This article details SiteCapture best practices for capturing photos, designing templates, communicating on projects, and managing statuses, pulled together from our monthly best practices series. Each section links out to a full how-to guide for step-by-step instructions.
Capturing High-Quality Photos
Photo quality across your account depends on more than just what happens in the field. It's shaped by three things working together: how photos are captured, how your account's photo settings are configured, and how photos are viewed or exported once they're in SiteCapture.
More details: Ensuring High-Quality Photos in SiteCapture
Adding Example Photos and Instructions to Template Fields
Adding example photos and instructions throughout your templates is an effective way to make sure your team clearly understands what needs to be captured for each field.
Example photos: Once an admin saves an example photo to a template field, field crews can tap the example photo in the mobile app to see exactly what needs to be captured.
Instructions: Instructions display under the field name and give your team additional context for filling out that field. For example, the instructions under a photo field for the front of a house might read: "Two separate photos: one of the house from the street, the other a closeup of the house number."
More details: Adding example photos to fields and Adding instructions to fields
Using In-App Messaging
In-App Messaging is a real-time chat feature available to customers on Professional and Premium subscriptions, and on some custom agreements. It keeps project communication in one place instead of scattered across texts and calls.
With In-App Messaging, admins can:
- Send messages directly from the web app to field users and vendors working in the mobile app.
- See every message stamped with the date and time it was sent.
- Receive photos uploaded by field users directly in the chat.
Every project has its own chat channel, and anyone assigned or shared to the project is added to that channel automatically. Admins can also click into any project chat to join it directly or share it with others.
More details: Web App: In App Messaging. This guide covers turning the feature on in Admin > Settings > Messaging and how to send and receive messages on a project.
Managing Project Statuses and Workflow States
Keeping statuses up to date is essential for keeping projects organized and for your account and mobile app to run efficiently.
Statuses show where work currently stands, for example whether a project is New, In Progress, or Completed. It's best practice to keep statuses current as work moves along and to use them consistently across departments.
This matters most when a status is paired with the Complete workflow state, which does two things:
- Field users and vendors can't move work into it until all required fields are completed, so nothing gets marked complete from the field while information is still missing.
- Once work reaches that status, it clears off mobile if that setting is enabled, while remaining available to search and load back onto mobile.
When statuses aren't kept up to date, work can never reach a Complete state, which allows a backlog to build up and slows the system down over time.
More details: Project Status and Workflow States covers changing statuses in the web app, searching and sorting by status, and configuring workflow states in the template editor. See also Account Settings: Mobile Projects and Mobile Photos for the Hide completed projects setting.
FAQ
What affects photo quality in SiteCapture?
Three things: how photos are captured in the field, how your account's photo settings are configured, and how photos are viewed or exported afterward.
How do field users know what photo to capture for a field?
If an admin has added an example photo to that field in the template, field users can tap the example photo in the mobile app to see what's expected. Fields can also include written instructions that display under the field name.
Is In-App Messaging available on every plan?
It's available on Professional and Premium subscriptions, and on some custom agreements.
Can field users mark work Complete if required fields are still empty?
No. Work can't move into a status tied to the Complete workflow state until all required fields on that project have been filled out.
What happens to a project once it reaches a Complete status?
If your account has Hide completed projects enabled, the project clears off the mobile app once it reaches that status. It stays available to search and can still be loaded back onto mobile if needed.
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