Installation jobs: order numbers, serials and sign-off
What the Telecom pack records on each installation job, from the network operator's order number and equipment serials to the customer's sign-off.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Telecoms businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
Six months after an installation, the subscriber's router dies. To claim under the supplier's warranty you need its serial number. To chase the fibre operator about a fault on the line you need their order number. And when the subscriber says the installer left a mess and never tested the connection, you need to show what they signed on the day.
All three facts existed on installation day. In many providers they were written on a job card that is now in a van's door pocket, or not written down at all.
The Telecommunications pack in Achekam's Industry CRM keeps them on the installation job itself. This article explains what the job records, why each item matters later, and what the pack does not do.
What the installation job holds
The Telecom pack is for internet, voice or mobile providers and resellers. It keeps service subscriptions, support tickets, and installation jobs with the equipment installed.
On each installation job, the pack records:
- the network operator's order number
- the serial numbers of the equipment installed
- the customer's installation sign-off
Those three items are the job's memory. Everything else about an installation can be reconstructed from conversation; these cannot.
The network operator's order number
Many providers sell over someone else's network: a fibre operator, a wholesale carrier, a mobile network. The operator's order number is how that operator knows the connection. Every later conversation with them, about a delayed activation, a fault, a speed problem or a cancellation, starts with it.
Record it on the job when the order is placed, not when the installation is finished. An installation that stalls because the operator has not completed its side is much easier to chase when the order number is on the job, visible to whoever picks up the phone.
If you resell on more than one operator's network, the number alone is not enough: note which operator issued it. References from different operators can look alike, and a call to the wrong one wastes a morning.
Equipment serial numbers
The serial numbers tell you which physical device sits at which address. They matter for:
- warranty claims, when a unit fails and the supplier asks for its serial
- returns, when a subscriber leaves and the equipment should come back to you
- support, when a fault is traced to a particular batch of devices
- ownership, when a contract ends and there is a question about whose router it is
Have the installer record serials from the device itself, at the address, not from the box in the van. Boxes get swapped; the label on the device does not.
If you also track stock with Achekam's Warehousing add-on, which keeps locations such as warehouses and vans with the quantity on hand at each, the two records answer different questions. The van location tells you how many routers are on board; the installation job tells you which one went where.
The customer's sign-off
The installation job records the customer's sign-off. That is the customer's confirmation that the installation was done and, if your process says so, that the service was working when the installer left.
A sign-off is only useful if it means something specific. Agree what the customer is confirming, for example that equipment was installed at the stated address, that the connection was tested in their presence and that the premises were left tidy, and have the installer explain it before the customer signs. A signature on a vague statement settles very little in a later dispute. The same thinking lies behind a delivery note: DP World's explainer on proof of delivery sets out what one records, such as the recipient, the time and the condition of the goods, and why it matters for billing and disputes.
Where the customer is a business, note the name and role of the person who signed. The person at reception on installation day is often not the account holder, and it helps to know who confirmed the work.
Statuses recorded by staff: nothing is provisioned
There is a boundary to be clear about. The pack provisions nothing on a network, is connected to no network and runs no credit check. Statuses are recorded by staff.
In practice, the installation job is the provider's record of what happened, not a switch that makes it happen. When the job shows an installation as complete, that is because someone recorded it, ideally after confirming with the operator and testing the line. Activation itself still happens in the operator's or wholesaler's own system. Make sure your team knows the difference, so nobody assumes that marking a job complete has turned a subscriber's service on.
Tasks for the installer
A workflow in the Industry CRM creates its tasks stage by stage, and tasks can have subtasks up to three levels deep. An installation breaks down naturally that way: preparing the equipment, the site visit, the fit, the test, the sign-off, and under each, the steps that matter for your kind of installation.
A useful set of tasks for a fibre installation might cover:
- confirming the appointment with the customer
- collecting the right devices from the warehouse or van
- installing and recording each serial number
- testing the connection with the customer present
- obtaining the sign-off
Each one ticked off separately means a supervisor can see how far the job got if it is interrupted, and another installer can finish it.
Getting the records right from the next job
Before the next installation, agree with your installers what the sign-off confirms and how serials are captured on site. Then open the job from the new-connection workflow, described in new connections: coverage, RICA and signed agreement for South African providers, and make sure the operator's order number is on it from the start. When that subscriber later reports a fault, support tickets escalated against an SLA picks up from here.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
