Building an app for maintenance subscriptions at an installation company
Appfront builds apps that help heating and installation companies manage their maintenance subscriptions: which installation belongs to which customer under which subscription, when the service is due, which engineer goes out and what was done. From the contract to direct debit, with the engineer ticking off on site what they have checked.
What is an app for maintenance subscriptions?
An app for maintenance subscriptions keeps track, for each customer, of which installations are in place, which subscription covers them and when the next service is due. The planning assigns services to engineers by period and region, the engineer sees on their phone which installation they are checking today and ticks off what they have done, and at the end of the period the subscription payments are collected automatically.
Without an app, the subscription sits in the accounts, the installation on an Excel list, the schedule in a calendar and the service report on a paper job sheet. When a customer rings to ask when their service is due, or what was done to their boiler last year, someone has to search three systems. And every spring it turns out that some subscribers have had no service because they weren't on any schedule.
We build custom solutions because every installation company sells different subscriptions. A central heating plan with one service a year, a heat pump plan with two, a cooling plan with mandatory leak checks, and an all-inclusive plan with breakdowns covered: the terms, the frequency and what must happen at each visit differ from company to company. The app should follow your subscriptions.
Installation and subscription
For each customer, the installations with make, model and year of manufacture, and for each installation the subscription with its terms and frequency.
Scheduling and carrying out services
Services assigned to engineers by period and region, and an on-site checklist for each installation type with photos and parts used.
Invoicing and collecting payment
Subscriptions invoiced and collected per period, with the service and any extras recorded against the same customer.
How we build your app for maintenance subscriptions
We start with your subscriptions and with the checklists your engineers currently use on paper. From these we determine what the app needs to record for each installation type and what the planning must be able to do.
Which subscriptions you sell, what they include, and which installations are at customers' premises. We pull the list from your accounts and calendar and compare it with what your engineers know.
A subscription per installation with frequency and terms, and a schedule that assigns services to engineers by period and region.
The checklist for each installation type on the phone, with photos, parts used and a customer signature. It also works in a meter cupboard with no signal.
Subscriptions per period sent to accounts and direct debit, with extra work from a visit invoiced separately. After that, we hand over the app to you to manage.
What an app for maintenance subscriptions does in practice
The components below come up at almost every installation company with subscriptions. Which ones you need depends on your installation types and your terms.
Installation register per customer
Make, model, year of manufacture, location on the premises, and the history of services and breakdowns for each installation.
Subscriptions with terms
Frequency, what is included, term length, notice period and price indexation for each subscription type.
Visit planning
All services due in a period, grouped by region and assigned to engineers, with the customer able to choose their own time slot.
Engineer app with checklist
The checkpoints for each installation type, with photos, measurements and parts, and a report for the customer.
Breakdowns within the subscription
A fault report linked to the installation and the subscription, so it is immediately clear what is included.
Invoicing and direct debit
Subscriptions per period sent to accounting and direct debit, with extra work invoiced separately.
Who we build a maintenance subscription app for
The app is designed for businesses where subscriptions are a steady source of income and where servicing visits currently take too much manual effort to remain profitable.
Central heating and heat pump installers
Hundreds to thousands of subscriptions with an annual service visit in the autumn. Planning that peak determines your margin.
Refrigeration and climate control companies
Subscriptions with mandatory inspections and a logbook per installation, where registration is part of the service.
Electrical installers
Periodic inspections of business installations, with a report your client needs for their own obligations.
Businesses with a service department
Subscriptions and call-outs handled by the same engineers, where the app needs to distinguish between what is included and what is extra work.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
The app consists of a planning tool in the office and a technician app on site, linked to your accounting. If you are interested in the wider operations of an installation company, see our page on installation company software. For maintenance on your own machines rather than at customers' sites, there is maintenance software, and you can read about our approach at building an app.
For the office side, with terms, indexation and returns per subscription, there is our software for maintenance subscriptions.
For installers who want to move work orders and maintenance from Acto into their own app, see our page on an Acto integration.
For configuring the installation itself, before any maintenance takes place, there is our heating configuration app built from product data.
Why choose Appfront for your maintenance subscription app?
A subscription business earns from visits that are routed efficiently and from subscriptions that don't lapse. That is what we build around.
The engineer decides whether it works
A checklist you can operate one-handed inside a meter cupboard, with no signal. We test with engineers on site, not in the office.
Your subscriptions, your terms
What is included and what isn't, how often a visit is due and when the price is indexed: your agreements, rebuilt rather than approximated.
No subscriber without a visit
The planner knows which subscriptions need a visit in a period and shows who has not yet been scheduled. That is the list that was missing every spring.
Security and privacy in a maintenance subscription app
The app holds address details, payment details for direct debit, and photos from homes and business premises. Access is set by role: the engineer sees today's clients, the planner the region, administration the direct debits. Payment details are retained in line with your direct debit contract and not in the engineer app.
Maintenance reports are immutable once signed. Any addition afterwards sits alongside the original report with the name and time. If a dispute arises over a fault after a visit, it is therefore possible to see what was checked and measured at that moment.
Frequently asked questions about a maintenance subscription app
Questions installation businesses ask before getting started.
It tracks, for each client, which installations are in place and which subscription covers them, schedules visits per period with engineers, has the engineer on site complete a checklist with photos and measurements, and invoices and collects the subscriptions. Contract, planning, delivery and money in one system.
Yes, through a portal or a link in the email. The customer picks from time slots the schedule opens for their region, and the job lands directly with the engineer. That saves the phone round that currently takes place every autumn.
Yes. The checklist, photos and signature are stored on the phone and sync as soon as there is a connection again. In meter cupboards, cellars and plant rooms, that is essential.
A fault report is linked to the installation and the subscription, so the planner and the technician can see straight away whether the fault is covered or additional work. The fault report sits in the same history as the service visits.
Yes. Subscriptions go to your accounts as invoices each period and to the bank as a direct debit batch, and extra work arising from a visit is invoiced separately. We connect to the package you use.
Yes, as many as you like: frequency, what is included, term, notice period and indexation per type. For each visit, the engineer sees which checklist and which terms apply, and the customer sees in their report what was done under their subscription.
Sometimes it is, and we will tell you so. Bespoke development pays off when your subscriptions differ from what the package supports, when the engineer app does not work well on site, or when you want to build in regional scheduling and the customer's choice of time slots.
Want your subscriptions to run without manual work?
Tell us how many subscriptions you have and where visits currently get stuck. We will look at it with an engineer and show you what an app concretely delivers in your situation.