Most maintenance companies in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh sell the same thing: an annual maintenance contract (AMC). AC servicing every quarter, a plumber and electrician on call, a fixed number of emergency visits, maybe a Silver, Gold and Platinum tier. Selling the contract is the easy part. Keeping 300 of them straight is where it falls apart. A villa in Arabian Ranches is three weeks overdue for its AC service, a client is on their sixth "free" emergency call when the contract covers four, and nobody can find the photo that proves the filter was changed.
This guide covers what AMC software has to handle, the main ways to get it, how to choose between them, and how to build a simple version yourself by describing it in plain language. I work at Mythex, the AI app builder in the build section, so weigh that part accordingly.
What AMC software actually has to do
Before you look at any product, write down how your contracts work. Six things matter more than the feature list.
1. Contracts with real limits
A contract is not just a customer name and an expiry date. It has:
- The property (villa, apartment, office, warehouse) and the units in it: how many AC units, which brand, where
- The tier and what it includes: number of preventive (PPM) visits, emergency call-outs, spare parts covered or charged
- Start and end dates, payment terms, and renewal status
The software should count what has been used. "4 of 4 emergency visits used" on screen saves an argument with the client and a free visit you didn't price in.
2. A PPM calendar that generates itself
Quarterly AC servicing for 300 contracts is 1,200 visits a year. Nobody should create those by hand. When a contract is signed, the visits for the year should appear on the calendar, spread so they don't all land in the first week of the quarter. In the Gulf, plan the AC visits before May: a service done in July while every technician is out on breakdowns is a service done badly.
3. Breakdown requests that jump the queue
"AC not cooling" in August, an active water leak, or no power is not the same as "a light is flickering." Write your priority rules down (what counts as an emergency, what your response time promise is) and make the request form ask the questions that sort them. A WhatsApp message saying "AC problem" with no address is the most expensive way to receive a job.
4. A technician view on a phone
Technicians need today's visits in order, the address and location pin, the access notes (gate, building security, the client's preferred time), the checklist for that visit type, and a way to add photos and close the job. If the job can't be closed on site, it gets closed from memory at 9 pm, which is how photo reports go missing.
5. Photo reports the client can see
Facilities managers and villa owners increasingly expect a report after every visit: what was checked, what was cleaned or replaced, before and after photos, and anything that needs a quote. A client portal where they can see their contract, visit history and reports cuts a lot of "did you come yesterday?" calls.
6. Arabic and English
Your office may work in English, but many clients, building managers and some technicians are more comfortable in Arabic. A portal that only works left-to-right in English will feel foreign to a share of your clients.
The three ways to get it
Option 1: An established field service platform
Field service management (FSM) suites cover scheduling, dispatch, mobile apps for technicians, invoicing and often contract management. Some international products are used widely in the region, and several local software houses sell maintenance systems built for Gulf companies.
Good fit if: you have 30+ technicians, need deep accounting integration (and VAT invoicing tied to every job), or run hard FM for large buildings with asset registers and compliance reporting.
Watch for: per-technician monthly pricing that adds up fast, setup projects measured in months, limited Arabic in the client-facing parts, and contract logic that doesn't quite match how your tiers work.
Option 2: A custom build from a software house
Dubai and Riyadh have many agencies that will build exactly what you describe.
Good fit if: your process is unusual, you have a real budget, and you want to own the code and the roadmap.
Watch for: the cost of every change after launch, and a project that depends on one developer staying with the agency.
Option 3: Build a simple version yourself
AI app builders now let a non-developer describe an app and get a working one with a database. This is not a replacement for a full FSM suite. It is a good fit for a company with 5 to 25 technicians whose real problem is "contracts, visits and photo reports live in Excel and WhatsApp."
How to choose: five questions
- How many technicians and contracts do you have? Under 25 technicians, a simple tool you control is usually enough. Above 50, the planning and dispatch features of a full suite start to pay for themselves.
- Does your accounting need to sync every job? If every visit has to become an invoice line in your accounting system, check the integration first, before anything else.
- What do clients see? If clients are asking for photo reports and visit history, the client portal matters more than anything else on the list.
- Who changes it? If your contract tiers change every year, ask how a change is made and what it costs. "Send a request to support" and "we change it ourselves in an afternoon" are very different answers.
- Can you leave? Ask for a full export of contracts, visits and photos. If you can't get your data out, you're renting your own history.
Building a simple AMC app in Mythex
Here's how the third option looks in practice. You type what you want in plain language, and Mythex writes the code, runs it with a live preview, gives it a Postgres database and file storage, and publishes it to a link or your own domain.
Step 1: Describe the core
Build a maintenance contract app for an AC and MEP maintenance company in Dubai. Clients have annual contracts on Silver, Gold or Platinum plans. Each contract has a property, a list of AC units, a number of PPM visits and emergency call-outs per year, and start and end dates. Show how many visits and call-outs are used and left. Arabic and English with a language switch, right-to-left in Arabic. Seed it with sample contracts.
Step 2: Generate the visit calendar
When a contract is created, schedule its PPM visits for the year, spread evenly, and show them on a calendar by technician. Let the office drag a visit to another day or technician. Flag contracts with an overdue visit.
Step 3: The technician view
Add a technician view for phones: today's visits in order with the address, map link, access notes and a checklist for the visit type. Technicians can add photos and notes and close the visit. Closed visits count against the contract.
Step 4: The client portal and breakdown requests
Add a client portal. A client sees their contract, what is used and left, upcoming visits, and the photo report of every past visit. They can raise a breakdown request with the problem type, a photo and a preferred time. Requests marked as emergencies (no cooling, water leak, no power) go to the top of the office list.
Step 5: Sign-in and roles
Add sign-in with three roles: office staff see everything, technicians see only their own visits, clients see only their own contracts.
Ask for sign-in explicitly. Mythex builds it with your database or a provider you choose; there isn't a ready-made login product, so test each role with a real account before launch.
Step 6: Test it like August
Create a contract, check the visits appeared, close a visit as a technician with photos, then log in as the client and find the report. Raise an emergency and a routine request and check the order. Then publish, on a link or a domain like service.yourcompany.ae.
What you get
- A Postgres database holding contracts, units, visits and requests
- File storage for visit photos and reports
- Your own domain for the client portal
- Arabic and English, right-to-left included
- Android and iPhone apps of the same project on Pro (an Android download or Google Play internal testing, and TestFlight for iPhone). They wrap the web screens rather than being fully native, which is fine for a technician checklist.
Honest limits
- No route planning or vehicle tracking. The calendar shows who goes where; it doesn't optimise the drive across Dubai traffic.
- Payments and VAT invoices: Mythex doesn't process payments. Connect a provider such as Stripe with your own account, and keep invoicing in your accounting system unless you build and check that part carefully.
- You own the testing. AI-written code can have bugs. Test real scenarios before launch and after every change.
- Not hard FM. Large buildings with asset registers, compliance certificates and 100 technicians belong on a full FM platform.
For teams
If several people in the office build and change the app, the Business plan (from $50/month) adds a shared workspace, roles (Admin, Editor, Viewer), per-member credit limits, members-only apps that only signed-in colleagues can open, Google Workspace SSO with your verified company domain, required two-factor sign-in, and publish approvals so nobody changes the live client portal by accident. There's a free plan to try the first prompt; Pro is $25/month. Details are on the pricing page. For a client-facing starting point, see the client portal builder for property and maintenance companies.
Whichever option you pick, start by writing down your tiers, what each includes, your emergency rules and what a visit report must show. That page is most of the work, and it'll make every vendor conversation and every build faster.
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