Build a job type from scratch

This guide takes one job type from a blank page to something your team can use, in the order that saves you rework. The reference pages cover every setting; this one is about the decisions.

You need the Brand Administrator or Tenant Admin role. Job types belong to a brand, so if you run more than one, build it in the brand that does the work.

1. Decide what each side needs

Every job type has two forms, and they’re filled in by different people at different times.

• The Operator Form is for your office, when they book the job: what was ordered, the access arrangements, the reference the customer quoted.
• The Resource Form is for the person on site, on their phone: the readings they take, the checks they tick, the signature at the end.

Before you open the builder, write two short lists: what the office knows when the customer rings, and what you need back from site before the job counts as done. Anything that’s on neither list stays off both forms.

One thing decides where a question goes. The answers on the operator form stay in the office: the engineer’s phone doesn’t show them. What reaches the phone from the booking is the job’s notes, which the app shows as the job’s description, and any files the office attaches. So if the engineer needs to read it on site, put it in the notes or attach it. If they need to answer it on site, it belongs on the resource form.

2. Create the job type

Open Settings, pick the brand in the Scope selector, then click Job types and Create Job Type. Give it a name your dispatchers will recognise in a list, set the Estimated Duration, and turn Active off while you build it, so nobody books work against a half-finished form. Click Create and WorkWing opens the form builder.

Creating a job type covers every setting on this screen, including SLA targets, required skills and the default priority.

3. Build the office form

The Operator Form tab offers the six input types (text, number, date and time, dropdown, checkbox and radio buttons), the job’s own fields, and any custom fields you’ve set up for jobs. A long office form can be split into tabs.

Use a custom field rather than a field on the form when you want the same answer across every job type, for reporting or for an export. A field you add on the form belongs to this job type alone.

4. Build the engineer’s form

The Resource Form tab adds the fields that need a phone, and it’s where most of the work goes. Build it in the order the engineer does the job, because that’s the order they’ll read it.

For a long form, mark each panel as a Wizard Step. The app then shows one step at a time, checks each one before the engineer moves on, and picks up where they left off if they’re interrupted. The form builder covers panels, sections and steps.

Signatures

Add a Signature Capture field where the signature belongs, usually last. Each one takes one signature, so give it a label that says who signs, such as “Customer signature”. If the engineer signs too, add a second field labelled for them.

Photos and documents

A File Upload field collects photos, documents or both. Choose which under On the phone in the Properties panel:

• Photo or file, the default, shows Camera, Gallery and Document buttons.
• Photo only opens the camera, with the photo library beside it. Use this for a “take a photo of the finished work” step, and mark the field required to make the photo compulsory.
• File only accepts a PDF, Word or Excel file.

Everything added is saved with the job for your office to see, and it works without signal: the files upload once the phone is back online. On an older version of the app, Photo or file shows only the document picker until the engineer updates.

Location

A Location/GPS field records where the engineer was when they answered. They tap Use current location and the phone stores its GPS position, which works without signal. In the Properties panel you can:

• capture the position as soon as the form opens,
• allow manual entry, so the engineer can type a latitude and longitude instead,
• set an Accuracy Threshold in metres, so a rough fix is turned away and the engineer tries again.

Engineers on an older version of the app don’t see the field until they update, so a required location doesn’t stop them completing the job. Where your engineers are through the day comes from location sharing in the app, and shows on the dispatch map. See Availability and location.

Actions on site

Two components do something rather than collect an answer.

An Integration Block is a button that calls another system mid-job, such as a line test or an address check, and writes the answer back into the form. Turn on Required for completion and the job can’t be completed until it has run successfully. See Integration blocks.

A Content Overlay is a button that opens formatted content, such as a safety briefing or your terms. Turn on acceptance and the engineer has to tick that they’ve read it, and you can stop the job being completed until they do.

5. Decide what’s required

Every field has a Required switch. The engineer can’t submit the form until every required field is filled in, so a required signature means no completion without one.

Be strict about what you mark. Each required field is something an engineer can’t skip when the customer isn’t home to sign or the meter is behind a locked door. For questions that only sometimes apply, use Conditional Required, so a field becomes required only when another answer calls for it: the gas reading is required when the appliance type is gas. Conditional Visibility hides a question until it’s relevant. Both are on the field’s properties, and they’re explained on the form builder page.

6. Preview both forms

Click Preview Form on each tab. The resource form appears inside a phone frame. Read it as an engineer would: is every label in your team’s words, is the order the order they work in, and is there anything you’d skip if you were in a hurry?

Click Save Job Type when it reads right.

7. Try it on a real job

The preview shows the layout. A real job shows how it feels on a phone, with the app’s checks on what’s required.

1. Turn Active on, so the job type appears when you create a job.
2. Create a test customer with email and SMS opt-in left off, so no customer emails or texts go out.
3. Create a job with your new job type for that customer, and assign it to someone with the app. That can be you, if you have a resource record.
4. On the phone, work the job through: On my way, Arrived on site, Start job, then Open completion form. Fill in every step, try to skip a required field, and submit. Working a job shows what the engineer sees.
5. Back in the web app, open the job. Completed Form Data shows every answer the phone sent, signatures and uploaded files included. Check it holds what your office needs.

Each job keeps its own copy of the forms from the moment it’s created. If you change the job type after a test, create a fresh test job to see the change.

A test job counts against your plan’s job allowance like any other. Delete it afterwards if you don’t want it in your records or your reports, which needs the Brand Administrator or Tenant Admin role.

8. Roll it out

Tell your dispatchers it’s there and what it’s for, and tell your engineers what the form will ask. For the first few jobs, open Completed Form Data as each one comes back and check the answers are what you expected.

When you change the job type later, new jobs get the new forms and jobs already booked keep the old ones. To retire a job type, switch it to inactive: it leaves the create-job list and every existing job carries on. See Job types.

What’s next

• The form builder: every component and setting
• Creating a job type: SLA targets, required skills and the other settings
• Integration blocks: call another system from a form