Describe your shop, vans and job sites, and Netiva’s AI builds a web app that logs every transfer, tool check-out and return, so anyone can see where things are right now.
Build an inventory tracking web app for a plumbing and HVAC contractor with one shop, 14 vans and several job sites. Store each location with a type (Shop, Van, Job site or Repair vendor) and who’s responsible. Track serialized tools by asset tag with a status of Available, Checked out, In transit, In repair or Missing, and parts by quantity. Technicians sign in on phones to move items and check tools out and back with a due date and return condition. A transfer stays in transit until the receiver confirms it; parts used on a job move out with no destination. Show each location’s stock, overdue tools and item history.
In trades and field service, the expensive question is rarely how much you own. It’s where it is. The press tool went to a job site on Tuesday, two spare condensate pumps ended up on a van without a note, and the office finds out when a technician drives back to the shop. An inventory tracking app built with Netiva logs every move between your shop, vans and job sites, checks tools out to the person carrying them and keeps a history for each item, so anyone can see where it is and who had it last.
The shop, every van, each job site and your repair vendor are records in one locations collection, and each gets its own page showing what’s there right now. Before a drain call, the dispatcher can see which van has the pipe camera.
Whoever sends stock records what left, where it’s headed and how many. The move stays in transit until the person at the other end confirms it arrived, so nothing vanishes between two places.
A technician checks a tool out to themselves by scanning its asset tag with the phone camera and picks a due-back date. On return they note the tool’s condition, and anything marked Damaged or Needs service moves to In repair.
Each item’s page lists its moves and check-outs in date order. When a laser level goes missing, you can see where it was last received and who signed it out before that.
Netiva keeps your records in built-in collections. Here’s a starting structure — the agent adapts it to your prompt, and you can change it any time.
Everywhere stock can sit: the shop, each van, active job sites and outside repair vendors.
Serialized tools and equipment, plus the parts and materials you track by quantity.
Every movement of stock: transfers between two locations, new stock arriving and parts used on a job or scrapped.
Who has which tool, for which job and what shape it came back in.
Required field. Types are Netiva collection field types.
A typical first version. Ask the agent for more, or annotate the preview to change any of them.
Search by name, asset tag or serial number, or scan a tag, and see the item’s status, current location and who has it checked out.
Signed-in usersEverything at one shop, van or job site right now: serialized tools with their status and parts with quantities on hand.
Signed-in usersA phone form to pick items and quantities, choose where they’re going and send them; the receiving end confirms from its incoming list.
Signed-in usersMoves headed to your van, site or the shop that nobody has confirmed yet, oldest first, with a confirm button on each row and a flag on anything in transit over two days.
Signed-in usersTools checked out right now, grouped by technician, with overdue ones at the top and a check-in button on each row.
Signed-in usersEvery move and check-out for one item in date order, with its serial number, service due date and return photos.
Signed-in usersTell Netiva about your shop, how many vans you run and how job sites open and close. The agent drafts collections for locations, items, moves and check-outs.
Add serialized tools with their asset tags in the collection grid, or describe them to the collection assistant and review the rows it drafts. Then record where each one starts.
In the live preview, send a tool from the shop to a van, confirm it on the other end and check it out. Annotate any step that feels slow and the agent reworks the screen.
Publish in one click and have each technician sign in with their own account. Every later change is checkpointed, so a new status or location type can be rolled back if it doesn’t work out.
| Criterion | With Netiva | Traditional build |
|---|---|---|
| Finding a tool | A search that shows the tool’s current location, holder and last move | Calls and texts around the crew until someone remembers who had it last |
| Moving stock between sites | Transfers sent from a phone and confirmed by whoever receives them | A whiteboard in the shop or a transfer sheet that rarely reaches the office |
| Getting started | Describe what you need in chat and watch it take shape in a live preview | Hire developers, or stitch together templates, plugins and a hosting plan |
| Content and data | Built-in collections with nine field types, bound straight to your pages | Set up and connect a separate database or CMS |
| Making changes | Ask the agent; every change is checkpointed and reversible | File a ticket, wait for a sprint, redeploy |
| Hosting and domain | Global hosting and automatic SSL; connect a custom domain from the Starter plan | Buy hosting, then install and renew SSL certificates yourself |
| Code ownership | Clean production code you own and can export | Locked into a template, plugin or agency setup |
There’s no tool room — the owner’s truck is the stockroom. When the second technician takes the thermal camera or a box of breakers, a move puts them on their truck, so each truck’s page matches what is in it and nobody buys a spare on the way to a call.
Generators, laser levels and scaffold sets move between sites every week. Site supervisors confirm what arrives, and when a job is closed the office sees what still has to come back to the yard.
Lighting and audio cases leave for venues and return days later. Crew leads check cases out against the show’s venue, note damage on return and send broken gear to a repair vendor location until it’s fixed.
The app knows where something is because someone logged the move. It doesn’t follow vans or tools by GPS. If your fleet tracking or telematics provider offers an API, you can ask the agent to show van positions next to van stock.
The app opens in the phone’s browser, so there is nothing to install — and nothing that works offline. In a mechanical room or on a site with no coverage, the technician has to log the move after the phone is back on signal, so pick a point in the routine with reliable coverage.
Netiva doesn’t print or issue tags. Ask the agent for a barcode label sheet for tools you filter, but the labels and printer are yours. Internal Code 128 or QR values work; tags unique outside your company use a GS1 identifier (GIAI), which needs a licensed GS1 Company Prefix.
Netiva doesn’t import an existing tool list, and the history is only as good as the habit. Start with high-value, often-borrowed tools, then add parts. Moves don’t value stock, post costs to jobs or depreciate equipment — that stays in your accounting software.
Yes. A serialized tool’s current location is set by the latest move someone confirmed as received, and an open check-out shows who is carrying it. Search by name, asset tag or serial number to see both. If nobody can find it, mark it Missing and its history shows the last place it was received and the last person who checked it out.
Netiva builds web apps that open in the phone’s browser, so there’s nothing to install. Technicians sign in with their own accounts, scan the tool’s barcode asset tag with the camera or search for it and pick a due-back date. Checking it back in takes the return condition and an optional photo, and a tool marked Damaged or Needs service moves to In repair.
Yes. Items are either serialized, one record per tool, or tracked by quantity with a unit such as each or feet. A location’s on-hand count drops when a box of couplings is sent and rises at the other end when the receiver confirms it — in transit it sits on the incoming list, off both counts, so the same box is never counted twice. Material installed on a job or scrapped is a move out with no destination.
Setting that location’s status to Closed lists everything still recorded there: tools on open check-outs, quantity items and anything that arrived and was never sent back. The supervisor works down the list and sends each one to the shop or straight on to the next site. Items stay on the closed site’s page until someone confirms the return move, so nothing quietly drops off the books.
Yes. Each item has an optional service due date, and you can ask the agent for a scheduled email that lists meters, gauges and detectors coming due in the next 30 days. You can also add a file field for the certificate. The calibration itself and any records your customers require still come from your calibration provider.
Yes. Netiva writes clean, framework-standard code that you can open from the live preview, edit and export at any time, with no proprietary runtime. Every change the agent makes is checkpointed, so you can compare versions and roll back before handing the project over.
Drafted with AI assistance from Netiva’s product pages and reviewed by the Netiva team. Example data models, screens and prompts are illustrative starting points, not customer projects.
Describe it in a sentence and watch Netiva’s agent build it. Free to start — no credit card required.