Field service and job management glossary

Plain definitions of the words used in field service and job management, from work order and dispatch to first-time fix rate, written for service businesses in South Africa and across Africa.

• Asset managementAsset management in field service is keeping a register of equipment and the service history attached to each item. An asset is a specific machine at a specific place, identified by make, model and serial number. The register answers what is installed, when it was last serviced, and what was done to it.
• Certificate of compliance (CoC)A certificate of compliance is a document issued by a registered person confirming that an installation meets the applicable safety standard. In South Africa, electrical installations are certified under the Electrical Installation Regulations, and the wiring standard they are assessed against is SANS 10142-1. Gas and plumbing work carry their own certificates.
• CIDB (Construction Industry Development Board)The CIDB is the Construction Industry Development Board, which keeps the register of contractors that South African public sector clients must use when awarding construction contracts. Each contractor is graded from 1 to 9 in a class of work by financial and works capability, and the grade sets the largest public contract the contractor may tender for.
• Client portalA client portal is a signed-in area where your customers can see their own jobs, quotes, invoices and documents without phoning your office. It reduces status calls, gives customers a record they can find for themselves, and gives them a route to request new work at any hour.
• DispatchDispatch is the act of assigning a job to a technician and sending them what they need to do it. It sits between scheduling, which decides when work happens, and the field, where it gets done. Good dispatch matches the job to a nearby person with the right skills, certifications and parts.
• e-CoC (electronic certificate of compliance)An e-CoC is an electrical certificate of compliance issued electronically rather than from a paper certificate book, with a serial number held on a central record. The Electrical Contractors Association provides one to its members. It carries the same weight as the paper form, because the certificate is defined by its content and the registered person who signs it.
• Field service managementField service management is the coordination of work carried out at customer sites rather than at your own premises. It covers taking the job in, scheduling a technician, dispatching them with the right information, capturing what happened on site, and billing for it. Software for it keeps those five steps against one record.
• First-time fix rateFirst-time fix rate is the percentage of jobs completed on the first visit, with no return trip needed. It is calculated as first-visit completions divided by total jobs over a period. A low rate usually points at missing parts, missing information, or the wrong skills sent to the site.
• GeofencingGeofencing draws a virtual boundary around a place so a system can tell when a device enters or leaves it. In field service the boundary sits around a job site or a depot, and crossing it raises an event: an arrival alert, a departure alert, or a flag on a clock-in made outside the zone.
• Geyser certificate of complianceA geyser certificate of compliance is the plumbing certificate a PIRB-registered plumber issues after installing or replacing a fixed electric storage water heater under SANS 10254. It records the installer, the address, the unit and the safety components fitted: pressure control valve, safety valve, vacuum breakers, drip tray and drain line. Insurers ask for it on geyser claims.
• Invoice ageingInvoice ageing is grouping unpaid invoices by how long they have been outstanding, usually in buckets of current, 30, 60 and 90 days or more. It shows where your cash is stuck and which accounts need chasing. The older a bucket gets, the less likely the money is to arrive.
• Job cardA job card is the on-site record of what a technician actually did. It captures arrival and departure times, the work performed, parts used, photographs, notes and the customer's signature. In a paper system it is the sheet left on a dashboard. In a digital system it is completed in the app and attached to the job.
• Job costingJob costing is working out what an individual job actually cost you, rather than what the whole month cost. It adds labour hours at their real rate, parts and materials consumed, subcontractor charges and travel, then compares that total against what you invoiced to give the margin on that job.
• Job management softwareJob management software is a system that tracks a piece of work from enquiry to payment. It holds the customer, the quote, the schedule, the technician's notes and photos, and the invoice against one job record, so nobody has to reconcile a diary, a spreadsheet and an accounting package by hand.
• Load sheddingLoad shedding is the planned, rotational interruption of electricity supply used in South Africa when demand outstrips available generation. Cuts follow published stage schedules by area, so an outage is predictable rather than random. For field service it removes power, and often mobile signal, from job sites and offices for hours at a time.
• Mobile workforce managementMobile workforce management is running a team that works away from your premises: knowing where people are, what they are working on, how long it took, and whether they have the information and stock to finish. It combines scheduling, a field app, time capture and location data into one view.
• PIRB (Plumbing Industry Registration Board)The PIRB is the Plumbing Industry Registration Board, the body that registers plumbers in South Africa by qualification and experience and issues each a registration number. A PIRB-registered plumber may issue a plumbing certificate of compliance, which insurers and municipalities ask for on geyser and hot-water work. Registration is renewed with continuing professional development points.
• Preventive maintenancePreventive maintenance is servicing equipment on a schedule before it fails, rather than waiting for a breakdown. The schedule is driven by elapsed time, by runtime hours, or by the manufacturer's stated interval. It buys more planned visits and fewer emergencies, which is usually the cheaper trade for both parties.
• Proof of serviceProof of service is the evidence that work was carried out as agreed: timestamped arrival and departure, photographs of the work, the parts used, the technician's notes, and a customer signature. It settles disputes about whether a visit happened, and it supports the invoice when a client queries the charge.
• PSIRA (Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority)PSIRA is the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority, the statutory regulator under the Private Security Industry Regulation Act of 2001. Every security service provider and every security officer in South Africa must be registered with it, including alarm and CCTV installers and locksmiths. Registration is renewed each year and lapses when it is not.
• Purchase orderA purchase order is the document you send a supplier committing to buy goods or services at an agreed price. It gives the supplier authority to deliver and gives you a record to check the delivery note and the supplier invoice against, which is how overcharging and short deliveries get caught.
• Quote vs estimateA quote is a fixed price you commit to for a defined scope of work. An estimate is your best assessment of the likely cost, which may move as the job is uncovered. The practical difference is who carries the risk when the work turns out to cost more than expected.
• Recurring maintenance contractA recurring maintenance contract is an agreement to service a customer's equipment on a fixed schedule, monthly, quarterly or annually, usually for a set fee. It converts unpredictable callout revenue into predictable income, and gives the customer planned attention rather than a breakdown at the worst possible moment.
• Route optimisationRoute optimisation is ordering a technician's stops so the driving between them is as short as practical. Rather than visiting jobs in the order they were booked, the system works out a sensible sequence. Shortest-path optimisation uses distance. Traffic-aware routing, which is a different capability, also reads live road conditions.
• SANS 10142-1 (wiring of premises)SANS 10142-1 is the South African national standard for the wiring of premises at low voltage, published by the SABS. It is the code an electrical installation is tested against when a registered person issues a certificate of compliance, and its test report records the measurements: earth continuity, insulation resistance, polarity and the earth leakage test among them.
• SAQCC Gas (gas practitioner registration)SAQCC Gas is the South African Qualification and Certification Committee for Gas, the body appointed under the Pressure Equipment Regulations to register gas practitioners. Only a registered practitioner in the matching category may issue the certificate of conformity that a gas installation needs on completion and that a property with a gas installation needs on transfer.
• Service level agreement (SLA)A service level agreement is a written commitment about how quickly you will respond to and resolve a customer's request. It typically sets a response time, a resolution time, cover hours, and what happens if you miss. In field service it decides which job gets dispatched first when everything is urgent.
• SSEG (small-scale embedded generation)Small-scale embedded generation, SSEG, is a generator connected on the customer's side of the meter to the low voltage distribution network, in practice a rooftop solar system with a grid-tied inverter. It must be registered with the network operator that supplies the property, a municipality or Eskom, using an inverter approved under NRS 097-2-1 and an electrical certificate of compliance.
• Technician schedulingTechnician scheduling is deciding which technician does which job, and when. It balances the customer's preferred time against travel distance, skills, certifications and the hours a technician actually has. Done on paper it is a diary. Done in software it is a calendar that catches a clash before the customer does.
• Work orderA work order is the instruction that authorises a specific piece of work. It names the customer, the site, what needs doing, when, and who is responsible. It is the document the technician works from and the office bills against, and it carries a status from raised through to completed and invoiced.