Quick start

By the end of this guide your facility will have an asset registered, a QR sticker on it, a technician invited, a work order created, photo proof attached, and a closed audit trail. That is the whole loop Knurl is built around.

1. Create your facility

Sign up at app.knurl.work/signupwith your phone number. Knurl uses phone-OTP authentication — you will get a 6-digit code via WhatsApp (or SMS where WhatsApp is not available). Enter it, name your facility, and you're in. A 14-day Team-tier trial is minted automatically.

2. Add locations (optional but recommended)

Locations are a tree of up to 5 levels (Building → Floor → Room → Sub-area). Skip this for now if you have fewer than 20 assets; you can add it later. Go to Assets → Locations in the dashboard.

3. Add your first 10–50 assets

You have three ways to add assets:

• One at a time — fastest if you have fewer than 10. Go to Assets → Add asset.
• CSV import — recommended for 10+ assets. Click Assets → Import CSV. The dashboard validates each row before applying.
• Scan-to-create — pre-printed QR stickers from a generic pack. Scan with the technician app and Knurl prompts you to name the asset on the spot.

4. Print and place QR labels

Open any asset and click Print QR. The default template prints on standard 50×30mm vinyl labels with the asset name, QR code, and Knurl wordmark. On the Portfolio plan and above you can design custom templates under Settings → QR templates.

Stick the label somewhere visible and weather-protected. Damaged or peeled labels do not lose data — every asset has a stable UUID, and you can reprint or replace stickers any time.

5. Invite managers and technicians

Go to Team and click Invite. Choose the role:

• Owner — full control including billing. One per facility.
• Admin — everything except billing.
• Manager — triage, assign, approve, but not user management.
• Technician — mobile app only; sees their assigned work and the asset registry.

Technicians sign in on the Knurl mobile app (iOS / Android) using the same phone-OTP flow plus an invite code.

6. Create your first work order

Three ways to start a work order:

1. Manager creates from the dashboard — useful when someone called or emailed a problem in.
2. Technician scans the QR and taps Report issue. The asset is pre-filled.
3. Anyone scans the QR from outside the app (a guest / tenant). The public report page collects their name and contact, no account required.

New work orders land in the Reported state. A manager triages it into Open and assigns a technician.

7. Close a work order with photo proof

The full lifecycle: reported → open → assigned → in_progress → pending_review → completed → closed. Completing a work order requires at least one photo and notes. Without those, the mobile app will not let the technician submit.

After the technician marks complete, the work order sits in Pending review for a manager to approve (or reject back to the technician with a comment).

8. Set your first preventive maintenance schedule

Go to Preventive maintenance → Add schedule. Choose an asset, a frequency (every N days, or every N meter units), the priority level, and an assignee or assignee group. Knurl runs a sweep every 15 minutes to materialise PM work orders into the triage queue when they come due.

9. Export your first report

On the Operations plan and above, go to Analytics. You'll see MTTR (mean time to repair), throughput, backlog age, and a breakdown by priority and assignee. Click Export CSV for the raw work-order or stock-movement log.

Every plan can export the full facility dataset (assets, work orders, photos metadata, audit log) as a ZIP from Settings → Export all data. Your data is yours; there is no “contact us to export” gate.

What's next

• Technician field guide — share with your team before their first shift on the app.
• Bulk import — full CSV column reference and validation rules. (Coming next.)
• Roles and permissions — custom roles, per-site permissions, organisation membership. (Coming next.)
• Security & data — where data is stored, how devices are revoked, what happens when your subscription lapses, and how to delete your facility. (Coming next.)