This template applies the four-block method: THE THINGS, THE LINKS, THE STATES, THE NUMBERS, to photovoltaic panel installation. It's filled in for a three-person installer: a concrete example beats an empty outline, because it shows the level of detail that suffices — one page, not forty.
What defines this trade isn't the installation itself, which takes two days: it's the paperwork around it, which takes months and moves through steps that don't depend on you. That is why an administrative step is a THING in its own right here, with its filing date and its response date — not a checkbox on the project. That choice is what later makes it possible to see what has been filed with no answer.
To adapt it, keep the structure and replace the content with your reality: your kinds of paperwork, your statuses in the order a file actually goes through in your company. Screens will follow from this structure; no need to describe them.
Filled with your own words, this text briefs a developer, or is submitted as-is to Blueprint Maker, which turns it into an application plan you validate, then a generated application: database, screens per entity, dashboard and demo data.
The template to copy
My business: installing photovoltaic panels for homeowners, 3 people, around fifteen files in progress at any time. THINGS tracked: - Projects (address, installed capacity in kWp, quote amount, signature date, planned installation date) - Clients (name, phone, address, type private or professional) - Administrative steps (kind of step, filing date, response date, file reference, comment) - Installations (date, duration in days, people on site, equipment fitted) - Payments (amount, date, nature deposit or balance) LINKS: - A project belongs to a client. - An administrative step is attached to a project. - An installation is attached to a project. - A payment is attached to a project. STATES of a project: quote sent, signed, paperwork in progress, approved, installation scheduled, installed, awaiting grid connection, connected, settled. STATES of an administrative step: to file, filed, further information requested, approved, rejected. NUMBERS to see every morning: - Projects blocked by an administrative step - Steps filed with no answer for more than 30 days - Installations scheduled this week - Amount collected this month, and amount still to collect
Adapting this template to your business
- Your paperwork, your words: the kind of step here is a free field with a list of values, not an imposed nomenclature. Use the labels you say on the phone — they are the ones you will search for in the application.
- A step is an entity, not a checkbox: this is the one thing not to simplify. A checkbox on the project carries neither a filing date nor a response date, so the indicator “filed with no answer for 30 days” becomes impossible to compute. That is precisely the indicator that saves time.
- Maintenance and production monitoring: if you service installations after the fit, add a “Service visit” entity (date, reason, project). If you track how much the installations produce, that is a MEASUREMENT — readings that arrive as a file, not typed in — and it should be described as such in your description.
- Without payment tracking: some installers drive collection from their accounting tool. Drop the Payments entity; the template stays complete and the application simpler.
- What this template does NOT do: the quote here is an amount and a status, not a compliant invoicing document, and the application files nothing, connects to no portal and judges no compliance. It tracks the state of your paperwork, it does not process it — regulated invoicing and filings stay in the tools meant for them.