A tool can either be a generic piece of equipment or a specialist asset that sets your service apart from the competition. The more essential it is to your business, the more important it becomes to track its usage and profitability. That’s why Shepherd integrates tools directly into service management, ensuring they are not only available for technicians but also monitored for performance, costs, and value. The result is a more complete expansion of Shepherd as a CMMS application.

Adding tools to a Service Order in NetSuite is straightforward, and once included, their usage can be tracked in detail. This gives businesses vital insights into how often tools are used, whether maintenance is required, and how much revenue their deployment has generated. In other words, the investment made in tools can be measured against the work they enable and the income they help secure.

For technicians, Shepherd makes tool management simple within the Mobile App. When a Service Order is scheduled, the required tools appear under Optional Actions, displaying their name, type, and serial number. By marking a tool as “used,” technicians ensure that its deployment is logged, linking both usage and billing directly to the Service Order.

Finally, Shepherd captures tool usage history seamlessly. Once a service is marked complete, NetSuite records the date of usage and the related Service Order, building a reliable record over time. This ensures businesses know exactly how their tools are being used, how often, and with what return—helping them make smarter decisions about maintenance, investment, and profitability.