SolarCleaningBossPro Blog — Tech App

Start, Skip, Complete: The Three Buttons That Run a Solar Cleaning Day

Everything the office needs to know about a solar cleaning job, while it is happening, comes down to three questions. Is the tech there? Is it done? And if it is not getting done, why not? SolarCleaningBossPro answers those with three buttons on every job card: Start, Skip and Complete.

After the Card Is Read

By the time the tech taps anything, they have read the card: panel details, spigot and ladder notes, and the gate and dog notes covered in Gate Codes and Dogs: Access Notes in the Solar Cleaning Tech App. Now the buttons take over. They are deliberately simple. A tech wearing gloves and a harness should not have to fill out a form to tell the office what is going on.

Start

Tap Start when you arrive and begin the job. That tells the office the tech is on site and working. On the office side, the job shows as underway. If a customer calls asking whether the crew has made it yet, the office can answer without calling the tech.

Start is also a good moment to take the before photos. Panels covered in dust, pollen or bird droppings, taken before the first drop of water hits the glass. Those photos are the first half of the proof that the job was done.

Complete

Tap Complete when the job is finished, the after photos are taken and the gear is back on the truck. Complete does several things at once:

• The office sees the job done, with the tech's photos and notes attached.
• The invoice is created from the job's line items.
• If the customer has a card on file and the account is set to charge on completion, the card is charged.
• On a recurring plan, the next cleaning comes due on the Waiting List on its own once the minimum days have passed.

Because Complete starts the invoice and the payment, it should be tapped only when the work on the card is actually done, including any extras like bird proofing or an inspection. If something on the card was not done, write a note before tapping Complete so the office can adjust the invoice.

Skip

Skip is for the jobs that cannot be done today. In solar cleaning that happens more than in most trades, because so much depends on the roof and the weather:

• Wind too strong to work safely on a two-story or steep roof.
• Panels too hot to clean safely in the middle of a summer afternoon.
• Rain, ice or a wet roof that is not safe to walk.
• No access: a locked gate, a dog in the yard, a car parked where the ladder goes.
• No safe roof access: a damaged ladder spot, a roof that is in worse shape than the notes say.

When a tech taps Skip, they add a note saying why. That note is the most important part. “Skipped” tells the office nothing. “Gusts too strong on 3-story steep roof, safe to retry tomorrow morning” tells them how to reschedule and what to tell the customer. The full guide is Skipping a Solar Cleaning Job for Wind, Heat, Rain or No Roof Access, and Noting Why.

Notes Along the Way

Between Start and Complete, the tech can add notes to the job at any time. Notes are how the tech tells the office something the buttons cannot: a nest under the array, a cracked panel, a customer who asked about critter guards, a spigot that has moved. The office reads the notes and acts on them, whether that means a quote, a call to the customer or an update to the access notes for next time.

What the Office Gets

Three buttons sound small, but on the office side they add up to a live view of the day. The office can see which jobs are underway, which are done and which were skipped and why. It does not have to call every truck at lunch to ask how the day is going. Skipped jobs come with a reason, so the reschedule and the customer text happen while the facts are fresh.

For customers, the buttons drive the texts. When the tech heads to the next stop and arrives, the on-the-way and arrived texts go out automatically. When the tech taps Complete, the invoice appears in the customer app, ready to view or pay.

Keep It to Three

The best field apps ask the least of the person in the field. Start, Skip and Complete, plus a note when there is something worth saying, are enough to run a full solar cleaning day. For everything else on the tech's phone, visit the SolarCleaningBossPro solar cleaning app page.