How To Prepare for an OSHA Safety Inspection

How To Prepare for an OSHA Safety Inspection

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Plenty of owners of small- and medium-sized businesses find the prospect of having an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection scary, especially since the agency is now inspecting businesses from bakeries and liquor stores, to construction companies, tire stores, and performing arts companies.

But you can be ready for OSHA.

Knowing what to expect, and using some easy-to-use technology, can help even small- and medium-sized businesses without large safety budgets feel like they are equipped if OSHA comes calling. This article will cover four steps you can take to prepare for OSHA inspections, and avoid fines and violations.

  1. Understand OSHA’s inspection priorities and most-cited hazards
  2. Develop safety checklists unique to your business
  3. Put an OSHA inspection plan in place
  4. Know what to do on inspection day — and after

OSHA inspection planning is critical for almost every type of business. Continue reading this article for our guide to OSHA Safety Inspections.

While OSHA doesn’t break down its more than 70,000 or so annual inspections by industry, it does offer a list of its top 10 most-cited violations. Think of these as “trouble spots” you should concentrate on addressing. In 2020, these were the top 10 most frequently cited standards by OSHA. 

  1.     Fall Protection—General Requirements (§1926.501): 5,424 violations
  2.     Hazard Communication (§1910.1200): 3,199 violations
  3.     Respiratory Protection (§1910.134): 2,649 violations
  4.     Scaffolding (§1926.451): 2,538 violations
  5.     Ladders (§1926.1053): 2,129 violations
  6.     Lockout/Tagout (§1910.147): 2,065 violations
  7.     Powered Industrial Trucks (§1910.178): 1,932 violations
  8.     Fall Protection—Training Requirements (§1926.503): 1,621 violations
  9.     Personal Protective and Life Saving Equipment—Eye and Face Protection (§1926.102): 1,369 violations
  10.     Machine Guarding (§1910.212): 1,313 violations

Three out of the top 10 most-cited violations — fall protection, scaffolding, and ladders — involve construction standards. Not surprisingly, the construction industry remains among the industries most frequently inspected by OSHA.

The agency can’t possibly inspect all 7 million workplaces that it covers. Here is how OSHA decides where to go:

  • Referrals or tips. Hazard information reported by government agencies, nonprofits, the media, and individuals often prompts an investigation.
  • Employee Complaints. Employees can request anonymity when filing complaints and such allegations often warrant OSHA follow-up.
  • Follow ups. OSHA frequently conducts follow-up inspections to previous visits, so stay prepared.

OSHA may have issued you a “checklist” when you opened your business, but that’s just a starting place.

That’s because the agency’s inspectors additionally develop their own policies for specific industries via the “General Duty” clause. They can then use it to cite workplaces for violations of regulations that aren’t written down. And they do it. It’s clear that as a business owner, you can’t simply follow OSHA’s safety checklist and take a nap.

You’re responsible for creating and maintaining your own safety checklists and procedures specific to your industry and workplace – and then for keeping those checklists up-to-date and following them.

  • Start with what OSHA delivered to you
  • Take a look at the most cited violations list
  • Inspect your workplace to find any other potential violations that might likely occur
  • Create more than one checklist – one for the front office, and other for the primary worksite itself

Then get employees from each area to take turns checking for and recording any hazards they encounter on a regular basis – some items only monthly, others every day. (You’ll want to develop safety inspection calendars to guide inspection efforts in each area.)

Now, this is where mobile application technology comes in.Moving from paper checklists to mobile apps, which can be customized to your company’s unique and varying needs, can make your OSHA compliance efforts much easier and more effective.With mobile checklists, you:

  • Enter data in real time and that data is not only stored in the cloud, but can be immediately shared with a supervisor or manager, minimizing response times
  • Create a variety of inspection checklists for various tasks and sites – all accessible from a smartphone or tablet
  • Update your mobile apps as OSHA guidelines evolve and change to reflect changes and immediately deploy the information across your organization
  • Your mobile checklists are not only more flexible than the paper versions, ensuring that your business is in compliance with the latest regulations, but employees will never again have to drag around a big binder while doing a self-inspection or making copies of paper checklists.

Mobile data will also offer insight into:

  • What are your common problem areas?
  • Which of your safety procedures are redundant?
  • Which employees are completing safety checks regularly?
  • Which team members are wearing the proper protective clothing and equipment?
  • Which employees are safety leaders? Safety violators?

Now that you’ve made your checklists and safety self-inspection calendars, you have to prepare for the inevitable:the day an OSHA inspector shows up. What happens and what do you really need to be ready for?

First, you need to put together a day-of-inspection plan. Doing so will give you some control over the OSHA inspection, make a good impression on the inspector, and – most importantly – result in fewer violations. Assemble an inspection team, including:

  • Representative from management. A member of senior management or your dedicated safety officer. He or she is charged with recording everything that happens, making decisions about where and what the inspector can observe, and answering questions.
  • Photographer. Always photograph everything the OSHA inspector photographs.
  • Document controller. To have access to all the documents the inspector might request. This is where mobile form apps are extremely useful. Your document controller will be able to access everything he or she needs with a few swipes of a tablet.
 

Due to changing priorities and regulations, OSHA may shift its focus to any business or industry at any time. It’s important to prepare your team in advance and here are a few tips:

  • Practice Interview Questions. Prep your team for likely employee interviews and understand your rights. They should answer questions specifically and truthfully, but not volunteer any additional information.
  • Hold Surprise Inspections. Try to make these mock inspections as true to an OSHA inspection as you can. Get pushy: For instance, “demand” documents that your team members aren’t supposed to give up.
  • Create Mobile Checklists in Advance. Use mobile checklists to help you prepare for OSHA inspection day. Besides self-inspection checklists, mobile apps can help you create your inspection plan, manage “surprise” inspections, and organize all those regulatory documents.

Make sure you understand what rights your team has if the OSHA inspector arrives and be sure to test your team’s knowledge in advance.

No matter how well you prepare, OSHA might find something that you need to correct. But with proper preparation, you’ll be much less likely to be cited for serious violations. Most importantly, you’ll have a strong system in place to keep your employees safe and free from workplace hazards.

By tapping into the power of mobile apps and cloud-based technology, you can ensure that your business is more than ready to welcome OSHA inspectors when they come calling.

By using mobile apps to create safety checklists, analyze your business’ safety program and trouble spots, and implement corrective action, you’ll avoid injuries and safety violations — keeping you off OSHA’s radar in the first place.

GoCanvas has a wide variety of OSHA mobile apps that can help make your business safer. Get in touch to find out how cloud-based data collection can take your OSHA compliance efforts to an entirely new level.

GoCanvas has a wide variety of OSHA mobile apps that can help make your business safer. Get in touch to find out how cloud-based data collection can take your OSHA compliance efforts to an entirely new level. 

Easy-to-use software. Creating checklists to inspect and regularly record hazards and correct them can keep you clear of fines. Making those checklists mobile keeps data at hand and accurate.

Accessible documentation. Mobile apps ensure that the appropriate people have access to important documents in real time and employees know their roles in case of an audit.

Improve safety compliance. In the majority of cases, OSHA’s inspections are not announced in advance. You have to be prepared at all times and mobile apps like GoCanvas can help to ensure compliance and lower your risk.

Sign up for your free trial of GoCanvas today or contact our team to learn more about GoCanvas for Safety Compliance.

3 Key Benefits of Software for Mobile Forms

Still not sure about moving to software for capturing form data? Here are some of the key outcomes companies have seen when implementing software platforms for mobile data:

  • Increase Productivity. Mobile forms can improve annual productivity by 28% and show an ROI in 6 months.
  • Cost Savings. A company can lose hundreds of hours in manual data entry. Mobile forms save an average of $40,000 in year one.
  • Lowered Risk. Companies that implemented mobile form software report that they have reduced their risk and liability by 18%

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

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What is HAZOP Analysis?

Reducing workplace hazards as much as possible ensures the health and well-being of your employees, and also prevents the costly repairs, lawsuits, and lost reputation that can come from a safety-related incident. One of the key methods of proactive hazard control is Process Hazard Analysis (PHA). In fact, OSHA finds PHA to be such an important step that it’s required as part of their standards. This article covers one of the components of PHA, Hazard & Operability Analysis (HAZOP) and digital templates you can use for your organization.

Identifying risks means taking a systematic look at the way processes and operations work – both the way they are intended to work and the ways in which they work in practice. A Hazard & Operability Analysis is one way of doing that. During a HAZOP study, your team will break down the process or operation into smaller segments and examine each one for potential hazards. 

The goal of a HAZOP is to discover design and engineering issues that may lead to hazards. These issues are often overlooked during an initial design phase because everything is assumed to go according to plan. By bringing in a multi-disciplinary team, a broader view of the process can be had. Unintended ways in which the process or operation may be performed can be found, and any hidden hazards discovered before they have a chance to cause a catastrophe. 

To understand the concept better, let’s take a look at a simple example. Imagine you have some complex process. Your HAZOP team has broken that process down into many tiny portions, called nodes. Imagine further that one of those nodes involves pumping coolant from a storage tank to a piece of machinery. The team would then identify all the ways in which this process may go wrong. For example:

  • Perhaps the pump stops pumping. What hazards does an overheating machine cause?
  • Maybe the pipe carrying the coolant bursts. Will the escaping coolant burn someone?

These types of questions are asked and answered about every aspect, or node, of the process.

Picking the right people for a HAZOP team is extremely important. In fact, if you pick the wrong people, you may be better off doing no HAZOP analysis at all. The purpose of a HAZOP study is to provide your staff with peace of mind regarding the safety of the process and operations they engage in. Further, HAZOP analysis provides the groundwork for preparing employees for dealing with the potential hazards that are discovered. If the staff performing the HAZOP is incomplete, or isn’t qualified, then everyone will be ill-prepared for potential hazards and have a false sense of security while on the job.

Therefore, it’s important that the team you assemble to conduct a HAZOP study is well-qualified in their particular area of expertise. However, it’s equally important that you bring in people from a variety of disciplines. The strength of a HAZOP study comes from being able to view the process outside of the bounds in which it was designed. This requires as many perspectives as possible. 

Once you’ve assembled your team and determined which process or operation they’ll be conducting their HAZOP study on, the process itself is straightforward and highly systematic. The team should conduct their study by following the six steps listed below:

Each part of the system should be broken down into the smallest possible component. Each of these components, or nodes, should then be examined individually. Performing the study in this way ensures that all aspects of the system will get a thorough review.

Guide words are the heart of a HAZOP study. For each of the guide words listed below, think of how it may apply to the node of the process being studied. In order to do this effectively, the parameters of the node should be determined and compared to the list of guide words. Custom guide words may be developed as the team sees fit.

  • No or not – Something is not happening that should be.
  • More – There is more of something than there should be.
  • Less – There is less of something than there should be.
  • As well as – Something else is happening in addition to the intended design: Oil as well as impurities.
  • Part of – Only part of the process is operating as expected.
  • Reverse – A process is behaving opposite of what is expected.
  • Other than – A substitution has occurred: Something other than oil in the system.
  • Early – A part of the process arrives or finishes early.
  • Late – A part of the process arrives or finishes late.
  • Before – A part of the process arrives or finishes before another one.
  • After – A part of the process arrives or finishes after another one.

By applying the guide words to all of the parameters of a node of operations, your team will have identified the ways the parameters may be off. Now, they must brainstorm to determine all of the conditions that could lead to these parameters behaving incorrectly. By doing so, they’ll have identified many of the ways that hazards can develop. 

For each of the causes in the previous step, the team should figure out what the consequences of those causes are. This is an important part of determining exactly what safety hazards are presented by the problems. 

For any consequence that presents a safety hazard, the team should determine a list of safeguards that can help prevent that hazard from occurring. Additionally, they should come up with a procedure for dealing with those consequences should preventing them not work. 

Finally, the team should assemble a list of safety recommendations based on the safeguards and mitigation procedures that they developed in the last step. This will give management the tools they need to make informed decisions about what changes need to be made to the processes, operations, and training surrounding them. 

Using paper forms is time-consuming, error prone, and makes it difficult to quickly distribute the results to everyone who needs them. Companies are going digital with their operations, leveraging tools like GoCanvas Safety  that is built to meet the complex needs of hazard management. Data entered into the mobile app becomes immediately available and can be presented in an easy-to-understand dashboard. The software allows you to examine key metrics from the data to determine trends and gain insights that will let you find and address hazards more quickly. By digitizing your safety management programs, you help ensure that your business stays compliant with rules and regulations in your industry.

Built-in to GoCanvas Safety is a set of templates that will make your hazard identification studies more streamlined and thorough than ever before. This includes not only templates for HAZOP, but for a wide range of hazard identification use cases. These tools and templates make specialized hazard and safety software a must-have for any operation that wants to maximize its hazard-reduction efforts.  Follow this link to access the HAZOP form template and get started today with a free trial of GoCanvas to see how it works.

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

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Investing in Mobile Form Builders: How to Calculate the ROI

Investing in Mobile Form Builders: How to Calculate the ROI

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If you are thinking about investing in a , it’s important to understand what that means for your business and the potential return on investment (ROI). Form builders help field service companies to digitize their processes and improve workflows between the field and office. Simple, yet powerful software built for the field can become your competitive advantage, with a digital experience for customers and tools to improve productivity for your employees. This article will cover some of the types of questions to ask yourself to understand the potential ROI that can be achieved through direct cost savings, productivity gains, and much more. You can also access our free ROI calculator here, that shows you the impact of GoCanvas on key business outcomes.

While calculating return on investment is a fairly simple calculation, there can be some nuance to understand the different ways software impacts your business outcomes. The basic concept of ROI calculations is to understand the cost savings or revenue growth achieved when implementing software, minus the cost of the initial investment. The difference is your return on investment and it helps provide justification for the time, effort, and money spent on building out these business processes. With most form builders and field service management software, there is a clear return on investment in the form of cost savings, productivity gains, and competitive advantage by going digital over paper. While each business is unique, here are some helpful questions and categories to consider:

Starting with the number of employees you have is important for understanding your ROI calculation. For example, if you only have two employees that are managing your operations, the calculation will be very different than if you have one hundred employees. As a company scales its growth, it becomes a larger impact to implement form builders and software built for the field to help eliminate manual processes. Manual processes on a smaller scale are manageable, but become increasingly difficult as your business grows.

It’s often overlooked, but the direct cost of paper can be more than you think. You should consider things like how many paper forms are filled out by employees each day and what are the costs per form. This will allow you to calculate the direct cost of paper spent on a daily basis, so you can get a true cost of your paper processes. GoCanvas is often priced below what a typical company spends on buying paper forms, not to mention the impact that office paper has on the environment.

Do your employees spend time traveling between the field and office to manage paperwork? If so, then you could be losing valuable employee time that can add up into a significant cost to your business. To calculate the total daily cost of form delivery, you can multiply the number of hours per day spent delivering forms by the average hourly wage for a field technician. Form delivery is often one of the most expensive components of paperwork and manual processes. Going digital allows employees to upload their documentation instantly to the cloud, giving real-time visibility into operations and reducing the need for travel time.

Another cost that is often overlooked and difficult to calculate is the time employees spend in the office to manage paperwork and perform manual data entry. To calculate the total daily cost of manual data entry, you can multiply the hourly pay of office administrators by the number of hours per day employees spend  entering paperwork into your back office or accessing paper based forms.

By pushing data collected from field service management software to your other back office software tools, you can eliminate these very manual processes of data entry and paper form collection. Don’t forget the cost of hard to read paperwork, or even having to pull that paperwork afterwards to confirm information. Rework is often another culprit when it comes to dealing with manual processes that are a drain on productivity.

Form builders like GoCanvas can help you to eliminate the time spent tracking down missing or incomplete information and trying to decipher handwritten data and information. Understanding the daily cost of fixing errors and tracking down information is an important consideration. Be sure to ask yourself how many hours a day are spent by your data entry specialist tracking down info and/or fixing errors. While this may be hard to calculate, having an estimate is a useful measure for understanding how employees on average are spending their time fixing problematic paperwork.

Form builders like GoCanvas will save you a large percentage of the time spent doing manual calculations and looking up data that would normally have been in paper-based customer lists, product catalogs and price lists. Be sure to calculate how many hours per day are spent by each of your mobile workers looking up information. For examples this could be in Parts Catalogs, Patient Files, Price Books, Tax Lists, Delivery Schedules, and more. This will allow you to better understand the total daily time savings by switching from paper forms to a digital form builder like GoCanvas.

GoCanvas will save you a large percentage of the time spent doing manual calculations and looking up data that would normally have been in paper-based customer lists, product catalogs and price lists.

Many businesses that lose important documents like work orders and invoices have to write these costs off. Software can help you to eliminate this issue and helps you recoup this lost revenue. For example, how much business do you write off because of lost, damaged or illegible paperwork each week? While this may be harder for you to calculate, having an estimate of the write-offs that happen while on the job can help you get an idea of lost opportunities that can be avoided with better processes.

In addition to helping organizations recoup lost revenue and save time, tools like GoCanvas enable businesses to realize a variety of soft savings that may or may not be able to be directly measured, but can be extremely valuable. Here are some key considerations:

  • Are efforts to improve your company’s going green initiatives important to you and your company?
  • Is the ability to access real time data from the field important to you or your company?
  • Field service software does the math for your workers, eliminating errors. Is this important to you and your company?
  • Technology can collect information not possible on paper (e.g., the actual time of events, GPS locations, photos, payment capture) and give you advanced functionality to Dispatch forms to employees and improve collaboration. Are these features important to you and your company? 

Now that you have an understanding of what factors go into calculating the business impact of software built for the field, be sure to fill out our free online calculator to see the potential ROI of GoCanvas. You can also reach out to our team at any time and we can walk you through the ways GoCanvas can make an impact for your business growth.

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

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Top Checklist Apps for the Construction Industry

Top Checklist Apps for the Construction Industry

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Embracing technology is one opportunity for contractors in the construction industry to increase their productivity and streamline operations. Construction project management software is one category of software solution that can be deployed on job sites to manage how work gets done. This article covers some of the top construction checklist apps in the construction industry, with links to examples and templates you can access on the GoCanvas site. We will also share some of the key benefits for using construction checklist apps and the top use cases within the construction industry.

Historically, companies used paper forms as the primary mode of collecting data, but more firms are beginning to move away from paper-based processes. Companies are now switching to digital apps that can simplify the process for everyone involved and eliminate the headaches of using paper forms. Bringing the process into the digital world is beneficial to organizations in a number of different ways. Here are some of the key benefits:

Construction apps help to streamline work between the field and the office. Eliminating paper forms helps to reduce the time spent on manual and error prone processes that can waste time and decrease productivity for everyone involved. All data can be easily captured using a mobile device or tablet, without requiring an internet connection. Digital construction apps transform how teams work, both in the field and in the office, with a suite of tools designed to improve and manage workflows.

 

Digital construction apps for contractors help to ensure that data is consistent and accurate every time, with standardized fields for collecting information and best practices for data capture. Businesses also need greater visibility into their operations in real-time. Digital construction apps allow you to track issues in the field and have a quick turnaround time if another action needs to be taken, like scheduling further maintenance or repairs, for example. Construction apps for contractors promote best practices for data capture in the field and allow companies to easily roll up and summarize information for reporting.

There are many types of construction checklist apps available for job sites today. These can help with safety, quality, project management, and much more. Here are some of the top use cases to consider:

Safety and Risk Management. Checklist apps are useful for converting your paper forms into digital safety programs. Perform inspections, report incidents, assign toolbox talks, perform safety audits, and much more. Digital tools help you to assign and manage your safety programs, helping to formalize these programs and minimize your risk.

Quality Control. Construction checklist apps are widely used to ensure that quality standards are met. Quality control inspection checklists can be utilized during all phases of construction projects, and PDF reports can be generated automatically for key project stakeholders. Managing quality control checklists using construction management software can help your business avoid rework and delays. Construction checklist apps ensure this work is completed and can be monitored using dashboards and analytics.

Equipment Inspections. Routine equipment inspections are another popular use case for checklist app software. Preventative maintenance and equipment inspections can be performed from a mobile device or tablet, bringing this information directly to the cloud. Companies have found that real-time insights into field operations can help them become more proactive and address problems before they lead to larger issues for the project. Construction apps enable data analytics and help to make your data actionable.

Project Management. Checklist apps are commonly used by project managers to ensure that processes are being followed on every job site. Common checklists like pre-project and project close out checklists help to keep work organized and provide a digital way to manage workflows.

There are many types of construction checklist apps available for job sites today. These can help with safety, quality, project management, and much more. We have compiled a list of the top construction checklist apps used in the construction industry. 

GoCanvas provides a central platform to manage all of your job site operations.  Follow the links to access the construction checklist apps on the GoCanvas App Store and sign up for a free trial to see all of our digital checklist apps for contractors.

This worker safety app also helps ensure that all construction work employees comply with OSHA standards in order to reduce workplace injuries and increase overall standards for workplace safety.

The safety data sheet app enables employers to develop a hazard management program of occupational safety measures, including training, which is specific to the individual workplace, and to consider any measures that may be necessary to protect the health and safety of the work area.

Construction equipment operators and others who are responsible for preventive maintenance and equipment safety can use the electronic inspection form to perform complete equipment safety reports from anywhere in the field.

Personal protective equipment must be used and worn in many work situations in order to protect employees from harm and potential hazards. Use this convenient construction checklist to make sure that occupational safety guidelines are being enforced to ensure the safety of your employees.

The electrical work inspection app for employee safety provides an electronic self-inspection checklist that covers all aspects of electrical installations, including personal protective equipment, circuit breaker safety and electrical cords. 

Contractors, subcontractors and construction project managers can use the construction app to complete a new construction quality control inspection. The app inspects the pre-start phase, foundation phase of construction, rough phase, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, pre-finish phase, and finish phase.

This checklist includes a building inspection checklist and tracks all aspects of a building including exterior, heating systems, electrical systems, housekeeping, fire safety, evacuation plans, and other miscellaneous areas ensuring compliance with building codes.

This checklist helps track all the necessary steps to complete before submitting new construction estimates. Capture all the details of different construction projects, including listing the preferred vendors, permits required, material prices and more. Use the information to create the final estimated cost for new construction contracts.

The startup checklist app is a smart alternative to project management software and paper forms at the job site. The construction project plan checklist covers everything from defining the scope of work at the job site, to developing the construction project plan and timeline. Once completed, the general contractor, management and other stakeholders can sign off on the project requirements electronically to ensure that all quality standards are met.

This helpful checklist is designed to help construction management teams and independent contractors. Use the construction checklist to make sure that all details are covered when handing off project work for quality assurance purposes, and that requirements from the general contractor and project managers have been met.

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

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Home Inspection Checklists – Examples and Templates

Home Inspection Checklists – Examples and Templates

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Inspection companies are moving toward digital apps rather than using traditional paper forms. By going digital, inspections can be completed from a mobile device or tablet, so information is instantly available in a PDF report. For home inspections, going digital allows you to have all of the necessary forms available within an app for inspectors to use from anywhere. These can be run without an internet connection, giving your business the ability to digitize information from remote locations. Here are some of the main benefits of going digital:

Paper forms are notorious for becoming lost or misplaced over time. This can cause issues for a business when information is unavailable and it can create rework to fix the problems. Handwritten paper work is also known to contain mispellings, have incomplete sections, or other types of data entry mistakes. While paper work can be difficult to manage, digitizing this information solves many of these problems. Data becomes standardized, accurate, complete, and easy to access from the cloud.

One common challenge with paper forms for inspections is the process of taking the paper work and turning it into the final report to share with clients and stakeholders. This process can be manual and time-consuming, requiring employees to dedicate their time on work that can be automated. Going digital with inspection apps allows you to generate the reports in near real-time. Share PDF reports instantly with clients and cut down on the time it takes to complete the reporting process.

Having a centralized system for capturing, storing, and managing your data is a key benefit of going digital with home inspection checklists. You can manage all of your core business documentation from a single platform for field operations. Continue reading this article for examples of specific home inspection checklists using the GoCanvas platform for mobile forms and apps. You can follow the links to view the checklists and sign up for a free trial to see the inspection checklist templates in our PDF designer. GoCanvas has thousands of pre-built templates for all different inspection types and you can easily customize the forms to fit your unique business needs.

This app is designed as a comprehensive tool for inspection companies to use when performing home inspections during real estate transactions. Each checklist can be quickly and easily accessed from a smartphone or tablet for follow-up, or can be generated into a PDF inspection report and submitted to real estate agents, the homeowner, or other appropriate parties. 

This mobile app replaces paper inspection forms that are used to inspect areas of electrical installations prior to installing insulation, sheet rock, paneling and other materials that cover wiring. The perfect tool for electrical inspectors, building code enforcement teams and others who deal with electrical safety and electrical wiring at job sites, this electrical inspection form is easily accessible from any smartphone or tablet and can be customized to meet different building codes and electrical safety regulations.

Contractors and housing developers can use the new home water inspection app to ensure that a new home has been constructed to meet water conservation standards and regulations. Using a mobile app allows you to automatically generate PDF reports for clients and streamline the inspection process.

With the energy usage app, inspectors can perform energy audits quickly and easily right from their smartphone or tablet, making it easy to recommend cost effective energy conservation solutions. The comprehensive energy usage audit app covers a variety of audit data items that can affect energy consumption in the home, including the water heater, insulation type, number of windows and doors and number of floors. 

The Home Sewer Inspection Checklist is designed for plumbers, inspectors, and the Do It Yourself (DIY) individual who want to inspect their home sewer. This app includes inspection criteria as well as possible recommendation bases in the findings.

The mold inspection app covers indoor mold growth testing, monitoring indoor air quality, checking for excess moisture and water damage and signs of existing indoor mold spores and more. Once the professional mold inspection has been completed, the mold inspector can save the results electronically for their records.

The Radon Mitigation System Inspection Report mobile app is used for performing detailed examinations for inspection reports. The app is designed to be used by inspectors as a reference when conducting an assessment on a radon mitigation system.

Use this pool report to inspect the area for swimming pool safety hazard issues, safety certificates, diving board depth, pool safety barriers, storage of pool equipment, drain covers, leak detection, lighting system, and electrical equipment. The pool inspector can add notes about the pool structure, water chemistry, equipment and other notes as needed.

Using this checklist helps ensure that all areas of the chimney are in good repair and that the fireplace and chimney inspection checklist identifies any defects that need repair. If you provide fireplace inspections, professional chimney sweeping services, chimney cleaning, chimney restoration, chimney flue inspection services, chimney repair, or a variety of other chimney services, then this chimney inspection form is the app for you. 

The Wood Destroying Insect Inspection mobile app was designed for pest control company inspections. The app can be used for all types of wood destroying insects, including carpenter ants, termites, carpenter bees and beetles. Once completed, the pest control company can save the results for their records.

GoCanvas is a mobile platform that makes it simple for businesses to automate how work is done, replacing outdated processes and expensive paperwork. The GoCanvas App works on smartphones and tablets, helping companies easily collect information across their organization, share it instantly with others, and gain real-time insight on their business operations. GoCanvas can be easily customized by any type of business to empower their workforce, unleashing the value in data across the organization to help them connect better with colleagues and engage more effectively with customers.

GoCanvas is trusted by thousands of organizations throughout 70 countries, automating millions of workplace activities, making it one of the fastest growing mobile platforms in the world.

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

Check out even more resources

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Top 4 Workplace Safety Apps

There are many great reasons to invest in workplace safety apps. Digital technology for safety can help modernize your operations and provide greater insight into safety issues and patterns. 

A digital workplace safety management program will lead to better overall outcomes for your business. Apps help to keep workers safe and productive, ultimately lowering risk for your business and ensuring safety compliance. This article highlights the top workplace safety apps to roll out in your workplace.

Employee health screening apps have become standard for businesses during the pandemic. This category of safety apps has been particularly useful in industries like retail, construction, manufacturing, and similar types of businesses that have needed to operate in-person.

The purpose of the technology is simple. It helps to screen employees daily to record their temperature, symptoms, and potential exposure to the virus. 

Key features include:

  • Alerts based on thresholds like high temperatures or symptoms
  • Photo capture (or manual entry) for thermometer readings
  • Required signatures
  • GPS location capture
  • Symptom tracker
  • Secure cloud storage
  • Online and offline data collection
  • Pre-populated info like employee names and badge numbers
  • Screening dashboard showing near real-time results
  • Employee health screening advice and resources
  • Vaccination Log
  • HIPPA Compliant to protect sensitive information

When workers are exposed to coronavirus, it can create delays and cause downtime or lost productivity. Minimize these risks by deploying simple health screening apps that can protect your business and your customers. With real-time reporting, you can hear about potential risks as soon as they are reported to minimize further exposure.

You can learn more about employee health screening apps by following this link.

 

Safety culture is a top priority for the construction industry and field crews. This category of safety apps is designed to digitize safety meeting content, so employees can watch videos and complete forms on their mobile devices.

Safety meetings, sometimes referred to as toolbox talks, can cover a wide range of topics. Apps can be used to formalize these programs and measure employee engagement with the meetings.

Key features include:

  • Workflow tools to manage and assign meetings
  • Toolbox talks available to complete from any mobile device
  • Digital signatures to record compliance
  • Real-time reporting on safety meeting attendance across job sites
  • Alerts to identify non-compliance
  • Program results stored in the cloud
  • Online or offline capabilities
  • Pre-built templates with hundreds of existing toolbox talks to choose from

When toolbox talks are run using a safety meeting app, it gives your employees an easy way to access critical safety information. Since safety meeting apps are digital, it gives your business an easy way to track and report on safety program data like meeting attendance and incidents. 

You can learn more about safety meeting apps by following this link.

Incident and accident reporting is a requirement set by OSHA. Safety apps can be used on job sites to provide the required forms to complete in case of an accident or near miss. By going digital with these forms, it ensures proper reporting procedures are followed and apps provide an instant way of reporting accidents through the proper channels.

Key features include:

  • Customizable mobile forms 
  • Required form fields to ensure data accuracy
  • Easily capture images, GPS stamps, and sketches of the actual site of the accident
  • Central cloud-based system for reporting and documentation
  • Access and share PDF files via email to stakeholders
  • Dashboards and reporting to analyze safety incidents across job sites
  • Pre-built templates for OSHA forms 300, 300A, 301, and more
  • HIPPA Compliant to protect sensitive information

Going digital with incident and accident reporting is a great alternative to using pen and paper. While paper forms can be easily lost or misplaced, digital apps and forms ensure that data is never lost and is shared in real-time with anyone that needs it.

Learn more about Incident and Accident Reporting apps by following this link.

Routine safety inspections are designed to audit and assess job sites. Safety apps can be used for safety inspections, using digital checklists and mobile forms. This type of app helps to streamline workflows by managing and assigning safety inspections in the field. Some common safety inspection apps include job safety analysis, PPE checklists, equipment inspections and more.

Key features include:

  • Easy-to-use digital checklists and image capture
  • Barcode scanning for equipment 
  • Digital signatures and GPS tracking to ensure locations
  • Dynamic form fields for faster data collection 
  • Data integrations to pre-populate any known fields
  • Pre-built and customizable templates based on use case

Using apps for safety inspections is a time-saver for inspectors in the field, making it faster to complete forms and eliminating the need to deal with manual-processes with paperwork. Apps also help operations teams to manage and assign work in the field, with instant reporting back to the office once work has been performed. 

Learn more about all of the types of safety inspection apps by following this link.

GoCanvas is a mobile platform that makes it simple for businesses to automate how work is done, replacing outdated processes and expensive paperwork. The GoCanvas App works on smartphones and tablets, helping companies easily collect information across their organization, share it instantly with others, and gain real-time insight into their business. Construction firms rely on GoCanvas to increase productivity, promote workplace safety, and create a competitive advantage. You can learn more about all of our safety management software solutions and forms here on our website.

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

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Timesheet Forms: Why Going Digital is Better than Paper

Timesheet Forms: Why Going Digital is Better than Paper

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Timesheet forms are commonly built out using simple tools like Microsoft Word or PDF files that are printed out on paper for employees to record their hours worked. While this may seem like a simple solution for timekeeping, there are several key drawbacks that make paper timesheet forms less desirable for business operations. Continue reading for the top reasons to digitize your timesheet forms, rather than using paper time cards and sheets in Microsoft Word Documents or PDF files. 

Digital timesheet forms can be used as an alternative to paper forms and provide an option for employees to fill them out on a mobile device, PC, or tablet from anywhere with no internet connection required. Keep reading to learn the key difference between paper and digital forms for timesheet cards.

Timesheet forms using paper are known to be error prone. A common scenario is for employees to fill out their hours on a paper form, but then an error is discovered later by an office manager or administrator. In the worst case scenario, errors can lead to improper payments to employees or incorrect billing amounts to clients. Even if errors are identified early on, the best case scenario is that employees have to track down employees and spend the extra time and effort to correct these mistakes. In either case, errors can be costly for productivity and can lead to accounting mistakes that you do not want to happen as a business owner or manager. 

What causes errors to happen on timesheet forms?

There are many things that can go wrong with a timesheet form that is filled out by hand using paper. Here are some of the most common mistakes made by employees:

  • Calculation errors. Mistakes that happen when math is incorrect or numbers are filled out incorrectly.
  • Missing or incorrect fields. Many times employers need to require information in a timecard, like category of work performed or client to bill. If information is missing or incorrect, it creates additional work to track down and correct.
  • Buddy punching. While most mistakes on timesheets are purely accidental, buddy punching is a form of misleading hours worked. This most often happens when employees clock in or out early to cover for fellow team members, creating errors in the true number of hours worked.
  •  

How do digital timesheet forms reduce errors?

No matter the cause of errors on timesheets, it’s important to limit these issues to ensure that proper data is being used for accounting purposes. Here is how digital timesheets help to ensure errors are avoided:

  • Automatic calculations. With digital timesheet forms, the software system is able to handle automatic calculations that ensure hours worked and labor rates are calculated correctly every time.
  • Standardized fields. With digital time card forms, data is collected in a standardized way to ensure that fields are correctly filled out by employees. Drop down lists, required fields, and other features allow you to control what data is collected and ensure accurate timesheets the first time.
  • Unique login and digital signatures. With a unique login to digital timesheets, you ensure that employees are clocking in their time accurately and signing off with their own digital signature to send for manager approval. Some timecards can even use GPS tracking on the mobile device for an added measure that work has been performed on site for a set number of hours and logged digitally using GPS.

At the end of the day, technology provides many benefits for employers and timesheets performed digitally are less error-prone compared to paper forms for time cards.

It’s very difficult to keep track of paperwork over time. It’s common for paperwork to be lost entirely or misplaced by staff. Even if paperwork isn’t lost, it can become an added cost to store in filing cabinets, on top of the direct cost of printing the paper in the first place. Although paperwork seems to be a low cost solution, the hidden costs over time can be quite high for a business. Lost paper timesheet forms can be a headache to manage, whereas digital forms simplify the process and bring information automatically to the cloud.

Here’s how digital timesheet forms ensure information is never lost:

  • Cloud storage. Digital timesheets are automatically saved to the cloud, meaning your employees can input hours from a mobile app and have it available in real-time to the cloud.
  • No internet connection required. Many businesses today that have contract or hourly workers are doing jobs out in the field or in remote locations. Digital forms do not require an internet connection, allowing employees to input their data into the app and have it sync whenever they are back on WiFi or cell service becomes available.
  • Automated data sharing. Data can be synced with other apps your business uses like Dropbox, Google Drive, Quickbooks, and much more. This ensures data is accessible in all of the tools you already use today and automatically synced to reduce manual work.

Paper timesheet forms create manual work, whether that happens because of an error or due to manual data entry that is required to get accounting or billing processed. Going digital helps to streamline the timesheet process, both for employees and operation teams. Contact the GoCanvas team to learn more about digital timesheet forms or sign up for a free trial to see how easy it is to digitize your forms.

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

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What is the Best Software to Create Forms?

What is the Best Software to Create Forms?

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There are many software solutions available to help your business create forms. Forms are used to capture data for a specific business purpose. Deciding on the best software for your business will require you to examine what features and functionality you need to accomplish your desired outcome. Software for creating forms should be both simple and powerful enough to help you capture all types of information needed. This article covers some of the top considerations when selecting the best software to create forms for your business.

The basic purpose of creating forms is to collect data. When deciding on a platform for creating forms, consider how data is captured, stored, and made available for reporting. 

All form builders are designed to capture data. But there are some important distinctions to make and not all form builders are created equal.

Understand how data is captured from users. You will want to determine how you need to collect data from your employees, customers, or partners. For example, if your teams largely operate in the field, having mobile forms will be required to capture data from a tablet or phone. You may also want the ability to collect data offline when in remote locations and have it sync to the cloud when WiFi becomes available. Knowing how you plan to collect data will help you determine what software solutions and features are needed to support your use case.

Consider what types of form fields are needed. You will want to understand the types of fields that can be used when creating forms. For example, some software solutions will allow you to build custom form fields like:

  • Image capture for users to upload a photo
  • GPS capture to log the location of the submission
  • Signatures to document agreements and records
  • Calculations for automatically performing math based on form fields
  • Barcode scanning for equipment or inventory
  • Drop down and multiple choice fields
  • Required fields to ensure accurate data collection

Balance ease-of-use and customization. Most businesses need forms to be customizable, yet easy to use. Some of the basic form solutions are easy enough to use, but fall short when it comes to making customizations to the forms. Best-in-class solutions today are designed with a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to quickly and easily develop mobile forms for data capture. Having the ability to make customizations (without requiring help from developers) empowers your team to move faster.

It’s important to understand how your business needs to use the data once it’s captured in the forms. For example, you may want need to integrate with:

  • Cloud storage and databases
  • Accounting systems to process payroll
  • Finance systems to process billing
  • CRM systems to access customer data
  • Other similar types of cloud-based systems

Syncing data between systems can improve data quality, reduce manual work, and enable data insights. As you evaluate technology, make sure to inquire about the types of integrations available. Some will be simple data connectors, while others may require a webservices API to connect your data. 

While there may be some upfront work involved to get your data integrated, there can be significant time savings in the future achieved through a connected data ecosystem.

Data analytics provide a way for your company to look for business trends and patterns. Identifying trends allows your business to take the appropriate next step and address any concerns or opportunities.

Capturing data through forms should enable and promote data analytics. This allows business leaders to dig into the data to better understand project performance, financials, and opportunities to drive business growth. 

Best-in-class form builders should allow you to both capture data and use that information for analytics and reporting. Make sure to understand how data captured can be used for analytics, so you can take advantage of the opportunity to leverage data to inform business decisions.

It goes without saying that apps and software should have the highest level of security and data privacy. The technology should be secure and enable compliance with any applicable regulations. 

For example, your business may need to be HIPPA compliant if you are processing medical information. Or maybe you may need to be GDPR compliant if you are processing and storing customer data. Best-in-class solutions will have the highest level of security and compliance, helping to ensure that your organization is following best practices for data security. 

The best software for your business will prioritize the data needs of your organization. This will ensure that you capture accurate information, integrate data into your processes, and share data to any one that needs it.

GoCanvas is a mobile platform that makes it simple for any business to automate how work is done, replacing outdated processes and expensive paperwork. The GoCanvas App works on all smartphones and tablets, helping companies easily collect information across their organization, share it instantly with others and gain real-time insights on their business operations.

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

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What is a Work Order?

Work orders are used by field service organizations to manage work that needs to be performed for a client or on a job site. This guide explains everything you need to know about work orders and how your business can use them to operate more efficiently.

Companies that rely on field services need work orders to assign jobs and tasks. A common example could be an HVAC business with field technicians going into a customer’s home to perform repairs or maintenance. The work order is generated from the office and assigned to an employee in the field. 

Having work orders ensures that jobs are assigned to the right team member and there is a clear understanding of the scope of work to be performed once on site. More companies are moving toward digital work orders and field service management software to help simplify the process for operations teams and business owners.

Since work orders are used by many different industries, there are countless variations of a work order that can exist. Here are some of the most common types of work orders to give you a good idea of what work orders look like in practice:

An example of a work order for a residential services company could be pest control or landscaping project management. This type of work is generated by a customer that needs a service performed on the house, as part of a standing contract or routine home maintenance. Typically a technician is dispatched to a client site and given a description of the client request and instructions for the job.

An example of a work order for contractors could be a handyman business that is doing repairs or upkeep on homes. This type of work is requested by the client and the contractor assigns employees to a client site or job site with the tools and equipment needed to complete the work. Another example might be a painting contractor with teams in the field that are assigned locally to a paint job.

An example of a preventative maintenance work order could be an equipment maintenance and repair orders. These types of service businesses are dealing with work orders to assign technicians on a regular cadence to ensure that equipment is operating properly and performing routine maintenance or repairs.

An example of an inspection service work order could be for a home inspection business or building inspections. These types of services are assigned to inspectors in the field that use checklists and create a report on the condition of a property for home owners, property managers, and real estate transactions.

An example of a work order for a utilities business could be for an oil and gas company with production repairs taking place in the field. This type of work order is typically an internal request so that utilities companies can easily assign maintenance jobs to the right workers in the field.

Now that you know some common examples of work orders in action, this section covers some best practices on how to write a work order. Although there are many different use cases for work orders, here is our list of the most common items to include when writing a work order:

  • Address and location information: Providing the job location is critical so teams know where the work needs to be performed.
  • Designated contact information: It’s important to have the designated person’s contact information, in case there is an expected delay in arrival for performing the work or if questions happen to arise in connection with that work order. This contact may also be different from the requestor if there happens to be a facility manager or other worker that is present instead. 
  • Due date: Having a due date for a work order is important for preventing a backlog of work and it gives you the ability to predict downtime due to maintenance or repair work going on.
  • Request date: You will want to keep track of when requests were submitted, and including a date helps to ensure that work requests don’t fall through the cracks.
  • Requestor information: It’s possible that a different person will be present than the person who actually submitted the request for work or maintenance service. It can be helpful to have the requestor’s information to reference, in case there are questions related to the request.
  • Assigned field technicians or maintenance team: Work orders should always contain information about the teams that are assigned to fulfill the order. This helps companies track work being performed and helps to ensure that the correct individuals are responding to the request.
  • Instructions for work to be carried out: Work orders should always include detailed instructions to avoid any ambiguity about the required work.

 

By following these best practices and including all of these elements in your work order requests, your team will encounter fewer issues when carrying out maintenance tasks and this will help your teams maximize their efficiency.

Field service companies are set up with various forms to complete work and document information for the client. This is often referred to as a quote to cash process and here are some key terms to understand and differentiate between.

Quotes and estimates. Typically a bid, a quote, or an estimate is sent for review to the client. The client may want to review different companies and assess which option is best suited for their needs. Once a decision has been made, an approval is given by the client and this will typically kick off the work order.

Work order. As we have covered in this article, the work order is generated and dispatched with the appropriate information to the field service team who performs the work.

Invoice. Once the work order has been completed, typically this initiates the invoice process. Invoices and work orders are not the same thing, but the invoice will mirror closely the work order with the job details and scope of work performed. The invoice is different in that it will reflect the exact prices, materials, and quantities that were actually used on the job and calculate the final bill for the customer.

Payment. Once the invoice report has been received by the client, they are able to submit payment terms and close out the work that has been performed. More companies are leveraging digital payment solutions to provide clients with an instant method of payment via credit card to get paid faster and to provide an instant digital receipt for documentation.

All of these steps take place for service companies, which is why it is often referred to as the quote to cash process and getting this right is crucial to getting paid on time and to ensure a seamless customer experience. 

Work order management software is growing in popularity for field service companies. This type of software is designed to streamline how your business operates.

This category of software is designed to support the entire quote to cash process, giving businesses of all sizes the ability to take advantage of digital tools for increasing productivity and creating a competitive advantage. While businesses have historically relied on paper to do business, the trend is to move toward integrated and streamlined digital forms.

The major pain points for using paper forms include:

  • Lost work orders. Paper forms can easily be misplaced or lost.
  • Illegible handwriting. Messy handwriting can create confusion or errors.
  • Incomplete information. Technicians can forget to include required information.
  • Calculation errors. Performing math by hand can easily lead to calculation mistakes.
  • Manual processes. Employees need manual data entry and other tedious processes to get the job done.
  • Inability to scale. Paper forms are time-consuming and create busy work that slows down business growth.

Work order management software has tools to automate manual work, standardize how data is collected, and share information in real-time between the field and the office. This type of software is designed to increase productivity, helping employees focus more of their time on work that matters and less time on manual processes. 

Want to learn more? This article shares three of the top reasons to leverage work order management software for your business.

GoCanvas is a leader in field service management software solutions, trusted by thousands of companies worldwide to increase productivity and streamline operations. Leverage our no-code platform for an easy-to-use work order management solution and to digitize your quote to cash processes. Contact our team to see how it works or sign up for a free trial to get started today.

 

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

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Best Invoice App for Contractors

Best Invoice App for Contractors

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Software solutions for contractors are growing in popularity, with specific apps to help with different types of business projects. One such example are invoice apps that enable contractors to provide a digital invoice to clients. This article covers how invoice apps work and where you can find an easy-to-use template for your business.

Typically an invoice app will be used by businesses and contractors that work directly with their clients. Here are some examples of common use cases for invoice apps:

  • Contractors: Contractors often invoice clients for work like home repairs, HVAC, maintenance, construction, residential services, inspections, and more. Contractors typically provide an estimate and submit the invoice once work has been completed with exact labor and materials used.
  • Transportation and Logistics: This type of business requires deliveries to be made through trucks or van fleets. Drivers can be responsible for confirming delivery has been made and invoicing the client once services have been completed.
  • Professional services: Many professional services businesses like independent contractors will provide direct business services, for things like freelance consulting, or legal work. These businesses will use invoices after project completion to bill for their time.

This should give you an idea of what types of businesses benefit from using invoice apps. Most invoice apps are completely customizable for the business type, giving you the flexibility to search for a template and modify the app based on the information you need to collect. 

An invoice app is designed to provide software and mobile technology to create client invoices from a mobile device or a computer. Here’s the basic concept on how invoice apps work:

Invoice apps allow you to create digital forms that are used by the contractor or business to fill out the specific details of that job. Typically templates are built and include all of the relevant fields needed to document, like prices, quantities, time worked, scope of work, client information, and other related project fields.

Once the mobile forms are built, contractors on the job can fill in the details using a mobile device or tablet to generate the exact invoice right on the spot. 

After the form has been completed, the invoice app will send a digital document to the client that breaks down all of the job as filled out in the app. This is typically sent via an email link, so that the client can open up their inbox and review the work completed.

A main feature of the invoice app is the ability for the client to sign off on the completed work. Signature capture allows the client to sign off on work and create the final signed copy documenting an agreement.

Many times another option for the invoice is to offer a digital payment processing solution within the invoice app. By connecting to payment processors like Square, it gives the option to the client to pay via credit card on the invoice. If getting paid faster is a priority, this can be a good option to allow customers to pay securely through the app and processed by Square directly to your bank account. 

It’s common for the final step to share the completed digital paper work via email to the client, to keep for their records. A digital receipt sent as a PDF file is helpful for clients to have in their inbox and helpful for your business to ensure that documents are always saved to the cloud for good record-keeping. 

Invoice apps can be as simple or as complex as you need them to be. For example, you may want to set up data integrations to ensure that data syncs between your invoice app, accounting system, CRM, and other places you store data. For other businesses, just having a simple invoice app is a much better solution than traditional paper forms, giving a central place to manage all of your invoices digitally.

Your business will know when it becomes time to utilize an invoice app. Here are some of the most common pain points that determine when it makes sense to move to a digital invoicing solution:

Does your staff get overwhelmed with the amount of paper work needed to manage operations? This is a top sign that going digital can save your business time and money. There are many hidden costs associated with paper usage like manual data entry, lost or missing papers, errors and rework, and inefficient workflows. When the busy work keeps stacking up, it becomes time to consider apps to streamline and automate more of the office work.

Often related to the challenges with paper, you may notice that your business is growing rapidly, but challenged to scale efficiently. Unfortunately, as the business grows in complexity, it can create more of the manual work and tasks for operational staff to support. This is when it becomes time to lean on software that can boost your productivity and help your business work more efficiently. 

The productivity challenges and paperwork may be a pain to deal with, but rising competition is often the biggest argument for switching to mobile and digital solutions. If other contractors or businesses you compete with provide a digital experience for customers, you may be falling behind in terms of what customers want. At the end of the day, technology is all about making it easier for your customers to do business with you and there is a significant opportunity for contractors that embrace digital technologies. If your competitors are lagging behind in this area, moving first can create value for customers and result in repeat business, referrals, and online reviews stating how easy it is to do business with your company.

GoCanvas is a leader in mobile forms and software to streamline operations and increase productivity. Our invoice apps can be customized to fit any business or contractor’s needs – simply start with one of our pre-built templates and use our no-code designer to fit your requirements.

 Try out our invoice app here or search thousands of app templates available here on our website.

work order and invoice template

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

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