Set up job checklists and stage gates

Available on Pro and Enterprise

A job checklist is the list of steps every job of an installation type has to clear, and a stage gate is a checklist item that has to be done before the job can move into a particular status. Together they stop jobs being booked, installed or closed before they’re ready, without anyone having to remember to check.

How stage gates work

Every checklist item can name a status it’s required before. When someone tries to move a job forward into that status and the item isn’t done, what happens depends on the item’s enforcement:

• Block: the job can’t move on until the item is done, or an admin or account manager overrides it with a reason.
• Warn: the move goes through, and the item shows as a warning on the job.
• No enforcement: the item is tracked on the checklist but never stops anything.

Seven statuses can be gated: Survey Scheduling, Surveyed, Quote accepted, Install Scheduling, Installed, Service Scheduling and Completed. A few rules are worth knowing before you set yours up:

• Gate the scheduling stage, not the booking. The “scheduled” statuses (Survey scheduled, Install scheduled, Service scheduled) can’t be gates. Put the item on Install Scheduling instead, and a job can’t even reach your scheduler until it’s ready to book.
• Visits check the status they lead to. An install visit leads to Installed, so items required before Installed are what decide whether that visit is ready to start. See Gates on the scheduler and mobile app.
• Only forward moves are gated. Moving a job back, for example after a cancelled visit, is never blocked.
• New gates apply to the next move. Jobs already past a gated status aren’t affected when you add or change an item.
• A customer’s own acceptance always goes through. When the customer accepts a quote from the link in their email or in the Customer Portal, the job moves to Quote accepted even if a gate on it isn’t cleared, and the office gets a red job alert listing the items still to do. Those items still block the job’s next move. Marking a quote accepted from the job page is gated like any other office move.
• Imported jobs come in as they are. A job brought in from an integration such as OpenSolar keeps the status it arrived with. Any move you make in installHUB after that is gated as normal.
• Status changes from Zapier go through. When a Zap changes a job’s status, the job moves even if a gate on the new status isn’t cleared, so your Zaps never fail on a gate. The office gets a red job alert listing the items still to do, and those items still block the job’s next move in installHUB.

Start from the installHUB defaults

Open Job Checklists & Gates under Settings, Jobs & Installations. installHUB keeps a set of default items for each installation type, covering the steps that most often hold up EV charger, solar, battery and heat pump jobs. They’re already in your account: installHUB copies them in when your plan includes job checklists, and again whenever you add an installation type. They arrive switched off, so nothing changes on your jobs until you switch them on. From then on they’re yours to change.

1. If you see Set your working hours at the top, set them first. Until you do, installHUB treats every hour as a working hour, so a visit that checklist items still block is flagged at 00:00 the day before and never cancelled automatically. Once your hours are set, it’s cancelled at the end of the working day before if it’s still blocked, but only if you’ve chosen to stop visits starting on the mobile app (below). See Gates on the scheduler and mobile app.
2. If you see Are you MCS certified?, click Answer. If you are, enter your certificate number and installHUB adds an MCS certificate step to your solar and heat pump checklists. You can also answer it in your company details.
3. If you see installHUB defaults added, switched off, none of the defaults is checked on your jobs yet. Review them first, then switch on the ones you want: one at a time with the Active toggle, a group at a time with Switch on on its heading, or all of them with Switch all on.
4. Use the installation type chips above the list to look at one type at a time, for example Solar PV.
5. Go through each item and decide whether it fits how you work. Edit it, switch it on or off with the Active toggle, or leave it as it is.
6. If you removed items and want installHUB’s versions back, or a default is missing, click Add installHUB defaults, then Add defaults. This adds any defaults for your installation types that you don’t have, including ones you removed. They arrive switched off, so switch on the ones you want. Items you’ve edited stay exactly as they are.

The list is grouped by the status each item is required before, with items that aren’t gates at the bottom. Each row shows:

• Item: its name, description and any “Only when” rule.
• Applies to: the installation types that get it.
• Enforcement: Blocks, Warns or Not a gate.
• Completed: how it gets done (Ticked by hand, from a survey answer, which names the question, or By a third party), with a paperclip if it needs evidence and a phone if field operatives see it in the app.
• Active: switch an item off to take it off jobs without losing its history.

Prefer switching an item off to removing it. Remove, in the item’s ⋮ menu, takes it off every job that carries it.

Add your own items

Click Add checklist item. The minimum is a name, the installation types it applies to, the status it’s required before and whether it blocks or warns. Every other setting is explained in Checklist items: evidence, rules and installHUB defaults.

1. Item: say what done looks like, for example “Deposit received”.
2. Applies to: pick installation types, or leave it empty for all of them.
3. Required before: pick the status, for example Install Scheduling.
4. Choose Block, Warn or No enforcement.
5. Choose How it’s completed. The line under the choice says what it means, including whether field operatives can tick it in the app (only Ticked by hand items). Then click Save.

Want a stage that another firm signs off, like an electrician’s certificate before Installed? Set the item to By a third party and send it from the job as a link. Add a contractor stage to your jobs (example: an electrical contractor) walks through it end to end.

Choose what the mobile app does

Under On the mobile app on the same page, choose what happens when a field operative opens a visit whose blocking items aren’t done yet. The choice saves as soon as you pick it.

• Warn the field operative and let them start (the default): they see the outstanding items and can start anyway, after a warning. The office gets a job alert naming who started and what wasn’t done. The visit is never cancelled automatically, the customer’s reminder goes out as normal, and arriving on site never starts the visit by itself.
• Stop the visit starting until the office clears them: Start stays off in the app until the items are done, and the office gets a job alert if they try. The customer’s reminder is held while the visit isn’t ready, and once your working hours are set, a visit still not ready at the end of the working day before is cancelled.

Either way, what the field operative submits from the job is always saved. Gates on the scheduler and mobile app shows what they see.

Who can do what

Three permissions cover job checklists, gates and SLAs. This is who has them to start with:

• Manage job checklists and stage gates (account managers): edit the checklist, request types and contractor contacts.
• Override a blocking job stage gate (admins and account managers): move a job past a blocking item with a written reason.
• Manage job status SLAs (account managers, Enterprise plan): add and change SLA rules.

To let an admin manage checklists or SLAs too, add the permission to a custom role in Custom Roles and give them that role. Anyone who can edit a job can tick its checklist items. Every override asks for a reason and is kept on the job, so you can always see who let a job through and why.

Getting your gates right

• Start with Warn. Run a new item as a warning for a couple of weeks and see how often it fires. Switch it to Block once your team is in the habit.
• Block only what costs you money. A wasted install day, a DNO breach or a job you can’t invoice. Too many blocks and people reach for the override.
• Gate as early as it makes sense. An item on Install Scheduling keeps unready jobs out of the scheduler, which is better than finding out the day before.
• Let forms do the ticking. If a survey or install form already captures the answer, set the item to complete from that answer, so nobody ticks the same thing twice. Choose the answer that should tick it in Completes when the answer is, for example “Yes”. Leave that empty only for a question that’s answered once the work is done, like a certificate number, because then any answer ticks it.

Examples

No install booked until the deposit is in

Add “Deposit received”, applies to all installation types, required before Install Scheduling, Block, ticked by hand. Your accounts person ticks it with the payment reference in the note. Until they do, a quote-accepted job can’t move into the scheduler, so nobody books a crew for a customer who hasn’t paid.

Kit on site before the crew

The default “Kit delivered to site” warns before Installed and is shown to field operatives. Change it to Block if missing kit has cost you a visit, and send it to your wholesaler as a contractor request so they confirm delivery with a photo.

Nothing closed without its paperwork

The defaults “Electrical certificate issued” and “Customer handover signed” block Completed, and UK companies also get the DNO notification items. The office can’t mark the job complete until every one is ticked, so your completion pack is always complete too.

Next: Work a job’s checklist.