ElectricalBossPro Blog — Electrical Contractor Software

What Electrical Contractor Software Actually Does on a Normal Service Day

Feature lists are hard to picture. It is easier to understand electrical contractor software by following one ordinary day at a small residential shop: two vans, an owner who still runs calls, and someone in the office answering the phone. Here is where the software shows up from the first call to the last invoice.

Before the Vans Leave

The full feature tour is in Electrical Contractor Software: The Complete Guide for Residential Electrical Companies. This article is the same system seen through one Tuesday.

At 7am the office opens the dispatch board. Van 1 has six service calls: a dead outlet circuit, two GFCI replacements, a ceiling fan, a breaker that trips and a doorbell transformer. Van 2 has a panel upgrade that was approved online last week. The owner has two yearly safety inspections and a generator maintenance visit that came due on the Waiting List.

The office auto-routes each van Closest First from the shop and nudges one call to the end because the homeowner asked for the afternoon. The tech phones now show the same order. Nobody prints a sheet or sends a group text.

The First Call Comes In

At 7:40 a homeowner calls: the kitchen lights flicker and a breaker trips. The office types the name, and the client record opens with the house, the equipment on it and every past visit. The main panel is listed with its brand, rating and the year it went in, and a note says it is in the garage behind the shelving.

The office books a service call for this afternoon on Van 1, picks the equipment from the house with the From House picker, and adds the homeowner's description. The on-the-way and arrived texts will go out on their own later. That is about a minute of work, and the tech will walk in knowing what panel to expect.

On the Road

The Van 1 tech signs in with the company login and a personal PIN and sees the day's calls in route order. One tap on the first card opens navigation. As the van heads out, the customer gets an on-the-way text, and another when the tech arrives. Customers who use the customer app can see the van on a live map with their place in line.

At each stop, the tech reads the equipment and access notes on the card, taps Start, takes before and after photos and adds notes. If a GFCI replacement turns into a second outlet, the office can add the line item from the service list so the invoice matches the work. When the tech taps Complete, the invoice is created and the card on file can be charged before the van leaves the driveway. The tech's side of the day is covered in The Electrician's Phone: What the Tech App Handles From Clock-In to Card Charge.

Inspections and Generator Visits

The owner's first stop is a yearly safety inspection. The tech app opens the checklist: main panel inspected with the cover off, breakers tested and labeled, AFCI and GFCI tested, grounding and bonding, surge protection, lugs and connections, outlets and switches, smoke and CO detectors, exterior outlets, meter base and service drop, generator and transfer switch, and EV charger. The owner enters readings, picks a condition and writes recommendations.

Back at the office, the job shows the full checklist and the office prints an Electrical Safety Inspection report for the homeowner. The plan is set to 365 days, so next year's visit will come due on the Waiting List on its own. The generator maintenance visit works the same way, with the generator's model, serial and fuel type already on the card. See The Waiting List: Every Electrical Visit That Has Come Due, on One Map.

The Office During the Day

While the vans work, the office watches crew GPS on the map, answers customer texts through two-way texting and sends an estimate for an EV charger install built from the service list. The homeowner approves it online at lunch, and the approved estimate becomes a scheduled job on Van 2 for next week.

A website request comes in through the request form and lands in Form Responses. A property manager asks for a copy of last month's statement, which covers all nine of their addresses on one page because the account is set to Monthly.

One call gets skipped: nobody was home to open the garage. The tech tapped Skip with a note, the office sees the reason, texts the homeowner and moves it to Thursday.

End of the Day

By 5pm every completed job has photos, notes and an invoice. Cards on file have been charged. Two invoices on accounts without a card are waiting for online payment in the customer app, and past-due follow-up will handle any that sit. Techs clocked out on their phones, so the hours are recorded.

The equipment changes made during the day, a new surge protector at one house and a replaced subpanel at another, are already back on those house records for the next visit. Nobody has a stack of carbon copies to type in tonight.

That is what the software does on a normal day: it keeps the phone call, the house, the van, the checklist and the invoice connected. To see every part of it on one page, go to the ElectricalBossPro electrical contractor software overview.