Custom order tracking app for a forge
A forge makes bespoke gates, staircases, balustrades and structural work, and every order goes through the same steps: measuring up, drawing, approval, production, often galvanising or powder coating off site, and installation. Appfront builds the app that shows where every order stands, for the smith at the fire, the person measuring up and the fitter on site.
What is an order tracking app for a forge?
An order in a forge goes through a fixed sequence of steps. An enquiry comes in, someone measures up, a drawing is made and a quote is given, the customer approves, and the work goes into the workshop. Then it often leaves the site to be galvanised or powder coated, comes back, and is installed. Each step involves a different person and often a different place.
The customer's question is almost always the same: when will my gate arrive? The answer is scattered across a whiteboard in the workshop, a notebook of measurements, a diary for installations, and the owner's head. What is at the galvanising plant drops out of sight until someone calls.
We build custom software because every forge works differently. Some mainly do private decorative work, others build staircases and landings for contractors. Which steps you use, what you subcontract and how you calculate costs and invoice determines what the app looks like. It works on the phone and the tablet, in the workshop and on site.
Every order in view
With the stage it has reached.
Subcontracting tracked
Galvanising and coating with dates.
Installation signed off
With photos for the file.
How we build your order tracking app for a forge
We start in your workshop: which steps an order goes through, who does what, what you subcontract and how you currently know where something stands. Then we look at your costing and accounting, so orders are not entered twice. We often begin with the overview of all orders and their stage, because that immediately answers the customer's question. Measuring up on site, subcontracting and installation follow once that works well. After that we maintain the app as your work or way of working changes.
Stages, people and subcontracting.
Costing and accounting.
Workshop, measuring up and installation.
Go-live, and maintenance as things change.
What an order tracking app for a forge actually does
The components below appear in almost every order tracking app for a forge. Which ones you need depends on your work.
Order overview
Every order with its stage.
Measuring up on site
Measurements and photos.
Drawing and approval
Attached to the order.
Workshop
Hours and materials.
Outsourcing
Galvanising and coating.
Installation
Scheduled and signed off.
Who we build an order tracking app for a forge for
The app is intended for forges and metal workshops that make to order and do their own installation. The more orders you have running at once, the more it delivers.
Forges
Bespoke decorative work. Customers want to know when.
Staircases and balustrades
Measuring up and installation count.
Fencing
Many orders. Coating subcontracted.
Workshops at contractors
The construction schedule matters.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we make your idea tangible in a single day for €1,150, so you know whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we deduct the cost in full.
View OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
This page is about tracking orders in the workshop and on site. For structural work with larger projects, see our page on structural steel software, for the wider metal workshop our page on metalworking software, and for customer approval of drawings our page on the digital file app for customer drawings. You can read about our way of working at building an app.
Why Appfront for your order tracking app for a forge?
A whiteboard in the workshop, measurements in a notebook and work that drops out of sight at the galvaniser all cost a forge time on the phone and customers who wait too long. That's what we build on: every order with its step, outsourced work tracked, and an installation signed off with photos.
Instant answers
Where is the order?
Nothing gets lost
Including what's out of the building.
Proof of installation
Photos with the order.
Security and privacy in an order tracking app for a forge
The app processes data about customers, addresses and orders, and photos of homes and buildings. Access is set up per role, and every status change is recorded with who made it and when.
The app and the underlying environment run in a European data centre, with encrypted storage and daily backups. We record the processing in a data processing agreement.
Frequently asked questions about an order tracking app for a forge
Questions forges ask before they get started.
The steps you already know, for example enquiry, measuring up, drawing and quote, approval, workshop, galvanising or powder coating, back in house, installation and invoice. You decide which steps there are and in what order. An order is also allowed to skip a step.
When you outsource work, you note what is leaving, who it is going to and when you expect it back. The app shows what is out of the building and what is late, so you call before the customer does. When it comes back you tick it off and it can move on to installation.
If you want that, yes. The customer gets a message at the next step or a link to a simple status page. You decide what the customer sees, so internal remarks stay internal.
Yes. Measurements, photos and the sign-off of an installation are stored on the device and sent as soon as there is a connection again. A cellar or a building site without signal is then no problem.
Yes. In the workshop you book hours and materials used against the order. That way you can see afterwards whether the estimate was right, and you know better what a gate or staircase costs in time and steel when you write the next quote.
Often, yes. An order quoted in your estimating software arrives in the app without retyping, and a signed-off installation can go straight to the invoice in your accounting software. We look at which integrations are possible in the first step.
For forges and artistic blacksmiths, fabrication workshops for fencing, staircases and balustrades, and metalworkers who do their own installation. If you work on a few orders at a time that you all handle yourself, a whiteboard is often still enough.
Always know where an order stands?
Tell us how an order currently moves through your workshop. We'll show you what the app looks like.