When the signal drops, the work still gets recorded.

There are two places where a repair shop’s record-keeping breaks most often: the workshop floor, a long walk from the computer, and the road where a travelling rep works. In both, things move fast — jobs change hands, parts go in, cash comes in — while the computer sits somewhere else and the signal does what signals do. So everything gets recorded “later”. And “later” is what goes missing: not because anyone cheated, but because nobody remembered.

The Automan web app does need an internet connection — it is the store’s control room, and that hasn’t changed. What’s new is Automan Mobile: an Android app built for field work. Transactions are held on the phone when the signal drops and send themselves the moment it returns, each device holding its own invoice-number quota so numbers never clash. Technicians and front-desk staff run their jobs from a phone; travelling reps sell, collect, and settle from the road. All of it lands in the same store data.

A dead signal is not a reason to stop recording

“Works offline” has become a cheap claim, so here is the actual mechanism. When the signal drops, a transaction made in the app neither fails nor waits for you — it is saved on the phone, joins a queue, and sends itself to the store’s server once the signal returns. There is no sync button to remember, no paper stand-in to copy out again in the evening.

The detail most field apps miss is the small one with the biggest consequences: invoice numbers. Two people create transactions at the same moment with no signal — the numbers collide, and tidy bookkeeping turns into detective work. Automan closes that by design: every device holds its own quota of invoice numbers, so an invoice born without a signal still carries a valid number that never clashes with anyone else’s.

Price the alternative honestly: one unrecorded transaction is stock that left without a trace, a debt nobody ever chases, and a settlement that won’t reconcile. The expensive thing was never the feature — it’s the transaction that vanishes quietly.

Technicians and front-desk staff work from their own phones

In plenty of shops, one computer becomes a queue: a technician waiting to take a job, a front-desk colleague waiting to change a status, everyone taking turns at the same mouse. Automan Mobile moves that daily traffic onto each person’s phone:

• Take a job — a technician sees the incoming repair list and claims work directly, without walking to the counter.
• Change job status — “In progress”, “Finished”, and the rest are updated on the spot, as they happen, not reconstructed at closing time.
• Add parts and services — the part that just went in is recorded onto that job right then, so the final invoice isn’t missing a line.
• The repair list — what’s in progress, who holds it, and how far along it is, readable from a phone.
• Customer confirmation — the moment a customer approves, the confirmation is recorded from the phone and the job moves, instead of waiting for someone to get back to a desk.

It is still the same repair management workflow — every change is logged against the user’s own account, so the audit trail stays sharp even though the work moved into a pocket.

WhatsApp to the customer stays automatic, wherever the transaction is made

A fair question: if a technician flips the status from a phone, does the customer’s WhatsApp still go out? It does. Sales and repair-status changes made from the Android app run through the same engine as the web version — the store’s WhatsApp gateway — so invoices and status updates still reach the customer without anyone touching WhatsApp at all.

For incoming questions there are quick replies with word masking: ready-made answers whose blanks are filled from the transaction itself — nobody retypes a job number or a status from memory; they just pick the reply.

Push notifications bring the news to the pocket

A field app only earns its keep if people learn about new work without staring at it all day. Automan Mobile sends push notifications to the phone, so word from the store finds its way to the pocket instead of waiting to be discovered.

For travelling reps: a whole trip from one phone

Automan Mobile is also the working end of the Canvassing module: a rep accepts a stock load with a single tap, then sells, collects receivables, takes returns, and notes orders right at the customer’s door — including printing receipts to a Bluetooth printer and handing goods between reps by scanning a QR code. The trip closes with a settlement that reconciles cash and leftover stock together.

The full mechanics — consigned stock, credit limits, the three fates of a settlement shortfall — live on the van sales (canvassing) page.

Location recording: optional, and honest about its limits

Plenty of field apps lead with employee tracking. We went the other way: location recording is off by default. It runs only after the owner switches it on under Pengaturan → Transaksi → Canvas — and even then only for sales trips, only while the app is open on screen. The app requests no background-location permission: screen off means no point recorded, and users see an explanation and grant the system permission before anything starts.

All of it is written down in the privacy policy — because a field team that feels quietly watched is not a team that stays.

Every phone is paired to the store, and the owner holds the door

Before a phone can be used at all, it is paired to the store and waits for the owner’s approval. Each staff member signs in with their own account, so every field transaction has a name on it. The working data stored on the phone — the product catalogue, customers, unsent transactions — is encrypted, with the key in the operating system’s secure storage. And if a phone goes missing or someone leaves, the owner deactivates the account from the web app; that device’s story ends there.

None of this is ceremony. A field phone is the store’s arm extended — and there should be no doubt whose arm it is.

What stays on the web — worth knowing before you sign up

Automan Mobile deliberately does not try to be everything. Reports, settings, and accounting stay in the web app — a phone screen is the wrong place to read a balance sheet. Offline capability likewise covers field operations in the Android app only; the web till still needs a connection. One more thing worth weighing: like the rest of Automan, the app interface is in Indonesian, while everything your customers receive is text you write yourself. We would rather ship one field app that genuinely survives a bad signal than an everything-app that is mediocre at all of it.

A tidy shop doesn’t stop at the shop door

Until now, tidy record-keeping ended where the network cable ended. With Automan Mobile, invoices are born on the workshop floor and on a customer’s front porch — validly numbered, with a name attached, landing in the books without being copied out again. The Lite plan is free forever, no card required — start from the button above, follow the install guide for Automan Mobile, or walk through the Automan demo first.