Join us for our next webinar on Wednesday 22nd September  about Top Reports for Growing Companies.

More information coming soon…

Join us (and the Okappy community) on Wednesday 22nd September at 2pm for an exciting and very informative webinar. Remember to follow us on Eventbrite to ensure you don’t miss out on all our events.

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We have a confession.

As workforce management innovators, not all of our job management processes have always been up to par. Whether you call it a case of the “cobbler’s shoes” or “builder’s backyard”, we weren’t taking enough care of job management processes in our own development team to ensure we were reaching our potential.
Giving the best customer care and providing a professional service with minimum disruption are top on our list of priorities. But falling behind schedule on app improvements wasn’t exactly going to put us in the best position to do those things. So, we did some navel gazing.

Realising that if we truly believed in the power of Okappy we’d be using it ourselves, we took the plunge. We followed in the footsteps of our customers and embarked on our very own journey of using Okappy in-house to manage our development team’s activities. Richard Harris, CEO and Founder, and Robin Spinks, Lead Developer share their experiences of the journey so far.

Richard (Director): “We were using a Google Sheet and it was becoming unwieldy and difficult to track what was going on. We realised that we could be using our own product to help manage work streams within the development team. So, we tried it and found that it works really well for issues-tracking and book-tracking.”

Robin (Senior developer): “Google sheets was very slow and inefficient. I was getting frustrated by the amount of dates entered manually with mistakes, a lack of space and flexibility, and the inability to attach documents to issues, such as crash logs or images and videos showing issues in effect. It just seemed much more sensible for us to use our own product which was saving our customers so much time and money!”

Richard: “We do a kind of weekly sprint. We’ll work out what goes into the sprint on a Monday morning and then Robin, our lead developer, will work on those pieces throughout the week. Each morning we’ll revisit what needs to be done, assign the jobs to Robin and mark them by a high, medium, or low priority. Then, Thursday morning, it’ll go into testing with a view to releasing Thursday night. For every update, we can see the status in real-time with time stamps when each job is updated and by whom. It’s just a really easy way to keep track of everything!”

Richard: “The most common issues included:

• Difficulty tracking jobs
• Lack of control over what was changed and by who
• Complicated way of documenting job details
• Convoluted filtering process

We ended up having thousands of rows in any one sheet. We could filter things, but then if someone else made a change, it would mess up the view and appear in the wrong order. The cells contained too much text as we’d try to keep the history in each cell. It became overwhelming and hard to navigate.

The Google sheet contained over 3,000 requests and, so, version control also became an issue. It was difficult to see who had made a change. We’d manually put in the initials, date and time. Sometimes we’d forget or accidentally delete information in a cell.

Before we could actually start looking at each feature and issue, we were spending time trying to work out whether we were all accessing the correct data on Google Sheets. With Okappy, this all happens automatically so we don’t need to think about it and can get on with the work that much quicker. ”

Robin: “It was large, slow and felt heavy. I was constantly fiddling with the filters; trying to make it possible to quickly show what I wanted, but I had to check each one every time I used it, which negated any benefit!”

Richard:

Filters

“We have a filter called “Jobs for today” and so straight away we have a smaller list which we can all see. We can also filter on words a lot more easily. For example, if we’re talking about Android we just type in “Android” in the filter, and straight away we’ve got a list of all of the outstanding Android jobs.”

Job statuses

“Once the job is completed we can mark it as complete. Straight away, we can see all the issues that are going to be in the current release, so it’s easier to track. Then we can archive them once they have been released. This way, we’re keeping the spreadsheet or the amount of data a lot more focused. With Google Sheets, either we would delete it, in which case it’s lost, or change the status – which means an ever expanding spreadsheet. With Okappy, it only shows the work that’s live.”

Adding jobs on mobile

“I can add and see jobs on my phone when I’m out and about. Or if I’m not on my computer but have a thought about something. I can quickly open the app, view a job and it’s status, then update it and add videos and screenshots if I need to. With Google Sheets, we’d upload an image into Slack, copy the link to the image and then put that link into Google Sheets. Whereas, with Okappy, you just upload the document straight into the job.”

Richard:

1. “We see what the customers see

We can empathise better with what the customer is experiencing as we are experiencing it too. It lends weight to the feedback we get and it even gives us new ideas!

2. Keeping track of tasks

Adding tasks for developers is more streamlined – any book that gets highlighted or a feature request, we add it in as a job. We can quickly filter down to the key issues and features that Robin, our lead developer, needs to look at.

3. It’s easy to order and group tasks

This helps us out a tonne with our prioritisation of work. We’re no longer faced with an overwhelming spreadsheet of never ending work. We can group tasks into quick fixes or longer sprints – helping us stay organised overall. ”

Robin:

1. “The audit trail

Okappy jobs keep a changelog, so you can see exactly when an action was performed or an update made – and who by.

2. More flexibility

Okappy enables multiple job types, so you can list all your work in one place or filter by job type – quickly.

3. Better visibility with the calendar

It’s so easy to switch the view in Okappy so you can see what’s coming up, or what you just did, or what you have later today.”

Richard: “We raise our invoices in Okappy for our customers which show up in their invoices received. It means we save a lot of time not having to print and manually send invoices. We also use Xero so the integration with that saves duplication and effort.

Okappy also integrates with our CRM and customer facing case management systems which means we don’t also have to update them.

Richard: “We turn around features more quickly. The volume of work (betas and issues) completed has increased by 20%. Using Okappy to manage it all has also improved the quality of work because it’s so much easier to see what’s going on. It allows us to test more effectively and have a more comprehensive understanding of the information we input. We spend less time in meetings. In the past our daily standup would be an hour – now it can be 10 minutes!”

Robin: “Sometimes Richard has meetings in the morning, so he goes through the jobs marking those he feels should be looked at that day. I then pick and choose from that short list. Completed jobs regarding fixes or features that have been released can be archived, which means that, while I can still bring them up if I need to, they’re out of the way, so the only jobs I see are current. The most notable change for me is that I have a less stressful job!”

~

Well, we don’t know about you, but we certainly feel better getting all that off our chest! Ok, confession time is over. Using Okappy in-house has dramatically improved efficiency for our team and meant we were able to better empathise with our own customers. What more could we ask for? Nothing… except perhaps, for you to join us in the journey.

Okappy Portal+ is here to help bridge communications, not only between people within the company but, between your company and it’s subcontractors and external parties. Interested in finding out more about how Okappy could work for you and your team?

Our webinar – Using The Network To Grow Your Business was held on the 23rd June 2021.

We were joined by Alexander Low of Lately.ai and Richard Harris of okappy.com.

Alex has over 15 years experience in sales & marketing at Michael Page, PwC and JLL across business services, accountancy, legal and commercial real estate. Alex applies his experiences to the 21st Century and advises Professional service firms on their Social strategy, Personal brand, value of networks and content creation.

Richard is the CEO and Co-founder of Okappy which was founded to transform industry through better collaboration and more connected processes.  Richard previously worked for an award winning start up in fleet management sector and prior to that was a Management Consultant and Investment Banker.  He has an Executive MBA from Cranfield School of Management.

Okappy is a business 2 business connected workforce management platform which applies social and market networking technology to a real business need. Think Linkedin, Uber and Workforce Management merged into one communications and collaboration platform. Our aim is to help transform your industry through better communications and collaborate with your employees who are often at different locations (and now more than ever). With your subcontractors and with your customers.

By connecting on Okappy, the most forward looking and dynamic companies are increasing transparency and trust, reduce duplication, costs and errors and dramatically increasing efficiency. Ultimately we’re seeing companies being able to increase profits through extra capacity, reduced costs and being able to spend more time growing your business.

So we’ll talk about the network side of Okappy in a bit and how you can build your network on it. But you can also build your business using social media. Linkedin is currently one of the best networks to use in order to gain company insight and start conversations.

So without further ad do, I’d like to introduce you to Alex Low.  He’s head of Enterprise Strategy and Operations at Lately.ai.  Previously Alex worked in sales and marketing across various industries and now applies his experience to social strategy, personal branding and the value of networks.

So im delighted to have Alex join us today.

First, why is software moving away from systems that work just work in house, forcing you to rely on clunky portals, emails or whatsapp to work with other companies.  In the industries that we operate in, 50% or more of work is done by subcontractors.  You all have customers, and more and more they’re demanding real-time information.  That is why we’re seeing a shift to a more connected approach and is the reason we developed the Okappy network.

The benefits of using a more connected approach including.

• Increase transparency

With a connected approach, everyone can see what is happening in real –time.  This means you don’t need to chase your subcontractor. They don’t need to chase their employee (or subcontractor).

Everyone knows what is happening as it happens.

• 2) Streamline processes / Reduce duplication

No more copying information between your customers system and your system. No more resorting to email or whatsappto get a subcontractor to do work.

With a connected network, information flows seamlessly from order maker right down to the end engineer. Whether he works for your company, for your subcontractor or for your subcontractors subcontractor.

In the old way, jobs would get missed, invoices would be displayed and customer service would be negatively impacted.

• Increase trust

All too often in the trades, in construction, in facilities management trust is no where to be seen. Beggar they neighbour approach leads to late payments, costs being passed down the chain and ultimately increased solvency.

Many businesses that we work with find that disputes over the amount invoiced can frequently cause delays. One common reason for this is when a worker and their client disagree over the amount of time a worker spent on site, or when the worker incurred a lateness penalty.

By having a computerised system that helps to record job details, view job status and automatically raise an invoice when the job is complete, this problem can be easily eliminated without you noticing it.
Okappy Job Management System gets rid of your excessive admin, ensures your jobs are updated as they happen and allows you to raise your invoice at the click of a button. Helping you get your invoice paid faster, ensuring no invoices are forgotten and reducing the risk of dispute.

• Eliminate the potential for disputes

Many businesses that we work with find that disputes over the amount invoiced can frequently cause delays. One common reason for this is when a worker and their client disagree over the amount of time a worker spent on site, or when the worker incurred a lateness penalty.

By having a computerised system that helps to record job details, view job status and automatically raise an invoice when the job is complete, this problem can be easily eliminated without you noticing it.

Okappy Job Management System gets rid of your excessive admin, ensures your jobs are updated as they happen and allows you to raise your invoice at the click of a button. Helping you get your invoice paid faster, ensuring no invoices are forgotten and reducing the risk of dispute.

So how do you build your network.

To send a connection request, simply click the connection icon towards the top right of the screen.

Enter your customer’s details and send the invite.

They’ll be notified that you want to connect. If they accept your invitation, they can log in and view their own account which is completely independent from yours.

They can add jobs and assign them to you, or you can add jobs on their behalf which they can see. However, they can’t see any of your other jobs. They also can’t see which employees or subcontractors is doing the work. This ensure privacy and leaves you in control of the work.

So how do you build your network.

To send a connection request, simply click the connection icon towards the top right of the screen.

Enter your customer’s details and send the invite.

They’ll be notified that you want to connect. If they accept your invitation, they can log in and view their own account which is completely independent from yours.

They can add jobs and assign them to you, or you can add jobs on their behalf which they can see. However, they can’t see any of your other jobs. They also can’t see which employees or subcontractors is doing the work. This ensure privacy and leaves you in control of the work.

To summarise, these are just some of the benefits of connecting to your customers.

• Reduced duplication
• No more missed jobs
• Reduce chasing of emails and calls
• See the latest contact details
• Provide the best customer service

You can also save documents for your customers which will talk more about later.

You can add notes for your customer, get your invoices seen and paid quicker including taking payment.

Management gurus often talk about looking at your customers base to see which companies add to your profit and which add to your costs. Consultants will often tell you that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers. With Okappy you can run various reports on how to see which work you did for which companies.

You can also search for other companies on the Okappy network so you can actually find new customers or subcontractors when you’re ready to grow.

You can connect to subcontractors in the same way that you connect to customers.

To send a connect request, simply click the connection icon towards the top right of the screen.

Enter your subcontractors’ details and send the invite.

They’ll be notified that you want to connect.

Like customers they can only see the jobs that have been assigned to you. The information they see is also restricted, they cannot see who your customer is so you don’t need to worry that they’ll try and cut you out of the loop.

One important difference between customers and subcontractors is that subcontractors have to accept your invite before you can assign jobs to them. This is an important distinction as you want to know that your subcontractor has receive your work and is going to act on it.

To summaries, these are just some of the benefits of connecting to your customers.

• Reduced duplication
• No more missed jobs
• Reduce chasing of emails and calls
• See the latest contact details
• Bring your subcontractors into the loop

You can also save documents for your subcontractors which will talk more about later.

You can add notes for your subcontractor, get your invoices seen and paid quicker including taking payment.

You can also analyze how your subcontractors are working and compare them to your employees.

You can also search for other companies on the Okappy network so you can find new customers or subcontractors when you’re ready to grow.

There’s lots of information on our help and support pages including the following help articles. There’s also lots of previously asked questions and answers in our forums and short explanatory videos.

https://www.okappy.com/support
https://www.okappy.com/support-article/information-visibility/
https://www.okappy.com/support-article/employees-or-subcontractors-what-is-the-difference

Thanks once again for attending our webinar. I hope you found it useful.

Please connect with Okappy on twitter at @ok_appy or follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/okappy-ltd-

You can also follow Alex Low on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderlow/

The VAT Reverse Charge legislation was introduced in March 2021.  Over 20 minutes we discussed how the VAT reverse charge works, when you should use it and how to configure Okappy along with your other systems to provide VAT reverse charge invoices to your customers.

Okappy is a business two business connected workforce management platform which applies social and market networking technology to a real business need using our unique Portal+ platform. The need to communicate and collaborate with your employees who are often at different locations (and now more than ever). With your subcontractors and with your customers.

Okappy helps the most forward looking and dynamic companies increase transparency, reduce duplication, costs and errors and increase efficiency. Ultimately making a significant contribution to bottom line profits.

With Okappy, you can connect to your employees, customers and subcontractors.

• Send and receive jobs
• See the status of those jobs as they’re updated by your engineers and subcontractors
• Then raise your invoices at the touch of a button

It’s that last stage which was the reason for the webinar.

From 1st March 2021, if you supply goods and services to the construction sector, then you will need to implement VAT reverse charging on your invoices

Before VAT Reverse charge, you would have paid VAT on products or services bought in the UK. You would declare the total amount of VAT you are going to pay to HMRC that quarter, and also the total amount of VAT you are going to reclaim.

Domestic VAT reverse charge legislation (DRC) is a change in the way Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) registered construction businesses handle and pay VAT. It was introduced at the start of this month, having previously been delayed from October 2019.

The reason why HMRC are introducing it is because they’ve identified construction as one of the leading sectors for VAT fraud where some sub-contractors claim VAT but never pay it.

By moving the VAT charge to the end user, HMRC intends to make this kind of fraud impossible. So now, sub-contractors will require the contractor employing them to handle and pay the VAT directly to HMRC.

The new legislation affects all VAT registered businesses who supply or receive construction and building services that are reported under the CIS.

• Check when you must use the reverse charge
• Find out how the charge works if you supply products and services
• Find out how the charge works if you purchase products and services
• Understand how your systems work with the VAT reverse charge
• Consider the impact on your cashflows
• Provide training to staff

We talked about how the VAT reverse charge works with Okappy and with Xero. If you’re using other accounting software, you’ll need to check that your software is up to date, especially if you have older desktop based systems.

You also want to think how it could affect your cashflow especially if you are paying a lot of VAT on supplies but now not receiving VAT from your customers.  It may be worth changing over to HRMC’s monthly repayment trader scheme. Either way, it is worth planning out your bills over the next couple of quarters when cash flow will be at its most difficult.

It must be used if you’re a VAT registered company operating within the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS).  But, it must only be used in specific circumstances.  It applies to materials if they’re used as part of a service provided under CIS. Not if they are provided independently.

• Your customer must be VAT registered in the UK
• The payment for supply is reporting within CIS
• Services are being supplied at the standard or reduced rate
• You are not an employment business
• You’re customer is not an end user or intermediary supplier.

Invoices should clearly indicate the reverse charge applies. They should show the percentgate of VAT which was charged (whether reduced rate or standard) and have a label advising that the “Customer to account to HMRC for the reverse charge output tax on the VAT exclusive price of items marked ‘reverse charge’ at the relevant VAT rate as shown.

There has been discussion around whether the amount of VAT which would otherwise have been calculated should be shown. The general consensus seems to be that it shouldn’t and certainly mostly other software provides are doing it this way.

I think the fear is that, and particularly with accounting software is that if there is a calculation then the VAT will end up someone in your accounts which it shouldn’t. My feeling also is that it’s the responsibility of the ultimate contractor to calculate the VAT and they shouldn’t be blindly copying your invoices.

Two set up VAT reverse charging on Okappy depends on whether you are using Xero or other.

If you’re not using Xero, you first need to check the VAT reverse charge option in the Connections screen > Customers > Account settings

Then set up an item or items which will be used for VAT reverse charge.

This menu is available from the Invoice screen > Invoice options > Account settings

When you raise your invoices, if you select the VAT reverse chargeable item for a customer that has the VAT reverse charge flag set, then the VAT will be set to Zero and the line will show that VAT reverse charge has been used.

With Xero, it’s a bit different as Okappy pulls in the items automatically from Xero.

To set up VAT reverse charge in Xero, first go to the Accounting menu within Xero > Advanced > Tax rates

And then add the reverse charge tax rates

Then from the Business menu, select Products and Services and either add or edit the tax rate on a product or service to use the new VAT reverse charge tax rate.

Then it’s the same as before, select the relevant item when raising your invoice and the VAT will automatically be set to Zero and the relevant labels added.

Leave your details above and we’ll send out a copy of the slides. We’re also interested to hear of any other topics you may like to hear about for future webinars.