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Getting started with vWork: Checklists

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Learn how to customize your account, add users, add customers and get your account up and running when you are setting up a new vWork account. 

In this article

We’ve created three checklists to get you started: 

  1. the web app checklist for setting up your vWork account, users, and customers 
  2. the mobile app checklist to get your workers, who use the vWork mobile app, up and running on their mobile mobile device
  3. the workflow test checklist to test your settings and job templates against your workflow.

Click any of the topic links above to go to the checklist you need. You can return to this topic list by clicking this icon - you'll find it at the end of each checklist.

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As you review the checklists you'll see we have added links. Some links connect you to vWork online help articles to provide you with more detailed information and instructions about a checklist task; others open the correct page in the vWork web app where a task can be completed. 

Once you have completed the basic setup we recommend you create a few test jobs, a test customer, and a test mobile app user (worker) to try out your workflow and job templates. This will help you streamline your workflow and make adjustments to your vWork account before you start using vWork to schedule jobs. 

These checklists cover vWork's standard features. Once you have the basic setup in place you can add to it and adjust it as you become more familiar with what vWork can do to enhance your workflow, save you time, and make you more efficient.  If you need any help please email support@vworkapp.com. We’ll get in touch to help you get the most from your vWork account.

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vWork web app checklist

Many of the tasks in this checklist are administration tasks that require the 'Admin' web app permission. When your vWork account is created we automatically add the details of the person who signs up to the account as an Administrator with the Admin permission. The tasks in this checklist are all performed in the vWork web app. We recommend you complete these tasks in the order shown.

1. Customize the default vWork settings

vWork Settings set your time zone, how your mobile users will interact with jobs on the mobile app, what dispatchers can do with full user permissions in the app, and your business branding, among other things.

There are some global account settings to review and adjust in the General settings. You can find out more about how to manage your vWork General settings in the article, Customize vWork's General Settings.

If you plan to use vWork’s invoice feature you should also review the Finance settings. This is where you set the currency used, tax rate, tax number, payment and contact details, and other finance settings. When you first create your vWork account the invoice feature isn’t active, but it is easily enabled in the Finance settings.  For more information about using the Invoice feature please see the article, Invoicing with vWork.

2. Add users

Add the foundation users in the Users settings. You will assign users their User Permissions. These determine what they are allowed to do in vWork.  The article, Create new users and send a login link to mobile users, explains how to add users to vWork.

  • Set up at least one dispatcher and one worker (mobile app user) in addition to the administrator profile that already exists. This will help you test your workflow. It isn’t necessary to add all users at this time as it is easy to add more users later.

  • 'Web App Permissions' are needed for your dispatchers so they can create and schedule jobs. Dispatchers may have Full permissions that enable them to use the tab or feature you give them permission for, or Read Only permission. Read Only permission lets them view a tab or feature but not change anything on it.

  • The web app 'Admin' permission is also needed for Administrators. Users with the Admin permission enabled can set up and modify all aspects of vWork and give themselves all user permissions. It's a good idea to limit users with the Admin permission to a small number of trusted team members. For more information please see the article, Web App Permissions.

  • 'Mobile Permissions' are needed for the workers who use the vWork mobile app (either Android or iOS). Once you have a user with Mobile Permissions enabled you can assign jobs to them. This is a good time to set up a test worker to test your templates and workflow. For more information please see the article, Mobile Permissions.

3. Create job templates

Create the job templates you need to complete everyday tasks. The article, Create a Job Template explains how to set these up.

  • Job templates are the blueprint for creating jobs in vWork. They have steps and custom fields that make sure your team members do everything needed to complete a job efficiently and completely, every time.

  • The key to good Job templates is planning. Think about your workflow and create job templates for the different tasks that your team typically does. In addition to helping you manage jobs for customers, job templates can be used to help you schedule internal jobs in the office, depot, or warehouse; eg; a vehicle maintenance inspection, a pre-departure safety check, or restocking a technician’s work kit.

Templates are the cornerstone of using vWork. You can learn more about what templates in the article, What is a template?

4. Create Alerts and Reports

Alerts and reports can be used together to keep both management and customers informed about jobs and worker performance.

  • Alerts are used to notify customers, dispatchers, and other stakeholders about job activity in real-time. These can be in-app notifications to the dispatcher, email notifications to anyone, and optionally, SMS notifications. You can find out more about alerts in the article, What are Alerts?

  • Reports provide useful information about something related to an individual job (such as an invoice or Job-status report) or about a collection of jobs or mobile workers. To find out more about reports please read the article, What are vWork Reports?

  • Reports can be included in email alerts. If you want to attach a report to an email alert, set up the report before you create the alert. This process is explained in the article, Set up an Alert.

5. Add customers to the website

It's a good idea to create a few test customers to test your workflow. To find out how to add a customer to your account please see the article, Create a Customer

  • Make sure you set up your test customers with an email address and mobile phone number that you have easy access to. This is important for seeing how your alerts and reports will work when you test your workflow.

  • When you have things set up as you want then you can import your customers in bulk. Customers can be imported directly from other software that vWork integrates with. Please see the article, Can I import my Customers from Salesforce/Xero/Quickbooks? Alternatively, you can import customers saved in a CSV file. This is explained in the article, Bulk import and update customer information.

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vWork mobile app checklist

The vWork mobile app is designed to be used by workers to create and/or complete jobs away from the office on either and Android or iOS mobile phone or tablet (mobile device).

The tasks in this checklist are all performed in the vWork mobile app on a mobile device. You must have your user profile enabled with 'Mobile Permissions' to use the mobile app. The vWork web app checklist, above, has more information to help you with this. 

1. Install vWork on your iOS or Android device

You can download and install the vWork app from either the iOS App Store or the Google Play Store.

2. Log in to the vWork mobile app

Once you have the vWork mobile app installed on your mobile device, log in to it to start completing jobs.

3. Turn location tracking and other settings for the vWork app

vWork requires location tracking to be enabled in both vWork and also in your mobile device settings for the vWork app so that worker location can be tracked and job steps can be navigated to using the vWork mobile app. We only ever track worker location when they are logged in to the vWork app and during their set operating hours.

Other permissions are also required to be enabled so that workers can receive notifications about changes to their scheduled jobs and also so they can take photos if this is required.

We have two sections in vWork online help to help you select the best settings in the vWork app and also enable the correct corresponding settings for the vWork app in your device settings:

We recommend you pay particular attention to the articles that explain what settings your device needs enabled for vWork to function as expected:


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Test your workflow

Before you use vWork to schedule real jobs it is helpful to run some test jobs to test your workflow, templates, and settings. You’ll need to have a dispatcher logged in to the web app and a test worker logged into the mobile app. 

If you are using alerts, you should also make sure you have some test customers with email and mobile phone numbers that you can use to check reports and alerts sent to the customer.

1. Create a test job and assign it to a mobile worker

Create a job from each of your job templates and assign them to your selected test worker. For more information about creating and assigning jobs please read the articles, Create a Job and Assign a Job to a worker.

2. Complete the test job through the mobile app

Observe what happens on the web app as you complete steps and custom fields for each job using the vWork mobile app as the test worker.

  • When you have some test jobs created take a look at them on the Schedule. Make a note of the jobs’ colors and how the colors correspond to their statuses. Observe how the jobs’ statuses change on the Schedule as jobs are created, published, assigned, and completed.

  • Look at your test jobs on in the Jobs tab. See what information is shown for each job. Observe how the status of each job changes as the jobs are progressed.

  • Open the Job Editor for each job and see what information is captured in each of the tabs.

  • When you test alerts, check your test customer’s email inbox and SMS messages if the alert recipient is the customer. Also, check the Alerts tab in the web app and the email inboxes for alerts and reports sent to members of your team.

  • If you have set up alerts as In app notifications check to see these show in the web app.

💡 Tip: To see changes made to jobs in the vWork mobile apps on the web app, and vice versa, you need to make sure your mobile device and the vWork server sync. We have two articles that explain this:

3. Refine your vWork setup

Use the your tests to identify the changes you need to make to your web app settings, user permissions, mobile app settings, and job templates to refine your workflow. 

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What’s next

If you are happy with your testing you can start scheduling jobs and continue to add to your vWork account in the background. We recommend you test each new feature as you add it. If you want to add more features to your account you can use our help articles for guidance or contact support@vworkapp.com. 

We also have tools to help you bulk import data from other systems using CSV files. Please see the article,  Prepare a CSV file to import data into vWork for more information. Alternatively, you might consider using our API to automate your job scheduling and sharing of data between systems.

As always, if you need any further assistance please email support@vworkapp.com. 

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