Digital job sheets and customer sign-off

A job sheet is the record of a visit or a piece of work: who went, when, what they found, what they did, what is left, and what the customer accepted. It might be a site sheet, a service visit, a commissioning note, or the record of what was delivered and finished. The name changes with the work. The record is the same.

Paper can do this on the day. It is poor at the question that arrives later. Something was already damaged. The invoice is queried. Someone wants proof the work was finished before they pay. The sheet is in a van or a filing tray, the photos were on a phone that has been replaced, and the signature is a squiggle with no name beside it.

Why paper fails the second question

The person who was there can usually say what they did. "Show me", asked months later by someone who was not there, is the question paper loses.

• The pad stays in the van, or in a drawer. The office copy fades, or never arrives.
• Handwriting is retyped on Friday. A serial number or an outstanding item is misread, so the typed copy and the signed copy become two records.
• Photos sit on a personal phone, with no job number. They go when the handset is changed.
• The signature has no printed name and no time, so you cannot tell who signed, or whether they signed before the extra work.
• Two visits share one sheet. Nobody can say which day the extra was agreed.
• If the customer was absent, the box is left blank. Blank does not say "nobody available at 16:10, key left with security".

The sheet was filled in. It cannot be found, or it cannot be trusted. That is how a variation disappears, and how a straightforward complaint becomes an hour on the phone.

What to put on the sheet

Keep it short enough to finish at the end of the job, not three days later at a desk. The job and the sheet should share a number.

1. Job number, customer, site, date, and the names of who attended. If more than one team touches the job, say which part this sheet covers.
2. What you went to do, what you did, and what is still outstanding, in plain words. "Left for the customer to finish" beats "item 2". Include anything the customer has agreed to leave.
3. What you supplied or completed, including serial numbers or reference numbers you would need if they call back. A number you did not write down is a second visit, or a search through old emails.
4. Photos with a note: existing damage before you start, wide enough to show where it is; a label or serial plate before it is covered up; the finished work; anything you left unfinished.
5. Customer sign-off: name in block capitals, signature, date and time. If they refuse or are not there, write that, with the time and who you told.
6. Your own name. If the sheet changes after someone has signed, keep the earlier version.

A signature shows they saw the sheet and accepted the work as described then. It is not a waiver, and it does not rescue a vague note. If something is incomplete, say so before they sign.

Photos that are worth taking

Take pictures for the question you will be asked, not for a progress album. Before you start, photograph damage that is already there. Customers do not remember the condition of the place, and neither will you. During the work, photograph labels, model or reference numbers, and anything you isolated or set aside. Afterwards, photograph the completed work and anything you left unfinished.

"Existing scratch on the left-hand side, before we started" still makes sense next year. "IMG_4382" does not. Store the photos on the job the same day. If the only copy is on one person's phone, you do not have the photo.

Proving the work was done

No single sheet proves a job. The set that answers "were you there, did you do this, did the customer see it?" is the job, the people, the sheet, the photos, the signature and the time. Split across a van, a phone and an inbox, that set is gossip.

Two other records belong with it. Training records say whether the people named on the sheet were current. The RAMS say which method they were working to, and who had acknowledged it. A signature answers a different question: what was accepted on the day.

Keep the sheet for as long as someone might ask, which is often long after the invoice is paid: a warranty call, a complaint, the next person who picks up that job. You should find it from the customer or the job number, without ringing the person who did the work. If a record can be edited later, look for a history of what changed and who changed it.

What to look for in software

You are replacing a pad. The person doing the work has to finish the sheet where the work is, in a few minutes, not type it up on Friday. That record, in their hand rather than back at the desk, is covered in field service software.

• The sheet belongs to the job, and the office sees it without retyping.
• Photos stay with the sheet, each with a note.
• The signature is captured then, with a name and a time, or a note that nobody was there.
• You can find it months later from the customer, the site or the job number.
• An amendment leaves the earlier version visible.

If the person doing the work still writes on a pad and someone types it later, you have added a chore. You have not replaced the paper.

How Atlas OS^® helps

Atlas OS^® is a complete business operating system for any business, anywhere, in any sector. The operating system behind your business. It is in development. This page is about what a job sheet should hold. It is not a catalogue of buttons already switched on.

Atlas OS is built to keep the job and its records together. Work planned at a desk reaches the person doing it in Atlas Field. Documents can be attached to the job or site, and the team sees them on the job. For RAMS, staff acknowledge them in the field app, and Atlas records who acknowledged each version and when. On a controlled document, Atlas keeps the current revision, who approved it, and what happened to the version before. That is a different thing from a signed sheet left in a van or a drawer.

Run it. Connect it. Control it. Prove it.

Get early access

If the proof of a job is still a paper pad, join the waitlist. We will email you when Atlas OS opens.