Case Studies
How Northstar Electrical Contracting Replaced Manual Dispatch and Paper Processes with Connecteam
Northstar Electrical Contracting is an electrical contracting company serving residential, commercial, and service clients across Long Island, New York.
Industry
Construction
Location
Long Island, New York, United States
Products used
Scheduling Time Clock & Timesheets Forms Updates & Announcements
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“It has a very social media feel to it, so it’s really user friendly and intuitive. Nothing feels super complicated, which helps the team move through their day much faster.”
Key Results
- Dispatch by phone call eliminated – technicians check their own digital schedules each morning and go directly to job sites
- Accurate time tracking across every shift type – regular hours, overtime, and prevailing wage tracked separately with no manual correction
- Job completion logged digitally – work ticket forms submitted at the end of every job replace verbal updates and end-of-day phone check-ins
The Challenge: Running a Multi-Site Electrical Operation on Paper and Phone Calls
Coordinating a team of field electricians across dozens of simultaneous job sites in Long Island required constant manual effort. The office managed everything by phone, from dispatching technicians each morning to collecting job status updates at the end of the day.
- Every morning started with the office calling each technician individually to assign jobs, communicate locations, and confirm the schedule for the day
- There was no way to track job status across multiple trips to the same site. A single project could run 60 or more visits, and keeping track of each one required manual numbering and a separate database to string the data together
- Larger dispatch platforms like ServiceTitan and BuildOps had the project tracking features the business needed, but field staff found them too complicated to use consistently, which made time punching unreliable
“Everything used to be handled over the phone. I had to call every technician, and all dispatching, directions, and job details were communicated verbally.”
How Northstar Electrical Contracting Uses Connecteam to Run a Leaner Field Operation
The team adopted Connecteam to move dispatch, time tracking, job reporting, and internal communication into one place. The focus was on simplicity: a tool the field team would actually use every day, without training sessions or complicated workflows.
- Technicians check the app each morning to see their schedule, then either report to the shop or go directly to the job site – no phone calls required
- The team built a custom scheduling setup using placeholder employee slots as a visual queue for jobs in different stages: pending quote approval, waiting on materials, or ready to assign
- Work ticket forms in the Forms feature are attached to every job. When the tech finishes for the day, they submit the form directly in the app, logging what was done, what materials are needed, and whether a return trip is required
“We got a little creative with the schedule and created fake employees that sit in holding. Jobs pending customer action or materials have their own visual indicator, so we can quickly see what stage every job is in.”
Results That Affect Northstar Electrical Contracting’s Bottom Line
Accurate Time Tracking That Matches How Field Work Actually Runs
- Technicians clock into the time clock when their day starts and check into their assigned shift when they arrive on site, creating two separate data points: total hours worked and time on site per job
- Shift types are customized for regular time, overtime, and prevailing wage work, which carries its own tracking and reporting requirements under New York State law
- Time data is exported to Excel for payroll processing, with cleaner inputs that require less manual correction than before
Communication With Clear Confirmation and Visibility
- The Updates feature replaced ad hoc text messages for policy changes and company-wide notices, with read receipts showing exactly who has seen each message
- The employee directory gives every team member direct access to every colleague’s phone number, preserving the one-on-one relationships that phone-based communication builds without making it the only channel
- Younger technicians use the in-app chat. Older ones prefer phone calls. The platform accommodates both without breaking the communication flow
“With Connecteam, we can see exactly who viewed a message and who responded to it. That visibility has been really useful, and we still rely on it.”
Before vs. After Connecteam
| Aspect | Before Connecteam | After Connecteam |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduling | Manual calls and paper dispatch. | Digital shifts built in the app. |
| Daily Assignment Workflow | Individual phone calls every morning to assign jobs | Technicians check the app and go directly to site |
| Dispatching | Verbal. No record of who was sent where. | Visual, color-coded schedule. Logged and trackable. |
| Time Tracking | No split between drive time and on-site hours | Separate clock-in types. Clean data for payroll. |
| Job Status Visibility | No view of pending approvals or material holds | Placeholder system gives instant visual job status |
| Work Completion | Verbal phone updates. Nothing in writing. | Digital work ticket submitted at end of every job |
Why Connecteam Was the Right Move
Northstar Electrical Contracting evaluated several field service platforms, including ServiceTitan and BuildOps, before settling on Connecteam. The deciding factor was not feature depth, it was adoption. A platform the field team actually uses every day consistently beats a more capable platform they avoid.
Connecteam’s intuitive interface drives consistent adoption across the team, improving time tracking, scheduling, and job reporting. While Northstar uses additional tools for some project-tracking needs, Connecteam remains the central platform for day-to-day field operations.