PlumbingBossPro Blog — Plumbing Software

User Roles in Plumbing Software: Who in the Office Sees What

In a one-person plumbing company, the question of who sees what never comes up. The owner sees everything because the owner is everyone. The moment you hire a part-time office helper, a second plumber or a dispatcher, it does. Should the new office hire see last month's revenue? Should every tech be able to delete a customer? User roles answer those questions once, so you do not have to think about them every day.

Why Roles Matter in a Small Shop

The weekly money review in Reports in Plumbing Software: The Questions a Small Shop Should Ask Every Week is a good example of something most people in the shop do not need to see.

Roles are not about distrust. They are about giving each person the screens they need and keeping the rest out of the way. A dispatcher works faster without the owner's financial screens in the menu. A tech works faster with a phone that only shows the day's calls. And when someone leaves, it is clear what access needs to be turned off.

Two Kinds of Users: Office and Field

PlumbingBossPro splits people into two groups.

Office users log in to the office side of the software. They take calls, book jobs, work the Waiting List and the dispatch board, send estimates, text customers and handle billing. Office user roles let you set what each office person can do.

Employees in the field use the tech app. Each one has a personal PIN and can be assigned to a van. They sign in with the company login and their PIN, and see their calls in route order with the equipment and access notes for each house.

The number of office users depends on your plan: 2 on Start, 3 on Pro, and unlimited on Crew. Techs using the tech app are unlimited on every plan, so adding a plumber never changes your bill.

Setting Up Office Roles

A typical small plumbing office has a few kinds of people:

• The owner. Full access: money, settings, prices, users and every customer record.
• The office manager or dispatcher. Booking calls, building each van's day, texting customers, sending estimates and invoices. Often needs billing too, but maybe not company settings.
• A part-time helper. Answering the phone and booking calls. Probably does not need to change prices or see reports.

Start with the least access each person needs to do their job, then add if something gets in the way. It is easier to give someone more access than to take it back.

Techs, PINs and Vans

Every tech gets a personal PIN. That PIN does a few jobs:

• It ties every job, photo, note and clock-in to the right person.
• It keeps the office from wondering who completed a job or who wrote a note.
• It means a tech who leaves can be turned off without changing the company login for everyone else.

Van assignments decide which calls show up on which phone. If two plumbers ride together, they can share a van. If someone is out sick, the office reassigns the van's day to another tech, and that tech's phone shows it. More on what techs see in The Plumbing Tech App: What Your Plumber Sees on the Phone at Every Stop.

Sensitive Information to Think About

Some information in a plumbing company deserves a moment of thought about who can see it:

• Access notes and lockbox codes. These are on the house and show on the tech's phone. That is the point. They are behind a PIN, which beats a printed sheet on the dashboard.
• Cards on file. Nobody in the office should be writing card numbers on a notepad. Let customers add their own card in the customer app or on a sign-up form.
• Revenue and reports. Usually owner-only.
• Prices and the service list. Changing prices is often best left to the owner.

When People Come and Go

Small plumbing companies have turnover like anyone else. A clean routine helps:

• New office hire: create their user with a role that fits, and walk them through the Waiting List and dispatch board on day one.
• New tech: add them as an employee with a PIN, assign a van, and do a ride-along with the app.
• Someone leaves: turn off their user or PIN the same day. Their past jobs, notes and photos stay in the records.

That last point matters. When a plumber leaves, their knowledge of your customers' houses does not leave with them, because it was written on the houses all along. For the full picture of the platform, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing software page.