Plain English, start here
SkipOps runs the day for a UK rubbish-clearance firm. The boss books jobs and lays out the day on his dashboard; the system works out the smartest route for every van; the crew get their job cards and checklists inside Telegram (nothing to install); and the boss watches it all happen live, ending the day with a photo-proof record of every job. No money or pricing anywhere in version 1 — the win is told in saved fuel, time and wages.
The big news since the last update: the whole daily loop is LIVE. On the dev build, a real crew (Pier to Pier, our test firm) can sign in by sharing their location, get sent to jobs, work photo-proof checklists that save every tick instantly, and the boss can plan, correct and watch the whole day from his phone. What's left is polish, a handful of decisions, and taking it to production.
Updated 11 Jul 2026 · reflects everything merged up to today (the planning board, "Plan for Me", and the gaffer-only crew placement rule)
The whole thing on one page
Five moving parts. Set the firm up once, then the same loop repeats every working day.
flowchart LR A["① Set the firm up
(once)"] --> B["② & ③ Boss books
the jobs"] B --> C["④ System plans the
smartest day"] C --> D["⑤–⑦ Crew get job cards
+ post photos"] D --> E["⑥ ⑧ ⑨ Boss watches live +
gets the record"] E -. "new job or change
→ re-plan" .-> C classDef here fill:#eef2ff,stroke:#4f46e5,stroke-width:2px,color:#3730a3; class B,C,D,E here;
Every stage — what it's for, and where we are
Each one: the plain-English objective (what we're trying to achieve), a quick picture, and an honest done / still-to-do.
The objective: before SkipOps can run anyone's day, it has to learn how that firm works. The boss answers a short setup wizard: the firm and its vans, the base/yard, what waste it handles and where each type ends up (its own tips, picked on a real map), and the job checklist the crew work to. Two versions exist on purpose: the original detailed wizard, and a rethought v2 that asks only what a boss can answer in a minute (crew are never typed in — they join through Telegram by simply sharing their location on day one). Alex has walked v2 on his phone and approved it.
flowchart LR A["① Your firm
(name + vans)"] --> B["② Your base
(one pin)"] B --> C["③ Where does it go?
(tip cards + waste ticks)"] C --> CL["④ Checklist +
review link"] CL --> D["Save — the
firm exists"]
main — the original at /, the approved v2 at /v2. v2's share-able takeover link works (fill it in on a sales call, send the link, whoever opens it becomes the boss).The objective: every firm gets two Telegram chats — a private one for the boss (the "Gaffer" chat) and a group for the crew (the "Dispatch" group) — with a hard wall so one firm can never see another firm's data. And joining should be effortless: a new crew member shouldn't need an account created for them.
flowchart LR A["Firm set up"] --> B["Gaffer chat
(boss only)"] A --> C["Crew group
(the roster)"] N["New face shares
location"] --> W["'Who are you?'
card → tap your name"] W --> C
The objective: getting a job into the system should take seconds. Today that's a proper Add job form (address with map-pick, customer, waste types, size, time window, notes) on both the boss's dashboard and the crew app. The original dream of texting a job in plain words and having it understood is still on the list — but the forms turned out to be the honest first step, and they're what a real firm needs day one.
flowchart LR A["Add job
(dashboard or crew app)"] --> B["Job created:
where, what, when"] B --> C["Sits in the day's pool
until placed on a van"]
The objective: given the day's jobs, work out the most efficient round for every van — fewest miles, fullest loads — including nipping back to the yard to empty when a van fills up. This saving (fuel, time, wages) is the whole pitch. And crucially: the optimiser serves the gaffer, it doesn't overrule him — anyone he's placed on a van, and any job he's pinned to a van, stays exactly where he put it.
flowchart LR A["Today's jobs"] --> C["The planner"] B["Who actually
signed in"] --> C P["The gaffer's
placements (pins)"] --> C C --> D["Most-efficient
route per van"]
The objective: once the day's planned, the crew shouldn't need to think about what's next. As a van gets close to its next stop (about two minutes out), that job's card appears in the chat: the checklist, the details, a tap-to-navigate link. Finish or leave, and the next direction arrives by itself.
flowchart LR A["Route planned
(ordered stops)"] --> B["~2 min from a stop →
its card appears"] B --> C["Work the checklist"] C --> D["Done or left →
next direction sent"]
The objective: each crew member taps "share live location" in Telegram once at the start of the day. That's it — that one tap is the sign-in, and the system now knows who's working and where every van is, with no app and no tracking box. As of this week it's completely silent: no questions back, no "which van?" — placing people in vans is the gaffer's job, done on his board.
flowchart LR A["Crew taps
'share location'"] --> B["Signed in, silently"] B --> C["Live position feeds
the boss's map"] B --> D["Arrive/leave at jobs
timed automatically"]
The objective: the crew photograph and tick their way through every job and every yard visit, and the record is bulletproof. There's no "confirm" button to forget: every tick, photo and load saves the instant it happens, and driving away is what closes the stop. If someone leaves with items missed, the boss is told exactly which items, by name, straight away.
flowchart LR A["Tick / photo / load"] --> B["Saved instantly"] B --> C["All done OR drove away
= stop closed"] C -->|items missed| D["Boss alerted,
items NAMED"]
The objective: jobs change all day — a new one lands, one's cancelled, a van runs early. The boss can already re-plan any moment with one tap. The next step is the system noticing for him: quietly re-solving in the background and only speaking up when it genuinely matters ("a better route would save you 12 minutes — want it?").
flowchart LR A["Something changes"] --> B["Quiet background
re-solve"] B -->|saves real time| C["'Saves you X min —
see it / keep mine'"] B -->|barely different| D["Stays quiet"]
The objective: the boss sees and runs his whole operation from one place on his phone. Home: the live map plus a one-glance line per van. Teams: today's crews, plus the collapsible board where he places people into vans. Jobs: the full book and the day's planning (the board, the pools, "Plan for Me", the date picker). Yard: the skip and every stored pile — latest photo, how full, who did what and when. More: history with proper search.
flowchart LR A["Home
(map + glance)"] --- B["Teams
(crews + board)"] B --- C["Jobs
(book + plan)"] C --- D["Yard
(skip + piles)"] D --- E["More
(history)"]
Staying on track
The build phase is nearly over. The order now: finish the in-flight polish, prove the loop on real workdays, launch, sell.
Mission: 20 paying firms at £75/mo by 5 Nov 2026. The build stretch is nearly done; the selling stretch is most of what's left.