Customer equipment card
A record tied to the customer for every unit you sold or service, with model, serial number and location.
INDUSTRY: TECHNICAL SERVICE
Which unit, when, by whom, and with which part?
In technical service, margin hides in the detail rather than the call itself: is it under warranty, is the customer on a contract, which part was fitted, how many hours did the technician spend. The SAP Business One service module keeps customer, equipment, call, contract and spare part records in one structure.
The familiar mess in service operations
In most service companies the records live in three separate places: calls are taken by phone and written into a spreadsheet, the parts a technician used stay on a paper form, and invoicing happens at month-end based on whatever anyone remembers. The outcome is predictable; work outside warranty is done for free, chargeable interventions never make it onto an invoice, and nobody notices that the same unit has now had the same fault three times.
The logic of the SAP Business One service module is to link those three records into one chain: an equipment card attached to the customer, a service call attached to the equipment card, and parts and labour attached to the call. Once the chain exists, the unit's history, the customer's contract status and the cost of the service are visible on one screen.
This page sets out where the standard is enough, and where field and mobile requirements genuinely call for custom development or integration.
Customer, equipment and serial number records
Service management starts with the serviced unit having an identity in the system. In SAP Business One that identity is the customer equipment card.
Serial number tracking
For items with serial tracking enabled, you can trace which customer holds a given unit and what its service history is.
Installation and delivery data
The unit linked to its sales document, delivery date and installation record.
Warranty dates
Warranty start and end held on the equipment card, so coverage is visible the moment a call is opened.
Location tracking
The site, line or address where the unit sits, forming the basis for field planning.
Service history per unit
Every call raised for the same equipment, the parts replaced and the resolution notes, in one list.
From service request to closed call
When a service request arrives, the first step is confirming the identity of the unit and the customer. If the call is opened from the equipment card, the warranty status, any service contract and the previous faults for that unit appear in front of the person taking the call, so the coverage decision can be made on the phone.
The call is then classified by subject, status, priority and assigned technician. The work performed, the time spent and the spare parts used are recorded against the call. The resolution can be added to a knowledge base of solutions that can be consulted for recurring faults, so the next technician does not start from scratch.
Closing the call answers two questions: is it chargeable, and if so, for what? Work covered by contract or warranty is closed at no charge; labour and parts outside coverage are converted into sales documents and invoiced. When that distinction is defined in the system, lost billing stops being a recurring topic.
Service contracts and warranty control
SAP Business One service contracts make the coverage each customer is entitled to explicit in the system:
- Contracts defined per customer or per unit, with validity dates
- Coverage split: labour only, parts only, or both
- Target response and resolution times defined in the contract
- Service days and hours covered by the agreement
- Lists of units whose warranty is about to expire
- Contract renewal tracking and reminders before expiry
- Out-of-scope interventions flagged as chargeable
Spare parts and service stock
Stock behaves differently in a service business: small quantities, many item codes, constant movement. The SAP Business One inventory structure adapts to that.
A dedicated service warehouse
Spare parts tracked in their own location, separate from sales stock.
Van stock per technician
Each vehicle or technician defined as a warehouse, so it is always clear who is holding which part.
Parts issued to a call
Parts recorded against the service call and taken out of stock, with the cost carried onto the call.
Faulty part returns
The replaced faulty part collected back, then returned to the supplier or scrapped, with the process traceable.
Critical stock levels
Minimum levels on frequently used parts so they are reordered before they run out.
Procurement and cost
The spare part purchasing process and part cost reflected in service profitability.
Field and technician operations: where the standard ends
This deserves a straight answer. The SAP Business One service call structure is sufficient for opening, assigning, recording time and parts, and closing a call. What it does not cover is a technician seeing their job list on a phone, collecting a customer signature, uploading photos or following a route.
We cover those needs in one of two ways. The first is building a mobile field application integrated with SAP Business One: the technician sees the calls assigned to them, records the intervention, the time spent and the parts used, and captures the customer signature on the device; the entries post back to the ERP as service call and inventory transactions. The second is integrating a field management tool you already use with the ERP.
Planning follows the same distinction: assigning a call to a technician is standard, while map-based route optimisation or automatic capacity-based dispatch calls for custom development or integration with a specialist scheduling tool. What comes from the standard and what comes from development is set out in writing during discovery.
Work order and field application scenarios
Frequently requested field capabilities, and the layer that delivers each one:
Technician job list
Assigned calls visible on a mobile device; delivered through NFKSOFT mobile app development.
Field intervention form
Work done, time, parts and customer signature captured on site; posted to the ERP as a service call record.
Custom fields on the call
Fault codes, intervention types or measurement values added to the service call screen.
Multi-level approval
No-charge closures or discounts routed for approval according to value limits.
Customer notifications
Status updates sent to the customer as the call progresses, built through integration or development.
Customer service portal
A web screen where customers see their own equipment and open calls.
The service indicators management follows
The figures that drive decisions in a service operation, produced with standard reports, queries and dashboards:
- Open, pending and closed calls broken down by status
- Average first response and resolution time
- Call volume and hours spent per technician
- Repeat fault analysis by unit and model
- Cost of work carried out under warranty
- Profitability of contract customers and the renewal calendar
- Spare part consumption and service stock turnover
How the service setup comes to life
01
Service process mapping
We map your call channels, coverage rules, field flow and invoicing logic.
02
Preparing equipment and contract data
Existing customer, equipment, serial number and contract data is cleaned and migrated under control.
03
Call and stock configuration
Call types, status and priority definitions, service warehouses and authorizations are configured.
04
Field application and integrations
Where needed, the mobile field application and notification flows are built and tested on real calls.
05
Team training and go-live
The call desk, technicians and finance are trained on their own screens; the switch is made in a controlled way.
Questions technical service companies ask most
What does the SAP Business One service module cover as standard?
Customer equipment cards, opening and tracking service calls, call status and priority management, service contracts, solution records and parts and labour recorded against a call are all standard. A mobile screen for the technician in the field, route optimisation and a customer portal are not; those are added through application development or integration.
Can we track the units we sell by serial number?
Yes. For items with serial number tracking enabled, each unit is followed individually, and an equipment card tied to the customer can be created at the point of sale. Looking up a serial number then shows who bought the unit, its warranty status and every past service intervention together.
How do technicians access work orders from the field?
The standard SAP Business One interface was not designed for field use. The usual answer is a mobile field application integrated with the ERP: the technician sees assigned calls, records the intervention and the parts used, and captures the customer signature; the data posts back as a service call and an inventory transaction. Scope and any offline requirement are defined together at the start of the project.
Does the system check warranty and contract coverage by itself?
The warranty dates on the equipment card and the service contract attached to the customer make coverage visible when the call is opened. Whether the decision is fully automated depends on your own rules; conditional checks and approvals for no-charge closures can be reinforced with configuration or development.
How do we manage spare parts held in a technician's van?
Each vehicle or technician is defined as a separate warehouse. Moving parts from the central service store to the van is recorded as an inventory transfer, and a part used on site is deducted from that location when it is recorded against the call. That way you know who holds the part, and service cost is calculated correctly per call.
Related pages
TECHNICAL SERVICE
Are your service calls still tracked in a spreadsheet?
Tell us about your installed base, your contract structure and how your field team works; we will plan together which steps the standard service module covers and which need a mobile application or development.