Posted on October 27, 2023

The Comprehensive Guide to Job Tracking

Managing a service-based business is not easy. You have teams that often work on-site at your customers’ locations instead of at the office. Each job needs to be scheduled in advance and the right specialist needs to be assigned at the right place at the right time.

This means taking into account their current location, the distance to the client, the duration of the job and its quality control. All of these factors can result in you feeling like you’re juggling multiple balls in the air at the same time.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. With job tracking software, everything falls into place and you can focus on the most important part of your job—running your business.

What is job management?

Job management is a type of project management process that involves monitoring the progress and execution of every activity related to a service job.

Every service business is responsible for carrying out jobs that help make the client’s life easier. Whether you offer plumbing or cleaning services, or anything in between, you have a team of people that is responsible for getting the job done at the right place and time while adhering to quality standards.

And through a job tracking system, you can optimise your service delivery processes so that you ultimately boost efficiency and profitability at your organisation. You can do this by tracking all the activities in a job cycle as you analyse the entire process from start to finish to help you introduce improvements for the next service, making your business leaner.

Stages of job management

Job management is a continuous process of improving job processes and performance to ensure your client gets the best service possible while helping you streamline your business operations. This process involves several stages and while some may be carried out simultaneously, others will require the completion of the previous stage before the next one can begin. Here are the stages of the job management cycle.

Managing leads/customers

The process starts when you start generating leads. For this purpose, you need to be able to respond to customer inquiries in a timely manner and offer them quotes for the job. As such, you need to be able to not only nurture your new leads but also existing customers who are more likely to request repeat business from you. This is usually done in an automated manner to save you time and resources.

Managing quotes and budgets

The process from submitting a quote for a job done to the actual performance of the service should be automated, too. This type of tracking can ensure that your business remains viable and profitable.

Managing tasks

From the moment a quote is accepted by a customer, this information should be entered into your system and then the right employee should be assigned to it. It’s also important to have the knowledge of which team member is available for the job (i.e. they are not working elsewhere or are too far away) and how long the job will take so that you can schedule others after this one.

Managing scheduling and capacity

When you have a team of employees each performing a job at a different location, it may be hard to keep track of all of them. For this reason, you need to be able to view their schedules and capacity so that you maintain optimal utilisation rates of your resources.

Managing timesheets

Timesheets are an excellent way to see how long a job takes to complete on average, which employees perform faster and better and they also help you understand your team’s productivity rates. However, timesheets should be digitalised instead of being a part of a paper-based legacy system for a better, faster and simpler overview.

Managing emails and documents

There is often client communication involved in the job when the client provides you with specifications about it. But how do you ensure that this communication or any related documents does not fall through the cracks? You need to use a digitalised system that forwards relevant communication to the right team member so that there is no back and forth or confusion.

Managing purchases and costs

With the right job management system software at your fingertips, you can track and allocate costs to jobs and purchase orders, all while syncing bills to your accounting system.

Managing work in progress

you also need a system that can help you manage current or ongoing jobs so that each one is invoiced and that nothing is missed.

Managing invoices and payments

Once you’ve invoiced your customers, they need to have convenient methods of paying you. You also need to ensure that you can quickly and easily reconcile such payments after an invoice has been issued.

Managing reporting

Reporting and analytics are a great way to help you gain insights into your most and least profitable clients while also determining where and at what levels your employees’ productivity lies. In addition, job management software can help you instantly see if your jobs are running on budget.

What is job tracking software and how can it help your business?

Choosing the right software for job tracking for your business can help you streamline your operations and introduce much greater efficiencies in your processes. With the ServiceOS job tracking software, you can enjoy features and benefits such as:

Improved diligence of your field employees
Instant adjustments to input from service providers
Instant adjustments to bookings based on your team’s availability

Benefits of using a job tracking software

If you are still wondering why use job tracking software, below, we present to you just a few of the benefits your business can enjoy from implementing such a solution in your operations:

Boosted visibility of jobs
Automated payments
Greater levels of control
Improved communication
Streamlined processes
Greater levels of efficiency
Better resource allocation
Optimised budgets
Real-time data
Business insights for better decision-making
Smoother collaboration between team members

Which businesses can benefit from real-time job tracking software?

Some of the businesses that can benefit from real-time job-tracking software include but are not limited to the following:

Final thoughts

The purpose of employee job-tracking software is to help you ensure that your business becomes leaner and more efficient. Ultimately, when you have immediate access to all jobs in real-time, you can better allocate your business’ resources. This can have profound effects on your revenue and bottom line.

As such, job-tracking software is a solution worth considering especially if you are still bogged down by paperwork and legacy systems.

Streamline your operations today and explore the ServiceOS job-tracking solution to see how it can help your business thrive in a competitive environment.