Free template
Daily Job Sheet
One page per job, filled in by whoever did the work. It’s there to answer the three questions you get asked later. What did we actually do, how long were we there, and who said it was fine.
Why each field is there
A job sheet is not paperwork for its own sake. Every line on this one exists because of a specific argument it prevents.
| Field | The problem it solves |
|---|---|
| Arrived / left | This is your payroll record and your billing record at once. You are legally required to keep accurate hours for non-exempt employees, and "how long were they actually there" is the most common customer dispute. |
| Gate / key / alarm code | Stops the 7am phone call. Also tells you exactly what access to revoke when someone leaves. |
| Work performed | Written by the person who did it, not reconstructed by you a week later. This is what you invoice from. |
| Materials used | The biggest source of quiet margin loss in small service businesses. If nobody writes it down, nobody bills it. |
| Before / after photos | Settles damage claims. A tick box is enough, since the photos live on the phone and the sheet just proves they were taken. |
| Customer signature | Turns "I was never happy with that job" into a conversation you can win. Worth chasing even when it feels awkward. |
How to make it stick
Forms rarely fail. Habits do. Three things make the difference here.
- Fill it in at the job, while you’re standing there. Sheets completed in a truck at 6pm are fiction.
- Tie it to getting paid. If timesheets come from job sheets, they get handed in. If they are optional, they stop within two weeks.
- Print a stack and keep it in every vehicle. A form that requires finding the printer does not get used.
When paper stops working
Paper is genuinely fine for one or two crew members. You’ll know it has stopped working when you recognize these.
- Sheets arrive two or three days late, or not at all.
- You are re-typing them into a spreadsheet to invoice.
- Photos live on someone's phone and you cannot find them.
- You cannot answer "what did we do at this address last time?"
At that point the cheapest fix is not full field-service software, it is putting this same form on a phone. A form builder like Jotform will do it on a free tier. The crew fills it in on their own phone, photos attach to the submission, and it lands in your inbox before they leave the driveway. You keep the workflow and lose the retyping.
Move to something like Housecall Pro when the job sheet is no longer the problem, meaning when scheduling, dispatch, and invoicing all need to share one customer record. That is usually somewhere past five employees, and our first-employee guide covers what changes on the way there.