Prepare for a power interruption by separating the work that needs electricity, the information that needs a connection and the records that must reach the office. Confirm the service-site situation, brief the technician before attendance and give any disconnected action a clear recovery check. The goal is to preserve a coherent job record and a realistic customer plan.
This is a contingency guide, not a statement that load shedding is currently active at your location. Scheduled load shedding, an unplanned fault and a site-specific electrical problem need different information. Check the current notice for the relevant supplier and customer site before changing the day's work.
Check the information for the actual service site
A technician's home area, the office and the customer site can have different supply arrangements. Identify the supplier or municipality relevant to the appointment and check its current information. A forwarded schedule for another area is not a reliable basis for deciding whether the work can proceed.
Eskom's schedule guidance directs customers who are not supplied by Eskom to the relevant municipality or metro when seeking their schedule. Its municipal schedule page also explains that municipal information is maintained by the relevant municipality. Use the appropriate current source instead of relying only on an old screenshot. See Eskom's schedule guidance and municipal schedule information.
Record the practical implication for the visit: whether access, equipment operation or a planned test may be affected. The dispatcher needs that operational information, not simply a note that the area sometimes experiences interruptions. Recheck when circumstances change before making a firm customer promise.
Distinguish a schedule from an observed outage
A schedule is planning information. The actual site condition still needs confirmation, particularly when the customer reports an interruption outside the expected window. Do not assume every loss of power is explained by scheduled load shedding. Eskom's FAQ advises customers to report an apparent fault to the relevant supplier when the timing does not match the applicable schedule or a notified planned outage. See Eskom's outage FAQ.
For dispatch, capture what the customer observed and what it prevents. The office should avoid diagnosing the electrical cause from a telephone description. Route technical or safety questions through the appropriate qualified person and supplier process.
Keep the appointment decision separate from that diagnosis. Some administrative or observational work may remain possible, while another task may depend on conditions that are unavailable. The responsible technician should determine what can appropriately proceed within their competence and the agreed scope.
Identify the work that actually depends on power
Before moving an appointment, ask which part of the planned visit is affected. Access arrangements, equipment operation, lighting, testing or customer communication may each depend on different conditions. A blanket cancellation can be unnecessary for some work, while proceeding without reviewing a crucial dependency can waste the visit.
Use the job brief to record the relevant requirement. If the task includes a test that cannot be completed under the current conditions, explain that limitation and the next decision. Do not mark the full scope complete merely because the technician performed the parts that remained possible.
This guide does not provide instructions for electrical isolation, generator connection or bypassing site systems. Those decisions require the relevant qualified people and procedures. The dispatch task is to recognise the dependency, obtain an appropriate decision and communicate the resulting attendance plan clearly.
Prepare the field brief while connected
Give the technician the customer, site, reported issue, appointment and access contact before the visit. Include the latest relevant instruction and a clear job reference. If the team expects a connection problem, verify that the information needed for attendance can actually be reached on the intended device under the tested workflow.
Do not assume that opening one job in the office makes every attachment or related screen available later without a connection. Demonstrate the specific information the technician needs. A short pre-departure check can reveal a missing address or inaccessible supporting record before the person is at the customer's gate.
Keep the brief focused. The technician needs the current scope and practical instruction, not an unfiltered archive of old messages. If the office changes the appointment after the last confirmed handover, communicate that change through a usable channel and inspect whether the person received the new instruction.
Plan device readiness as an operating task
A working digital process needs a usable device. Establish who checks the phone's readiness before the day begins and how the technician reports a problem. This includes sufficient charge for the intended use and access to the normal charging arrangement, without relying on an unverified assumption about how long every battery will last.
Review the equipment you actually provide rather than buying a generic backup setup from a marketing list. Device condition, workload and field use differ. Any charging or electrical equipment should be suitable for its intended use and handled according to the relevant manufacturer guidance and your business's procedures.
Give the office a clear exception route when a device cannot be used. The technician still needs to know the current assignment and how essential information will be captured. A practical fallback reduces the chance that an employee improvises an unreviewed process while trying to serve a waiting customer.
Test offline behaviour by action
Offline capability is a property of a particular workflow, not a universal label that proves every app screen behaves identically. A note, a photograph, a stock deduction and an approval can use different save and submission paths. Test the actions your team intends to rely on and inspect the office result after reconnection.
WorkOrderPro's mobile synchronisation workflow retains unacknowledged changes for later resolution, and relevant photo handling has its own upload process. That does not mean every action has the same offline support. The current clock service records server timestamps when clock actions are accepted, so exact disconnected clock-event capture should not be promised without a demonstrated supported path.
| Action to evaluate | What to inspect on the device | What to verify afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| Read the assigned job | Required detail is actually available | Current instruction still matches the office |
| Save a work note | App clearly represents the saved or pending state | Intended note appears on the correct job |
| Capture a photograph | Image remains associated with the intended work | Upload and relevant metadata are present |
| Record a clock action | Supported action and any error are understood | Accepted timestamp and interval are correct |
| Review a quote decision | Valid customer path is available | Office sees the actual recorded outcome |
| Change stock or job state | Result is clear, not merely assumed | Saved quantity or workflow state is inspected |
Give disconnected work a clear fallback
Define what the technician should capture when the intended digital action is unavailable. The fallback should preserve the job reference, relevant event and information the office will need. It can be a controlled temporary note or another established business process, provided the later reconciliation is explicit.
Explain who transfers or reconciles that information and when. A temporary record that never reaches the office leaves the job incomplete. A temporary record copied twice can create another problem. The person resolving it needs to inspect the existing saved state before adding information again.
Keep sensitive customer information within your reviewed handling process even during disruption. An outage does not make every personal messaging account or shared device an appropriate storage location. Use the fallback your business has prepared and give staff a contact when that route is also unavailable.
Communicate uncertainty without inventing an arrival time
Customers need a clear account of what is happening to their appointment. Explain whether the office is checking site conditions, reviewing the task dependency or arranging a revised visit. Avoid promising a precise restoration or arrival time that the team has not confirmed.
Use a named owner for customer updates. During a disruption, several employees may assume somebody else has made contact. Record the current communication outcome and next intended update against the job or in the agreed office process.
A message being prepared or a job status being changed does not establish delivery. Check the configured channel and recipient where the communication matters. If the customer cannot use the intended digital path, follow the established alternative and keep the work record clear about the actual conversation and decision.
Re-plan the day from the affected jobs
Review which appointments genuinely need a change and which can proceed under an appropriate plan. Consider the attending person's competence, travel and existing commitments before reallocating work. A nearby technician may still be unable to perform a task whose site dependency remains unresolved.
Use the dispatch process to make the revised assignments visible. Update the relevant job and communicate the new arrangement to affected people. Avoid leaving the board with the old appointment while the team relies on a private message explaining the real plan.
After handling the immediate disruption, review displaced work. It still needs a next action and a customer update where appropriate. A successful response to one interruption should not leave another customer waiting because their postponed visit disappeared from the office's attention.
Keep timing records understandable
An interruption can affect both the work and the information recorded about it. Distinguish a technician's actual working interval from the time an application accepted an action. When those differ, use the appropriate review process rather than pretending that a later saved timestamp automatically represents an earlier event.
Explain the relevant context in the work notes. Waiting for access, an unavailable task condition and a device problem are different causes of delay. The office needs enough information to interpret the visit and the charging basis without guessing from a long elapsed interval.
Do not assume every delay becomes billable time or that a timer automatically creates the correct invoice line. Review the accepted agreement and the work performed. The time-tracking guide explains why recorded labour, appointment duration and customer charges should remain distinct.
Inspect synchronisation after connectivity returns
When the connection returns, check whether the intended updates reached the office. Inspect important notes, photographs and workflow actions against the correct job reference. A device appearing online again does not prove that every pending item has been accepted.
WorkOrderPro's mobile sync process is designed to retain changes that were not acknowledged rather than discard them. An unresolved item therefore needs attention until its saved outcome is understood. Follow the visible application state and support procedure rather than repeatedly recreating the same information without checking.
| Recovery observation | First check | Useful next action |
|---|---|---|
| Pending note remains | Correct job and submission state | Resolve the outstanding save through the supported process |
| Photograph not visible to office | Local association and upload result | Complete or investigate the upload |
| Clock state is unclear | Existing accepted entry | Review before attempting another interval |
| Job status differs between people | Current server record and latest instruction | Establish one coherent next action |
| Customer decision is uncertain | Actual proposal and saved response | Confirm the decision before proceeding |
Review completed work before invoicing
The office should understand what was performed during the affected visit and what remains. If a required task was deferred, identify the next responsible person and appointment decision. The completion record should not hide the limitation simply because the technician has left the property.
Bring temporary notes and recovered digital information together through a reviewed process. Check for duplicates or conflicting descriptions before preparing the customer document. The invoice needs the accepted scope and actual charging basis, not merely an assumption that the original plan was fully delivered.
Where another visit is needed, prepare a usable brief. Explain what has already happened, what could not be completed and what condition is required next time. This helps a replacement technician continue the work without repeating the same investigation or relying on the memory of the first attending person.
Practise the contingency before relying on it
Use a controlled sample job and the actual device to test loss of connection, recovery and office review. Include the important actions your team uses, not only opening a screen. Ask the technician to explain what they believe is saved and ask the office to confirm what it can actually see.
Include a change to the appointment while the technician is disconnected. The team should know how to communicate the revised instruction and how to avoid acting on an old brief. This exercise tests the human handover as well as the application.
Write a short operating note from the observed results. Include the supported actions, unresolved-state checks and contact for help. Review the note when the application or device setup changes. A specific tested routine is more useful than a blanket promise that the business can operate through any interruption without adjustment.
Evaluate the complete continuity process
Choose software around the work you need to preserve: a clear assignment, useful field information and a reliable office handover after recovery. Ask for a demonstration of the relevant offline and synchronisation boundaries. Treat a failed or unclear action as something to understand before the process is used on a customer job.
Review the mobile workflow and current pricing for your intended setup. WorkOrderPro staff billing includes active administrators, dispatchers and field users, with disabled accounts excluded. Include the office people who reconcile and review the records as well as the technicians carrying devices.
Start a trial with representative service conditions and inspect the complete result. A useful continuity process makes uncertainty visible, preserves the information needed for the job and gives the team a clear next action when conditions improve.
Frequently asked questions
Does this guide mean load shedding is active today?
No. It is contingency guidance. Check current supplier or municipal information for the actual service location and distinguish scheduled interruptions from an observed fault or site-specific problem.
Should we cancel every job affected by a power interruption?
Review the task dependency first. The responsible qualified person should determine what can appropriately proceed. Record any limitation and arrange the next action rather than assuming every visit has the same requirement.
Does an offline app support every action without a connection?
No universal claim should be assumed. Test reading, notes, photos, timing and workflow actions separately on the intended device, then inspect the saved office result after recovery.
Does WorkOrderPro promise exact offline clock timestamps?
The current clock service records server timestamps when actions are accepted. Do not treat that as a guarantee of exact disconnected event capture. Demonstrate the supported path and define the office exception process.
What should a technician do when a save is uncertain?
Inspect the visible state, preserve the relevant job information through the agreed process and contact the appropriate support person. Check the existing saved record before recreating an action and risking duplication.
Is being online again proof that all updates synchronised?
No. Check important pending items and their office outcome. An acknowledged save, an unresolved change and an available connection are different states that should be understood separately.
Can a power-related delay automatically be added to the invoice?
Do not assume that. Review the accepted charging basis and actual work with the office. An interruption note provides context; it does not independently authorise a customer charge.
What should a continuity trial demonstrate?
It should show a usable brief, clear handling of unavailable actions, reliable recovery checks and an understandable office handover. Include a realistic appointment change and compare what the device and office actually record.