One record per job, from quote to payment
Why we built FMan around a single thread for every job — and what breaks when tools enforce arbitrary boundaries between quote, attend, report, and invoice.
The problem
Most field-service tools draw arbitrary lines. Quote is a tool. Job is a tool. Report is a tool. Invoice is a tool. The engineer finishes a job, writes the report, then somebody retypes the details into the invoice module because the tools don't agree on what a 'line item' is.
The client asks a question three weeks later — 'what was that £180 charge for?' — and suddenly three systems have different versions of the truth.
What FMan does instead
A job is one record. The quote becomes the job becomes the report becomes the invoice. Same ID, same thread, same line items all the way through. The report's parts list is the invoice's line items. The photos on the report are the photos on the client's proof-of-service.
When the client asks what the £180 was, you open the job and every layer is there, stacked in order. Nothing to reconcile.
What it costs
Some features are genuinely a separate tool — accounting, CRM, HR. We don't pretend to be those. But anything that happens between 'client asks for help' and 'cash lands' belongs on one record. That's the line.