Three Mobile Forms That Every Commercial Paving Company Needs to Have

Three Mobile Forms That Every Commercial Paving Company Needs to Have

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Whether it be commercial, private or infrastructure based – the construction industry continues to grow along with the size of projects. And as the scale and complexity of construction projects continue to increase, the need for efficient document/data management has become critical to the success of any given construction project.

This is the primary reason today that you see many of the top tier construction companies ($100M+ revenue) moving towards ‘enterprise’ construction software, and removing paper-based documentation from their project sites.

But, what about the small and mid-sized firms? And what about the contractors who support these firms and their projects? In many cases, this group is the lifeblood of the Construction industry.

The issue? The majority of these firms are still collecting and sharing data the same way they did it 50+ years ago.

The reason? They feel like they can’t see the ROI in the multi-thousand dollar investment in an enterprise level solution. And this is the reason why GoCanvas was created.

With GoCanvas, you can now create a mobile form platform that fits your budget and data collection needs. This type of flexibility is perfect for people like Sandee Pierce,  Admin Director at Sierra National Asphalt, who was looking to streamline her crew’s daily reports and time sheets.



Since fully ditching their paperwork for GoCanvas, Sandee stated that Sierra National Asphalt loves GoCanvas because “Supervisors do not have to go to job sites to track down and collect time sheets (anymore). The reference data and validation tables have reduced the errors that previously caused corrections by the supervisors and office staff”. 

For small to mid-size construction contractors like Sandee Pierce, GoCanvas has become the go-to solution for companies looking to replace their outdated paper processes without blowing the budget.

If your exploring going paperless with your daily operations process, we have the perfect forms for you!

The specific mobile forms below are handpicked for the Asphalt/Paving industry and are as simple as “Click and Submit” to use. But also keep in mind that all our mobile forms are completely customizable using the GoCanvas App Builder, and can easily be tweaked to fit your existing data collection processes! You can even change the entire look and feel of the output PDF report using the PDF Designer. 

None of these Paving mobile forms a perfect fit? No worries! We have over 20,000 mobile forms in our App Store to fit any use case and/or industry!

For some businesses, their operations are so complex that starting from a mobile form template wouldn’t make sense.

In instances like this, GoCanvas has a special ‘white glove’ program called ‘Send Us Your Form’. This service allows you to scan and email a copy of the current form that you are using today, and we will convert it into a mobile version!

That means that you won’t have to search through our Application Store to find a mobile form that matches your existing process, or take the time to build it out from scratch using the App Builder. We take on the work of digitizing your current paper-based process for you!

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

Three inspection workers on job site.

The Ultimate Guide to Quality Control Inspections

Managing a construction project is a complex and stressful process. Among other things, you have to coordinate project team members, materials, and equipment and ensure that contractors are not afflicted by the potential risks and hazards present at the construction site. That said, quality means different things to different people which is why you should…

A man using GoCanvas for the digital transformation of his workflow.

Constructions Digital Transformation

Your competition is finding faster ways to capture data and get critical insights from the field into their existing systems. In short, they’re not going bigger, they’re getting smarter. In this 15-minute broadcast on the construction industry’s digital transformation, find out why the trend is to modernize workflows – and how you can stay ahead of the curve…

A electrician inspecting equipment.

See how VIP Lighting optimized efficiency with GoCanvas

VIP Lighting is a retail lighting and electrical maintenance business that services over 10,000 retail locations all over Australia and New Zealand. Before GoCanvas, VIP Lighting had two separate systems that were impossible to integrate, leading to inefficiencies. GoCanvas made it easy to integrate their systems into single, centralized platform…

Connect with an Expert Today.

We’ll help you put together the right solution for your needs.

Easy to Manage Billing with Team Licenses

GoCanvas

Easy to Manage Billing with Team Licenses

There are numerous benefits in choosing GoCanvas Team Licenses over the old “per-user” subscription plan, but one of the biggest advantages is the ease of billing.

With the GoCanvas Team License model, your organization is now free to add and remove users from your account without the headache of having to calculate what the new charges will be every month.

Team Licenses allow you to:

  • Streamline and predict billing on a monthly or annual basis
  • Establish a single monthly or annual billing date for your account (no more juggling multiple renewal dates for each individual user)
  • Add, subtract, and transfer licenses without any hassle or impact on billing

Whether you select a monthly or annually billed Team License plan, the example below illustrates how easy billing becomes as your company begins to add users to your account.

No longer will your account balance vary from month to month due to the addition of new users. With GoCanvas Team Licenses, your account balance always remains the same, so there are no surprises!

Need more users that are available in your current plan?

Just reach out to Sales@gocanvas.com and we’ll get you set up with a plan that works for you.

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

business people discussing project

Gown Your Business with GoCanvas Partner Program

Join our Partner Program and gain instant access to our global network of thought leaders and industry experts enjoying shared collaboration and collective success.

Forte Supply Chain Solutions Partner Video

Partner Snapshot: Forte Supply Chain Solutions

Explore how Forte Supply Chain Solutions partnered with GoCanvas, combining in-house industry expertise with our white-label mobile forms to revolutionize their processes.

Closeup of a handshake.

GoCanvas Integrations: Streamline your Workflow

Integrate with over 1,000 software applications. Enhance your GoCanvas experience by syncing real-time data to one or all of your business tools.

Connect with an Expert Today.

We’ll help you put together the right solution for your needs.

Say Hello to the NEW GoCanvas Online Community!

Say Hello to the NEW GoCanvas Online Community!

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We are super excited about the release of the GoCanvas Community.

Why are we so excited? Because the Community is a great way to view and share the information that matters the most to you. The GoCanvas Community is where tips, tricks, best practices, and advice live. You’ll be able to get real-world solutions from other users, submit feature requests, and keep up-to-date with the latest releases!

The Community will soon become the hub for all things GoCanvas.

The Help Center is a static database of information pertaining to the many different aspects of the GoCanvas platform. By being static, the information is presented to you in a way that is meant to be quickly digested and comprehended. While useful in many situations, it doesn’t always apply to more complex situations within the GoCanvas platform. Whereas the Community is dynamic; with users creating posts, and anyone (including GoCanvas staff) having the ability to respond to feedback or insight.

The Help Center will continue to house documentation about our features and how to use the product, while the Community will cater more to creative problem solving, specific use cases, and collaborative troubleshooting, as well as giving ways for users to give feedback and to make feature requests.

When you’re having a problem or are trying something new, chances are someone can point you toward a solution. Think of the Community as a sounding board for your specific questions and issues.

The Community will truly thrive when everyone, new and experienced GoCanvas users alike, see it as a place to post problems and find creative solutions. The more input from you the better!

It’s super simple! Just click here to access the GoCanvas Community. Once there, you’ll be able to view, post, and comment on a variety of different GoCanvas topics. Can’t find what you’re looking for? Create your own post and get the conversation started!

We look forward to ‘seeing’ you in the Community soon!

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

business people discussing project

Gown Your Business with GoCanvas Partner Program

Join our Partner Program and gain instant access to our global network of thought leaders and industry experts enjoying shared collaboration and collective success.

Forte Supply Chain Solutions Partner Video

Partner Snapshot: Forte Supply Chain Solutions

Explore how Forte Supply Chain Solutions partnered with GoCanvas, combining in-house industry expertise with our white-label mobile forms to revolutionize their processes.

Closeup of a handshake.

GoCanvas Integrations: Streamline your Workflow

Integrate with over 1,000 software applications. Enhance your GoCanvas experience by syncing real-time data to one or all of your business tools.

Connect with an Expert Today.

We’ll help you put together the right solution for your needs.

Running on Empty? Learn How Fuel Costs Are Killing Your Bottom Line

Running on Empty? Learn How Fuel Costs Are Killing Your Bottom Line

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Yellow Hummer When you try to think of items that burn up a lot of gasoline, what first comes to mind?

SUVs. Lawnmowers. Generators. My yellow H2 Hummer (kidding). But seriously, all these things tend to burn more gas (and money) than their actual value to you.

But what about paper? It doesn’t really sound like something that would cause you to suddenly grab your wallet. But indeed, similar to my yellow H2 Hummer (still kidding), paper forms are actually one item that can significantly cost your business both time and money.

Read on below to learn how a single paper-based process can cost your business not only 100s of hours in lost efficiency, but also cause leakage on your bottom line.

CorollaMost common people are conscious about their mileage, how much they spend on gas and the fuel economy of the vehicle they purchase. This is probably why the economically designed Toyota Corolla is still the top-selling car of all-time.

But when it comes to running a business, the majority of people can’t haul loads or supplies in the backseat of their leather interior Corolla. This doesn’t mean though that we should simply throw all economic sense out of the window when it comes to managing a fleet of vehicles.

Most companies within the Field Service or Construction industries are, due to their work, forced into purchasing less fuel-efficient vans and trucks. This is the point at which most companies feel resigned to the fact that they will have to spend a ton to fill up those vehicles, because “that’s just what everyone else does”.  But this is just the point in time when companies should instead say, “What CAN we do to cut down on our costs, and where CAN we streamline our process?”.

So this begs the important question, how and where is money being lost in transit?

Remember that work vehicles are used for two primary purposes, driving to and from job sites. Every time they are on the road burning fuel, the company is slowly losing money.

Why are they on the road? 50% of the time it’s because they need to return paper forms back to the office, hauling their gas-guzzling fenders miles across town to do so. This is the critical correlation between paper forms and fuel dollars, and where a business hemorrhages money without truly realizing it.

But how much is it really costing your business? Let’s calculate below exactly how much a single paper form can cost your organization.

So, we’ve talked about how fuel inefficiency can increase costs within your business, but how does a single paper form effect those costs? By using paper forms you’re forcing each field tech and/or supervisor to manually fill out each report and return the contents back to HQ for processing. This means if your field tech is sent to a site 15 miles away, they’re going to be burning cash all the way back to the office in order to return those forms.

But we can break it down even further.

For example, say a field supervisor has 4 job sites to inspect every single day. At each of those job sites, he/she has to complete a detailed Job Safety Analysis (JSA) report, with the average distance from the main office to each site being 15 miles.

MoneyNow take into consideration the average mile per gallon range for a standard pickup or van is 15 to 20 mpg, with an average cost of a gallon of gas being $2.30. With a total of 50 standard work weeks in a year(accounting for vacation), that field supervisor will waste around 300 gallons of fuel traveling between the worksites and the main office. That alone will account for close to $700 in fuel dollars lost annually,  and that’s just for a single field supervisor!

But what about the actual process of filling out and collecting all the data on paper forms, how much time and money does that waste the field supervisors?

Take into consideration that the average paper report can take between 15 and 30 minutes to fully complete by hand. Why so long? Think about it. When it comes to a safety-related form like a JSA, or even something as simple as a timecard, detail is everything. And with paper, nothing can be pre-filled or auto-populated like it can with a mobile form.

Crumpled Paper You have to capture photos, signatures and even GPS coordinates for the report to be verified as accurate. When you use a platform like GoCanvas, all these features are built right into the mobile form. With paper, you are forced to bring extra pieces of equipment to capture these readings, and then take the time to compile them all together for a final report. This extra 30 minutes a day, across 4 sites, for 50 business weeks can cause that single field supervisor to waste between 200-300 hours every year! 

Not impressed by hours lost?

Add into the equation how much they are being paid, let’s say $17 per hour, and that equates to between $3,400 – $5,100 in lost productivity every year. Now multiply that number across all your supervisors and watch as the losses pile up!

Now that we’ve talked about the doom and gloom that paper forms can bring upon your business, it’s only right that we show you how to solve the issue!

A mobile form platform like GoCanvas is essentially built to negate all the negative traits that come with paper-based data collection.

GoCanvas Mobile With GoCanvas, your employees (including field supervisors) can reduce their drive time by 50% or more because of real-time data sharing. As soon as a report is completed onsite, all of the contents including GPS, Photos, Signatures, Barcodes, and more will be automatically sent to the GoCanvas cloud and available for immediate review by the main office.

Employees, like field supervisors, can also cut down on trips between sites by setting up safety inspection approvals with the GoCanvas Workflow feature. This allows for employees from other sites to complete inspections with detailed photos, and transmit that data directly to the field supervisor’s GoCanvas device for final review and approval. If any mistakes or issues are found, the field supervisor can reject the report and send a note back to the original submitter. This type of process can further cut down on unneeded mileage, and improve daily efficiency across multiple job sites!

Whether it be a timesheet, work order or site inspection – paper anywhere is dysfunction everywhere. By simply implementing the few simple changes outlined above, you could end up saving your business close to $4,000 per employee annually! 

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

A person sits at a desk holding their phone showing a graph, while their laptop sits on the desk showing more charts and graphs.

How TE3CO Leverages Data Analytics to Unlock Business Potential

TE3CO provides mission-critical pressure relief technology and services to customers across the oil and gas industry. They employ a highly trained and capable workforce of field technicians and engineers. Before working with GoCanvas, TE3CO relied on spreadsheets and emails to manage their ticketing process but found the system time-consuming and difficult to track.

Two men in hard hats look onto a tablet.

VIP Lighting Gains Business Efficiencies with GoCanvas

VIP Lighting is a retail lighting and electrical maintenance company that services retail chains across Australia and New Zealand. The business has been operating for 25 years and now services 10,000 retail sites across both countries. Prior to joining GoCanvas in 2018, the business had multiple systems running different aspects of their technician and contractor network.

Man in a hard hat inspecting HVAC vents.

Three HVAC Maintenance Checklists that will Reduce Errors and Grow Your Bottom Line

For HVAC technicians, so many errors within their daily tasks come from using outdated paper forms while completing a job. Using these HVAC inspection checklists will prevent issues before they happen, so your technicians can collect comprehensive and consistent data at every job.

Connect with an Expert Today.

We’ll help you put together the right solution for your needs.

Breaking Down OSHA’s Top 10 Most Cited Violations of 2017

Breaking Down OSHA’s Top 10 Most Cited Violations of 2017

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2017: OSHA Safety in Review

Where did all the time go? It seems like just yesterday we were posting the results of OSHA’s 2016 data findings, but here we are again.

The reason why it feels like déjà vu is likely because the top 5 most cited violations of 2017 are the same as those from 2016.  Fall Protection – General Requirments, Hazard Communication, Scaffolding, Respiratory Protection, and Lockout/Tagout all come in at the top of the list for the 2nd consecutive year. All combined, the top 5 most cited categories through September of 2017 have accounted for approximately 21,748 violations.

The bottom 5 categories consist of Ladders, Powered Industrial Trucks, Machine Guarding, Fall Protection – Training Requirements, and Electrical Wiring Methods. In total, these have accounted for 10,279 violations, which combined equals 32,027 total violations reported in 2017 thus far.

This amount of violations seems like a lot (which it is), but the good news is that it’s a dramatic decrease from 2016. Last year 36,531 violations were reported in total, which accounts for an overall decrease of 12%! This decrease can be attributed to many things, but overall it shows that companies are finally starting to become serious about the safety of their employees and investing in the right methods/technologies to protect them.

But all the news isn’t positive.

Within the OSHA top 10 violation list, there was one new addition from 2016 to 2017, Fall Protection – Training Requirements. This type of violation revolves around the lack of proper safety training programs in high risk and dangerous environments. This is a common issue in today’s building construction environment as the pressure to complete projects faster increases and proper safety procedures get put by the wayside. Patrick Kapust, deputy director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, puts it into perspective by telling Safety+Health Magazine that “Many of these violations were specifically related to training requirements and ensuring that a training program for each employee who may be exposed to fall hazards is established. Often, these violations occurred in the roofing, framing and residential modeling industries.

While progress is being made, there is still much work left to do. If you’re looking to become smarter about the way you collect, report, and track safety information on your project sites, GoCanavs can help! Our Application Store has over 100 different OSHA specific mobile form templates available to download and use in seconds. Toolbox Talks, JSAs, Accident Reports, and much more can be customized to fit your exact business needs.

Click here to request a quick demo!

Top 10 OSHA Violations of 2017

OSHA Infographic

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

Three people in hard hats looking at a tablet.

Smarter, Faster, Safer: Improving Safety Compliance with Mobile Technology

Compliance, there are many ways we talk about it. A necessary evil, a chore, a struggle, or a critically important part of business. We all know how crucial it is, helping save…

Woman reviewing information on a tablet.

Your Guide to Waiver Forms — Examples and Templates

Waiver forms are a type of legal protection used by businesses to reduce their liability and risk. This type of agreement between a business and its customers is used…

Closeup of a handshake.

Duotank Transforms Business Processes with GoCanvas

Duotank is a bag-in-tank alternative to the traditional keg beer system. The aseptic tank environment enables breweries to maintain the quality of their beer after it leaves…

Connect with an Expert Today.

We’ll help you put together the right solution for your needs.

3 Easy Ways to Create the Perfect Mobile Punch List

3 Easy Ways to Create the Perfect Mobile Punch List

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Paper forms are used today as a quick way to collect information on a project site but don’t give much flexibility in the types of information that can be collected.

A Construction Punch List is often meant to be a run through of outstanding items to be completed on a project, but these forms can be found in different formats depending on the size and scope of the particular project.

The issue with paper Punch Lists is that they offer ZERO flexibility in the way they are filled out and completed. You’re restricted to staying between the lines on the piece of paper and aren’t able to deviate or add anything outside of that paper rectangle. This runs in complete conflict with the Construction industry where data is constantly changing and personnel is in need of real-time information. This is why mobile forms, especially mobile Punch Lists, make sense.

Creating the perfect mobile form or app is about incorporating the right features that fit your data collection goals.

When filling out a Punch List the primary goal is to inspect a list of outstanding construction items, update their current status and add current or estimated completion dates. But for companies looking to dive even deeper into their data, solutions like GoCanvas allow them to enhance their Punch Lists with three important features.

Check out the three features below that you can incorporate into your GoCanvas mobile Punch Lists to increase your data quality and efficiency!

Attach Site Photos with Image Capture – Punch Lists are useful for the person who is physically filling them out onsite, but what about the employees in the back-office? The ability to collect and attach site photos allow Punch Lists to become instantly more valuable and give supervisors real-time insight into the progress of project sites. The annotation feature of GoCanvas also allows users who capture photos to highlight and draw on top of the images that they capture with their mobile device. This makes it possible for them to point out aspects of each line item and ensure that nothing is mistakenly forgotten during the follow-up tasks.

Editing Images on GoCanvas

We suggest using the Image Capture feature along with Conditional Logic. This allows you to have an Image Capture field show up only if a particular value is selected. For example, if a line item in the Punch List is marked “Finished”, an Image Capture field would then appear for the user to snap a photo of the completed item for verification. This is an easy way of ensuring you collect the data you need without making the form dramatically longer or more complicated to complete.

Auto-populating Items with Reference Data –  One of the most time-consuming parts of filling out a paper Punch List is having to manually write in each item you are reviewing. Not only are you trying to rush to inspect each item in a timely fashion, but you’re also attempting to be thorough in your inspection as well. Usually, this type of pace leads to horrible handwriting and less than thorough note-taking.

Punchlist on GoCanvas

With GoCanvas and the Reference Data functionality, you can pre-load into your Punch List rows of items that are in need of review. It’s simple as creating an Excel spreadsheet, uploading that into your GoCanvas account, and connecting it to your mobile Punch List form. Now you’ll have every item you need to inspect right in front of you and can even add items on the spot if need be. Each item you load with Reference Data can also be loaded with corresponding “Due Dates”, so that when the user is filling out the Punch List app they will know if the item they are inspecting in on track or past due for completion.  This auto-filling of data in the mobile form will easily save you 10 – 20 minutes per report completed.

Automating Reviews & Approvals with Workflow – The biggest complaint with using paper, across the board, is the time it takes to receive the reports from the field. This delay often makes the data out-dated by the time it finally reaches the back office for analysis. With Punch Lists, in particular, it’s important that the data be collected and REVIEWED in a timely manner so that real-time decisions can be made to keep the project on track.

Workflow on GoCanvas

The Workflow feature of GoCanvas is perfect for Punch Lists because it allows for the user filling out the report to instantly send the data to his or her supervisor’s device for immediate review. The supervisor can review all of the data and photos that the employee captured previously with GoCanvas and then even add notes to the report before submitting the record to the cloud for final review. If the supervisor were to find something that didn’t look right, he or she would have the ability to reject the Punch List and send it back to the original submitter with the reason why it was rejected. The great thing is that this Workflow process can be customized to fit your organization’s process. So if you want the Punch List to not go to a supervisor but instead go to a general contractor who will review and complete any outstanding items, you can!

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

Three inspection workers on job site.

The Ultimate Guide to Quality Control Inspections

Managing a construction project is a complex and stressful process. Among other things, you have to coordinate project team members, materials, and equipment and ensure that contractors are not afflicted by the potential risks and hazards present at the construction site. That said, quality means different things to different people which is why you should…

A man using GoCanvas for the digital transformation of his workflow.

Constructions Digital Transformation

Your competition is finding faster ways to capture data and get critical insights from the field into their existing systems. In short, they’re not going bigger, they’re getting smarter. In this 15-minute broadcast on the construction industry’s digital transformation, find out why the trend is to modernize workflows – and how you can stay ahead of the curve…

A electrician inspecting equipment.

See how VIP Lighting optimized efficiency with GoCanvas

VIP Lighting is a retail lighting and electrical maintenance business that services over 10,000 retail locations all over Australia and New Zealand. Before GoCanvas, VIP Lighting had two separate systems that were impossible to integrate, leading to inefficiencies. GoCanvas made it easy to integrate their systems into single, centralized platform…

Connect with an Expert Today.

We’ll help you put together the right solution for your needs.

5 Mobile Forms Every QA/QC Inspector Should Be Using

5 Mobile Forms Every QA/QC Inspector Should Be Using

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The act of performing inspections is almost always a tedious task, especially when paper forms are involved.

For Quality Assurance and Quality Control inspectors in various industries, but especially in construction, the process of completing their project reports can be a daunting task. This multi-form, multi-step process can quickly become disorganized and unmanageable if the proper processes are not in place. The negative effects of not properly completing these reports include delays in project development and major decreases in worker productivity.

So how can these issues be avoided? By using a single platform for the collection, sharing, and reporting of all QA/QC forms. This is what GoCanvas provides.

A typical QA/QC engineer or inspector will typically have to carry and fill out 5 to 10 different types of paper forms for a typical project. This doesn’t include all the additional documents like drawings and photos that the inspector will need to print out and attach separately. Add this to the pain of having to carry around these paper reports and transporting them all the way back to the office for reporting, this can add up to 100’s of hours being wasted every month due to paperwork inefficiencies.

With a platform like GoCanvas, these inefficiencies are entirely eliminated. All the forms an inspector needs can be found directly on their mobile device, and are accessible whether offline or online. These mobile forms can be customized to include easy to use drop-down menus and check boxes, as well as more specialized fields like GPS, Image Capture, Sketching, Time Stamps, Signature Capture, and more! You can also easily organize your forms on your mobile device into convenient folders for easy retrieval based on project and/or location.

But the best part is that as soon a report is completed, the data is synced to the cloud and available for the office staff to begin reviewing in real-time. This can instantly save hours that were previously lost to manual data re-entry and lost paperwork.

Now it’s time to see which mobile forms could begin saving your business hundreds of hours in lost efficiency!

GoCanvas doesn’t just give you a code-free form builder to create and customize your very own mobile forms and documents, but it also provides you with over 20,000 pre-built mobile form templates to choose from and download in seconds.

Below are 5 mobile form templates that every Quality Assurance/Quality Control inspector and engineer should download and customize to fit their particular needs. Click on any of the templates below to get started!

RFI mobile form
Material Order Form Mobile App
Engineer inspection request mobile form
Daily construction project report mobile form
Subcontractor agreement

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

Three people in hard hats looking at a tablet.

Smarter, Faster, Safer: Improving Safety Compliance with Mobile Technology

Compliance, there are many ways we talk about it. A necessary evil, a chore, a struggle, or a critically important part of business. We all know how crucial it is, helping save…

Woman reviewing information on a tablet.

Your Guide to Waiver Forms — Examples and Templates

Waiver forms are a type of legal protection used by businesses to reduce their liability and risk. This type of agreement between a business and its customers is used…

Closeup of a handshake.

Duotank Transforms Business Processes with GoCanvas

Duotank is a bag-in-tank alternative to the traditional keg beer system. The aseptic tank environment enables breweries to maintain the quality of their beer after it leaves…

Connect with an Expert Today.

We’ll help you put together the right solution for your needs.

Keeping Hotel Labor Costs in Check:  How Mobile Inspection Apps Can Help

Keeping Hotel Labor Costs in Check:  How Mobile Inspection Apps Can Help

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When guests visit a hotel, they expect a clean room, of course, but beyond that, they expect service. They assume a concierge will greet them at the front desk, a cleaning crew will tidy their room each day, and a whole host of staff members will be on call to meet their every need.

Service is an essential part of the hotel experience — so essential, in fact, that labor is one of the largest costs for hotels, accounting for 45 percent of total expenses.

And it will likely only get more expensive. As the unemployment rate in the U.S. drops, hotels must increasingly compete for talent by offering higher pay. And in some states, such as California and Washington, there’s been pressure to increase the minimum wage and pay hotel staff more.
To keep guests happy, hotels can’t skimp on service. They must continue to hire quality staff who can meet the needs of customers. But they also can’t succeed if profit margins get too thin. So as labor costs rise, hotels need to figure out how to increase staff efficiency to stay profitable and keep guests happy.

Here are a few ways hotels can improve employee efficiency:

To keep labor costs low, your cleaning staff must be efficient; the more rooms your employees can clean in less time, the higher your profit margins. At the same time, you can’t sacrifice quality for the sake of efficiency. If your cleaning staff rushes through the cleaning process and misses important tasks, your guests will probably notice — and those issues will likely end up in a negative online review that could hurt your business.

Mobile inspection apps can help speed up the cleaning process while keeping quality high. For example, staff members can document each room they clean with photos within the app rather than by writing lengthy explanations. And by using an app, the information for each room is immediately available to supervisors, eliminating the need to collect papers and return to the back office. Plus, staff members can quickly reference a checklist for the tasks they need to complete, so they don’t miss any critical steps in the cleaning process.

Maintenance costs can get out of hand if you have to keep addressing the same issues over and over again. Maybe the same toilet overflows every couple of days so you have to send an employee to fix it. Or maybe your staff has a habit of forgetting to empty the trash under the bathroom sinks, which means a team member has to routinely double back empty it, slowing down the cleaning process (and inviting guest complaints).

Having an efficient way to spot and track patterns is key to managing labor costs. If your staff is documenting tasks and inspections on paper (or not at all), it’s impossible to get a big picture of where recurring problems appear or which employees seem to be involved in high numbers of them. Mobile inspection apps allow you to identify areas of weakness, address challenges proactively, and be more efficient overall. You also get real-time access to your data, and the ability to easily create summaries that can show trends for future planning.

When you have new employees at your hotel, you probably require them to shadow a more senior staff member for a few weeks until they’re capable of performing their responsibilities without supervision. While that can make for effective training, it can also significantly slow down your cleaning teams until the new employees are up to speed. And when you consider the high turnover rate in the hospitality industry — 72.9 percent in 2016 — that less-than-efficient training time can add up.

Finding ways to train your new employees faster is key to keeping your labor costs down. For example, you can use mobile inspection apps to give your employees easy-to-follow checklists that are accessible on their own mobile devices. Employees are quick to train, more compliant, and have an easier time completing necessary forms using mobile inspection apps since they can choose from drop-down menus and common fields can be pre-populated.

Maximizing your team’s efficiency can help keep your labor costs low — but that’s only part of running a successful hotel. Get more tips for keeping your rooms full and guests satisfied in our interactive eBook, “Fresh and Clean: How Mobile Inspections Save Hospitality Industry Reputations.”

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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4 Innovative Ways to Better Train and Engage Hospitality Staff

4 Innovative Ways to Better Train and Engage Hospitality Staff

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In the hospitality industry, things don’t stay the same for long. Restaurant menus change, hotel room rates fluctuate, and perhaps most noticeably — at least for an establishment’s owners and managers — employees come and go.

The industry is well known for a high turnover rate. In 2016, it reached 72.9 percent overall, although some restaurants (quick service and fast casual, in particular) experience a turnover rate closer to 150-400 percent.

That revolving door of employment spells real challenges for restaurants and hotels. The higher the turnover, the more people to train — and subpar training can put your establishment’s reputation on the line. If a new hire provides bad service, doesn’t cook food to standards, or fails to clean every surface in a hotel room, there’s a high probability it will end up in a negative online review. And even one bad review can harm your business.

To keep your establishment’s reputation sparkling clean, try these innovative methods for training your staff members and keeping them engaged.

The hospitality industry tends to attract young workers. The average hospitality employee is 34 years old — the youngest average age of any reported industry in a recent study. But depending on the establishment, staff can trend even younger. In quick service and fast casual restaurants, the median age is 21.

With such a young group of workers, it can benefit hotel and restaurant management to meet their employees where they’re at — which, typically, is behind the screen of a mobile device. The average millennial spends more than three hours on a mobile device every day (25 percent spend more than five hours and check their phone more than 100 times a day — on average, every 15 minutes over a 24-hour period). And that’s clearly not limited to time off the clock. Most U.S. workers (66 percent) admit to using their smartphones several times a day while at work.

Considering that heavy smartphone use, young employees may find it easier and more natural if they can perform parts of their jobs using their mobile devices. Employees can complete mobile checklists, for example, to make sure they’re following correct cleaning and safety procedures every time. Performing parts of their job on a device they’re already familiar with (and likely already have in their hands) can help them get up to speed faster — and keep them engaged.

On average, companies spend more than 50 hours and $800 training each employee. In a high-turnover industry, those costs add up quickly. The faster you can get an employee up to speed — and with fewer resources — the better.

Restaurants and hotels can speed up the training process by using mobile checklist, guideline, and inspection apps. Rather than having to remember extensive cleaning procedures or safety measures, new hires can simply access the checklist anytime, on their own mobile device. In the end, companies can speed up the onboarding process, which can help make sure customers don’t notice a lag in service or cleanliness.

Providing feedback to your staff is essential to improving their performance and keeping them engaged. Millennials in particular need and prefer feedback on a daily or weekly basis, rather than at an annual review. And they’re not only talking about positive reinforcement. In a recent survey, 92 percent of respondents agreed that negative feedback, when delivered appropriately, is effective at improving performance.

But in a busy industry like hospitality, it’s not easy to constantly monitor all your employees for feedback opportunities. By the time a guest or patron complains about poor service or a dirty room, the responsible employee may be gone for the day — and may not work another shift until the next week. Will you remember to provide that feedback the next time he or she clocks in?

If your staff uses mobile inspection, guideline, and checklist apps to document cleaning or safety procedures, it’s easier to keep tabs on who’s up to speed on your establishment’s procedures, who could use a refresher, and who is (or is not) following process daily. With mobile apps, all this information is available to you at your fingertips, eliminating the need to personally check on employees to ensure they are following proper procedures. You can even require employees to snap photos of their workstation or cleaning handiwork, which can help you spot issues and provide feedback immediately. That gives you the opportunity to objectively and quickly correct problems, which can help keep guest satisfaction and employee engagement high.

Of course, not all feedback should be negative — and employees benefit just as much from recognition for a job well done. Seventy-two percent of employees say they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized. But the most effective way to provide that praise isn’t necessarily an employee of the month award, or a shout-out at the next all-company meeting. Most millennial employees — 80 percent — prefer on-the-spot (and frequent!) recognition.

But again — are you going to wait until a rave review for your establishment pops up on TripAdvisor to recognize your staff?

To provide timely praise to your employees, it’s important that you know that they’re doing a good job as they perform their daily responsibilities. When employees use mobile inspection apps, the data is immediately accessible in the cloud ­— which means you can see who’s doing a good job and acknowledge their hard work before their shift is over.

Training and engaging your employees can help you combat high turnover and associated training costs. But beyond that, it can help you provide the consistent, quality service that your customers expect — no matter how long your staff has been employed.

Want to learn more about how mobile inspection apps can help you keep your rooms and tables full? Check out our new interactive eBook, “Fresh and Clean: How Mobile Inspections Save Hospitality Industry Reputations.”

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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Reduce Data Entry & Billing Errors with Automated Calculations from GoCanvas

Reduce Data Entry & Billing Errors with Automated Calculations from GoCanvas

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Math is hard. Yes, I’ve finally said it. I still use the calculator on my phone to even conduct the simplest of calculations because I’m afraid of making the slightest error (and I simply write content all day)! Imagine the pressure that field users deal with when they are trying to put together estimates or invoices for materials that cost more than I could ever imagine.

Having to look up material or service costs from a catalog, transport that information to a paper form, and then manual calculate it all up is a process that is extremely open to error. 

This is why GoCanvas has the Calculation field!

This “quick-calc” field essentially allows your field users to input any sets of numbers into their mobile form and have those values run through the formula you have pre-created, which then results in an accurate final total. There is no need for calculators or doing math in your head, GoCanvas does the work for you instantly!

And if you’re using the Reference Data feature of GoCanvas, you can have all of your company’s materials and price lists be pre-populated into your mobile form as well! This means no more catalogs and no more manual calculations!

The best part about using the Calculation field in GoCanvas is that it’s incredibly flexible to use within many different processes. The Calculation field allows you to create formulas using any combination of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division.

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With these different mathematical rules, you are able to create calculations using a variety of different form fields including Number, Time, and Date. 

This means you have the option to create simple or complex calculation formulas for determining everything including:

  • Quantity
  • Cost
  • Time
  • Days

If you are going down the path of using mobile forms, then you should definitely be using Calculation fields.

You will immediately realize the time (and reduced headache) benefits that come from taking the calculator out of your field users’ hands and letting the smart device do what it was meant to do.

Some of the additional benefits that you will realize include:

  • 25% Less time spent reviewing reports
  • 25% Increase in data collection speed
  • 50% Increase in data accuracy
  • 100% Less time honing your math skills

Also, remember that if you are using an inspection-type form that you can create built-in scoring using Reference Data and the Calculation field! This essentially means that you can have each question on your mobile form have an assigned point value based on each individual response. Once the mobile form has been filled out, each question’s point value can then be automatically calculated to give the report a final score! This is an amazing way to give you, your users, and even your customers instant insight into their performance! You can click here to learn more about setting up scoring!

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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