Ravi's Work Completion Log

Electricians come back at dusk and tap through the checks for the job they just finished, on the one phone at the counter, before Ravi writes the bill.

Who this is for

Ravi Pawar runs a hardware shop off the main market road in Nashik. Four electricians go out from his shutter every morning on two bikes. At about 6:40 in the evening three of them are back at once, standing at the counter with their bags, and Ravi is asking each one what he actually did at the Kulkarni flat before he can put anything on a bill.

How the job is done today

Ravi keeps a long register under the cash box. Each man tells him what he did and Ravi writes one line: Kulkarni, two fan points, one MCB. Some of it arrives in the shop WhatsApp group as a voice note at seven o'clock, some of it is never said at all. Three weeks later a customer rings to say the switchboard was never tested and nobody can show otherwise. At month end Ravi phones the men to ask how many junction boxes they used at which house, and they guess, and the guess goes on the invoice.

The screens, in order

1. Who is logging — Lets the man who just walked in tap his own name from a short list of the four electricians, with no password, because this phone belongs to the counter and not to him.
2. Which job — Shows the jobs that went out this morning so he picks the one he was on, or adds a house Ravi never wrote down.
3. The checks — Walks him through the checks for that kind of work, one at a time, so he answers each one instead of summarising the whole day in a sentence.
4. Proof — Takes a photo where a check needs one, such as the finished board or the meter reading, so a dispute later has something to look at.
5. Materials used — Records what he pulled off the shop shelf and what he bought outside, while he can still remember it.
6. Ready to bill — Gives Ravi the evening's finished jobs with their checks and photos in one place so he can write bills without asking anyone anything.
7. Edit the checks — Lets Ravi change the list of checks himself when the work changes, without ringing whoever built the app.

What it keeps track of

• Jobs — customer name, address, phone number, what work was asked for, which day, which electrician went, still open or finished
• Check lists — kind of work, the checks in the order they should be done, which of them need a photo
• Completed checks — which job, which check, done or failed or not needed, a short note, the photo if there is one, who answered it, at what time
• Workers — name, phone number, whether he still works here
• Materials — which job, what item, how many, taken from the shop or bought outside, what it cost

The one decision that matters

One job open on the phone at a time, or every man's half-done log waiting under his name. The tempting answer is one at a time, because a shared phone is simpler if only one entry can exist. But at 6:40 three men are at the counter and the second one will not stand there while the first tries to remember whether he tested the earth wire. Go with many half-done logs, each saved answer sticking the moment it is tapped, each one sitting under the name of the man who started it. He hands the phone on, gets it back in four minutes, taps his name and lands exactly where he stopped. Anything else and the men go back to telling Ravi out loud.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out invoicing and payment. Ravi already writes bills the way his customers expect and his accountant accepts, and a half-good billing screen will just mean the work gets logged twice. The log exists to make the bill correct, not to make the bill. Also leave out sending anything to the customer. Get the evening at the counter working first, because that is the only part that is currently broken.

How you would know it worked

A month goes by and Ravi has not once phoned an electrician the next morning to ask what he did at a house. And when the Kulkarni family disputes a charge, he opens the phone at the counter and shows them the photo of the board taken the day the work was done.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a hardware shop and I send four electricians out to jobs every day. Make me a phone app for the one phone that sits on my counter and gets shared by everybody. When a man comes back in the evening he taps his own name, picks the job he was on, and goes through the checks for that kind of work one by one, marking each as done or failed with a short note, and taking a photo where the check needs proof. He should also record what material he used from my shelf. If he hands the phone to the next man halfway through, his half-finished log must still be sitting there under his name when he gets it back. No passwords, everyone uses this same phone. At the end of the day I want one screen showing me the finished jobs with their checks and photos so I can write bills from it, and I want to be able to change the list of checks myself when the work changes.