Four different jobs, one enquiry form.
Custom software for plumbing companies
A burst pipe at 2am, a water heater on its last legs, a slow drain that'll be back in nine months, and a bathroom remodel. Four urgencies, four values, one place they all land. Sorting them is most of the battle, and it's the part software is actually good at.
- From $950 for one module
- You own the code and the data
- No contract, cancel any month
The spread is the problem, and so is the cold.
Almost every trade competes on response speed. Plumbing is the one where what you say first can reduce the damage before anybody arrives. Shut off the main. Shut off the water heater. Don't run the dishwasher. That advice costs nothing, it's the same every time, and it's the reason a plumber's automatic first reply is a genuinely different thing from a roofer's.
The second difference is the range behind one number. Four jobs, four urgencies and four values arriving through the same form, where getting the order wrong means an emergency waits behind a quote request.
And then there's Minnesota. A cold snap turns frozen pipes into a one-week surge that behaves exactly like a roofer's hailstorm, except the people waiting are more frightened and the damage compounds while they do.
The point isn't that a machine fixes plumbing. It's that the boring, repeatable part — sort it, send the first-aid advice, capture the address — happens the same way every time instead of whenever someone can get to it.
What I'd build first, and why that order.
Plumbing's order starts with the first reply, because it's the one thing on this page that can reduce a customer's loss rather than just win you the job.
Plumbing software, in other words — the parts of it you'd actually use.
An emergency reply that says something useful
Not "thanks, we'll be in touch." The actual first-aid steps for what they described, sent the moment the form is submitted, with the address and the problem already captured. It wins the job and limits the damage, which is a combination no other trade gets.
Sorting by urgency, not arrival time
Emergency, same-day, scheduled, quote. The form asks enough to tell them apart and the dashboard shows them in that order, so a burst line never sits behind three drain enquiries.
Property history you can actually find
What was done at that address, when, by whom, and what you said you'd come back for. Plumbing is repeat work on the same houses, and the history is worth money the second time you're there.
The nine-month callback
The slow drain, the aging water heater, the thing you flagged and they didn't do. A list with dates on it, and an email that goes out when the date arrives, turns a note in a van into booked work.
Review requests after the fix
Sent a few days later, every time, without you having to be the person who asks. Plumbing reviews carry unusual weight because the customer was panicking when they called.
What I wouldn't build. Quoting a repair before someone has seen it, or anything that tells a customer a situation is safe. First-aid steps are fine because they're the same every time and they only ever reduce damage. Judgement isn't.
Start with one module.
One thing, built properly, for $950. Two or three that only make sense together, $1,950. Everything connected, from $2,995. Each step is a decision you make once the one before it has earned it, and stopping at the first is a normal outcome.
Half up front to book, half on launch, agreed in writing before anything starts. If you want me keeping it running afterwards that's $150/month and it cancels any month with no fee. If you don't, you still own it.
Judge it on what I've built.
The software I run my own businesses on. Every card says what it is, so you can see the standard rather than take my word for it.
The software
A lead tracker, an SEO tool that writes branded PDF reports, a desktop file organizer, a Discord bot, a plugin storefront. All mine, all working, none of them a contractor's.
No contractor example yet
I would rather say that than show you somebody else's work or a mock-up dressed as a job. What is on the work page is real and labeled, and the free homepage is there so you can see the standard applied to your own business before you pay for anything.
Different trade, different order.
The build order isn't the same across trades, and the pages say why rather than swapping a noun.
Roofing
A hailstorm doesn't book itself.
HVAC
In January, a no-heat call isn't a service call.
Electrical
A dead outlet and a panel upgrade arrive the same way.
Remodeling
Your sales cycle is months. Your follow-up is two emails.
All contractors
The problem every trade has in common, and the three builds that fix most of it.
Tell me what you're paying for.
Send me your monthly software list and I'll write back with what each tool does, what's worth replacing, and the one thing I'd build first with a fixed price on it.