Welcome to the forum. Although you can post in any forum, the USA forum is here in case of local regs or laws

laptop for work

View the thread, titled "laptop for work" which is posted in Gaining Plumbing Experience on UK Plumbers Forums.

UKPF News | UK Plumbers Forums

Dan
  • Article Article
Plumbers Talk | The Official Plumbers Talk Facebook Page
Replies
0
Views
154
Dan
Dan
Dan
  • Article Article
Gas Talk | GasTalk.co.uk is for Gas Safe Register Engineers Only
Replies
2
Views
214
Dan
Dan
Dan
  • Article Article
UK Plumbers Forums Facebook Page and Group
Replies
4
Views
322
Dan
Dan
Dan
  • Article Article
Mandatory Email Notification About The Forum Socials
Replies
1
Views
1K
Dan
Dan
S

sav

hi all ive got a netbook laptop for work that i save a load of pdf versions of boiler manuals on.


just wondering if anyone on here uses a laptop and if so what else do they use it for and what else could i use theis netbook for? ie diary so i can book jobs in ect insted of having a paper diary ect.


thanks
 
I use an iPad for my work. I use it for everything.

Doing quotes
Invoices
Gallery for customers work
Day to day diary
Certs
Shopping list for retailers
and many other things.

Keep it all in a happy owl case which keeps all my money, cards, pens, invoice & deposit books, receipts & orders & some other misc stuff.

I used to use a laptop but it was a pain lumping it about in a stop lock case with many other things & waiting on it booting up for a customer is a pain. Best accessory for work I ever purchased!
 
wierd that, was thinking about ipad bout hour ago, wether i should get one and what else besides looking at maunals i could use it for, you have swayed me bubblecraft into getting one
 
It's well worth it, honestly!

I use Mental note for measuring up. You can type, draw, record & take pics on it.

I use my photos to show potential new clients of what can be done. I take several pictures all the way through a job. The pics generally sell it for me.

I use pages for my quotations & invoices. If its a job I can price there & then, I type it up while I'm with the customer & email it to them in PDF form while I'm still with them!

I use reminders app for my shopping list for all my retailers.

There's loads more apps I use but there the most common. It's very professional looking & 9 times out of 10 I get the job, purely down to presentation.
 
I use a 13" laoptop its a pain waiting for it to boot up but I cant justify the cost of an ipad yet, I also bought a HP470 printer wireless with battery to print invoices haven't used it once! just as well it was cheap off Ebay
 
I also have an iPhone 4 so everything I do on my iPad goes straight on to my iPhone via iCloud & visa versa.
The downside to apple is no flash though there are apps that let you use some things that are flash enabled. It restricts me to updating me website on some things but still well worth it.
I use a 32gb iPad for work, 64gb iPad 2 for pleasure, mrs has a 16gb iPad, and there 2 iPhone 4's, a iPhone 3GS & 2 iPod touches in my house. I'm appled out my nut lol

I don't have the 3G iPads as its not required if you have an iPhone. I have a tethering bundle which allows me to connect my ipads to my iphones. They all have have wifi to!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I also have 2 HP3050a all in one printer scanners that has eprint facility which is great. Print straight from iPhone or iPad. If a customer does not have an email address, I can print it while on the job. Have 1 printer in the house & 1 wired in the van.
 
Bubblecraft

I am a fellow Mac enthusiast.

We have two iPads , two iPhones (with a third iphone with a broken mic, which out three year old uses as a games console), an iMac and a Mac book - only used for accounts.

Everything syncs on iCloud so all of my customer contacts, diary, quotes, emails etc are available on all devices at all times

I use invoice 2 go for my invoicing - brilliant. I have an app for drawing bathroom and kitchen plans. I do all of my quotes on the iPad and usually do them before I leave the customers house.

I also have some slide shows of previous jobs and when I am quoting I let customers browse them while I am measuring up.

I use it to listen to music while I am working, keep on top of emails, read the Guardian app or a book at lunchtime and of course spend hours on Plants v Zombies.

My iPad has 3G and I often do an online order with a well known merchant checking stock and picking it up 15 mins later.

I also use it to visit manufacturers websites for specs and manuals.

I have most of the manuals is use most in ibooks

I use google maps instead of a Sat Nav.

Off duty it is great for the BBC iplayer etc for watching TV

I use an Otterbox defender case for the iPad and iphone and they kept as good as new.

I really cannot imagine life without my iPad and could not contemplate using a laptop.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
An iPad 1 is cheap enough & does the job great. It don't have a camera but if you have an iPhone, you can either transfer pics via your computer, via iCloud or use a photo transfer app. iPad 2 is great as it has the camera on it to save the hassle of transferring but other than that, there ain't much difference. Slightly thinner & slightly faster proccessor but not really noticeable.

Battery life if great as well. I can use it all day & still have plenty battery life left (excluding hardcore gaming). I've a charger in the van & about 4 chargers in every room & everything gets plugged up at night anyway.
 
My 1 year old, yes 1, has her own iPhone 3GS & watches movies on it & plays baby apps (no sim in it).

My 4 year old has his own iPod touch which he got at Xmas to keep him off the Mrs iPhone 4 & he also uses her iPad for gaming & YouTube. He's literally taught himself to read & write with it.

My 10 year old has his own iPod touch & uses my iPad for gaming etc.

I have the Griffen case for my iPhone & had one on the iPad but wanted rid of my wallet & wanted somewhere to store everything I needed so got the happy owl wallet imported. Well worth the money! Here's mine -
5acb1b1d-4cc1-29fa.jpg
5acb1b1d-4cfe-d863.jpg
5acb1b1d-4d2c-689e.jpg

Normally has invoice books in it also but there in the van
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bubblecraft

I use the floorplans app.

I have tried a few and this the one that best suits me. It is great when planning a layout with a customer as you can place items like baths, showers and size them to the actual product size. It has helped me avoid a couple of disasters when customers were convinced they could get a 1200 x 900 enclosure , a full size bath, fitted furniture and a massive rad into a 2m x 2m bathroom

I have not yet used it to do a detailed plan for a kitchen, but I cannot see any problems.

A link to the website

http://www.floorplansapp.com/


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Pipedream said:
Bubblecraft

What is Mental note like ?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...

Hi pipedream, I've actually downloaded invoice to go. It's awesome. Been playing with it since you posted it. I'm in the middle of transferring all my pages stuff to it now. Great app btw. Cheers.

Mental note is great. When I take a call, I open the app. Take their details & jot it down or transfer an email to it if they contacted via my enquiry form on my website. If you book a date & write it on mental note then click on it, it automatically puts it in calendar.

When I goto job, I open it again, draw my sizes, write down all my notes, record a memo if need be or take a picture & then you can draw on the pic. When back home, I take all my details & work on the quote (which will now be on invoice2go thanks to you 😉)

Here's a quick example -
5acb1b1d-6d1b-737e.jpg
5acb1b1d-6d34-8004.jpg
5acb1b1d-6d3f-f68f.jpg
5acb1b1d-803e-22a7.jpg


Will try the bathroom/kitchen app & see what it's like.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - Couple a' Tools
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Pipedream said:
Bubblecraft

I use the floorplans app.

I have tried a few and this the one that best suits me. It is great when planning a layout with a customer as you can place items like baths, showers and size them to the actual product size. It has helped me avoid a couple of disasters when customers were convinced they could get a 1200 x 900 enclosure , a full size bath, fitted furniture and a massive rad into a 2m x 2m bathroom

I have not yet used it to do a detailed plan for a kitchen, but I cannot see any problems.

A link to the website

http://www.floorplansapp.com/


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...

Looks good but at £17.49 I'll hold off just now. Will read more into it & see if it's for me!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - Couple a' Tools
 
Bubblecraft

Agree that floorplans is a bit pricey, but customers love it. I often leave them with a full plan and follow up with a quote the same day.

Invoice 2 Go is brilliant. I love being able to populate the customers details from my contacts book. I use the reports section to review each month and quarter to give me an idea of how things are going. The unpaid invoices list also helps keep track of late payers.

I cannot believe you get so much for so little


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Bubblecraft

Re Invoice 2 go.

I forgot about being able to convert quotes to invoices - brilliant.

Couple of limitations.

There is a limit on the number of items in a quote, so if you want to list everything from a bathroom install it is a bit limiting. I do the bigger quotes on pages and then just invoice referencing the quote.

The print quality is a bit poor and random full stops seem to appear on some addresses.

You can have a desktop version that syncs with the app and allows greater flexibility on invoice formats etc, etc but unbelievably last time I checked they did not do a Mac version. I will keep checking as I would like to do them on the laptop sometimes.

I have fed these comments back to the developers.

I think I might post any new apps that I come across that others might like.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Pipedream

Cheers for that. Did you have a go at mental note?

Didn't notice there is a limit on invoice2go. My quotations are very detailed. Haven't tried it on a full bathroom or kitchen fit as yet. Have transferred about 60% of my products across from pages so dying to try it out. Can't seem to open my stuff I've done on the iPad on my iPhone though but no doubt I've just not switched on iCloud for it or something. Just opens like the first setup, if you know what I mean.

I do love pages but after the last update, they took away the tab button at the top so it's a bit of a long process to line up all my prices.

Will give floorplans a go soon. I'll stick to what I use for now until I'm more confident in using it.
 
Bubblecraft

Not had a chance to have go with Mental Note yet. I will download it tonight.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
dancinplumba said:
would ipad 16g wifi + 3g be ok for work ?
how much should i pay ?
how much for internet access per month etc
Click to expand...

Mines same as this and I paid 200 upfront and 25 a month over 2 years. This gives me 2gb usage a month and that's plenty. On orange
 
It's only available for iPad. If you can't see it in the app store, goto http://www.floorplansapp.com/

Great piece of kit! I've been using it since this thread & it's great! Well worth the £17!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Honestly mate, it's a great piece of kit. Essential to my business. I'd be lost without it now. So many benefits. Very professional looking to the customer & I say presentation it what sells.

If you need any ideas on apps etc & how it can benefit you as a business, give me a holler!

What iPad did you get?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - Couple a' Tools
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Official Sponsors of Plumbers Talk

Reply to the thread, titled "laptop for work" which is posted in Gaining Plumbing Experience on Plumbers Forums.

Similar plumbing topics

T
Bathroom fitting experience
Replies
0
Views
371
TonyColl
T
D
  • Sticky
New combi choice - manufacturer with the 'best' controls?
Replies
9
Views
1K
DevsAd
D
T
Is Shower Power Booster Pump from plumhq the only solution?
Replies
8
Views
589
ShaunCorbs
ShaunCorbs
S
Very slow draining bath.
Replies
4
Views
979
Serval
S
T
Baxi Platinum+ Combi Controls
Replies
6
Views
631
techweb
T

We recommend City Plumbing Supplies, BES, and Plumbing Superstore for all plumbing supplies.

Featured Content

Sponsors

Electric Underfloor Heating The Wetroom Store Heating 2 Go Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Official UK Plumbers Forums Facebook Page PowDer Flush Gas Talk Group | Gas Safe Register

Thread statistics

Created
sav,
Last reply from
willing2learn,
Replies
101
Views
14,968
Back
Top