ElectricalBossPro Blog — Electrical Contractor Software

Electrical Contractor Software for a Shop Running a Few Vans

Somewhere between two and five vans, an electrical shop changes. The owner stops doing every call. Someone is in the office full time. Techs work houses they have never been to. The things one person used to remember now have to be written down somewhere everyone can see. That is when software stops being a convenience and becomes the way the shop runs.

What Changes After the First Van

A one-van shop runs mostly from the owner's head and phone, as described in Electrical Contractor Software for a One-Van Shop. With a few vans, three things change.

First, information has to travel. The tech at the house is not the person who took the call. Second, the day has to be planned across vans, not just in order. Third, the owner needs to know what is happening without calling every tech. ElectricalBossPro handles each of these.

Information on the House, Not in a Head

When a different tech might show up at each visit, the house record does the remembering. Equipment on the house, such as the main panel with its brand, rating and location, the generator with its fuel type and serial, or the EV charger in the garage, shows on the job card for whoever is sent. Access notes and past notes are there too.

Changes made on a job flow back to the house, so the next tech sees what the last one did. Any tech can take any call.

Splitting the Work Across Vans

The dispatch board shows jobs by day, filtered by van. A setup many residential shops use:

• Van 1: service calls. Outlets, GFCI, breakers, fixtures, fans and troubleshooting. Many short stops.
• Van 2: installs. Panel upgrades, EV chargers, dedicated circuits and generator installs. Fewer, longer jobs.
• Van 3: inspections and generators. Yearly safety inspections and generator maintenance from the Waiting List, plus overflow.

Auto-route each van Closest First or Furthest First from the shop, set the order by hand where appointments require it, and save the views you use every day. More in Residential Service Calls vs. Install Work: Setting Up Electrical Contractor Software for Both.

Knowing What Is Happening

With a few vans, the owner cannot be everywhere. As techs tap Start, Skip and Complete, the board shows each job's status. Crew GPS shows each van on the office map, which is how the office decides who takes the emergency call that comes in at 11am. Skips come back with a note explaining why.

The time clock records hours from each tech's phone. Photos and inspection checklists are on the jobs. The owner can check the day from anywhere without a single phone call.

Customers see the same progress from their side. The customer app shows the route on a live map with their place in line, and the alerts they chose go out as each van works through its stops. With three vans out, that is a lot of “when will the electrician be here” calls the office never has to take.

Consistency Across Techs

Three techs means three ways of doing things, unless the system sets a standard. The safety inspection checklist gives every tech the same items, the same readings fields, the same condition choices and room for recommendations. Every homeowner gets the same Electrical Safety Inspection report, whoever did the visit.

The service list does the same for pricing. Every tech's completed job is invoiced from the same list, so two customers who got the same work pay the same price.

People and Permissions

Each tech is an employee with a personal PIN and a van assignment. They sign in with the company login and their PIN, so every job, photo and clock-in is tied to them. When a tech moves vans, change the assignment. When someone leaves, turn off their PIN.

Office user roles control who can do what in the office. A dispatcher can build the day. A bookkeeper can work billing. The owner can see everything.

Which Plan Fits

Shops with a few vans usually look at Pro at $89/month or Crew at $199/month. One difference you can plan around is texting: Pro includes 1,000 segments a month and Crew includes 2,000, sent and received. More vans means more customers getting alerts, so the larger allowance often fits a busier shop. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial with no credit card.

The best test is to run a real week. Put each van's calls on the board, have each tech work from the phone, and see how the office feels at the end of it. For everything the platform does, go to the electrical contractor software overview.