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Set up DispatchR Base Ops

Base Ops is the office side of DispatchR. It’s where you build your customer list, write estimates, dispatch technicians, and get paid. Five steps and you’re running real jobs.

  • 5 required steps
  • About 15 minutes
  • iPad or Apple silicon Mac

En español

Before you start

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Three things to have on hand

An iPad or a Mac

Base Ops is built for iPad and runs on Apple silicon Macs. One device is enough to get going.

The business’s iCloud account

Sign the office device in to the Apple ID the business will keep, before you type a single customer. Your records are stored in that account.

Devices for the crew

Technicians use the DispatchD app on their own iPhone or iPad, with their own Apple ID. You add each one’s device from Base Ops in person, and they set their own PIN. Devices the business buys can sign in to the business Apple ID instead and skip the invitation.

The layout

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Ten tabs, with setup in Settings

The sidebar is the whole app. Here is what sits behind each tab.

Dashboard 01

Active jobs, completed work, payments, customer count, average job value.

Quick Job 02

The fastest path from a phone call to a scheduled job, estimate, or invoice.

Customers 03

Every customer, their job history, and for HVAC shops the equipment at each address. Set How They Found You when you add or edit a customer (a Google ad, Facebook, a postcard, a referral…); PostSchedulR uses it to show which ads and mailers bring in jobs.

Jobs 04

All estimates and invoices, their status, and the Send Link menu in each job’s Payments section, where Get Customer Approval lets a customer sign an estimate on screen; it becomes an invoice with the signature printed on it. To print the estimate as they signed it, choose Print Signed Estimate from the Send Link menu. Each job shows where the work is (Scheduled, In Progress, Completed) and, next to it, where the paperwork is: Estimate Created, Estimate Sent, Invoice Accepted, Invoice Sent, then Paid.

Calendar 05

Scheduled jobs shown alongside your Apple Calendar events. Pick a day here to schedule or reschedule a job.

Map 06

Where technicians are, with active jobs pinned and colored assigned or unassigned.

Inventory 07

Products, services, low-stock warnings, total inventory value, and what each item and variation costs you.

Files 08

Photos, documents, and voice notes, attached to a job or customer or filed loose.

Settings 09

Every step in part one below happens here, in the same order, with Help and support at the bottom.

Help 10

This guide, built into the app so it’s there when you need it.

Part one

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First-time setup

Steps 1 through 5 get you working. The rest are worth doing when you have a minute.

1

Sign in to iCloud

1 min
Settings → iCloud Sync

Before you enter anything, confirm the device is signed in to the iCloud account the business will use. That account holds your customers, jobs, and technicians.

  • The section shows your container, zone status, and what is syncing
  • Refresh Status and Force Sync are there when you need to nudge it
  • Not signed in yet? Open System Settings, sign in with your Apple ID, then come back

More than one office device? Sign every office iPad and Mac in to the same business account and they share everything automatically. Technicians’ devices work differently: you invite them in step 4.

2

Enter your company information

3 min
Settings → Company Information

This is what prints on every estimate and invoice, so fill it in first.

  • Company name, street address, city, state, and ZIP
  • The phone number and email customers should reply to
  • Your sales tax rate, which is added to invoices from here on. Technicians’ devices use the same rate, and a change reaches them on its own
  • Your company logo, if you have one (you can also add it later in step 9)
  • Report Color: the color of your invoices, estimates and Dashboard reports, and of the service reports technicians create in DispatchD. Pick a swatch or any color; the preview shows how the report header will look
3

Define your work types

3 min
Settings → Work Types

Work types are the categories your jobs fall into, and they fill the Work Type dropdown on every new job. Add the handful your shop actually uses, such as Service Call, Maintenance, Install, and Repair, then drag the common ones to the top.

  • The order here is the order in the Quick Job dropdown
  • A green dot marks a work type active; the eye button deactivates it
  • Deactivate rather than delete, so past jobs keep their category

HVAC shops: name a work type close to HVAC (HVAC, Heating, Cooling, Heat Pump, or Furnace) and Base Ops turns on the Equipment section on customer records. There you log model and serial numbers, tonnage, filter size, and electrical data for each unit at a service address.

4

Add your technicians and their devices

5 min
Settings → Technicians

Each technician you add becomes someone you can dispatch jobs to, and a login on the DispatchD app.

Solo or Team? Base Ops is free for a shop with one technician. To add more, click Upgrade to Team in the plan card: the Team plan is $19.99 a year for up to 100 technicians, with no per-technician fees. DispatchD is always free. If a Team plan ends, your technicians keep working, but you can’t add new ones until it’s renewed. Click Manage in the plan card to change or cancel it.

  • Click Add Technician. First and last name are required; employee ID, phone, and email are optional
  • Turn on Enable Location Sharing for anyone you want to see on the Map
  • Then, with the technician’s device next to this Mac or iPad, click Add Technician Device in the Technician Device Access card at the top, choose the technician, and click Start. On their device, DispatchD’s Join a Business in Person shows a 6-digit code: type it into Base Ops and click Add Device. Nothing is texted or emailed, and it always uses the Apple ID signed in on that device
  • DispatchD joins your business and downloads the team. The technician picks their name and sets a PIN. Their device is already linked to them: only that device can sign in as them, and it can’t sign in as anyone else

The card shows how many devices have been added and how many have joined. Add every technician device in person; that’s the only way in, so an invitation can’t be forwarded to the wrong Apple ID. Manage Access lists every Apple ID with access, whether it has joined and which technician it signs in as, with a Remove button for each.

What technicians see. In DispatchD, technicians see their own jobs, and customers only while they have an open job for them. They can add customers and fix their details, but can’t delete them. Finished jobs (completed, paid, or cancelled) drop off their device after Technicians see finished jobs for, under the payment settings here: 7 days unless you change it. They stay in Base Ops.

When someone leaves, delete them in Settings → Technicians. If their device is linked, Base Ops removes its Apple ID from your business at the same time, so it can no longer see your jobs and customers. The delete message names the Apple ID first. If no device is linked yet, choose Delete and Manage Access to remove their Apple ID yourself.

New device? Click Edit on the technician: the Linked Device row shows which Apple ID they use. Click Unlink Device, then Save, and they can sign in on the new device. Then add the new device with Add Technician Device. The old device keeps its access until you remove its Apple ID in Manage Access. Devices signed in to the business’s own Apple ID aren’t linked and can sign in as anyone.

Only the owner’s device can add technicians. Add devices from an office iPad or Mac signed in to the business account. A device that joined through someone else’s business shows an explanation instead of the button.

5

Connect Square

3 min
Settings → Square Payments

Connecting Square lets you email an invoice with a working payment link, text a payment link to a customer, and take cards in the field.

  • Click Connect to Square. Your browser opens, you approve, and you land back in Base Ops
  • Once connected, the section shows your merchant ID and a green confirmation
  • Turn on Allow iOS app to accept payments if technicians will run cards on a Square reader
  • Under it, Allow technicians to give refunds lets technicians refund card payments and reverse cash or check payments on their own jobs. It’s off at first: technicians are told refunds go through the office
  • Settings → Payment Providers → Accept checks is on at first. Turn it off and Check isn’t offered when recording a payment, in Base Ops or on technicians’ devices. Cash is recorded in Square as cash, so it shows in Square’s cash reports.
  • Disconnect is in the same section whenever you need it

Rather use Stripe or PayPal? Settings → Payment Providers connects either one and sets the default for new invoices. Any single job can still be switched to a different provider.

6

Pull in your Square catalog

Optional
Settings → Square Catalog

If you already keep prices in Square, you don’t need to retype them.

  • Sync from Square brings your catalog down as line items you can add to any job
  • Manage Catalog handles categories, modifiers, discounts, options, and units
  • Auto-sync inventory (under Square Payments) keeps quantities current between Base Ops and technicians’ devices, checking every 30 seconds
7

Hook up your calendars

Optional
Settings → Apple Calendars

Grant calendar access and pick which calendars to show. Apple Calendar events then appear in the Calendar tab beside scheduled jobs, so vacations, supplier appointments, and dispatch all sit in one view.

8

Let technicians take card payments

If techs take payment
Settings → Square Payments → Provision Technician Device

To take cards on their device, a technician’s iPhone or iPad needs your Square credentials. Base Ops hands them over in person: the two devices connect directly over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and the credentials are encrypted end to end. Connect Square (step 5) first.

  • Hold the technician’s device near the Mac or iPad and click Start Provisioning
  • On the technician’s device: DispatchD → Settings → Square Payments → Receive Square Credentials, then tap Receive. Allow access to devices on the local network if asked
  • The device shows a 6-digit code. Type it into Base Ops and click Send Credentials
  • You get one try. A wrong code cancels the transfer and nothing is sent, so start again

A device lost or a technician gone? Disconnect and reconnect Square in Settings → Square Payments. That cuts off every device you’ve provisioned, and you then provision the ones you still want.

9

Make it look like your shop

Optional
Settings → Appearance
  • Company Logo: a PNG or JPG, about 200 × 200 pixels, printed on your invoices
  • Tab Accent Color and Theme (Light, Dark, or follow the system)
  • Default Job Length, from 30 minutes to 4 hours, sets how long new jobs sit on the calendar
  • Background Colors for cards and views, with Reset to Defaults if you change your mind
10

Take it for a test drive

Optional
Settings → Demo Data → Load Demo Data

Not ready to put real customers in yet? Load 50 sample customers with jobs, line items, and payments, then click through the whole flow before you commit. Your existing records are not affected.

Part two

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Running a job, start to finish

The everyday loop, from phone call to money in the bank.

  • Quick Job
  • Assign & schedule
  • Tech works it
  • Convert to invoice
  • Send payment link
  • Paid

  1. Write it up in Quick Job

    Search an existing customer by name, phone, or email, or switch to New and add them on the spot. Base Ops warns you when the name looks like someone you already have.

  2. Fill in the job

    Pick the work type, choose Estimate or Invoice, assign a technician, describe the problem, and drag in photos. With more than one technician, the one closest to the customer’s address is marked Closest, counting only technicians who are online in DispatchD (it shared their location in the last few minutes); click it to assign them. A moment later, once Apple Maps has the drive times with current traffic, it changes to the Fastest one, which may not be the closest. Edit Job marks them the same way when you reassign a job. To put it on the calendar, click Schedule on Calendar: Base Ops saves the job and opens the Calendar. Pick a day, click Schedule on This Day, set the time, and click Save. On the Jobs screen, a draft job’s Schedule on Calendar button opens the Calendar the same way. To move a job to another day, open it, click Edit, and use Reschedule. To change only the time, set it next to the date in Edit Job, or click Change Time on the job in the Calendar’s day list.

  3. Add line items

    Type them in, or pull from inventory. The picker shows SKUs and what’s in stock. Quantity, rate, and the running total update as you go, with your tax rate applied. To add one to a saved job, click Add Item on its Line Items box: a custom item or one from inventory, with no need to open Edit. If Square is connected, the estimate or invoice in Square is updated too.

  4. Dispatch and watch it

    The job lands on the assigned technician’s device. Track the day from Dashboard, Jobs, or Calendar, or on the Map, where unassigned jobs are colored differently from assigned ones. Click a job’s pin, then Reassign or Reschedule, or Open to see the job in Jobs. With more than one technician, the card shows the Closest one to the job among technicians who are online in DispatchD (it shared their location in the last few minutes); click it to assign them. Reassign lists everyone fastest first, with Apple Maps drive times and current traffic for the closest online technicians.

  5. Turn the estimate into an invoice

    When the customer approves, open the job and click Accept & Convert to Invoice. Line items, photos, and history carry straight over.

  6. Get paid

    From the Send Link menu in the job’s Payments section: Create Payment Link, Preview Invoice, Email Invoice, Text Payment Link, or Sync Invoice to Square. Email Invoice opens one email, addressed to the customer, with the subject, a message with the pay link, and the invoice PDF attached. In Square, the invoice has the same number as in Base Ops (INV-0008, say) and the same total, tax included. With Square connected, a payment link is included automatically: a previewed invoice you print carries a Scan to pay QR code, and an emailed or texted invoice has a Pay Now button. When the job has a Square invoice, that link is the Square invoice’s own payment page, the same one in Square’s email, so the customer has one way to pay. Base Ops checks Square every couple of minutes while it’s open and when you come back to it: once the customer pays, the payment appears on the job and a job paid in full is marked paid. If the customer pays the invoice after you already recorded cash or a check, the card payment shows up too, so you can Refund it from the job. Once the invoice is paid in full another way (cash, check or card), the link is turned off so the customer can’t pay twice. Invoices use your Report Color, and long ones continue onto more pages. An invoice is due 30 days after the job is completed, and it shows that date. When Square emails the invoice to the customer, it also sends reminders 3 days before it’s due, on the day, and 7, 14, and 30 days after. The technician assigned to the job can also take the card on site.

Part three

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Your technicians’ devices

What the crew sees in the DispatchD app on their iPhone or iPad, and what you control from the office.

  1. Join the business

    Install DispatchD, tap Join a Business in Person next to the office’s Mac or iPad, and read the code to the office (Base Ops: Add Technician Device). The app joins your business and downloads your team, which can take a minute the first time. Then the technician selects their profile.

  2. Set a PIN

    Each technician chooses their own PIN the first time. Three wrong tries lock the app until you click Reset PIN in Settings → Technicians. Then they choose a new PIN.

  3. Work the day’s jobs

    Assigned jobs show up with the customer, address, notes, line items, and photos. Changes the technician makes come back to Base Ops on their own.

  4. Share location on a schedule

    With Share Location on, the device sends its position every 5 minutes. Only Share During Set Hours limits that to the days and times the technician chooses. Location permission must be set to Always.

  5. Scan equipment nameplates

    For HVAC work, Scan Nameplate photographs a unit’s data plate and fills in the model, serial, and specs. The technician reviews them before saving, and the unit appears on the customer in Base Ops.

  6. Take card payments

    Once provisioned (step 8), the device takes cards on a Square Reader, a Square Reader for contactless and chip, or a Square Terminal. It renews its own Square access, so there’s nothing to redo.

Part four

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Keeping the books straight

Housekeeping tools worth knowing about once jobs are flowing.

Know your cost of goods sold

Enter what each item costs you in Inventory: Unit Cost on the item, and a Cost for each variation in Edit Inventory Item when sizes or models cost different amounts. A variation without its own cost uses the item’s. When a part goes on a job, the job keeps the cost it had that day, so later price changes don’t rewrite past months. Dashboard → Reports → COGS then shows, for jobs billed in a date range, your sales, the cost of the parts sold, and the gross profit left, with every part listed. Parts sold without a cost entered are counted separately so you can fill them in. Export it as a spreadsheet for your accountant.

See who still owes you

Dashboard → Reports → Open Balances lists every billed job with money still owed, grouped 0–30, 31–60, 61–90, and over 90 days, with totals per customer. Every report opens as a PDF with your logo, company details and Report Color: Share PDF prints or sends it, and Export CSV gives you a spreadsheet. The Unpaid Balances card on the Dashboard shows the total still owed, the Past Due card shows what’s more than 30 days old, and the Has Balance and Past Due filters do the same on the Jobs list. On a past-due job, the Send Link menu has Email Payment Reminder and Text Payment Reminder.

Make sure Square has every payment

Square confirms each payment it saves, and Base Ops checks Square’s record once more. A cash or check payment Square didn’t get shows Not in Square with a Send to Square button, here or on the technician’s device. It can’t be recorded twice. Square doesn’t let apps mark its own invoices paid, so when a job has a published Square invoice, the payment goes into Square on its own: mark that invoice paid in the Square Dashboard. The Mark Paid in Square card on the Dashboard lists the ones still to do, and each drops off once Square shows it paid. Reversing a cash or check payment records a refund in Square too, so Square stops counting it. The other direction is covered as well: the Dashboard’s Square Payments Not in the App card compares the last 30 days of Square payments with yours and lists any the app has no record of, so you can add each to its job or ignore it. The Needs Attention filter on the Jobs list finds every job with a payment that isn’t settled with Square. The Revenue report counts the money actually collected in the period, next to what was billed.

Refund a card payment

On a job’s card payment, click Refund, enter all or part of the amount, and add a reason if you like. Square sends the money back to the card, and the refund shows on the job as a negative entry, so the balance, reports, and exports all account for it. If the connection drops, the refund waits with a Retry button. It’s never refunded twice. Cash and checks are reversed instead, since you hand that money back yourself.

Catch Square up on past work

Settings → Square Historical Sync pushes jobs from a date range you choose up to Square, creating the matching orders and invoices there. Jobs already synced are skipped, so it’s safe to run more than once.

Bring back deleted records

Settings → Data & Storage → Backups. Base Ops saves a copy of the whole business on this Mac or iPad once a day, outside what technicians can reach, and keeps two weeks of daily copies plus one a month for a year. If 5 or more customers, jobs, payments, or pieces of equipment disappear since the last copy, Base Ops asks whether to Bring Them Back. You can also click Bring Back Missing Records, pick a backup, and see what’s missing before restoring. Restoring only adds back what’s gone; it never changes newer work. Save a Copy keeps a backup somewhere else, like Files or a drive.

Hand your accountant a file

Settings → Data & Storage → Export Data. Export .OFX File turns completed payments in a date range into a bank-statement file for QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or FreshBooks. Export Inventory .CSV lists every item with cost, price, quantity, and Square sync status. Export Customer List .CSV saves every customer with an address or phone number in the columns PostSchedulR reads, so you can mail postcards or text them from PostSchedulR (or open the file in Excel or Numbers).

Let an AI app help

Settings → AI Apps, on a Mac. Turn on Let AI apps use Base Ops, then click Copy Claude Desktop Setup (paste it in Claude Desktop under Settings → Developer → Edit Config; it needs Node.js) or Copy Claude Code Command (paste it in Terminal). While Base Ops is open, you can ask Claude things like “What’s on Mike’s schedule Thursday?” or “Make a draft estimate for Maria Garcia’s AC repair.” AI apps can look up and change jobs, customers, and the schedule, but they can’t touch payments, charge cards, or send anything to customers. To delete a job or customer, Base Ops shows the request and you type DELETE; jobs with payments or invoices, and customers with jobs, can’t be deleted this way. Every change is listed under Changes Made by AI Apps. The setup includes a private key; if it gets out, click New Key.

Keep the paperwork together

The Files tab collects every photo, document, and voice note, including the branded A/C reports technicians create in DispatchD from measureQuick tests. Filter by type, see what isn’t attached to a job yet, and record a voice note straight into the record.

Watch your stock

The Inventory tab flags items running low and totals what’s on the shelf. With auto-sync on, a part used on a job updates the count in Base Ops and Square.

Troubleshooting

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If something looks off

These cover most setup questions.

An office device isn’t seeing the data

Every office iPad and Mac has to be signed in to the same business iCloud account. Check Settings → iCloud Sync on both, then use Force Sync. New records can take a moment to appear.

A technician’s device shows no jobs or customers

The device only sees your business after it’s added in person. In Settings → Technicians, the Technician Device Access card shows who has joined. If they haven’t, click Add Technician Device with their device next to you and have them tap Join a Business in Person. Technicians also only see customers with an open job of theirs, and finished jobs for 7 days unless you change it.

A technician got a new device and can’t sign in

Their profile is still linked to the old device, so DispatchD shows “Can’t Sign In Here”. In Settings → Technicians, click Edit on them, click Unlink Device, and Save. Then click Add Technician Device with the new device next to you, and remove the old Apple ID in Manage Access.

Add Technician opens the Team plan

Base Ops is free for one technician. To add a second, upgrade to the Team plan ($19.99 a year, any number of technicians). Already paid on another device? Click Restore Purchases. An office device signed in to a different Apple ID picks up the owner’s Team plan once it syncs.

The Add Technician Device button is missing

Only a device signed in to the business’s own iCloud account can add technicians. If this iPad or Mac joined someone else’s business, add devices from the owner’s device instead.

A technician doesn’t show on the Map

Check three things: Enable Location Sharing is on for them in Settings → Technicians, Share Location is on in the DispatchD app, and the device’s location permission is set to Always. If they use Only Share During Set Hours, they won’t appear outside those hours. Each technician’s pin shows their initials; technicians standing close together share one pin with a number on it. Click it to zoom in until they separate.

The credential transfer to a technician’s device failed

Keep the technician’s device next to the Mac or iPad, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on on both. On that device, allow access to devices on the local network. If the code was typed wrong, the transfer is cancelled on purpose: click Try Again and start over.

Payment links aren’t offered

The Send Link menu reads “Connect Square for payment links” when Square isn’t connected. Go to Settings → Square Payments and connect, or reconnect if anything changed on the Square side.

A payment says Not in Square

It’s saved in Base Ops, but Square didn’t get it, usually because the connection dropped. Click Send to Square on the payment. It’s safe to do from here and from the technician’s device. A card payment marked as waiting for Square means the reader finished but Square didn’t confirm it: look for it in your Square Dashboard before charging the card again.

A reversed payment still counts in Square

The payment shows “Reversed here, but Square still counts it” when Square didn’t record the refund, usually because the connection dropped. Click Record in Square on the payment. It’s recorded only once, however many times you try, and no money moves for cash or a check.

A refund says Not confirmed by Square

The refund was saved, but Square’s answer didn’t arrive, usually because the connection dropped. Click Retry on the refund. Square recognizes it, so the card is refunded only once. If Square turned it down, the refund says so and doesn’t count, and you can try a different amount.

A payment is in Square but not in the app

Usually the app closed before it could save the payment, or the sale was rung up outside DispatchR. Click the Square Payments Not in the App card on the Dashboard. Each payment shows the job it most likely belongs to: click Add to put it there, Choose Job to pick another, or Ignore if it has nothing to do with a job. Payments taken in DispatchD carry the app’s own reference in Square, so they’re matched up automatically.

A customer is past due

Open the job and choose Email Payment Reminder or Text Payment Reminder from the Send Link menu in Payments. It sends the balance still owed, the due date, and the payment link. To see everyone who owes you, run Dashboard → Reports → Open Balances.

A job isn’t showing up in Square

Base Ops sends a job to Square only once it has at least one line item with a price, so customers never get a $0.00 invoice. Add the line items, click Save, and the estimate or invoice goes to Square. The Send Link menu’s Sync Invoice to Square shows the same reminder if you try earlier.

A technician is locked out

Three wrong PIN entries lock the app. In Settings → Technicians, click Reset PIN on that technician. They choose a new PIN the next time their device syncs.

No Equipment section on customers

Equipment tracking switches on when an active work type is named close to HVAC: HVAC, Heating, Cooling, Heat Pump, or Furnace. Add one in Settings → Work Types.

An “iCloud Sync Problem” banner appears

Base Ops shows it at the bottom of the screen when syncing with iCloud fails twice in a row, and hides it once a sync works again. While it’s showing, changes made on this device aren’t reaching technicians or other devices. The banner says why: no connection (changes sync once it’s back), not signed in to iCloud, or iCloud storage full. If it says this device’s changes aren’t uploading, quit and reopen Base Ops: it repairs the most common cause as it opens. For anything else it shows the details; send those to support.

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