Scheduling an entire
workforce in real time
How we built a full-stack job scheduling platform, mobile app, and SIMPRO integration for Rope Access Technicians — across web, iOS, and Android.
The Brief
Extend SIMPRO. Empower the field. Eliminate the spreadsheets.
Rope Access Technicians needed to go beyond what SIMPRO offered out of the box. Their scheduling was manual, their timesheets were paper-based, and their field teams had no visibility into upcoming jobs, equipment requirements, or who they'd be working with.
The brief was clear: build a web-based admin for office schedulers, a mobile app for field technicians on both iOS and Android, and wire it all into SIMPRO's API so the existing business data remained the single source of truth — no double entry, no sync issues.
The Approach
A monorepo architecture built for complexity
This wasn't a simple CRUD app. Job scheduling with multi-day spans, weekend skipping, drag-and-drop reassignment, supervisor approvals, RFID equipment tracking, and real-time SIMPRO sync demanded an architecture that could handle genuine operational complexity — without becoming unmaintainable.
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SIMPRO as the source of truth
Every job, cost centre, and staff record flows from SIMPRO's API. The admin and mobile app read and write back to SIMPRO in real-time — no data duplication, no manual reconciliation.
Drag-and-drop scheduling
Office managers schedule multi-day jobs by dragging them onto a weekly or monthly calendar. The system automatically skips weekends, handles staff conflicts, and lets supervisors be assigned per job.
Field-first mobile app
Technicians see their schedule, job scope, tools and materials, team members, and can clock in/out — all from a React Native app that works on both iOS and Android with offline resilience.
Timesheet approval workflows
Staff clock time against a job, allocate hours across cost centres, and submit for supervisor approval — all within the app. No paper timesheets, no manual data entry back into SIMPRO.
The Timeline
15 weeks from first workshop to production deploy
Scoping & Architecture
Workshops with the Rope Access team to map every scheduling workflow, timesheet rule, and equipment tracking process. Defined the SIMPRO API integration points and designed the monorepo architecture.
Admin Dashboard & Scheduling Engine
Built the web-based admin with drag-and-drop job scheduling, multi-day assignments with weekend skipping, and real-time staff availability. Integrated the SIMPRO API for live job and cost centre data.
Mobile App Development
React Native app for iOS and Android — job views, timesheet clock-in/out, equipment sign-in via RFID, purchase order creation, and team member visibility. All synced in real-time with the admin.
Timesheets, POs & Equipment
Timesheet approval workflows with supervisor sign-off, cost centre hour allocation, purchase order management, and the RFID-based gear tracking system. Full integration testing against SIMPRO.
QA, UAT & Deployment
Cross-browser testing, mobile device QA, user acceptance testing with the Rope Access team, SSL setup, and production deployment via Docker. App Store and Google Play submissions.
The Stack
Enterprise architecture, startup speed
Node.js Monorepo
NPM workspaces with separate packages for API, Admin, and Worker — clean separation of concerns with shared dependencies across the entire stack.
Prisma ORM
Type-safe database access with auto-generated migrations, schema-driven development, and a powerful query engine that eliminated raw SQL entirely.
SIMPRO API
Deep integration with SIMPRO's REST API for real-time job data, cost centres, staff records, and purchase orders — the single source of truth for operations.
Docker Compose
Full containerised orchestration for API, Admin, and Worker services. One command to spin up the entire stack locally or deploy to production.
React Native (iOS & Android)
A single codebase powering both Apple and Android apps — giving field technicians real-time job views, timesheets, and equipment tracking from their pockets.
TypeScript
End-to-end type safety from the database schema through the API to the admin frontend and mobile app. Zero ambiguity, fewer bugs.
What They Said
“Our scheduling used to take hours of back-and-forth on spreadsheets. Now the office drags a job onto the calendar and every technician sees it instantly on their phone. It’s completely transformed how we operate.”
The Result
Three platforms, one integrated system — live and operational
Rope Access Technicians now run their entire scheduling, timesheet, and equipment management workflow through a single integrated system. Office staff schedule via the web admin, field technicians manage their day from the mobile app, and every data point syncs back to SIMPRO automatically. Paper timesheets are gone. Scheduling conflicts are caught in real-time. And the team has full visibility into who is where, doing what, with which equipment.