How it works
How Iron Dispatch works
Set it up. Run a week on it. Close the month on what the crew actually logged. And at any moment, see which unit is on which well site — without scrolling back through a month of texts.
Example data
The thing people notice first
Which unit is on which well site — in seconds, not a text thread.
Ask the people using it what changed first and this is the answer: they can see which unit is on which pad, and since when, in a few seconds. Before, that meant scrolling back through a month of texts and working it out.
Every delivery and every pickup is a ticket from the driver’s phone, and the ticket is what moves the unit on the list. So the list is right because the work was logged, not because somebody remembered to update it.
- Every unit: where it sits and since when — on the equipment list, on the site’s page, and on the map.
- The trucks, live — while the crew is on the clock and sharing location, the map shows where they are and, at pinned sites, records the arrival.
- Your GPS trackers, if you run them — connect Geoforce for units, or Samsara, Motive or Geotab for trucks, in Settings, and the map reads from them. Optional; the phone is enough to start.
Last visit: Ben R., Aug 22, 340 gal. Example data.
A Tuesday
The same day, run two ways.
On paper
On Iron Dispatch
Three steps
Three steps to a month that closes on facts.
Set up
A one-hour setup call with us stands up your company and users. Then your trucks, your crew, your clients and sites, your price list — from a spreadsheet or by hand — and the guided setup shows what is left. No consultant required.
Run one week on it
Dispatch the day from the office. Crews log fuel, service, hours, and photos from their phones as they go — with or without signal.
Close the month on facts
Hours, gallons, rental days and parts are already tied to the job. Your invoices and your crew hours come from the record, not from memory.
Nobody typed this. Rental weeks, field labor, truck hours and gallons — every line carrying the well site and the day it happened. Example data
The shop side
Scan the sticker on the unit. Everything about it is right there.
Print weather-proof QR stickers for the fleet straight from the app and put one on every unit. Any phone camera reads them: scan a heater and the phone lands on that unit — what it is, where it sits, the open work orders, its manual, and a Diagnose button that answers from the manual with the page number on the quote.
Upload the manuals your company owns once, and they follow the equipment everywhere — on the work-order board, in the mechanic’s My Work, on the scanned tag. And the app watches the repair pattern nobody has time to see: a unit back on the bench again and again gets flagged, a part failing across several units gets flagged with its vendor, and the morning brief names them.
Made to fit
It takes your company’s names, your rates and your rules — not ours.
Your words
Name the yard what you call it. Rename the roles to the titles your company uses. Keep your own list of equipment types. Call a location a well site, a lease or a job site. Name each service the way it should read on an invoice.
Your rates
Daily, weekly, two-week and monthly on every unit — and different numbers for the customer who negotiated them. Your labor rate. Travel and on-site billed at presets or at the time actually measured, with your own minimums. What fuel costs you and what you charge. Your state and county tax.
Your invoice
Per customer: one line per delivery, per well, per service, or per day — and which details each line carries. The header fields their accounts-payable people require: P.O. Number out of the box, plus AFE or a cost centre, fixed for that customer or typed per invoice. One invoice per pad when they want it that way. Your logo, and invoices that come from your own address.
Your rules
Signatures off, optional or required. Crew sign-off on their own day. Pre-trip inspections nudged or required, and what a reported defect does to the unit. How many days a driver has to fix their own hours. Whether the crew shares location on the clock. How long a down unit waits before it escalates. Which lines of work you even run — fuel, service, rentals.
Something we have not built yet?
If your work has a wrinkle the settings do not cover, tell us.
The settings above cover most of what makes one company different from the next. When they do not — an operator who wants you to fill your trucks from their bulk tanks and prove every gallon pulled, a ticket their AP needs in a shape nobody else uses — we can build it into the software. Those are real requests from companies running the app, and they became features, not workarounds. Say what you need at sales@irondispatch.app and we will tell you straight what it takes.
Before you start
What to have ready to set up your account.
This is everything the guided setup asks for, in the order it asks. Clients, well sites, equipment, parts and your team can come straight in from a spreadsheet — export it as CSV, match the columns, import; duplicates are skipped. Everything else is a few fields typed once.
Your company
- Company name, and the email address customer replies should land in
- Your timezone
- Your yard address — and any second yardPins the map and powers “back to the yard.”
- Which lines you run: fuel delivery, equipment service, rentalsEach is a switch; turn on what you do.
- Your logo, if you want it on tickets and invoicesJPEG or PNG.
Your people
- Everyone who will use it: name, email, and roleOwner, manager, dispatcher, driver, mechanic, office. Spreadsheet-ready.
- Who is a driver and who is a mechanicDrivers get the field app; the shop gets work orders.
- Driver files and certification dates, if you keep themOptional; reminders fire before they expire.
Your customers and sites
- Clients: company name, billing contact, billing email, phone, addressThe billing email is where tickets and invoices go. Spreadsheet-ready.
- Well sites: site name, which client it bills to, county and stateCounty drives sales tax. Spreadsheet-ready.
- A location for each site — coordinates, or drop a pin on the mapThis is what makes arrival, routes and travel time work.
- Directions or access notes for the pads that need them
Your equipment and trucks
- Every rental unit: name or number, type, serial, make, model, yearSpreadsheet-ready.
- The four rates on each unit: daily, weekly, two-week, monthlyAnd the customer deals that differ from them.
- Fuel type and GPS tracker number, where a unit has one
- Your trucks — and which ones are fuel trucks, with tank capacity
- Yard tanks you fill trucks from: size and current level
- Parts you stock: name, part number, what you pay, what you charge, on handOptional; spreadsheet-ready.
Your money
- The fuels you deliver: what each costs you and what you chargeThis is what makes every report show real dollars.
- Your labor rate, and travel and on-site presetsSensible numbers are already in — confirm or change.
- Workweek start day and your overtime ruleHours export to whatever pays your people; we never touch pay.
- Your QuickBooks Online login, if you want invoices and hours to go acrossConnect once, from Settings.
Rules of the road
- Pre-trip inspections: nudge or required
- Location for the whole crew on the clock: on or offOff until the owner turns it on; each driver has their own switch.
- Crew sign-off and ticket signatures: off, optional or requiredThe defaults are the safe choices.
- Your GPS tracking provider and its token, if you run oneGeoforce, Samsara, Motive or Geotab. Optional.
Have only some of it? Start anyway. The setup page shows what is left, and nothing below blocks a driver from clocking in on day one.
See it with your own trucks, units and sites.
An hour with us to set it up, a week on real work, and an honest answer about whether it fits. No card to start.