Compiled by Megan O’Connor
You’re on site fixing a burst pipe when your phone rings – it’s a customer asking for a quote you left in the back office. Meanwhile, a late invoice is holding up cash flow, and your team is double-booked for tomorrow. Sound familiar? For many plumbers, this daily chaos can be solved with one smart move: going digital.
Digitisation can help plumbing businesses run more smoothly and professionally. Generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI)
In this feature, we break down the most useful software that help run a plumbing business, why you should use them, and tips for implementing the software into your business. Today, software, digitisation and automation are inevitable, but with so many different offerings out there, it can be overwhelming to know which software is worth investing in and how to get the most value out of it.
Step one: understand how software helps business
Ultimately, software helps grow your business by putting you in the position to leverage for efficiency. Business Coach, Craig Lourens suggests that when you have mastered the basics of where your business is going in the next five years, how you manage your cashflow, where your time and that of your team add the most value, and you have a solid plan for marketing your business, it’s time for you to up your productivity game – enter software.
Step two: understand the benefits of software implementation
Time is the most valuable resource in small and medium-sized trade businesses. Software saves you time – each task done by the software is one less job you need to worry about taking the time to complete.
Other benefits include:
- Manual paperwork is reduced, replaced with professional documentation
- Digital documentation can be saved in multiple places and on different devices, while paper is easily lost
- Human error is reduced, providing more accurate information
- Business information is centralised and kept together on one system: no more digging through the backroom to find the file
- Increased professionalism: sending a quote to the customer via email appears a lot more professional than scribbling on a paper and dropping it off at site
- Faster turn-around times and increased productivity between jobs: instead of manually logging every aspect of a job, software can assist you in doing this, freeing up time for you to start your next job
- Industry specific solutions are becoming increasingly common: this means that software specific to plumbers is now available and takes into consideration the specific needs of a plumber
Trading messy paperwork for digital systems saves time and reduces human error. Mikhail Nilov | Pexels.com
Step three: know how to choose which software is best for your specific business
To start, look at the areas in your business that are time-consuming, but you know can be done more efficiently, freeing up your time to focus on business development actions. Normally you will find these are processes are manual and paper-generated1. For example, your quote all the way through to payment process is all manual and requires many interventions from you.
Once you have identified your ‘problem’ areas, you should2:
- Evaluate your business needs: Your business will have specific requirements, which will affect which software will add value to your business.
- Research and compare your options: Ask around which software other companies use and how it helps them. Get insights from your employees and peers about what would help them on a day-to-day basis Coach Craig’s tip: Use tried-and-tested software, and customise it to your business needs.
- Try it out first: Use free trial periods to see if the software will be a value-add for your business.
Here you can evaluate3
- How easy it is to use
- How customisable it is
- How easily it can be integrated into your business
- How good the customer support and onboarding assistance is
- Understand that change management will be required: Be ready for it and fully committed to it.
Tip: Do not take this step lightly – this step will affect whether the software will become a valuable tool to your business, or simply another task to manage daily.
“The use of field software for your technicians is a game changer”. DC Studio | Freepik.com
Step four: understand which software is valuable for plumbers specifically Customer management software
Customer management software is all about keeping records of your customers and the jobs you have done for them. With this software, you can:
- Create and manage customer profiles
- Store customer contact details
- Track job history relating to the specific customer (Including all documents linked to a specific customer)
- Save notes on communication history with the customer; for example, you can note that they have a spare key under the mat, or you can only enter through the garage, etc.
Job management software
Job management software relates specifically to the job being done. With this software, you can:
- Schedule new jobs, and track jobs that are currently underway
- Allocate teams and plumbers to certain jobs
- Set the status of the job – for instance, how far along the work is
- Add notes about the job – for example, one of the workers could note faulty equipment, which explains a delay in the progress of a job
- Time tracking for jobs – see how long certain parts of the job are taking you, allowing for more accurate quoting on similar jobs in the future
A small pocket POS system. Generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Teams management software
Team management software is not a human resources tool, but it is all about managing your teams. With this software, you can:
- Create and manage team profiles
- Assign and remove staff from teams
- Assign different teams to different jobs
- Shift staff around between different teams
- Track the teams as well as the jobs they are assigned to
Quotes and invoicing management software
This software is all about compiling the quote before you start work and generating an invoice once the work has been complete. With this software, you can:
- Create quote templates – so you only need to fill in a job’s specific requirements
- Generate professional quotes to be given to the customer
- Add your mark-up on the supplies and products used, automatically added to the invoice
- Track which materials were used during the job, automatically added to the invoice
- Create invoices
| PIRB System
The above software can be purchased as stand-alone or combined software. Alternatively, the Plumbing Industry Registration Board (PIRB’s) Job Management System (JMS)6 – on which the above research was done – combines all of the above- listed functions onto one central system: a system created and designed by PIRB, with direct input from a plumber about which software and systems would be valuable on a day-to-day basis. PIRB’s system is available at no cost to PIRB-licensed plumbers at a ratio of 1:3, meaning that for every one PIRB-licensed plumber at a company with an active registration status said company will gain access to three user profiles for the JMS system. |
Different types of software are available to support every part of your plumbing business. Generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Pocket POS systems
Trading messy paperwork for digital systems saves time and reduces human error. Freepik.com
Pocket Point of Sale (POS) systems are handheld devices that you can always carry with you – meaning you can get paid on the spot if the customer has a credit or debit card with them. These machines often come with a subscription to online software where you can monitor payments daily, track profits and losses, as well as general accounting software4.
Step five: make sure the software continues to add value once installed.
Make sure that you switch over to the new system entirely – do not use half of the old system and half of the new system as this will just cause confusion3. Once you have chosen and installed your software, after a few months’ use you should evaluate by asking yourself these questions:
- Does everyone in the company have access to the software and are they using it?
- Does everyone in the company understand how the software works?
- Do you have a key user of the software who has a contact at the software company that they can call if needed?
- Is the software creating value?
- Is the software freeing up your time and increasing your capacity?
- Have you built the cost of the software into your pricing?
Coach Craig’s tip: Do not automatically increase your pricing once you have invested in software – customers will notice it, and they will resist. Rather build it into your pricing when you update your costing annually
Note: You should be regularly reviewing the software’s impact on your business and optimising how you use it to get the most out of it5.
| Still not convinced?
Dean Cane from BrightServe Plumbing went digital in January of 2019. We asked him about the experience7: “Moving from paper to digital will take effort and time. When making the decision to change, embrace the change and prepare yourself and your team accordingly. A lot of people don’t like change, so it’s important to plan things in advance and to get ‘buy in’ from the team. The team needs to understand the reasons behind the change. “Going digital was the best move we made as a business. We have drastically improved our customer experience, improved team production and radically improved the overall efficiency of the business. In summary, going digital has led to increased turnover, and most importantly, improved profits and cash flow. Move to digital, it will be the best move you make in 2026.” |
References
- PlumbingCIRCLE – www.plumbingcircle.com
- Forbes – Going Beyond The Job: Elevating The Trades Through Digitization
- Modern Business Life – Managing a Trades Business in the Digital Age https//modernbusinesslife.com
- iKhokha – ikhokha.com
- Craig Lourens – Coach Craig
- Willem and Jacques, Plumbing Industry Registration Board (PIRB)
- Dean Cane, BrightServe Plumbing
