Partners in trade

How do your business reports and notes come in? If you don’t bat an eye at notes scribbled on gyprock, and are used to loose scraps of paper and overflowing filing cabinets, perhaps you belong to the unsung heroes of the trade profession – the partners at the desk, tasked with “everything else”. Bookkeeping, scheduling, quoting, and keeping everyone safe, you have to wear a million hats at once. Just not the hard ones. 

Take Karen and Gary, for example. They are a husband and wife team who run their carpentry business together. They had lots of work coming in, which was a blessing and a curse for Karen. Every week there was mountains of paperwork to sort through, and sometimes Gary’s notes were indecipherable. To make matters worse, many of his quotes, measurements and important information existed only in his head. It’s a common story. Gary was busy, and it was tough to remember to note everything down amongst everything else. 

But you know what? Karen was busy too, and Gary’s poor note taking meant she was wasting hours chasing down information, interpreting scribble and putting quotes together with missing information. 

Luckily, it doesn’t have to be this way. As an efficiency consultant, Karen and Gary’s situation is all too familiar amongst my clients. I’m going to tell you the secret… It’s a simple online tool that will save both of you hours each week called iAuditor. Its my ‘go to’ tool to when looking to collect data easily and increase efficiency. Here’s how:

Site Inspection and Quoting

Conducting a site inspection using iAuditor ensures you collect all relevant information in one visit. No more forgetting to check overhead powerlines, side access or details of the current conditions.  With a mix of free text, multiple choice questions and the ability to include photos, quotes can be easily prepared back in the office with everything at hand.

Dilapidation Report

The majority of development approvals require a dilapidation report to provide evidence of the site prior to construction commencing.  It’s also a great idea to do this for your own benefit at the start of every job so there is a clear record of the site condition. One of the great features of iAuditor is the prebuilt reporting.  No more formatting pictures in word! Once you hit complete, the report is done and ready to download.

Better Than a Diary

iAuditor allows you to easily schedule an inspection to detail where you worked, the number of hours and what was completed.  You can even use voice-to-text to do this very quickly. No more misplaced diary notes or forgetting what days were worked and where. Further still, the schedule feature can also include a knock off time reminder.

A Picture Tells 1000 Words

No more bits and pieces of paper (or gyprock) floating around with random sketches. One of the key features of iAuditor is the ability to collect images in any template.  Not only can you add photos, but you can draw directly onto the image using your finger. This feature can be used to highlight existing damage or identify an outstanding issue. 

We often use the annotation feature for sketching.  Perfect for quoting, you can use your finger or a stylus to free draw and save any image.

The export facility also means that photos collected in any inspection can be exported for social media. This is ideal for before and after comparison posts.

Work Health and Safety

The requirements for compliance can be overwhelming.  Too often WHS checks are overlooked because they’re seen as difficult to complete.  Use iAuditor to workflow your processes and automatically create reports available in the cloud on completion. No more chasing paperwork.

Work Smarter – Not Harder

If you would like to work smarter, not harder give iAuditor a try.  Oh, did I mention it works on all PC’s, Android, and Apple devices?

To discuss your template creation needs or for any other questions, contact Natalie Allan Consulting at www.natalieallanconsulting.com. We love to help you produce a Tradie Proof solution to increase efficiency, save time and ease frustration.

Important Notice
The information contained in this article is general in nature and you should consider whether the information is appropriate to your specific needs. Legal and other matters referred to in this article are based on our interpretation of laws existing at the time and should not be relied on in place of professional advice. We are not responsible for the content of any site owned by a third party that may be linked to this article. SafetyCulture disclaims all liability (except for any liability which by law cannot be excluded) for any error, inaccuracy, or omission from the information contained in this article, any site linked to this article, and any loss or damage suffered by any person directly or indirectly through relying on this information.