The field app

The field app is Spine on your crew’s phones. It shows the jobs you’re on with their addresses and contacts, and lets you take site photos, mark milestones complete, log expenses with a receipt photo, and show a quote to the customer for them to sign. Everything goes to your own company’s Spine server, not anywhere else.

Who can use it

Anyone in your business can sign in to the field app with their Spine email and password. It’s made for Field members, whose rights are fixed: they see only the jobs they’re on the crew of and their own expenses. During the beta the app is for Android phones only; iPhone joins later.

The main ideas

• Tabs. The app has four tabs: Today, Jobs, Expenses and Search. On iPhone, Search is the search button in the tab bar. Your picture or initials at the top right of every tab opens Profile, and the bell on Today opens Notifications.
• Your jobs only. The app lists the jobs your office has put you on the crew for. If you’re taken off a crew, the job leaves your list.
• No money figures. The app never shows invoices, payments, receivables, payables or reports. The only money you see is your own expenses and the quote you’re showing a customer. A job’s contract value and milestone amounts are never shown.
• Works with no signal. What the app last downloaded stays on the phone. Photos, expenses and milestone completions are saved on the phone and sent when you’re back online. Showing a quote for the customer to accept or decline needs a connection.
• Sync. The pill at the top of Today says All synced or how many items are waiting. Tap it to see what’s waiting, what was sent today and anything that needs fixing.
• Modules. When an Owner switches off Jobs & field in Settings › Modules, the Jobs tab, job cards and job figures are hidden and the app is for expenses. When Leads & meetings is off, your next meeting isn’t shown.
• Light and dark. The app follows your phone’s light or dark mode, or the one you choose in Profile.

Tasks

• Install the field app
• Sign in on your phone
• Use the Today screen
• Open a job and its details
• Search your jobs and expenses
• Take site photos for a job
• Mark a milestone complete on site
• Log an expense with a receipt
• Log a day’s labour
• Check your expenses
• Present a quote and take the customer’s signature
• Record a quote the customer declines
• Work with no signal
• Fix an item that didn’t send
• See your notifications
• Change your settings and sign out
• Update the field app

The office side of this work is in the Jobs and milestones and Purchases and expenses guides. To invite someone as a Field member, see Team and permissions.