How to turn on a FieldStone app

What an app is

A FieldStone app is a small tool for getting one kind of work done — collecting a subcontractor’s insurance, running a site visit, getting a document signed, sending a newsletter. Each one is narrow on purpose, so it stays quick to use.

Apps are not integrations. An integration connects software you already pay for, like Gmail or QuickBooks. An app is a piece of FieldStone you switch on when you need it and leave off when you don’t.

Where they live

Every app is listed on the Integrations page, in the same list as the integrations, tagged App. Once you turn one on it moves into My Apps in the sidebar, and that is where you open it from afterwards.

Some apps also attach to a job. Those show up in the My Apps row on the job itself, already pointed at that job — so a checklist you fill in there is filed against the right work without you choosing it.

They already know your business

An app uses the same login and the same data as the rest of FieldStone. It can see your contacts, your jobs, and your files, and what it produces lands back in them — a signed agreement files itself into StoneBox, a finished estimate shows on the customer’s timeline. You never copy anything across by hand.

Apps can also come from other contractors, not only from us. The maker’s name is shown on the app and at the foot of every page inside it, so you always know whose tool you are using.

Step by step

1. 1

   Open Integrations

   Go to Integrations in the sidebar, under Tools. Apps and integrations share one list, sorted by where they stand — what is already on sits under Connected, everything else under Available. Tap the Appsfilter to cut it down to just the apps; if you are not the owner, the list shows only apps to begin with. Apps from the same maker fold under that maker’s name — press the row to see them.
   AllAppsIntegrations

   Connected1

   App

   Open

   Available3

   App

   Turn on

   2 apps

   App

   Turn on
2. 2

   Open the one you want and press Enable

   Selecting an app opens a panel with what it does, who made it, and what it works alongside. Enable switches it on, and Check it out lets you look around first. If you already know you want it, the Turn on button on its row does the same thing without opening the panel. There is nothing to configure first and nothing to pay for separately.
   Enable

   By Northgate Carpentry

   Check it out

   Works with

   JobsContactsStoneBox
3. 3

   Open it from My Apps

   The app now sits under My Apps in the sidebar. That is its home from here on — the Integrations page is only for turning things on and off. My Apps also carries an Add app button of its own, which turns another one on right there.
   My AppsAdd appStoneBox
4. 4

   Use it from a job, where that makes sense

   Apps that work against a job also appear in the My Apps row on the job page. Opening one from there hands it the job, so the estimate, checklist, or report you produce is filed against that work automatically. The same panel lists the job apps you have not switched on yet, each with an Activate button.
   My Apps1 open

   My AppsActivated

   Not started

   Open

   Available

   Activate
5. 5

   Turn it off when you are done

   Enabling is reversible. Open the app’s panel on the Integrations page and press Disable — it asks you to confirm first. Turning an app off takes it out of your sidebar and nothing else — the estimates, files, and documents it created stay exactly where they are, and switching it back on brings you straight back to them. An app the owner switched on for everyone shows On for the whole business instead, and only the owner can turn that one off.
   Disable

   Disable StoneBox?StoneBox leaves your sidebar and stops appearing in search. Nothing it created is deleted, and you can turn it back on here whenever you like.