Booking and invoicing for HVAC techs, plumbers and electricians

For a solo HVAC tech, plumber or electrician, the day leaks in three places: phone tag to set up visits, a drive to a house where nobody's home, and a customer who wants to pay later. Field-service apps attack that with dispatch boards and texting for whole crews. A one-truck business may only need a booking page, a trip fee and a pay link.

From the booking to getting paid on site

1. Create a meeting type per service on your booking page: "AC not cooling" for 60 minutes, "Water heater" for 90, "Electrical troubleshooting" for 60. Add 30 minutes of buffer after each for the drive, a minimum notice of 3 hours and booking up to 14 days ahead.
2. Required questions: the full address with the gate code, what's wrong and, for HVAC, the brand and age of the system. You show up with the likely part on the truck.
3. Charge your diagnostic or trip fee at booking (for example $89), credited to the repair if they go ahead. A cancellation more than 24 hours ahead is refunded on its own; after that, you keep the fee. You choose the window.
4. The customer gets an email reminder the day before and, if you turn it on, another an hour before.
5. On site, build the invoice in Invoicing from your phone's browser: the part and the labor as lines, and the diagnostic fee as a negative line so it's credited. Copy the payment link and text it from your phone; they pay by card and the invoice marks itself Paid. Cash or a check you mark paid by hand with a note.
6. For a bigger job, like a new condenser or a panel upgrade, send a proposal that evening with equipment, materials and labor as lines and a deposit to order the equipment. They accept it online.
7. An hour after the visit, the follow-up email offers a link to book again. A week after the payment, an automation asks for a review.

A typical week

• Monday: four visits booked over the weekend from the QR sticker you leave on every unit you service.
• Tuesday: a no-cool call at 10:30. Capacitor replaced, invoice built on your phone, paid by card before the tools are back on the truck.
• Wednesday: a customer moves Thursday's water-heater visit to Friday from their confirmation email, and the slot opens for someone else.
• Thursday: a panel inspection at a 1970s house. The job is too big to price on the spot, so the proposal with a deposit for the panel goes out that night.
• Friday: fuel, parts and a new press tool go into Expenses with receipt photos, and you check what's left after costs this month.

All 13 tools, one by one

How a home service pro uses each tool, from the booking to the review:

• Link in Bio: your services, your service area and a booking button for each visit type, linked from your Google Business Profile and Nextdoor page.
• Short Links: the QR sticker on every unit you install or service: the customer scans it next season and lands on your booking page.
• Forms: barely needed when customers book directly; useful for commercial or new-construction bids where you ask unit count, voltage or square footage before quoting.
• Scheduling: a visit type per service with drive-time buffers, minimum notice, the address and the problem as required questions, and the diagnostic fee charged at booking.
• Proposals: the job you can't close on site: equipment, materials and labor as lines, and a deposit to order the unit, accepted online that evening.
• E-Signatures: barely needed for a repair; useful for a maintenance agreement with a property manager, a school or an office, signed by whoever runs the building.
• Document Tracking: a maintenance report or warranty PDF for a commercial customer, with a record of who opened it and when.
• Screen Recording: barely useful in the field, since it records from a desktop browser; it helps when you explain a multi-unit replacement quote to a property manager from the office.
• Notes & Boards: a board of callbacks and parts on order, each card dated for the day you go back to install.
• Time Tracking: barely needed if you charge flat rates; it's for time-and-materials work and hourly maintenance contracts, with the hours pulled onto the invoice.
• Invoicing: the invoice built on site with parts, labor and the diagnostic fee credited, the pay link texted from your own phone, and cash or checks marked paid with a note.
• Expenses: fuel, parts, tools and license renewals with a receipt photo, and how much to set aside for taxes each month.
• Automations: a review request a week after each paid invoice, and 90 days after a tune-up, an email with your booking link for the next one.

If you work with a helper or a second tech

On Team ($35/month, up to 3 users), a visit type can belong to several techs: customers see the times when any of them is free, and each visit goes to whoever has fewer upcoming meetings. It doesn't assign by area or distance, so if each tech covers a different side of town, give each one their own visit type.

Licenses, refrigerant and the right to cancel

• Electrical, plumbing and HVAC licensing is set by your state, and sometimes by your city or county. Check your board before you advertise a trade or a service area.
• If you work on air conditioning or refrigeration equipment, EPA requires Section 608 certification for technicians who maintain, service, repair or dispose of equipment that could release refrigerant, and only certified technicians can buy refrigerant for stationary equipment. EPA also has you keep your certificate at your place of business until three years after you stop working as a technician.
• The FTC's Cooling-Off Rule gives buyers three business days to cancel many sales of $25 or more made at their home. It doesn't cover a visit the customer asked for to repair or maintain their personal property, but goods or services you sell beyond what they asked you to repair are covered. Check the FTC's page before you sell an upgrade on the spot.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state; check yours with a lawyer or your licensing board.

SoloWOS or Jobber: which fits

We couldn't confirm Jobber's or Housecall Pro's plans, features and prices on their own sites for this page, so those cells say "check their site" instead of guessing. Ask each of them which of the rows above their plan includes.

Choose Jobber or Housecall Pro if:

• You dispatch two or more trucks and need jobs assigned by technician and area. SoloWOS gives a team booking to whoever has fewer upcoming meetings, not by location.
• Your customers expect text reminders and on-my-way messages. SoloWOS sends email only.
• You need a price book, truck inventory or customer financing. SoloWOS has none of those.

Choose SoloWOS if:

• You're one tech, or two, and the problems are phone tag, no-shows and getting paid before you leave.
• You also want proposals for replacement jobs, signed maintenance agreements and a link page in one account at a fixed price.
• Card payments should land in your own Stripe account, with no fee from SoloWOS on top of Stripe's.

SoloWOS features checked on October 23, 2026. Check Jobber's and Housecall Pro's sites for their current plans and prices.

Start with these three

Scheduling with one visit type per service and your diagnostic fee, Invoicing with Stripe connected so you can bill on site, and Short Links for the QR stickers. Turn on the review automation in your second week.

Free tools that help

• Payment fee calculator to see what you keep from each card payment.
• QR code generator for unit stickers and door hangers (point it at a short link).
• Mileage deduction calculator for the miles between calls.
• Receipt generator when a customer pays cash and wants a printed receipt.
• Self-employment tax calculator for what to set aside each quarter.

What SoloWOS won't do for a home service pro

• No dispatch board, GPS, route planning or map of the day's visits.
• No truck inventory, price book or customer financing.
• Reminders go by email, not text. You can text the pay link yourself.
• Charging at booking works by card through Stripe only.
• Solo includes 50 invoices a month. At three or four paid calls a day you'll pass that, and Team includes 200.
• Automations wait up to 90 days, so a six-month maintenance reminder doesn't send itself. A maintenance plan billed monthly can go on a repeating invoice.
• SoloWOS doesn't file taxes, issue 1099s or collect sales tax for you. Invoicing sends the invoice with a pay link (card through your Stripe account) and your other payment details; your accountant or tax software handles the rest.