Field Worker Portal

What it is

The Field Worker Portal is a private web page that belongs to one person on your crew. You send them their link once; they bookmark it on their phone and open it every morning. There is no app to install, no account to create and no password to remember.

What they see on that page is only their own work: the sections of a work order you assigned to them, the customer name and address, the start time, their payout, and anything you typed in Notes for the field worker. They can send a message back to your office about a whole section or about one single line on the job.

The portal is fed by work orders. A work order is the job sheet you build from a signed estimate, split into sections, with one person and one payout per section. If you have never built one, read Work Orders first — this guide picks up from the moment a section has somebody's name on it.

When to use it

• You use outside subcontractors who should never have a login to your account.
• You are tired of re-texting the address, the gate code and the start time to the same person every week.
• Two or three different people are working the same job and each needs only their part.
• A worker keeps asking "what am I getting paid for this?" — the portal shows their payout, what has been paid, and what is still owed.
• You want questions from the field written down against the job instead of scattered across phone calls.

Use it instead of a Joby login when the person is not part of your office team. If somebody genuinely needs to open leads, change job statuses and clock in, give them a real login instead — see Field Workers. The two can co-exist: a field worker with a login still has a portal link, and plenty of companies send the link because it opens straight to today's job.

Before you start

• The person has to exist as a field worker or subcontractor. Add them under Settings›Team Members with the Add Team Member button, then pick either Field Worker — Joby User or External Subcontractor — No Login. Office agents have no portal, because they are not the ones going out to the job.
• Give them an email address or a phone number. The portal link travels by email or text. Without an email the Send invite email option is greyed out and you get "This field worker has no email on file".
• Check their notification methods. In the same Add/Edit window there is a Lead Notification Method row with Email, SMS and (for people with a login) In-app tick boxes. If none is ticked you get the warning "Pick at least one method, or this field worker won't be notified." SMS also needs your phone registration finished.
• Work Orders has to be switched on for your account. It is on by default. If Work Orders is missing from the Work group in the left menu, contact support to have the module turned on.
• Your role needs the right access. Opening and editing work orders needs Leads access, and managing the portal link from Settings›Team Members needs team management access. Both are set under Settings›Team Roles.
• Your company may use different words. "Field Worker" and "Office Agent" can be renamed for your account, so your buttons may read "Technician" or "Crew" instead.

Step-by-step

1. Send somebody their portal link

1. Go to Settings›Team Members.
2. Click the Field Workers or External Subcontractors tab to find the person, or just type their name in the Search by name, email or phone box.
3. At the end of their row, click the chain-link button (it is labelled Field worker portal when you hover). A small menu headed Field Worker Portal opens.
4. Choose Send invite email. They get an email titled "your field worker portal" with an Open My Portal button, and you see the confirmation "Portal invite sent to ...".
5. To send it yourself by text or chat instead, choose Copy portal link — you get "Portal link copied to clipboard" and can paste it anywhere.

2. Put work into their portal

Nothing appears in a portal until a work order section has their name on it. From the job:

1. Open Work›Work Orders in the left menu and click the work order.
2. In the Sections area, use Add section to split the job (for example Demolition, Electrical, Tile), or use Assign everything to... at the top right if one person is doing the lot.
3. On each section, set the Field Worker drop-down (it reads Unassigned until you do).
4. Set Payout. Auto (item costs) adds up your own cost on each item in that section; Fixed $ and Percent let you type an amount instead. Whatever this says is the number the worker sees as "your pay".
5. Fill in Starts and Ends. Those two boxes are what put the job on their schedule and calendar.
6. Use Notes for the field worker for the things they always ring you about — the placeholder suggests it: Gate code, where to park, what to bring...

Everything on this screen saves the moment you leave the box, so there is no Save button to hunt for.

3. Send it to the field

1. Click Send at the top right of the work order. The number in the little bubble next to it is how many sections nobody has sent yet.
2. A window called Send to the field opens, grouped by person, with small icons showing which channels they will be contacted on. Anything already sent to its current assignee is left unticked.
3. Tick the sections to send. The line under the window reads, for example, 2 sections›1 person, so you can see who you are about to disturb.
4. Click Send.

Each person gets a message with the work order number, their scope, the time, the customer, the address, and a link that opens their portal on that job. Nobody sees anybody else's section, and nobody who wasn't ticked is contacted at all.

4. Answer a question from the field

1. Open the work order. A message from the crew shows as a badge on the Job discussion card reading N from the field, and their note is tinted with a From the field label.
2. Expand Discussion on the section they wrote on, or click the little speech bubble on the line item they asked about (the heading then reads Notes on "...").
3. Type your answer and click Post. Enter posts; Shift+Enter starts a new line.
4. Leave Internal only unticked. Ticking it keeps the note inside your office and the worker never sees it.

5. Decide whether they see customer pricing

1. On the work order, look at the Job details card on the right.
2. Find the Show customer pricing switch. It is off to start with, and the small print explains why: field workers see the scope and their payout only.
3. Turn it on only when you are happy for that person to see what the customer is paying for each line.

Their own payout is always visible, switch or no switch — it is their pay. The switch is per work order, so turning it on for one job does not affect any other.

6. Replace or switch off a link

1. Go back to Settings›Team Members and open the same chain-link menu.
2. Disable access makes the existing link stop working straight away. You see "Portal access disabled — the link no longer works".
3. Enable access switches the same link back on.
4. Rotate link (new link) issues a brand-new address. You are asked to confirm first, and the warning is worth reading: the old link stops working immediately, and access is switched back on if it had been disabled. The new link is copied to your clipboard, so paste it to the worker straight away.

How to check it worked

• The invite went out: you get a green confirmation naming the address, for example "Portal invite sent to sam@example.com".
• A section reached its worker: the little pill on the section header changes from Not sent to Sent 2 minutes ago, and the Progress tile at the top stops saying "N not sent yet".
• What actually went out: the confirmation after sending spells it out per person — for example "Sam: sent via email + sms". If a channel could not be used it says so in the same line.
• The link itself works: paste it into your own browser. You should see your company name and logo at the top and the heading My Work Orders. If you see This link is no longer active, the link has been disabled or replaced.
• They read it: their reply appears on the section or item as a tinted note labelled From the field, and the work order card in their own portal shows N messages from the office when you write back.

Common mistakes

• Expecting the worker to tick the job off. The portal is read-and-reply only. Nobody in the field can change a status, a price, a time or a payout — your office does that on the work order. If they finish early, they say so in the message box.
• Forwarding somebody else's link. Every link belongs to one person and shows that person's pay. If a link has been passed around, use Rotate link (new link) and send the fresh one only to its owner.
• Sending with no channel available. The send window warns you before you press the button — "no email · no phone — that channel will be skipped". Fix the contact details in Settings›Team Members first.
• Sending a work order with nobody on it. The Send button stays greyed out, and the window explains: no section has a field worker assigned yet.
• Turning on customer pricing by habit. Leave Show customer pricing off unless there is a reason. It exposes the customer's line prices, and with it your margin on that job.
• Assuming a disabled worker keeps their portal. Mark somebody inactive and sends to them are skipped as "inactive". Disabling their portal access separately is still the cleanest way to close a link when somebody leaves.