PlumbingBossPro Blog — Plumbing Software

Plumbing Software for a One-Van Shop

A one-van plumbing company is usually one plumber, sometimes with a spouse or a part-time helper answering the phone. The owner is the plumber, the dispatcher, the estimator and the bookkeeper. When people talk about plumbing software, it can sound like something for companies with a call center. It is not. A one-van shop may have the most to gain, because every minute the owner spends on paperwork is a minute not billing.

Does a One-Van Shop Need Software?

One-van shops rarely need much in the way of roles, as described in User Roles in Plumbing Software: Who in the Office Sees What. What they need is time back.

The honest answer is: not always. If you have a small list of customers, do only service calls, and your memory is excellent, a notebook and a phone can carry you for a while. The signs that it is time for software are familiar:

• You are typing invoices at night or on weekends.
• You forgot to call a maintenance customer and lost them.
• You drove to a house and realized you had the wrong water heater parts on the van.
• Customers call to ask when you will arrive, while you are on another job.
• Your spouse or helper cannot answer customer questions without calling you.

If two or three of those sound familiar, software will pay for itself in hours saved.

What the Owner-Operator Uses Most

In a one-van shop, the owner uses both sides of PlumbingBossPro: the office screens in the evening or between calls, and the tech app on the phone all day.

The pieces that make the biggest difference for one plumber:

• Equipment on the house. You may remember every water heater now. You will not in five years. Write it down once and it is on the card forever.
• The Waiting List. Yearly flushes, softener service and backflow tests come due on their own. You see them on the map and fit them between service calls.
• Automatic texts. Customer alerts go out without you touching your phone between jobs. The full set of automated alerts comes with Pro and Crew.
• Complete and get paid. Tap Complete, the invoice is created, and the card on file can be charged before you pull out of the driveway.

A Day in a One-Van Shop

Here is what a typical day looks like once the software is set up:

• The night before: look at the Waiting List, pick tomorrow's jobs, and auto-route them from the shop. Customers know you are coming.
• Morning: open the tech app, look at the first card. It shows a 40-gallon electric water heater from 2011 in a utility closet. You know what to bring.
• Between jobs: a new call comes in. Book it, drop it into today's route if it fits, or tomorrow's if it does not.
• At each stop: Start, do the work, take photos, Complete. The card is charged or the invoice goes out.
• End of day: nothing to type up. Clock out in the app.

The evening paperwork session mostly goes away. That is the biggest change for most owner-operators.

Growing Into a Second Van

Software set up right in a one-van shop makes the second van much easier. When you hire your first plumber, they inherit your knowledge of every house through the equipment records and past notes. You do not have to ride along for six months explaining where every shut-off is.

Recurring work helps here too. A list of maintenance customers coming due on their own is steady work for a new plumber while you take the service calls. The jump from one van to several is covered in Plumbing Software for a Five-Van Shop.

Which Plan Fits One Van

The Start plan at $59 a month suits an owner-operator: 2 office users and 1 van, with unlimited customers and addresses. That covers the owner plus a spouse or helper in the office. It includes 500 text segments a month, sent and received.

When you add a second van, Pro at $89 a month adds the second van, a third office user, billing automation, replying to customers and the rest of the automated alerts. See the pricing page for the full comparison. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no credit card.

Getting Started Without Losing a Week

A one-van owner does not have time for a big software project. Keep it small:

• Import your customer list by CSV on a slow evening.
• Set up your service list with the prices you charge.
• Set up recurring services for your maintenance customers.
• Add equipment as you visit each house.
• Use the tech app for a week and stop using the notebook.

For the full overview of what the platform does, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing software page.