PlumbingBossPro Blog — Running a Plumbing Business

Writing Standard Procedures for a Plumbing Business

“Standard operating procedures” sounds like something a big corporation would have. In a small plumbing company, it just means writing down how you want things done, so they get done the same way whether the owner is in the van or not. A few pages of plain instructions can save a lot of callbacks, lost invoices and frustrated customers.

Why Write It Down

Training a new hire, covered in Training Apprentices and New Hires in a Plumbing Business, is much easier when there is something written to train from. Procedures also help the people you already have.

Without written procedures, every plumber does it their own way. One takes photos, one does not. One records the water heater, one never touches the equipment record. One calls the office when a job grows, one just does the work and hopes it gets billed. Customers get a different company depending on who shows up.

Keep Procedures Short

Nobody reads a binder. Good procedures for a small company are short checklists that fit on one page each. Write them the way you would explain it on a ride-along. If a step does not matter, leave it out.

Start with the procedures that cause the most trouble when they are skipped. For most plumbing companies, that is the list below.

Booking a Call

• Get name, phone, email and address. Confirm the address spelling.
• Check whether the customer already exists, so you do not create a duplicate.
• Ask what is happening, and whether water is actively leaking. If so, tell them where the main shut-off usually is.
• Give the service call price up front.
• Book the job, assign the van and day, and confirm how the customer wants reminders.

Arriving and Working at the House

• Tap Start when you arrive. The customer gets an arrived text automatically.
• Read the equipment and access notes on the job card before knocking.
• Introduce yourself, explain what you will look at first, protect the floor.
• Take before photos.
• If the job grows beyond the service call, explain the options and the price before doing extra work. Bring the office in if needed.

Recording Equipment and Running the Checklist

• Check the water heater against the house record. Update brand, model, serial, size, fuel, year installed and location if anything is missing or wrong.
• Record the main shut-off location and the sewer cleanout if they are not already noted.
• Run the inspection checklist on maintenance visits: water pressure, water heater temperature, T&P valve, anode rod, visible leaks, and the rest.
• Pick a condition (Good, Needs attention or Repair recommended) and write recommendations in plain language.

Changes on the job flow back to the house, so whatever you record here is what the next plumber sees.

Closing Out the Job

• Take after photos.
• Make sure every piece of work done is on the job as a line item. If it is not on the job, it is not on the invoice.
• Write a short note for the next visit: what you did, what you saw, what you recommended.
• Tap Complete. The invoice is created and the card on file can be charged.
• If the customer was happy, ask them to leave a review.

The “every piece of work is on the job” step is the one that matters most for profit. Missing it is how service calls turn into unbilled repairs, a leak covered in Stopping Unbilled Service Calls in a Plumbing Business.

Skipping a Job

• If you cannot get in or cannot do the work, tap Skip and write why.
• Take a photo if it helps explain.
• The office sees the note and reschedules.

Office Follow-Up

• Review completed jobs daily for missing line items or notes.
• Follow up on declined cards and past-due invoices on a set day each week.
• Follow up on open estimates.
• Book maintenance that came due on the Waiting List.

Keep Them Alive

Procedures go stale if nobody looks at them. Review them once or twice a year, and any time something goes wrong that a procedure should have prevented. Ask the crew what is missing. The plumbers in the vans usually know where the gaps are.

Where you can, build the procedure into the tools rather than a separate document. A job card that shows the equipment and access notes reminds the plumber to read them. An inspection checklist on the phone walks through every item in order. Invoices created at Complete make billing a step nobody can forget. The fewer things people have to remember, the more consistently the work gets done.

For more on running a plumbing company that works the same way every day, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing business software page.