Glossary
The terms field service teams meet in contracts, tenders, and client conversations, in plain English. Each definition is written to stand on its own, so you can lift it straight into a bid or a reply.
Proof of service is verifiable evidence that a field service visit happened as contracted, typically combining a location-verified check-in, timestamped photos, and a completed checklist into a record a client can inspect. In field service it is distinct from the legal sense of 'proof of service' for court documents; here it means proof that work was performed.
A GPS check-in records a worker's device location and a timestamp at the moment they mark themselves on site, tying a specific person to a specific place and time. It is the single hardest piece of attendance evidence to dispute and the foundation of most proof-of-service records.
A geofence is a virtual boundary around a physical site used to verify that a check-in actually happened at the location. When a worker checks in, the app compares their GPS position against the geofence and flags anything outside range, so attendance is verified rather than self-reported.
An audit trail is a chronological, tamper-resistant record of what happened on each visit, who did it, and when, that can be produced on demand for a client, auditor, or insurer. In proof of service it is built automatically from check-ins, photos, and checklist completions rather than reconstructed from memory.
A proof-of-service report is a per-visit document, usually a branded PDF, that packages the GPS check-in, timestamped photos, checklist completion, and notes into one client-ready record. It is the artefact clients open to confirm a visit happened and the highest-leverage attachment in most service tenders.
A checkpoint scan is a GPS-verified or QR/NFC-tagged check at a defined point on a route, used to prove a worker physically reached each location. In security patrols a trail of geo-stamped checkpoint scans replaces a paper guard-tour sheet that could be filled in from anywhere.
A service level agreement (SLA) is the contracted standard a service provider commits to, such as visit frequency, response time, or checkpoint coverage. Proof-of-service records let both provider and client measure SLA compliance against real visit data instead of assertions.
Before-and-after photos are timestamped images of a site captured at the start and end of a visit to evidence the result of the work. Dated against a verified visit, they turn a subjective quality dispute into something the client can see for themselves.
A client portal is a secure web area where a service provider's clients can self-serve visit status, photo galleries, and proof reports without contacting the office. It shifts the relationship from a supplier the client has to monitor to one they can simply check.
Field service management (FSM) is the broad category of software for scheduling, dispatching, quoting, and invoicing mobile work. Proof of service is a narrower, evidence-focused discipline that sits alongside or inside FSM, concerned specifically with proving each visit happened rather than running the whole operation.