Admit it; there are some parts of your electrician’s business you dislike. You are not alone. Everyone has similar pain points, which is why developers have come up with apps that help.
There is an app for everything, but you don’t want to clutter up your phone with ten new apps. In an ideal world, you would want a single application that does everything perfectly: It doesn’t exist.
You need at least two apps; an admin one and an ‘on-the-job’ one.
Admin Apps
Admin apps for electricians can give you back the time you currently spend trying to hold everything in your head.
Tradify
It is a rare electrician who enjoys the admin tasks that go with any electrical business, so an app such as Tradify is the first to invest in.
Tradify frees up your mind from the clutter of managing your employees, vans,and equipment,so you have more time and energy to spend solving problems and growing your business. It includes quoting and invoicing functions as well as integrating with popular accounting software like MYOB and Quickbooks.
Training Apps
The Electrical Engineering Portallets you stay up to date on what’s happening in your industry. Many of the benefits are available without a paid subscription, but an annual subscription to the gives you access to scores of PDF downloads and updates on safety regulations.
On-the-Job Electrician Apps
Apps take the guesswork out of many tasks the on-the-ground electrician does every day. Some are available for iOS, some for Android, and some for both.
iBend Pipe
Conduit bending is something an experienced electrician can do by eye, but some people find this aspect of their work difficult.
Enter iBend, an iOS app that generates the essential measurements. Sad to say, you still need pipe-banders and muscle power.
Electrical Formulator
Electrical Formulator is an iOS app that gives you access to all manner of data relating to lighting, generators,and batteries. It also lets you make quick and accurate conversions between imperial and SI units without a calculator. You can make more accurate estimates if you use this app when measuring up for any job.
Voltage Drop Calculator
Voltage Drop Calculator (for iOS) lets you enter cable length and the current it will carry, and then outputs the cable you need. It removes any element of guesswork and could save costs.
Electrical Tools & Reference
An iOS or Android app that is available as a free beta download
Electrical Tools and Reference gives your people on the ground instant access to reference charts, Ohm’s Law calculations, and all the data they need to estimate accurately, removing the need to add a few percentage points for errors.
SPL Meter
The SPL Meter iOS app puts a professional-level sound meter in the hands of every employee. For a tiny fraction of the price of a hand-held sound meter, you can protect employees’ hearing on noisy sites.
Electrical Wiring Lite
The Electrical Wiring Lite app for Android includes burial depth, Ohm’s Law, and voltage drop calculations.
Generic Small Business Apps
Some apps are essential in any business. The best generic apps are listed below.
Evernote
Evernote lets you keep track of everything, and it is then accessible on every device, making it easy to access your notes when you are out of the office.
Facebook Pages Manager
The Facebook Pages Manager is available for iOS and Android users. It means you can manage your business page without logging in on your desktop machine.
HMRC
HMRC kindly let all iOS and Android users download their app without charge. Nobody wants to pay taxes, but this app makes it as painless as possible.
The Short Version
There are apps for every task you or your employees perform from estimating and employee tracking to taking noise measurements and calculating the correct cable to use. There are more applications for iOS users, but Android users have plenty of choices, too.