It’s five o’clock; do you know where your dehumidifiers are?
Have you ever had a homeowner call up to say that one of your techs left something behind? Opened your truck to find an expected piece of kit was missing? Had to purchase a replacement fan or two because you didn’t know where your existing ones were?
A large mitigation and restoration company will have tens of thousands of dollars invested in capital equipment such as air movers and scrubbers, dehumidifiers, ozone machines, and other pieces of specialized gear that routinely spend days at a jobsite. With effective equipment tracking, you know where each machine is, how long it’s committed to a specific place, and when it will be available for the next job. It’s a vital, but often overlooked, element of running a successful restoration business.
Built-in Restoration Equipment Tracking System
While a common solution to this problem is standalone restoration equipment tracking software, a tool devoted to a single task often ends up being just one more complication in an already complicated industry. But restoration job management software like DASH has a built-in equipment tracking system that keeps tabs on your entire inventory with the ability to pinpoint everything’s exact location.
Members of your crew use their smartphones to scan a unique barcode on each piece of equipment as it’s placed at or removed from the job site. With every action on a piece of equipment, a note is placed in the record indicating what happened to it with a time-and-date stamp paired with the technician’s name, so you’re never more than a click away from locating every item in your inventory.
What’s more, DASH ensures that a job cannot be closed until all company equipment has been noted as removed from the job site, ensuring that you’ll never get that embarrassing call from a homeowner due to poor equipment management practices.
Restoration Equipment Tracking Dashboard
The equipment tracking dashboard in DASH can provide a wealth of information about the equipment in your inventory. At a glance, you can see:
| Equipment currently being billed | All the equipment you have on jobs vs. equipment in overall inventory |
| Equipment available | All equipment not currently being used (sitting in warehouse, loaded on truck, etc.) |
| Equipment becoming available | Pulled from estimated days needed on a job |
| Equipment w/ current location | All equipment both in use and in a warehouse sortable by type and location |
| Locations w/ equipment | All locations—jobsite, warehouse, truck, etc.—with equipment |
| Equipment by job location | Each active jobsite with equipment |
| Equipment last touched by employee | The employee who last interacted with each piece of equipment |
| Transactions for equipment | The history of each piece of equipment—job sites it’s been on, runtime, etc. |
| Transactions for employee | Each employee’s interaction history across all pieces of equipment |
| Transaction by job | The transactions that happened at a given job |
| Percentage of equipment being billed today | The amount of equipment in use at a point in time compared to the entire equipment inventory |
Efficiently Track Your Equipment
Whether your gear is hard at work at a job site, stored in your warehouse, on a truck and ready to be deployed, or out of commission for servicing, DASH’s equipment tracking system ensures that you’ll go into every job confident of your inventory and ready to succeed.
Equipment tracking is just one way you can prepare your business for increased calls. Read our blog “Preparing Your Restoration Business for Severe Weather” for more ways to make sure you’re ready for a busy season.
About the Authors
Matthew Parkerson is a senior implementation consultant at Next Gear Solutions, where he’s worked since 2014. Matthew brings extensive restoration knowledge from his time as an operations manager and operator of his own independent company, which he ran from 2008–2014. His area of expertise is implementation coaching and consulting within the Next Gear enterprise platform.
Jason Zachariason joined Next Gear Solutions in 2019, bringing with him eight years of restoration industry experience earned across a number of roles. As a senior software specialist and in-person consultant, Jason couples his knowledge with a genuine excitement to help NGS customers with product implementation and training.
Read more:
DASH Restoration Business Management Software
How to Manage Restoration Job Scheduling on the Go
Tips to Mitigate Challenges Facing Your Restoration Company
The Essential Guide to Drying Chambers in Water Damage Restoration
