Key concepts

Seven words carry most of the meaning in Installer.com. Learn these and the rest of the help center makes sense.

Order

One job, for one customer, at one address. The order is the unit everything else hangs off: the booking, the offer, the documentation, the payment. An order has one of three statuses — In Progress, Completed or Cancelled — and a workflow that describes the work still to do.

Workflow

The ordered set of steps an order moves through. Workflows come from a template you publish, so every order that runs the same template is handled the same way. A workflow for a heat pump install can look nothing like one for an EV charger, and you decide how.

Step

One unit of work inside a workflow. Steps run in order, and each one is assigned to a single actor: the step asks that actor to act, and you set separately who else can see it. Common step types:

Step	What it asks for
Select installer	Offer the order to contractors
Order response	The contractor accepts or rejects the order
Booking	Agree a date and time for a visit
Offer	Build the priced quote
Confirm offer	Get the offer accepted
Pay offer	Collect payment from the payer
Visit documentation	Record what was done on site
Feedback	Collect a rating once the work is done

Operator

The organisation that owns the order. Usually the brand or retailer that sold the product. It sets the workflow, chooses which contractors the order is offered to, and sees everything. On a workflow step it is the Operator.

Contractor

An installer company that accepts orders and performs them. A contractor has installers, a service area, and the installation types it works with. On a workflow step the contractor is the Installer.

Installer

The person who turns up and does the work. An installer is assigned to the order as their company’s representative, and works through the steps in the installer app.

Client

The customer at the address. They confirm booking times, confirm the offers addressed to them, and follow progress in the client portal. On a workflow step they are the Client.

How they fit together

An operator creates an order. Its workflow offers the order to a contractor, who agrees a booking with the client, sends an installer to do the work, and documents it. When the last step is finished, the order is Completed.