Next Gear Reviews

In my company I don’t work with the desktop software which I’ve heard is a MUCH better experience. I have used the mobile app daily since 2015 and it is without a doubt the most poorly written and executed excuse for an app I’ve ever had the displeasure to work with. Like clicking twice or thrice to execute a simple search? Like lost data and freezes/crashes? Are slow load times and constant password updates your thing? Then sign right up! If Next Gear has done one thing consistently it’s their seeming constant refusal to turn NextGear into something a field technician would be able to use without turning his/her tablet into a frisbee. Dash is trash. Avoid at all costs unless you’re stuck like me

To NGS: Please don’t tag this with the usual automated corporate response. Y’all don’t have any desire to make this thing any better. And I’ve no wish to recommend fixes you’re not going to implement.

With the new update, the photos are not uploaded/files name based on the sequence the photos were taken in. In NextGear I can still filter/sort them correctly, but on the computer the sort options do not allow to sort based on photo age. This makes it very difficult to export a pdf photo sheet to share with insurance where the photos are in order. Even when I put numbers in the photo description it can’t order them in sequence. It orders them like this;
1, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, (I think it looks at the first digit of a double digit number separate from the second digit)

The photo management has always been as sub-par as the rest of the mobile app, but today, on a busy Sunday, I cannot upload job photos from the camera roll in separate batches without logging out and back in. I can either upload all of them at once, which I don’t do because there’s no way to rearrange the order afterwards, or I can log out and log back in for each room. I’m going to go ahead and speak for all of us that have no choice but to use this garbage app - we don’t care about the minor improvement you’ve made to the calendar, or the desktop layout (which still isn’t right) or any of the intangible minutiae that supposedly enhances usability. Fix the photo management so it’s at least back to not being an obstacle to getting work done. It’s inexcusably poor.

Our crew often has new people learning the system and how to enter in readings. Please, and I really mean PLEASE let us go in and change reading, times and dates for when our newer people make a mistake. If one reading is off we can’t bill for equipment. Please work on this. If you could make it more like MICA when it comes to editing that would really push you guys forward.

For a field app, it needs to show anything relevant to job management. There may need to be different permissions for specific areas that don’t need to be available to everyone.
Suggestions
1. Show the full note, not a small preview. Hold placement in the list of all notes after reviewing specific note and going back to the list of all notes.
2. Certain documents or information should be available to the field (scope, estimate, hours used, hours remaining, budget/work order per trade, budget remaining)
3. If there is a true scheduling feature, it should be available in NextGear , with a calendar with filters for in house people, subs, vendors, work orders.
4. The search feature should go back to automatically finding a name as it is typed.
5. Ability to see closed jobs.
I have more suggestions but this will have to suffice.

Use it daily for work and the apps usability is pretty close to perfect and usually works smoothly. My biggest issue is the lack of ability to edit or remove pictures and notes from albums. Once it’s there it’s there for good. I’ve had times where NextGear auto loads into the last album I had open and unintentionally uploaded photos to that album that were meant for another. Now if I could delete said images and reupload them to the correct album I’d have no complaints. That extends to albums themselves. The ability to remove them in case of duplicates or errors in input would make this a 5 star app easily. Really the only “workaround” is adding notes to specific images noting that they are in the incorrect album which makes things confusing when you’re working a larger project that has thousands of photos.

It takes forever to upload pictures and the biggest problem is it lets the phone sleep while uploading and kicks you completely out of NextGear . Then you have to resign in and start all over. Find the job log in and start uploading again. If you can sometimes it freezes and won’t allow any more pics uploaded. Then you have to make another file and try to upload again. And the process repeats. In documents it will stay open for hours but pic quits in less than a min unless the uploaded babysittits the program and doesn’t allow the phone to sleep. For companies like ours that depend on photos for insurance companies. We can only ask technicians to upload photos but they can’t be blamed when the software kicks them out before the upload is completed.

As an estimator that only uses Dash Mobile, I have a couple things I would like to see improved.

1: I wish navigating between tabs in a job didn’t have to reload all that information. I have to wait several seconds just to look at the customer information and then several more seconds to look into the photos tab.

2: I wish I didn’t have to sign back into the program 5or 6 times a day. I know security is important but I promise I am still the same person using the program. And then I have to reenter a new pin.

3: I wish I could upload photos without having ro stay in the photos screen. If I leave NextGear for more than 20 seconds(answering a call, entering an address into my maps), the program reboots and I have to reupload the photos. Then, it only uploads 20 photos at a time before I have to refresh NextGear and upload another 20 photos.

I use NextGear daily. I have some suggestions to make it much better.
Number one: the pictures need to upload in chronological order as you select them on your camera roll, instead of them being all mixed up.
Number two: it would be really nice to be able to see at least some of the financial information via NextGear .
Number three: when entering a note in the desktop version, it ignores all spacing and paragraphs. This is annoying when you were trying to read notes at a later date.

I’ve used NextGear enough years to see that it has improved, but there is still a way to go. It’s extremely difficult to look through job notes, because the preview is so small you have to open each note to really see anything. The recently introduced tags (and already existing job alerts) are not visible in the mobile app, so making a tag like “Do Not Use Customer Restroom” doesn’t do much good, since field workers on Dash Mobile are the ones that really need to see that. I do like the ProAssist feature, but would prefer the notes created by using that were separate from the job notes, due to the aforementioned limited note view on mobile.

Easy to use and understand but there are a few changes I’d like to see added.

1. Font size is too small. Needs an option in settings to increase the size so you don’t have to change the settings in your phone.

2 Ability to access a job that’s closed. There are times when we are out on the field and we need to get some information from a previous job that has been closed and we can’t without a desktop.

My company has been using Dash for 4 years. NextGear has been constantly improving. We manage 150 claims a month while using Dash. Our team loves that photos, moisture reads, and notes are all in one place. My crews can leave from their homes in the morning with no need to come into the office and ask where to go. The only time we have issues is when a technician doesn’t have an updated phone.

Dash has been amazing for our company since we joined in December of 2020. We are continuing to learn the program daily and look forward to our future with the software but also dash’s team. The support and coaching you get along with the software is unbelievable. Even the on boarding training is unreal. I thought the training/on boarding would fall on a couple people and they have it designed that everyone in your company contributes. We look forward to our future with dash and are so happy we made the switch.

I have been a business owner in restoration contractor industry for over 10 years now, signing on with Next Gear Solutions/Dash is absolutely the best decision we’ve made as a company and it’s not even close. The software/app continues to be the backbone of our day to day operation allowing us to operate, communicate, and document all in real-time. I can’t imagine running a business like this any other way, I highly recommend.

I realize the grass always seems greener on the other side, but after testing two other companies website and app I feel like dash is still my favorite and is the most user friendly and it makes most things simple where other companies add 10 extra steps. Anyone who asks my opinion will always get the same answer Dash is my favorite to use.

Dash has been a great software for our team, helping us stay organized, document processes well, and ultimately get paid faster by insurance. We checked out many of the top software options when shopping around, and dash was head and shoulders above the rest. On top of this, the support we have received from the this app/dash team has been phenomenal, they respond quickly to any questions that we have.
All requests we have made are taken seriously; we should hopefully be seeing some of the improvements we suggest be put in place soon.
All in all, it has been a game changer for our business!

Being new to the restoration industry and navigating after-hours customers and events, Next Gear has made my life so much easier. I am able to communicate with all parties, both internal and external, and make sure that I am always in compliance. I especially like being able to have necessary documents signed by the customers seamlessly.

NextGear is great for our team. We are in a rural area and don’t have the greatest service in some places yet with the download job feature we don’t need great service to do our job. The picture uploads are fast and easy. Everything is within the reach of your thumb. The GREATEST thing about the this app app is that the developers listen. People made “suggestions” (really just complained) on improving functions and next thing I know BAM! the function was updated. You can’t please everyone but I feel like if it makes sense for the majority then this app does respond. Thank you guys for providing a resource that allows our company to document our work, communicate with customers and even market to our contacts!

My team and I love NextGear. We have had other software in the past that doesn’t come close to the flexibility and functionality of this. They seem to constantly update and strive to get better. Nobody’s perfect, but they seem to strive for perfection on every suggestion we make. Very happy with its performance.

While no platform is perfect, Next Gear’s DASH is the most comprehensive solution available. Constant updates and improvements to the platform enhance functionality, versatility, and value. While other platforms had a strong point here or there, this one has proven to be the best solution for us and one that scales as we do.