Drainage engineers

Software for drainage engineers

Most of the work is somebody ringing about a problem that started an hour ago, and a good proportion of the rest is a camera down a pipe producing evidence a customer has to be shown before they will agree to anything. Both of those are awkward for software written around a tidy booked diary.

What is different about this trade

The wasted journey is the hidden cost of this trade, and recording one as a cancellation is how a business ends up unable to see how many it made. Arriving and getting no access is DONE — the van went, the hours went — and only being stood down before setting off cancels anything. It is one of the few numbers on the reports page that is worth real money.

How it handles your day

Today's call, fitted into today

Four questions before a slot is offered, and the travel one is the only one that asks about the map rather than the clock. It leads with the distance, which is solid, and calls the drive roughly, because one average speed is not a route.

No access, counted

A locked gate used the day up. It is recorded as a wasted journey rather than as a cancellation, so the number exists and can be looked at — which is the first step to arguing about who pays for them.

Survey footage they can actually open

A camera run is hundreds of megabytes, so it is shared as a link to live data rather than attached to an email that will bounce. Withdraw it later and it goes from the copy you already sent.

Agents and housing associations, billed monthly

Put an account customer on a monthly statement and a month of finished jobs goes out as one invoice, a line per job with its reference and the date it was done. Their terms, not yours.

Waiting on a liner or a part

A job waiting on something hands its diary time back, keeps the date the supplier gave you, and sits under its own heading on the booking list rather than disappearing into the general run of work.

Questions, answered

Can I book something for the same morning?

Yes, and the warnings tell you what you are doing rather than refusing — you can see the customer and the software cannot. Hours, capacity and travel all warn and still let you save.

How are wasted journeys recorded?

As a finished visit with a no-access outcome, which keeps the hours and the diary slot honest. It is reported separately so you can see how many there were and decide what to do about it.

Can I send CCTV footage to the customer?

Yes, as a link to live data rather than an attachment. Nothing is visible to them until you mark the individual items to share.

We invoice letting agents monthly. Does that work?

Yes. One statement a month per account customer, a line per job, rather than forty separate invoices they will pay none of.

What about commercial contracts with planned visits?

Work that genuinely repeats at an agreed price books the next visit automatically, same engineer. Work that has to be sold again each time only puts the customer on a call list.

How much is it?

£29.99 a month for the whole business — every feature, every person, no add-ons. 60 days free and no card to start.

Before you start

When you sign up you are asked what the business does. Pick Drainage & Drain Clearance — the app uses it to decide what to show you, so the screens arrive already suited to the work rather than needing switching off one at a time.

The arithmetic behind this is free to use without an account — try the mileage claim calculator, which runs the same code the invoices do.

See it being done

Step-by-step guides with a short recording of each one, free to read without an account.

Bill a customer once a month

A letting agent or a housing association who sends you forty jobs a month gets one invoice, with a line for each.

The job evidence record

Everything photographed, filmed, recorded or written on a job — and choosing what the customer sees.

Schedule a job and assign it

Put a time and a person against work that has been agreed.

All the guides and videos →

Also worth a look

Most businesses on this list do more than one of these. It is the same product and the same price either way.

Plumbers and heating engineers

Today's leak and next November's service are two different problems. One goes in the diary; the other has to be sold again. Both are handled here.

Pest control

A contract with visits in it and a report every time. Recurring treatments, your own report forms signed on site, and commercial billed monthly.

All trades and field teams →

Try it on your own work

60 days free with everything switched on, and no card to start. If you would rather ask something first, there is a person on the other end.

Start your free trial Talk to a person 07976 748850

£29.99 a month for the whole business after the free 60 days.

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