Run a trade business on Scheduley (Jobs & Field Service)

Scheduley for trades: jobs, not just appointments

Plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, landscaping — trade businesses don’t book “appointments,” they run jobs. Scheduley has a dedicated mode for exactly that. Flip one switch and the whole platform speaks your language and works your way.

Turn it on

Go to Settings → How your business works and choose Jobs & Field Service. If you told Scheduley you’re a trade business during setup, it’s already on. Switching is safe in both directions — it changes how things look and work, never your data.

What changes

• Your AI books jobs, not services. Callers describe problems (“my water heater is leaking”) — your agent asks what’s going on, captures the job details and symptoms, always collects the service address, and treats emergencies with urgency: soonest same-day slot, or a transfer to you when nothing’s open soon.
• Every booking becomes a job. A job is the work record — named after the problem (“Water heater replacement”), tied to the client, carrying details, photos & documents, and its visit history. The calendar shows the visits; the job holds everything else. Same model the big field-service platforms use, without the ceremony.
• A Jobs tab for the work you owe people. Next to Schedule in the sidebar, Jobs lists every job with its client, visit chips, attachments, money state, and quote badges — searchable, with a status filter for All, Upcoming (next visit still ahead — a visit that already finished today drops off), Visit done (every visit completed, nothing left on the calendar), Unscheduled (no visit booked yet), Quote pending (quote texted, still waiting on the client), and Done (jobs you’ve marked complete). Jobs you mark done are tucked out of every view except Done, so the list stays focused on live work. Each row is a color-coded card — a status stripe down the left edge (blue upcoming, green done or paid, amber needs-attention) plus chips like UPCOMING · May 17, VISIT DONE, or a red UNSCHEDULED, and paid / balance / QUOTE SENT when they apply. Every job gets its own sequential number (“Job #14”), so you and your client are always talking about the same work — search by number and it’s right there. Open a job to rename it, add details, edit the client (or create one on the spot for a walk-in), upload photos or PDFs (permits, spec sheets, before-shots — they stay with the job across visits), walk its visit history, or schedule the next visit with everything prefilled.
• An AI status summary on every job. List rows and the job drawer show a short AI summary — what’s booked, what’s waiting, money and quote state — so you can skim the board without opening every record. Tap Refresh AI when notes or visits changed and you want a fresh read (daily generation limits apply).
• The whole conversation, right on the job. The job view shows the client’s text thread and recent calls at a glance — each tagged with how it stands (AI handling, needs attention, resolved), whether it led to a booking, and a red urgent flag when a caller mentioned something serious. One tap opens the full thread in your inbox. No more “wait, what did they say on the phone?” before you knock.
• Work can exist before a time does. Tap New job to create one with no schedule — “Maria approved the remodel, dates TBD” — and it waits behind the Unscheduled filter until you add a visit. Need another trip on the same work? Tap + Follow-up (or + Schedule visit if nothing’s booked yet): client and job stay locked, Repeats and Service stay out of the way, and you pick the day, duration, and who’s going. Follow-ups show as Follow-up on the calendar and can add a priced invoice line (e.g. “Follow-up — Trim”) without replacing the original service. A diagnostic visit and the repair a week later share one history, one quote trail, one set of photos.
• Your calendar becomes a job board. Every visit carries a status: Booked → Dispatched → In progress → Done. Tap through the statuses right on the job — or flip the Schedule / Board toggle for a dispatch board: the whole team’s jobs for the day in status columns, each card showing the time, client, address, problem, assigned tech (or an Unassigned flag), and quote state. The board is always team-wide — it shows everyone’s work, not just one person’s, so the Solo/Team switch doesn’t apply here. Drag a card between columns or use the one-tap dispatch, start, and complete buttons — and a small ← steps a card back a stage if you moved too fast. A Dispatch setting (in Settings) controls what actually gets dispatched: All jobs (every visit gets the status board and on-my-way texts), or Only mobile jobs — just the ones at a client’s location you travel to (services set to “Client’s location”), which is what you dispatch a truck for. With Only mobile jobs on, in-shop and phone/video visits skip the dispatch board and statuses entirely and get a simple Open → Done instead, since there’s no truck to send.

Dispatching, step by step

Each status is a real moment in the job’s life — and two of them trigger texts on their own:

• Booked — the job as it lands, from a call, text, or your booking page, with the problem and address already captured. On teams, a card with no tech assigned shows a red Unassigned flag — open the job to assign someone, and they’re texted their assignment instantly. (Solo? No flags, no assignments — every job is yours.)
• Dispatched — tap Dispatch (or drag the card over) when the tech heads out. This is the trigger step: the client automatically gets the on-my-way text, and from this moment your agent tells anyone who calls to check that the tech is on the way.
• In progress — work has started. Mostly bookkeeping, but it keeps callbacks honest: a client checking in now hears “work is in progress.”
• Done — wrap it up: text the invoice if there’s one, settle in person, and Mark paid on the job (payment lives on the job, not each visit). The job shows Amount collected and a balance due when they’ve only paid part — or a red OVERDUE chip if an invoice slips past its due date. Done visits are also when review invites make sense.

Cancelled jobs leave the board and can refill themselves — the waitlist texts clients waiting on that day the moment the slot frees. And every move is confirmed on screen, so you always know a text actually went out.

• Follow-up calls answered with real answers. When a client calls back asking “when’s my tech coming?” or “are they on the way?”, your agent looks up the actual job and answers from it — the arrival window, the status (dispatched, in progress, done), even whether a quote is awaiting their approval. And if they say “tell him the gate code is 1234” or “I’m running late”, the agent attaches the note to the job and texts it to the assigned tech.
• On-my-way texts. The moment you mark a job Dispatched, the client gets a text from your business number: “Good news — Jake from Ace Plumbing is on the way for your water heater repair.” The single most-loved feature in field service, built in.
• Arrival windows. Under Settings → Booking Rules, choose a 30-minute, 1-hour, or 2-hour arrival window. Clients hear “we’ll arrive between 9 and 10” on the phone, in confirmations, and in reminders — while your job board keeps the exact slot.
• Job details everywhere. What the caller described travels with the job — open any job to see the problem before you knock on the door.
• Quotes & invoices, by text. Build line items on the job, generate a quote and text it for one-tap online approval, then convert it to an invoice (the button lights up the moment the client approves) and text that — with due dates, overdue tracking, and an automatic reminder built in — and settle in person with Mark paid. See Quotes & invoices.
• Standing jobs. Weekly mowing, monthly maintenance — set a job to repeat and the next visit books itself. See Recurring appointments.
• Your crew knows instantly. Whoever’s assigned gets a text the moment a job lands on their schedule, moves, or is reassigned.

Everything else comes along

All of Scheduley works the same in Jobs mode: the AI Front Desk, travel range and fees, reminders, review requests, your booking page and website. One platform, tuned to how your business actually runs.