicians use and one they route around. Tepia typically designs a lifecycle with seven to nine statuses and defines who can move a job between them.

Tepia maps each status transition to a rule: a job cannot move to Completed without a signature, a Needs parts status automatically creates a follow up job, and anything sitting in Scheduled past its window shows red on the dispatcher’s board.

Features Tepia includes in a technician work order app

The technician app is where the build succeeds or fails. Tepia designs it for a person wearing gloves, standing in poor light, with one bar of signal. That drives several specific choices.

• Offline first sync. The day’s work orders download in the morning. Status changes, photos, notes and signatures are stored locally and synced when coverage returns, with conflict rules so the office never overwrites field data.
• Photo capture with context. Before and after photos attach to a specific line item or checklist step, are compressed on device, and carry a timestamp and location. Tepia typically sets a cap of 10 to 20 photos per job to keep sync fast.
• Barcode scanning is a common addition.
• Checklists by job type. A furnace tune up, a backflow test and a generator inspection each get their own checklist, versioned so a change in the office does not break jobs already in the field.

On the office side, Tepia builds a web portal in React with a dispatch board, job search, reporting, and the customer and site records that back every work order. See the dispatch and work order features list for the full module set.

How Tepia approaches mobile work order management app development

Tepia runs every work order app through the same six phase process, with deliverables you can review at each step.

1. Discovery (typically 1 to 3 months). Tepia rides along with dispatchers and technicians, reviews your current forms, and audits the third party systems you need to connect (QuickBooks, ServiceTitan, your CRM). You receive an Investigation Summary, an Interview Summary and a User Stories document that lists every status, role and rule.
2. Design. A design questionnaire, moodboards and a style guide, then detailed wireframes for the technician app and dispatch portal. Tepia tests the wireframes with two or three technicians before sample designs are finalized.
3. Development and Testing (typically 2 to 6 months). Alpha and Beta schedules, with test plans covering functional, user acceptance and nonfunctional testing. Offline sync and accounting integration get their own test scripts.
4. Training. In person or remote sessions built on user story scenarios, for example completing a job with no signal and syncing in the truck.
5. Launch (about 1 month). Migration of customers, sites and open jobs from your old system, a transition plan by crew or region, and Tepia support reps available during rollout.

The full process is described at tepia.co/process, and examples of finished products are at our work.

Frequently asked questions