Plumbers management software is the search a shop makes once the problem has changed from managing jobs to managing the people who do them. With one truck the owner knows everything. With three, the questions are different: who is where, who is licensed for what, how long each task really takes each technician, and which of them is quoting from the book. The software that answers those is job management with the crew view turned on, and the crew view is what this page is about.
The schedule is per technician, with skills and licenses on it
A crew schedule has to know that one technician holds the gas license, another has the jetter on the truck, and a third is an apprentice who cannot go alone. Software that stores those against the person and warns the dispatcher when a job is dropped on the wrong truck prevents the mid-morning re-shuffle. It also makes the day visible to the technicians, who can see their own board on the phone and stop calling the office to ask what is next.
Time on the job is the number that prices the book
A flat rate book is only right if the standard times are right, and the standard times are only known if the actual times are recorded. Management software that clocks the technician in and out of each task on the phone gives the owner the real time against the book time, per technician and per task. That is the report that tells a shop which tasks are under-priced and which technicians need training, and it cannot be produced from a paper timesheet.
The price book on every phone, and the estimate that follows it
The customer should hear the same price from any technician. Management software publishes the price book to the field so the estimate is built by tapping tasks rather than typing prices, and the approved estimate becomes the work order and the invoice without the number changing. The flat rate pricing and price book tools on this site are the free version of the book; the paid product keeps the records the estimates attach to.
The labor market the software is managing
The crew is the shop's largest cost and its scarcest input. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' occupational outlook for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, cited below, describes the trade's employment picture and is the public reference point for what the labor a shop is scheduling looks like nationally. Software does not change that market; it makes sure the hours the shop does have are billed.
Questions people ask about plumbers management software
How is plumbers management software different from plumbing job management software?
Same product family. Management software is the job management product with the crew features in use: per-technician schedules, skills, time tracking and per-technician reporting. Most vendors include them in the same plan.
Should technicians clock time per task or per day?
Per task, if the shop prices flat rate. Per-day time tells you the payroll; per-task time tells you whether the book is right, and the book is where the margin is.
At what size does a shop need this?
When the owner can no longer see every job in a day. For most plumbing shops that is the second or third truck, and it is usually noticed as a schedule problem before it is recognised as a management one.