Project tracking for installers: who does what, and what is really finished?

Where an installation project goes out of sight

A repair is usually one visit. An installation is a series of steps that depend on each other: technical visit, quote, materials, delivery, installation, test, explanation to the customer, final report and invoice. It goes wrong in a few recurring places:

• Steps without an owner. “The water softener still has to be commissioned” is in someone’s head, but in nobody’s name.
• “Almost done” without an agreement. The installation is done, the test is not, and the final report is missing. For the technician it is finished, for the office it is not.
• Materials missing on site. The team is ready, but the delivery only comes tomorrow.
• The last steps slip. The explanation to the customer and the final report are left lying, and the invoice waits with them.
• A list that lags behind. One person updates an Excel file after phone calls with the technicians. The list is only right on the day they do that.

Project tracking in five agreements

These agreements work with a whiteboard, a spreadsheet or software.

1. One project per order, with one person in charge. The lead technician or the project manager keeps an eye on the whole and is the customer’s point of contact.
2. Each step is a task with one owner and one deadline. With two names on a task, each counts on the other. A task without a date slips.
3. Agree what “finished” means. For each kind of task, you set when it is done. Only then does the progress mean anything.
4. Work on site belongs to a task. The installation days are in the technician’s schedule, linked to the task, so that the project and the schedule tell the same story.
5. One fixed moment per week. Someone goes through every ongoing project, so that a project that is stuck is noticed within the week.

A task list for an installation project: an example

Adapt the list to your trade. For a heat pump, a water softener or a new boiler room, it often comes down to this:

The more concrete the “Finished when” column, the less discussion there is at handover.

Weekly follow-up

Choose a fixed moment, for example Monday morning, and ask five questions per project:

1. Which tasks are past their deadline, and why?
2. Which tasks do not have a technician yet?
3. What must be finished this week, and are the materials there?
4. Is the work on site in the schedule, without clashing with the service interventions?
5. What is finished but not yet invoiced?

A deadline may move, as long as someone decides it and the customer knows.

Project tracking in Excel: where it pinches

For one project with two people, a spreadsheet is enough. When several projects run alongside the normal service work, it starts to pinch:

• The spreadsheet does not know the schedule. A technician is on the project list and also has three interventions that day. How to schedule projects and service on the same people is covered in scheduling technicians.
• The technician does not see their tasks on their mobile phone. They report “finished” by phone, or forget.
• The status depends on who last updated the file, and several versions circulate.
• The quote, the hours and the reports are in other files. Every question from the customer turns into a search.

And the job costing afterwards?

Job costing compares, after handover, what you sold with what the project really took: hours, materials, extra trips. It helps with your next quote, provided the hours are recorded per project. So agree how hours end up on a project, and compare with the quote when you close the project, per kind of project.

An example: a boiler room in an apartment building

The property manager (syndic) accepts the quote for the renovation of the boiler room. At the office, the confirmed order becomes a project, with the lead technician in charge and a planned start and end. The lead technician sets up the tasks: technical visit to measure the pipework, preparing materials, delivery, installation, test, explanation to the caretaker, final report and invoice. Each task gets a technician and a deadline.

On site, the technicians mark their tasks as finished in their app. On Monday morning, the office sees that the delivery is past its deadline and that the test does not have a technician yet. The planner calls the supplier and assigns the test before the team comes to a standstill.

How it works in Digitalnatie Service Suite

With the projects and tasks module, you track an installation as a single project.

• Creating a project: with its name, the customer, the site, the type of installation, the lead technician and the planned start and end dates, or directly from a confirmed sales order. From a project, you can also create a quote.
• Tasks: each task has a title, a type (including technical visit, preparing materials, delivery, installation, test, customer training, final report and invoicing), a priority, a technician, a deadline and a time. You can link an intervention to it.
• Progress: each project card shows the progress as a percentage, how many tasks are finished, the deadline, the hours and the team, alongside the upcoming deadlines.
• What needs attention: the task view counts the tasks that are late and the tasks without a technician. You view them as a list or as a Kanban board, and you can group them by project.
• In the app: the technician finds their tasks in the tasks menu and in their calendar. They start a task and then mark it as finished, offline too.
• The project status: draft, planned, in progress, completed or cancelled.

Good to know. Linking an intervention does not create an intervention and does not schedule one: you schedule the work on site in the schedule. There are no push notifications; a new task appears for the technician at the next refresh. A project’s budget is not tracked in the application: its box says that it is not linked. For your job costing, you filter the staff and hours screen by project and by activity, including project hours, and the day records show the intervention or the project on each line. You make the comparison with the quote yourself.

The administrator and the manager manage projects; the planner can also create and change tasks. Also read following up a quote and technician time tracking.

Frequently asked questions

What is project tracking?

Project tracking means checking regularly that each step of a project happens on time and in full: who does what, by when, and what is really finished. For an installation project, that means a list of tasks, each with one owner and a deadline, and a fixed moment each week to see what is late.

Can I do project tracking in Excel?

For one project with few people, yes. When several projects run alongside the service work, a spreadsheet lacks the link with the schedule and with the technicians’ app. The status is then only right as long as someone keeps it up to date.

How do I do the job costing for a project?

Record the hours and the materials per project and compare them with the quote after handover. In Service Suite, a project’s budget is not tracked: its box says that it is not linked. You filter the hours by project in the staff and hours screen; you make the comparison with the quote yourself.

Does the technician see their project tasks on their mobile phone?

Yes. An assigned task appears in the app, in the task list and in their calendar, with the project and the deadline. They start it and mark it as finished, even without a connection. There are no push notifications: a new task appears at the next refresh of the screen.

Can I create a project from an accepted quote?

Yes. When the customer accepts, you confirm the quote and it becomes a sales order. From that sales order, you create a project linked to the order. Conversely, you can create a quote from a project.