Finding your way
- Today: today's visits, and anything still open from earlier days.
- Estimates: estimates waiting for an answer, approved and declined.
- Bills: visits to bill, unfinished bills, bills waiting for payment and paid ones.
- Customers: find any customer or address.
- Calendar: your own visits on other days, if your shop owner has turned it on.
The bell at the top shows notifications. Your initials, top right, open your profile, settings and Help & app version.
Clocking in and out
The strip at the top of Today has Clock in. Once in, it shows when you started and your hours today, with Clock out. For a break, clock out and back in.
If you tap On my way or Arrived while clocked out, Pipr asks Clock in now?. If you forgot to clock out yesterday, Pipr asks when you stopped.
Missed one? Fix my hours lets you add a missed clock-in or clock-out, or take one back, with a short note saying why. The owner sees the note.
A visit, step by step
Each visit on Today has one button for its next step:
- On my way. Optional. While you're on the way, the office sees where your truck is, and Pipr offers a tracking link you can text the customer from your phone's Messages, so they can watch you arrive. Sharing stops when you tap Arrived.
- Arrived. Starts the work. The visit shows as Working.
- Complete. Pipr asks how it will be billed: Bill now, Bill later or Nothing to bill.
- Bill it, if you chose Bill later.
- Collect payment, once the bill is written.
Steps only go forward. Tapped On my way by mistake? Open the visit, then More → Not on my way after all. Cancelling a visit is the office's job.
Tap a visit to open its page: Call, Text, Directions and Photos as buttons at the top, then where the visit stands, the customer, the address, the gate code and notes, any approved estimate work as a tick-list, the bill and photos. The next step (On my way, Arrived, Complete, Bill it, Collect payment) stays at the bottom of the screen as you scroll. More (the ••• button at the top right) has the rest: send the tracking link, add extra work, write an estimate, sign the customer up for a plan, ask for a review, edit the visit, change its bill until it is paid, and its history.
Work nobody booked
On site and asked to do something that isn't on your schedule? Start a New bill on the Bills tab for that address. When you finish it, Pipr adds the visit to your schedule, tagged Field visit, so every bill belongs to a visit. You can change what it's for afterwards under More → Edit visit.
Extra work on a visit that's already booked goes on the same bill as another line, or Add extra work if the customer should sign for it first.
Writing the bill and getting paid
- Tap Add from price book to pick jobs from the shop's price book, or Add custom item for anything it doesn't have. Work the customer approved on an estimate comes in with Add approved work.
- The customer can sign on the screen.
- Tap Finish. The bill is written, unpaid, and Collect payment opens.
- Choose how they pay: Send payment link for a card (they pay on a secure Stripe page; this needs signal), Cash, Check (with its number), or Card, taken elsewhere if you used the shop's own card reader.
Cash and checks work with no signal. An unfinished bill stays under Drafts on your phone for 30 days. Got something wrong on a bill you finished? Until it is paid, Edit bill on Collect payment opens it to change: see Change a bill. More in Bills and payments.
Photos and equipment
On a visit, Photos → Add photo: take one or choose one, with a note. It's saved on the phone at once and uploads when there's signal.
For a water heater, furnace or other unit, Scan a tag takes a photo of its rating plate and Pipr reads the make, model and serial once it uploads. Check what it filled in and tap Confirm. More on equipment.
Estimates on site
From a visit, More → Estimate. Add up to three options, then Show customer: they pick one, sign and tap I approve, right on your phone, with no signal needed. Estimates help.
In a basement with no signal
Keep working. The schedule, steps, clock, bills, cash and checks, estimates, notes and photos all work offline and are sent when the signal comes back. The top of the app says All sent in green when everything has been sent, or how many changes are waiting. Working with no signal.