Sample: Business Operations System

Operations Overview & Org Structure

What Northline actually sells

Northline is not one business. It is four revenue streams sharing 14 trucks, and almost every operational problem at this size comes from those four streams competing for the same technician-hours without an explicit rule about who wins.

The single most important structural fact in this document: quoted repair is the stream that pays for the company, and it is the stream that gets cannibalised first when emergencies spike. PM visits get deferred, quoted work gets bumped, the backlog ages, approvals go stale, and the customer buys the same repair from someone else. Every scheduling rule in Section 3 and SOP 1 exists to protect quoted-repair hours from being eaten by unmanaged demand.

Operating constraints that define the system

• 34 technicians, 14 service trucks. These numbers do not divide. Some trucks carry a solo service technician; others carry a two- or three-person crew; some technicians ride in project crews that share a truck or use a shared van. Record the actual split in the Truck Roster (below) - `[N solo service trucks / N two-man crews / N project crews - confirm from your current assignment sheet]`. Until that split is written down, dispatch capacity is a guess.
• Capacity is measured in truck-days, not headcount. A dispatcher cannot send 34 technicians to 34 addresses. The unit of dispatch is the truck. Daily capacity equals `(number of trucks available today) x (billable hours per truck per day: [X - set from your current timecard data])` minus committed PM and project hours.
• Growth of ~25% per year outruns tribal knowledge. At 40 people, the ops manager can still hold the whole picture in their head. At 50, they cannot, and the failure shows up as missed PM visits and blown arrival windows before it shows up anywhere in the P&L. This system is designed to be operable by someone who was not present when the customer was won.
• Spreadsheets fail at exactly this point. A spreadsheet has no audit trail, no concurrent editing discipline, no link between a service ticket and an invoice, and no way to stop two dispatchers assigning the same technician. The migration plan is in Section 3.

Org structure

Office (6):

```

Owner

|

+-----------------+------------------+

| | |

Operations Manager Estimator Bookkeeper

|

+----+----+

| |

Dispatcher 1 Dispatcher 2

(Demand) (Planned)

```

Field (34 technicians across 14 trucks), reporting through the Operations Manager, organised into `[N]` service groups each with a designated Lead Technician - see Section 2 for the lead-technician role and Section 8 for how a technician becomes one.

The two-dispatcher split

Two dispatchers with overlapping duties is the most common source of avoidable chaos in a shop this size: both touch the same board, neither owns an outcome. Northline should run a functional split, not a geographic or alphabetical one:

• Dispatcher 1 - Demand Desk. Owns the emergency and same-day queue, the on-call phone during business hours, arrival-window communication, and the "who can get there" decision. Their scoreboard is response time and window adherence.
• Dispatcher 2 - Planned Desk. Owns the PM visit calendar, the quoted-repair backlog, project crew scheduling, parts staging against scheduled work, and PM renewal timing. Their scoreboard is PM completion against plan and backlog age.

The Planned Desk builds the board; the Demand Desk disturbs it. That is the correct relationship, and it only works if there is a written rule for when the Demand Desk may take a truck off planned work (SOP 1, Step 6) and a written rule for what has to happen when it does (the bumped visit is rescheduled before the truck is released, not after).

Operating cadence

System of record map

The rule is one system per fact, and everything else reads from it. Write your actual answers into this table on day one of the migration; a fact with two homes has no home.

What breaks first as you grow

Name these now so nobody is surprised:

• PM completion slips before anyone notices, because a deferred visit does not generate a complaint until renewal.
• Quoted-repair approvals go stale. A quote unaccepted after `[30 - set]` days is usually dead; the metric that catches this is backlog age, not backlog value.
• Ticket-to-invoice lag grows, because the bookkeeper is chasing incomplete tickets rather than billing complete ones. Fix at the source: the ticket completeness standard in Section 3.
• The on-call rotation burns out the same three people. Track on-call load per technician, publish it, and rotate it (Section 8).
• The ops manager becomes the single point of failure. Every role in Section 2 names a designated backup for this reason.

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Roles & Responsibilities

Each role below states its purpose, the decisions it owns outright, the decisions it must escalate, its recurring obligations and its designated backup. Authority thresholds are bracketed because they are a business decision, not a template value - but they must be filled in, because an unstated approval limit is functionally an unlimited one.

Owner

Purpose: Sets commercial direction, owns pricing and margin policy, holds relationships with the largest accounts, and is the final escalation for customer, personnel and safety matters.

Owns: Annual pricing and labour-rate schedule. PM contract pricing policy. Any single quote above `[$X - set]`. Hiring approval for any new position. Any capital purchase above `[$X - set]`. Termination decisions. Settlement of any customer credit above `[$X - set]`. Selection of `[FSM]` and `[ACCTG]`.

Escalated to: Nothing internally. External: legal, insurance and tax matters go to counsel, broker and CPA respectively.

Recurring: Weekly scorecard review with the Ops Manager. Monthly financial review with the Bookkeeper. Monthly PM renewal review. Quarterly review of the KPI target set in Section 9.

Backup: Operations Manager holds delegated authority up to `[$X - set]` when the Owner is unavailable for more than `[2 - set]` business days.

Operations Manager

Purpose: Owns field execution end to end - that the right technician arrives at the right site with the right parts, does the work to standard, and closes a ticket that can be invoiced without rework.

Owns: Daily and weekly capacity plan. Final call on any conflict between the Demand Desk and the Planned Desk. Truck and crew assignments. On-call rotation. Technician performance management up to formal written warning. Purchase orders up to `[$X - set]`. Callback root-cause determination and whether a callback is billable (SOP 4). Approval of overtime beyond `[X hours - set]` per technician per week. Stop-work authority on any unsafe condition.

Escalates: Termination recommendations. Quotes above the Owner threshold. Any customer credit above `[$X - set]`. Any OSHA-recordable incident or vehicle accident involving injury - immediately, same day, regardless of hour.

Recurring: Daily pre-shift huddle and board review. Daily exception review of tickets held for incompleteness. Weekly backlog review. Weekly scorecard. Monthly safety committee. Quarterly ride-along audit schedule (Section 9). Maintains the licence and certification expiry register (Section 8).

Backup: `[named Lead Technician - designate]` for field decisions; Planned Desk dispatcher for board decisions. This backup must be named and must have system access before it is needed. The most common failure at 40 people is that the ops manager's authority has no documented deputy.

Dispatcher 1 - Demand Desk

Purpose: Converts inbound emergency and same-day calls into a dispatched, communicated, correctly prioritised truck movement in the shortest defensible time.

Owns: Priority classification of every inbound call against the P1-P4 matrix in SOP 1. Assignment of any truck already in demand status. Arrival-window commitment to the customer. Customer communication from call to arrival. Escalation to the Ops Manager when demand exceeds available demand capacity.

Escalates: Any request to pull a truck off committed PM or project work - to the Ops Manager, always, no exceptions (SOP 1, Step 6). Any P1 that cannot be covered within `[X hours - set]`. Any customer refusing the stated after-hours rate. Any life-safety or property-damage situation - immediately.

Recurring: Opens the demand board `[07:00 - set]`. Mid-morning capacity check `[10:00 - set]`. Hands the after-hours phone to the on-call technician at `[16:30 - set]` with a written handoff (Section 3). Logs every call, including calls that did not become a job - the ones you refuse are data.

Backup: Planned Desk dispatcher, cross-trained quarterly. Both dispatchers must be able to run either desk for a full day.

Dispatcher 2 - Planned Desk

Purpose: Builds and defends the planned board - PM visits delivered on frequency, quoted-repair backlog converted into scheduled hours, project crews staffed, parts staged before the truck rolls.

Owns: The PM calendar and visit sequencing across the year. Scheduling of approved quoted repairs. Project crew calendars. Parts staging requests to the warehouse `[X - set, suggest 48 hours]` ahead of scheduled work. Rescheduling of any visit bumped by the Demand Desk - the reschedule happens before the truck is released, not afterwards.

Escalates: Any PM visit at risk of falling outside its contractual window. Any quoted repair aging past `[30 - set]` days without action. Any project scheduled without confirmed equipment delivery.

Recurring: Builds tomorrow's board by `[16:30 - set]` daily. Runs the 30/60/90-day PM look-ahead weekly. Prepares the backlog pack for the weekly review. Flags contracts approaching renewal to the Ops Manager at `[90 - set]` days.

Backup: Demand Desk dispatcher.

Estimator

Purpose: Turns technician findings and customer requests into priced, accurate, winnable quotes, and owns the accuracy of the numbers the company commits to.

Owns: Pricing of quoted repairs and small projects within the Owner's published rate and margin policy. Scope definition and exclusions. Vendor and equipment selection for quoted work. Quote validity period `[30 - set]` days. Follow-up cadence on open quotes.

Escalates: Any quote above `[$X - set]` to the Owner. Any deviation from the published margin floor `[X% - set]`. Any scope involving work outside Northline's licensed and insured scope. Any public-sector project where prevailing-wage or bonding requirements may apply - see below.

Recurring: Reviews all technician-generated findings within `[1 business day - set]`. Attends the weekly backlog review. Performs a monthly quoted-versus-actual review on `[N - set]` completed jobs with the Bookkeeper - this is the only reliable feedback loop on estimating accuracy, and without it estimates drift for years unnoticed.

Note on school and public work: Northline serves schools. Public-sector construction work in Ohio can trigger prevailing-wage obligations under Ohio's prevailing wage law above a project-value threshold, and may carry bonding, background-check and bid-procedure requirements. The thresholds and applicability change and are fact-specific - confirm every public project with Ohio construction counsel before bidding. Do not assume a maintenance contract and a capital project carry the same obligations.

Backup: Owner.

Bookkeeper

Purpose: Converts completed work into invoices and invoices into cash, and produces the numbers the Owner runs the company on.

Owns: Daily billing run. AR ageing and collections calls to `[60 - set]` days. AP and vendor payment. Payroll processing from approved timecards. Job costing entries. Monthly close. Sales-tax filing preparation.

Escalates: Any invoice held more than `[2 - set]` business days for an incomplete ticket - to the Ops Manager. Any account past `[60 - set]` days - to the Owner. Any suspected lien-rights deadline - to the Owner and counsel. Any payroll discrepancy above `[$X - set]`.

Recurring: Daily billing run. Weekly AR ageing to the Owner. `[Weekly or biweekly - confirm]` payroll. Monthly close and job-cost report. Monthly quoted-versus-actual with the Estimator.

Note on Ohio tax treatment: HVAC work in Ohio can be taxed differently depending on whether it is a repair of tangible personal property or an installation that becomes part of real property, and contractor exemption certificates may apply. Confirm the correct treatment for each work type with your CPA and do not carry a rule of thumb forward from a previous employer.

Note on lien rights: Ohio provides mechanics' lien remedies with strict notice and filing deadlines on commercial construction work. Deadlines are short and unforgiving. Confirm the applicable deadlines and notice requirements with Ohio construction counsel and build them into the collections calendar - do not derive them from this document.

Backup: Owner, with a documented `[monthly - set]` review so the Owner is never seeing the books cold.

Lead Technician (field)

Purpose: The standard-bearer on site. Owns work quality, safety and documentation for their truck or crew, and is the first line of technical escalation for other technicians.

Owns: Job-site safety, including stop-work authority. Job hazard analysis at each site. Technical decisions within their licence and competency. Ticket completeness for their crew. Field verification of parts before the truck rolls. Mentoring assigned apprentices.

Escalates: Any scope change on site - to the Planned Desk, before performing it. Any finding that becomes a quote - to the Estimator, same day, with photos and model/serial data. Any unsafe condition that cannot be controlled - stop work and call the Ops Manager. Any refrigerant leak requiring reporting or repair verification under EPA rules - to the Ops Manager for recordkeeping.

Recurring: Pre-trip vehicle inspection. Pre-shift huddle attendance. Ticket close-out before leaving site. Weekly van stock replenishment list.

Backup: `[designated second - name per crew]`.

Service Technician / Apprentice

Purpose: Performs assigned diagnostic, maintenance and repair work to standard, documents it completely, and progresses through the skills matrix in Section 8.

Owns: Their own work quality and safety. Their own ticket accuracy, time recording and photos. Their van stock accuracy. Their tools. Their certification currency - with the company tracking and funding it, but the individual responsible for showing up to the renewal.

Escalates: Anything outside assigned scope or personal competency - to their Lead. Any customer request for additional work - to the Planned Desk, never quoted on the spot. Any injury, near-miss or property damage - immediately, regardless of severity.

Apprentices additionally: work under the supervision arrangement required by `[applicable Ohio licensing and any apprenticeship program requirements - confirm with the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board and your program sponsor]`, and never perform `[list restricted tasks - define with your licensed designee]` unsupervised.

Authority matrix

Every "Yes" in the stop-work row is deliberate. Safety authority that lives only with management is not safety authority.

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Daily Operations & Standards

The day clock

This is the operating rhythm of the office and the field. Times are bracketed where Northline must set them to its own shift pattern, but the sequence is not optional - each step consumes the output of the one before it.

Capacity: the only arithmetic that matters daily

Do this every morning, in writing, in the same place:

```

Trucks available today = [total trucks] - [out for service] - [crew absent]

Committed hours = PM hours scheduled + project hours committed

+ approved quoted-repair hours scheduled

Gross capacity = trucks available x [billable hours/truck/day - set]

Demand capacity remaining = Gross capacity - Committed hours - [reserve - set]

```

The reserve is the deliberate slack held back for emergencies. Setting it to zero is the same as deciding that every emergency will be paid for out of PM and quoted work. Most commercial mechanical shops arrive at a reserve somewhere between one and three truck-days; Northline should derive its own from `[the last 90 days of P1/P2 call volume - pull from FSM once live, or from the dispatch log today]`, review it quarterly, and raise it seasonally.

Seasonality is not an excuse; it is a plan. Columbus runs a heating peak and a cooling peak. Northline's reserve, on-call depth and PM sequencing should all shift with the calendar:

The single highest-leverage sequencing rule Northline can adopt: schedule seasonal changeover PMs to finish ahead of the season, not during it. A cooling PM performed in July is not preventive maintenance; it is a site visit during the emergency you were trying to prevent.

Board management rules

• One board, one system. The board lives in `[FSM]`. It does not live in a spreadsheet, a whiteboard, a text thread or a dispatcher's memory. Where a physical board is used for visibility, it is a display of `[FSM]`, never a second source of truth.
• Every truck-hour is assigned to something, including training, shop time and travel. Unassigned hours are invisible hours, and invisible hours are where utilisation quietly disappears.
• Only the desk that owns a job may move it. The Demand Desk moves demand jobs. The Planned Desk moves planned jobs. A move across that boundary requires the Ops Manager (SOP 1, Step 6).
• No verbal dispatch. Every assignment exists in `[FSM]` before the technician moves. A phone call may accompany it; it may not replace it.
• Bumped work is rescheduled before the truck is released. If a PM visit is bumped at 09:00, it has a new date and time by 09:15. Bumped-and-unscheduled is how contract visits vanish.
• The board locks at `[16:30]`. After lock, changes require the Ops Manager. A board that changes overnight is a board nobody trusts in the morning.

Standards - what "done" means

These are the non-negotiables. They are what the QA program in Section 9 audits against, and what the training in Section 8 teaches to.

Arrival and communication standards

Service ticket completeness standard. A ticket is complete - and only then billable - when it carries all of the following. This list is the single biggest lever on ticket-to-invoice lag, because the bookkeeper's day is otherwise spent chasing missing fields.

• Customer, site and specific equipment record (make, model, serial, asset tag) - not "RTU on roof".
• Reported problem in the customer's words.
• Findings: what was measured, with numbers - temperatures, pressures, superheat/subcooling, amp draw, static pressure, as applicable to the task.
• Cause, where determined. "Repaired unit" is not a cause.
• Work performed, in enough detail that a different technician could pick it up.
• Parts used, with part numbers and quantities, pulled from van stock or PO.
• Labour time, with arrival and departure timestamps.
• Photos: `[minimum - set, suggest before, after, nameplate, and any failed component]`.
• Refrigerant added or recovered, by type and weight, on any system where refrigerant was handled - this is a recordkeeping obligation, not a preference; see Section 9 and confirm current EPA Section 608 recordkeeping requirements applicable to your work.
• Recommendations and findings for quoting, flagged to the Estimator.
• Customer signature or documented acknowledgement.
• Safety: JHA completed, any near-miss noted.

Billable-versus-non-billable time. Write the rule down and apply it identically to every technician: travel `[billable / non-billable - set per contract type]`, parts runs `[set]`, warranty return visits `[non-billable to the customer, coded to warranty - see SOP 4]`, callbacks `[per SOP 4 determination]`. Ambiguity here shows up as inconsistent invoices and as arguments with customers you will lose.

From tickets to cash - the daily billing discipline

The rule: invoice within `[1 business day - set]` of ticket completion. Not weekly. Not at month end. Every day the invoice is late is a day added to DSO, and on demand repair - where the customer's memory of the value is freshest on the day - it is also a day of collection difficulty added.

The daily flow:

• Bookkeeper pulls all tickets marked complete since the last run.
• Tickets failing the completeness standard are held, listed and sent to the Ops Manager the same morning - not silently parked.
• Ops Manager resolves held tickets with the technician within `[1 business day - set]`.
• Complete tickets are invoiced: T&M priced from the published rate card, contract work per contract terms, quoted work per the accepted quote amount, warranty coded to warranty with `[$0]` customer value.
• Invoices go out by `[email / customer portal / mail - set per customer, recorded on the customer record]`. Many commercial and institutional customers require a PO number on the invoice - capture the PO requirement on the customer record, and have the dispatcher confirm the PO at call intake, because chasing it after the fact is where 30 days go.
• AR ageing reviewed weekly; collections steps at `[30 / 45 / 60 - set]` days.

Getting off spreadsheets - the migration

Northline's stated goal is to replace ad-hoc paperwork with real systems. Migration is where that goal usually dies, because it is attempted all at once during a busy season. Sequence it:

Phase 0 - Decide and freeze (weeks `[1-2]`). Select `[FSM]`. Write the system-of-record map from Section 1 with real answers. Freeze the spreadsheet count: no new spreadsheets from this date.

Phase 1 - Customers, sites and equipment (weeks `[3-6]`). This is the foundation and the part most often done badly. Every site gets an equipment list with make, model, serial and location. Do not migrate a customer without its equipment list - a PM contract without an asset register cannot be scheduled, costed or renewed intelligently. Where the data does not exist, capture it on the next PM visit and treat data capture as a deliverable of that visit.

Phase 2 - Dispatch and tickets (weeks `[7-10]`). Both dispatchers on the platform. Run parallel with the old method for `[1 week - set]` maximum. Longer parallel running is not caution; it is two systems of truth.

Phase 3 - Invoicing and job cost (weeks `[11-14]`). Connect `[FSM]` to `[ACCTG]`. Reconcile the first month manually, line by line, before trusting the integration.

Phase 4 - Inventory and PM automation (weeks `[15-20]`). Van stock min/max (SOP 3). PM visit auto-generation from contract terms (SOP 2).

Phase 5 - Reporting (week `[21]` onward). The KPI pack in Section 9 pulled from the system rather than assembled by hand.

Migration rules that prevent the usual failures: one named owner for the migration `[designate - the Ops Manager is the obvious choice, but only if something is taken off their plate]`; no go-live during `[peak heating or cooling - set]`; a technician representative involved from Phase 1, because a platform the field will not use on a roof in February is a platform you have not implemented; and a written decommission date for every spreadsheet replaced.

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