Assignment without a huddle
Ask who can take a burst pipe in Queens at seven in the morning and Timber returns a name, the certification behind it and how far away the technician is.
Field service
Dispatch that texts the right technician, without another app.
Your crews will not install a third field application. Timber proposes a technician from certification, licence and who is already out, sends the job by text message, records the replies against the job, and drafts the invoice when the technician reports the work finished. The office stops chasing timesheets.
SMS
Technicians update the job by text message, the way they already write to anyone else
Fit
Proposals check certification, service area and who is already on a job
Done
The invoice is drafted as soon as the technician reports the work finished
R. Okafor · Technician
Text message · no app installed
Burst pipe — 118 Ridgeway, Apt 3B. Category 2, 900 sqft. Photographs attached. Gate code 4412, dog in the yard.7:04
On my way, about 25 minutes7:06
On site. Water has gone past the hallway, pulling the baseboards now7:41
Finished. 4 hours, 6 air movers and 1 dehumidifier left running11:58
Recorded. The invoice draft and the customer close-out are ready for your review.11:59
Assignment
A name, a text message and a closed job, without a field app.
If a technician can reply to a message, they can update the job. The office reads what happened as sentences on the project, rather than a coloured status dot nobody agreed the meaning of.
- 1Timber proposes a technician by certification, licence, service area and who is already out
- 2You confirm the name, and the job goes out by text message — address, scope and photographs
- 3Replies and photographs are recorded on the project as they arrive
- 4Hours and materials become an invoice draft, and the close-out message is written for you to send
“Who can take a burst pipe in Queens at 7am?”
R. Okafor
Category 3 certified · 6 minutes away · free after 9:20
T. Baresi
Category 3 certified · 22 minutes away · on a job until 11
J. Klein
Not certified for Category 3 water
Timber proposes a technician and you confirm the choice. If the wrong name is picked, the assignment can be rolled back before the text message goes out.
Dispatch and timesheets
Why assigning work takes a meeting and the timesheet is a Friday argument.
The crew already carries a phone. The office bought software they will not open, and then reconstructs what happened on Tuesday from memory.
Assigning work takes a huddle
Who is certified for Category 3 water, who holds the licence for a 200-amp panel and who is already working in that part of town are facts that live in one dispatcher's head.
The job details are given over the phone
The address, the scope and the warning about the dog get repeated on every call, and the technician who ended up taking the job never received the photographs.
Status is a coloured dot
On the way, on site and waiting on parts mean different things to different people, so the customer rings the office to find out anyway.
Hours arrive days late
Friday is spent reconstructing the week. Invoices go out under-billed, and payroll and job costing disagree about the same job.
How it runs
Assign the work, run the day, close the job.
01
Assign
Timber checks who is certified for Category 3 water, who holds the licence for a 200-amp panel and who is already working nearby, then proposes a name with the reason beside it. You confirm that technician or choose someone else.
- Skill and licence checked
- Travel time as well as availability
- You still choose the person
02
Run the day
The technician receives the address, the scope and the photographs by text message. Their replies become notes on the job and the photographs they send are filed against it, so nobody has to ask afterwards what happened on Tuesday.
- Job details sent by text message
- Photographs filed on the record
- Arrival windows drafted for the customer
03
Close it
When the technician texts that the work is finished, with the hours and the materials used, Timber drafts the invoice and the customer close-out message. You send them, and the payroll hours are already recorded against the job.
- Hours taken from the thread
- Invoice drafted
- Customer close-out written
No install
A text message or WhatsApp is enough. There is no training session and no login for a technician to forget on the first wet morning.
Day types
The days your office already runs.
Emergency call-outs, scheduled routes, multi-day jobs and callbacks all work the same way: the job goes out by text message and comes back as sentences.
Emergency dispatch
- Who is on call is written down in a skill
- Address and photographs in the first message
- A message to the customer saying you are on the way
- A wrong assignment can be rolled back
Scheduled routes
- Technicians already working nearby proposed first
- Licence and certification checked before the name
- An arrival window the customer can plan around
- Confirmation by text message rather than an app login
Multi-day jobs
- Hanging today and taping tomorrow booked as separate days
- Notes stay on the same project throughout
- Materials recorded as the crew reports them
- Invoice drafted when the last day closes
Snagging and callbacks
- Handled on the original job, not a new email chain
- What went wrong written in plain sentences
- Booked against the record that produced the work
- Close-out message drafted for you to send
Capabilities
What the dispatch desk actually does.
Text message is the interface
There is nothing for a technician to learn. If they can reply to a message, they can update the job.
Live status for the office
On the way, on site and waiting on parts are written as sentences on the project, so anyone in the office can answer the customer without ringing the van.
Materials recorded as they are used
Technicians text what they used and it lands in job costing, so nobody rebuilds the ticket from memory on Friday afternoon.
Customer messages drafted
Messages such as an arrival twenty minutes out, or a return visit needed for the panel, are written for you to approve and send.
Assignments can be rolled back
Timber saves the state of the job before it changes it. If the wrong technician was sent, you can rewind the assignment and book someone else.
Stays with you
Who goes to the job
Timber proposes a technician and you confirm. It does not reassign a crew on its own because a different name scored higher.
Stays with you
The call when a technician goes quiet
A schedule can send one reminder. Deciding when the situation needs an actual phone call stays with you.
Stays with you
Payroll
Hours are recorded against the job so invoicing and review are accurate. You export or copy them into the payroll system you already run.
Most field service software gets ignored by the crew, so we did not build that.
Trade crews already run their working day on text messages. Every field application adds a login, a PIN and one more thing that will not be opened when the basement is full of water. Timber sends the job the way the crew already communicates, and writes their reply onto the job record.
Assignment is a proposal rather than a decision. Timber checks the certification, the licence, who is already out and who has been in that building before, and puts a name in front of you. You confirm it. The job goes out as one message with the address, the scope and the photographs. Status, materials and hours all come back as ordinary sentences.
When the technician reports the work finished, the invoice and the customer close-out are waiting as drafts for you to send. Payroll and job costing agree with each other, because the hours were recorded against the job at the time instead of written in a notebook in the van.
FAQ
Questions about dispatch.
Still deciding? Book a demo and we will go through your own workflow live — your documents, your rates, your schedule.
No. A text message or WhatsApp is enough, and there is nothing to install. A smartphone is useful for sending photographs, but it is not required to update a job.
Other work Timber runs
Field service
Dispatch without another app to install.
Timber proposes the right technician, sends the job by text message, and drafts the invoice when the work is reported finished, so the office is not reconstructing the week on Friday.
No credit card to start. Cancel any time.