Once you are familiar with vWork, we have some best practices and tips that can make things run smoothly.

In this article

• Keep job templates as simple as possible
• Remove Administrator and Dispatcher mobile permissions
• Improve performance on the mobile app
• Mobile device setup: helpful tips

Keep job templates as simple as possible

This keeps things fast and keeps your mobile workers happy. Think about what you must have a worker do and leave out any unnecessary steps or custom fields.

Remove Administrator and Dispatcher mobile permissions

If you don't want your vWork Account Administrators or Dispatchers to be assigned to jobs (because they don't work in the field as part of their duties) then remove them from the Mobile worker permissions. This stops their names from showing in the Schedule or on the list of available workers to assign to jobs.

To do this:

• open the User Permissions for this person 
• uncheck Enabled in Mobile Permissions. 

Improve performance on the mobile app

The following items are things you can do from the office to improve the performance of your mobile workers' devices when using the vWork app.

Remove Create Jobs as a permission if your worker doesn't need this

If  workers don't need to create jobs from their mobile device, then remove this permission for each worker in their User Permissions. This will make their phone sync faster (as no templates or customers need to be synchronized with the device).

To do this:

1. open the User Permissions for each person 
2. scroll to Mobile Permissions and uncheck Create Jobs.
   
   

Manage how customer data syncs with mobile devices

If you have a large customer database (tens of thousands of customers) and customer information is set to synchronize with workers' mobile devices this can slow the device performance.

If this is an issue for your workers, you can disable the synchronization of customer information with workers' mobile devices. When you do this the mobile devices no longer store customer information, but workers will still have access to customer information online, using the internet. Customer information for a specific job is still saved with the job on the mobile device.  Workers need internet access via Wi-Fi or mobile data to update customer information and create new jobs for a customer.

If you want to do this for your account please contact support@vworkapp.com and ask us to turn off Account-wide Mobile Customer Sync.

Limit the job templates your workers can use to create jobs

If your workers create jobs from their mobile devices it is good practice to only show the templates they need.  

To do this:

1. Open the User Permissions for each worker.
2. Go to Mobile Permissions and make sure ensure the Create Jobs box is checked.
3. In the Select Templates field, type the first two or more letters of the template name to display a list of templates to select from. Click to select the template you want. Repeat to add more templates. 
   
   

Mobile device setup: helpful tips

The following items are suggested settings that can be changed on your mobile workers' phones to make them work better.

Simplify the workflow

Simplify the workflow on the mobile app by making the app return to the Jobs screen when a worker completes a job so they can see what they need to do next.

To return to the Jobs screen in the mobile app:

1. From the Jobs screen tap to select the main menu from the red banner:
   
   
   
   
2. Tap to select Settings.
   
   
3. Android only: Tap to select Interface
   
   
4. Android: Scroll to the Display heading and tap to add a checkmark to Return to Jobs on Complete.
   
   IOS: Scroll to the Options heading and tap to turn the toggle switch on for Job complete gores to job list.
   

Timestamp images if this is required

Timestamped images are useful for proof of delivery and to show the condition of an item at a given time.

To timestamp an image, in the mobile app:

1. From the Jobs screen tap to select the main menu from the red banner:
   
   
   
   
2. Tap to select Settings.
   
   
3. Android only: Tap to select Interface
   
   
4. Android: Scroll to the Attachments heading and tap to add a checkmark to Timestamp images.
   
   IOS: Scroll to the Options heading and tap to turn the toggle switch on for Add timestamp to images.

Stop images and photos saving to the phone's storage (older devices)

Older devices sometimes have limited storage space and their performance slows when this gets full. You can improve performance by stopping images and photos taken in the vWork app from saving in the phone's storage. Images and photos that are included as part of a job will still sync to your vWork account along with the other job information.

To stop Images from saving to the phone, in the mobile app:

1. From the Jobs screen tap to select the main menu from the red banner:
   
   
   
   
2. Tap to select Settings.
   
   
3. Android only: Tap to select Interface
   
   
4. Android: Scroll to the Attachments heading and tap to remove the checkmark from Keep vWork images on your phone.
   
   IOS: Under the General heading tap to turn the toggle switch off for Save images to photo library.

Make signing into the mobile app fast and easy with a QR code

Use a Barcode or QR code to sign in to the mobile app so your workers don't need to remember an email address or password to sign in. This is really useful when you have created your vehicles as your mobile workers in vWork.  It makes it super easy for your workers to sign in to the vehicle's vWork user account to see the jobs assigned to the vehicle for the day. See the article How do I log in to the Mobile App with a Barcode of QR code for more information.