Business software and compliance Case study
JobCapper: job, lead and commission portal
jobcapper.comA web portal for trade contractors to manage jobs, leads, payments, commissions and reports, with a business-card and handshake network, subscription plans and a full interface design.
Overview
JobCapper ("Simple tools for working fools") is a web portal for construction trade companies such as roofing and siding contractors. It tracks jobs and leads, records payments to clients, sales reps, managers, labor and material vendors, and reports on commissions and profit. A business-card network lets trade professionals share cards through handshake and key requests. We designed the interface and built the portal in 2015 and 2016: the page designs and responsive HTML and CSS, the PHP application, the reports, the payment and subscription flows and the Google Maps integration.
What we built
- Design and HTML/CSS for the home, internal, profile, vendor, job and dashboard pages, with responsive layouts for mobile
- Job and lead management with notes, documents, status and print views, and the SLAM module (sales, labor and materials) for job estimates
- Google Maps integration for job locations and route directions
- Payments by recipient type (client, material, labor, sales rep, manager and miscellaneous), commission setup per role, deposit slips, accounts, fund transfers and an audit trail
- Commission, profit and loss and job reports with print preview and PDF output
- Business cards with favourites, comparison and skill sets, plus handshake and company key requests between users
- A crew management view inside the job page, for assigning and tracking people on a job
- Custom permissions and roles for users and companies
- A multi-step sign-up with email confirmation, a profile wizard that builds the card as it is filled in, and subscription plans with payment gateways and pricing calculations for extra keys and locations
- Dashboard with activity feed, notifications and tasks, and an in-app chat widget
- Testing, bug fixing and code merging across the platform
How a system like this fits together
Reference architecture: job, lead and commission management portal
Simplified reference architecture, not a client schematic.
- A visitor signs up in the browser, confirms their email, completes the profile wizard and picks a plan. Every page is served by the PHP application over HTTP.
- Users create jobs and leads and build SLAM estimates; job locations and route directions use Google Maps.
- The application reads and writes MySQL, and keeps uploaded job and lead documents and card backgrounds in file storage.
- Plan payments go through PayPal or Authorize.net; payments to clients, sales reps, managers, labor and material vendors are recorded against each job with their commissions.
- Reports (commission, profit and loss, capped jobs) read the same database and can be printed or exported as PDF with mPDF; graphs are drawn in the browser with Highcharts.
Technology used
| Layer | Choice | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Data | MySQL with numbered upgrade scripts | jobs, people, payments and permissions |
| Back end | PHP, CodeIgniter (MVC) | jobs, leads, payments, commissions and permissions |
| Integrations | PayPal, Authorize.net, Google Maps | subscription payments, job locations and routes |
| Front end | Server-rendered pages, jQuery, Bootstrap, responsive HTML and CSS | the portal, dashboard and sign-up wizard |
| Reports and charts | Highcharts, mPDF | graphs, print preview and PDF output |
What happened next
- Delivered
The work described above was delivered to the client.
- Operational facts
- Our work on this project spanned 2015–2016.
Screens
Could this be your project?
- You need a web application with user accounts, admin tools and reporting. Website and web app development
- Your product has to connect to payment, accounting, messaging or other third-party systems.
- You work in business software and compliance and want a team that has built for it before. Business software and compliance work
Questions about this project
How long did this project take?
Our work on it ran from 2015 to 2016.
What technology was used?
MySQL, PHP, PayPal, Google Maps, CodeIgniter, Highcharts, mPDF, Authorize.net, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, jQuery.
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