Coolair, a provider of high-quality refrigeration and air conditioning services has recently invested in streamlining their business operations with WorkPal.
Established in 1990 by Gary Rodger, Coolair has a specialist team of engineers and project managers working within the public and private sectors to provide a range of tailored air conditioning solutions at competitive prices.
WHAT WERE COOLAIR’S JOB MANAGEMENT ISSUES?
With hundreds of engineers working at a national level, providing detailed job reports from a remote location is a key priority for Coolair. “Having to bring our engineers back to the office on a daily basis to complete job reports was leading to increased downtime”, says Mr Rodger. WorkPal’s on the job reporting features mean engineers are now able to complete job reports on site which are then sent instantly back to the office to be processed. The ability to complete reports on site creates a more accurate overview of the job. Engineers have the capability to upload images of particular aspects of the work to give a more detailed insight into the work that was carried out.
Mr Rodger also emphasised the need for a solution to stop invoices backing up. “If all the engineers come in at the same time then that’s a bulk of jobs for the accounts team to begin invoicing at once.” WorkPal provides a solution to help streamline the accounting process by creating and delivering invoices directly to the client once a job has been completed on site, reducing duplication of processes by the accounts team. Mr Rodger expresses how, by using WorkPal to instantly send invoices to clients once a job has been completed, they have significantly improved their cash flow.
“An example would be if we complete a job and then didn’t see that engineer for a week, that’s one week before one job can be invoiced. So if that engineer completed 10 jobs in that week you can see how this mounts up. Times that by a team of 5 engineers and it soon adds up.”
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING WORKPAL FOR COOLAIR?
WorkPal has helped Coolair to “improve job logging” through its drag and drop scheduling feature and job numbering system. Office staff are able to keep track of what jobs engineers are working on as well as having the ability to easily view any job by simply searching for the job number on the WorkPal system. This saves huge amounts of time that would previously have been wasted searching through paperwork and filing cabinets. Having complete visibility of jobs has been a significant benefit for Coolair. “Being able to see live updates for customers on job status has really helped us with planning.”
“WorkPal has improved the turnaround time on jobs from completion to invoicing stage,” says Mr Rodger. Faster invoicing means Coolair are now receiving payments for jobs much quicker than with its previous heavy paper-based system, in turn leading to improved cash flow for the business.
Since introducing WorkPal into Coolair, engineers have reported on improvements to the ordering of materials and stock inventory process. WorkPal allows engineers full visibility of what parts are required for specific jobs, materials that have been ordered and materials that are available in their stock. This creates a more streamlined ordering process and cuts down on excess parts being kept in stock.
HOW DID WORKPAL ENHANCE BUSINESS CAPABILITIES?
HVAC management software has enabled us to “improve the time engineers spend on site and reduce their time spent in the office. This means we have been able to improve customer relations by completing jobs more efficiently, allocating each client a site/job number and then generating a detailed report including pictures, materials and specific works carried out.”
“With the bonus of being able to look up reports instantly on the WorkPal customer portal instead of going into the paper archive, creates much more streamlined business operations.”
WOULD YOU RECOMMEND WORKPAL?
“Yes, we have a system in place that has worked for 29 years, WorkPal has simply enabled us to bring this system into a digital, easily accessible platform. WorkPal, overall, has improved our customers experience from Coolair.”
