Daily duties: nothing slips through the cracks
Busy shops don't drop the ball on purpose. A long job eats the afternoon, a clash gets missed, and a customer is left waiting. So every hour CrewBarn checks twenty-four places where work slips, and puts each one on the list of whoever owns that part of the business.
The intro, in words
Nothing slips through the cracks
Busy shops don't drop the ball on purpose. A long job eats the afternoon, and a loose end waits all weekend.
This is daily duties in CrewBarn. Every hour it checks twenty-four places where work slips, and puts each one on the right person's list.
Setting it up: An owner and a backup for each area
Dana opens Responsibilities, then Who owns what. The office is split into six areas: jobs and dispatch, estimates, billing, the books, parts, and people.
For each one she picks an Owner, and a Backup for the days the owner is off. Kim owns jobs and dispatch. Dana owns billing, with Kim as her backup.
Under each area, it says who it lands on today. And an area the shop doesn't need can be switched off.
Setting it up: Every place work slips
Each area has its checks. Billing's are finished jobs not invoiced, draft invoices not sent, overdue invoices, cash still with a tech, and card sales not matched.
Each has a box to turn it off, and how long before it counts. Finished jobs not invoiced counts after one day. A sent estimate with no answer, after three.
Friday: The job is done. The invoice isn't.
Friday, ten past four. Sam finishes Mrs. Rivera's new water heater, she signs on his phone, and he taps Check out. The job is Complete.
Dana is on the phone with a supplier, and then it's the weekend. Nobody makes the invoice.
The weekend: The hourly check finds it
CrewBarn checks every hour, at five past. On Saturday, a little after four, the job has been Complete for a day with no invoice.
So the billing check finds it, and makes one to-do: Invoice job eleven eighty-eight, Rivera residence, thirteen hundred and eighty dollars.
Billing is Dana's, so it goes on Dana's list, due by the end of the day. Daily duty to-dos are never emailed, so nobody's weekend is buzzing.
The weekend: Then it lands on the backup
Now say Dana had approved time off that Saturday. The check sees she's off, and the to-do goes to Kim, her backup, instead.
If Kim were off too, it goes to the first person free in billing's usual roles, the office, then an admin, then the owner.
Monday: Overdue, and in plain sight
Monday morning. Dana opens Responsibilities. The Today board shows what's open, what's overdue, what got done today, and what cleared on its own.
By person, Dana has one overdue. And the Overdue list at the bottom names it: Invoice job eleven eighty-eight, two days overdue, with Dana's name on it.
Monday: Do the work, not the paperwork
Dana clicks the to-do, and it opens job eleven eighty-eight. She presses Invoice Job, and the job's lines become invoice ten forty-two.
She emails it to Mrs. Rivera. She doesn't go back to tick anything off.
Monday: The to-do closes itself
At five past nine, the check runs again. The job has its invoice now, so there's nothing to find, and the to-do comes off Dana's list on its own.
If she doesn't want to wait for the hour, Check now runs every check straight away, and says how many are new and how many were done on their own.
Other ways it goes: Ticking it off isn't doing it
Now say Dana had just ticked the to-do off on Monday, without making the invoice.
It stays off her list for now. But the job still has no invoice, so after twenty-four hours, the check puts it back.
Other ways it goes: When the job itself isn't done
Or say Sam's job hadn't been finished on its day at all. Then the jobs check finds it instead.
Kim gets: Finish or reschedule job eleven eighty-eight. And because the job has its own tech, Sam gets one too: Finish job eleven eighty-eight, or note why it isn't done.
When Sam checks out, or Kim moves it to another day, both to-dos close themselves.
What changed: Billed Monday, not next month
So the Rivera invoice went out first thing Monday, not whenever somebody noticed. Nobody had to remember it, and nobody had to chase anyone.
And it works the same way for a call nobody returned, an estimate with no answer, stock running low, or a time clock left running overnight.
The whole tree: Check-out to cleared
That's one loose end, start to finish: checked out, found by the hourly check, on the owner's list, overdue on the board, invoiced, and cleared on its own.
And every branch had an answer: the owner off, a to-do ticked off but not done, and a job not finished on its day.
Daily duties: Every loose end, on somebody's list
That's daily duties in CrewBarn.
CrewBarn is in beta, and free for life for trades that help test it.
An owner and a backup for each area
The office is split into six areas: jobs and dispatch, estimates, billing, the books, parts, and people. Each area has an owner, like the dispatcher, the office, billing or you, and a backup for the days the owner is off. If something has its own person, like a tech's unfinished job, it goes to them. Switch off any area your company doesn't need.
The twenty-four checks
Jobs and dispatch
- A job wasn't finished on its day: reschedule or close it.
- The same job on the tech's list: finish it or say why.
- Tomorrow's jobs with nobody on them.
- Customers waiting on an answer in their portal.
- Calls, voicemails and texts nobody has answered.
Estimates
- Sent estimates with no answer: follow up.
- Approved estimates not turned into a job.
- Parts found on visits that haven't been quoted.
Billing
- Finished jobs not invoiced.
- Draft invoices not sent.
- Overdue invoices: remind or call.
- Cash and checks still with a tech, or not taken to the bank.
- Card sales not matched to an invoice.
Books
- Bank transactions to match or categorize.
- Expenses waiting for approval, and reimbursements to pay.
- Vendor bills due soon.
- Last month not closed.
Parts
- Parts in the cart waiting to be ordered.
- Draft orders not sent to the supplier.
- Orders not received.
- Stock running low.
People
- Time off waiting for an answer.
- Time clocks still running from an earlier day.
- Last pay period not closed out.
Turn each check on or off, and set how long before it counts, like three days without an answer on an estimate.
To-dos that close themselves
Each thing a check finds becomes one to-do, on one person's list. When the work itself gets done, like the invoice is sent or the call is returned, the to-do comes off the list on its own. A to-do somebody ticked off doesn't come straight back. CrewBarn checks every hour on its own, and Check now runs it right away. Each person can set quiet hours and whether they get task emails.
The board
The Today board shows how much is open, how much is overdue, what got done today, and what cleared on its own. See each person, the areas they hold and how they're doing, and the oldest things past due with who has them.
And the late tech
Separately, CrewBarn watches every minute for a tech who may be late for their next job, and CBI calls the tech before the customer has to wonder.
How it works
- Pick an owner and a backup for each area.
- Turn on the checks you want and set their thresholds.
- Every hour, CrewBarn adds what it finds to the right person's list.
- Do the work. The to-do closes itself.
- Watch the Today board for anything overdue.