Contractor invoicing: quote it, schedule it, do it, bill it from the truck

The job sequence, and what software has to do at each step

Quoting: templates, parts and labour, and terms

Most of a trade's quotes are variations on a handful of jobs. Job templates with the usual lines, and a price list of parts and hourly rates, turn a quote into a two-minute task at the customer's kitchen table. For repair trades, keep parts and labour separate: parts as quantities at unit prices, labour as hours at a rate. When the invoice later differs from the quote, the customer can see the parts held and the hours moved.

The terms belong on the quote, not the invoice: deposit, validity, change orders ("work outside this scope is approved in writing before it begins"), and what is excluded. Written once as defaults, they appear on every quote and settle arguments before they start.

Service agreements for recurring work

Maintenance plans, weekly service, seasonal contracts: recurring work needs a document that states the service, the frequency, the price, the term and what happens when a visit is missed or a pump fails. An e-signed service agreement, with an audit log of who signed and when, is that document. It also feeds billing: a customer on an agreement has a monthly rate, and the invoices generate themselves.

Scheduling and the day's route

Field service management starts with the calendar: one-off visits on their dates, recurring customers on their weekly slot, each with the customer's address. From there the day is a route, ordered so the truck is not crossing town twice, and the mileage between stops is the deductible driving. The schedule should live in the same app as the customers and invoices, so a visit becomes a service record, and the record becomes an invoice, without retyping the customer.

On site: the service record and the photos

The service log is the contractor's evidence. For each visit: what was done, the readings taken (chemistry for a pool, pressures for HVAC, meter readings for anything), the materials used, and photos before and after. It is what answers "you were here last month and it's broken again", it is what makes the next technician's visit faster, and it is what the customer sees on the invoice when the photos are attached.

Two things make a service record usable rather than merely stored: a follow-up flag that can be marked done rather than deleted, so the fact of the follow-up survives; and the ability to send the visit's photos straight to the invoice or estimate.

Invoicing from the truck

The invoice sent from the driveway, before the customer has moved on, is paid faster than the one sent on Friday. That means the app must create the invoice on a phone, offline, from the accepted estimate, attach the visit's photos, and send it by text, WhatsApp or email with the ways to pay printed on it. Then the status: sent, paid, partial, overdue, set by the action rather than by remembering to update a list.

The tax year, from the same records

Because the app followed the job, the tax year is already recorded: paid invoices are gross receipts, the parts and materials bought for jobs are categorised expenses with receipts, the driving between stops is the mileage deduction, and sales tax charged on the invoices is totalled by state. A contractor invoicing app that stops at the invoice leaves the year to be rebuilt in April; one that carries receipts, mileage and the tax export finishes the sequence.