Office taking bookings by phone with no real-time view of technician location or availability -- jobs booked blind and rescheduled when a call runs long?
Customers calling to ask where the plumber is because there's no automated ETA notification and the office doesn't know either?
Plumbing Scheduling and Dispatch Software
Custom scheduling and dispatch software for plumbing companies that need real-time technician visibility, smart job assignment, and automated customer communication -- built for how plumbing dispatch actually works, not how a generic platform assumes it does.
Off-the-shelf tools handle basic calendars. They don't handle skill-matched dispatch, live GPS status, emergency job insertion, or automatic ETA alerts sent the moment a plumber leaves the previous job.
Online booking and phone job intake with real-time technician availability
Dispatch board with live GPS and skill matching
Automated customer ETA notifications
Mobile app for plumbers -- job details, photos, and completion notes
Custom plumbing scheduling software combines online and phone job booking, a live dispatch board with GPS technician tracking, and a mobile app for plumbers to access job details, capture photos, and record completion notes. Automated ETA notifications keep customers informed without the office making manual calls. RaftLabs delivers in 12-14 weeks at a fixed cost.
100+Products shipped
·24+Industries served
·FixedCost delivery
·12-14Week delivery cycles
Dispatch built around where your plumbers actually are
Most scheduling tools treat technician availability as a calendar slot. Plumbing dispatch is more complicated than that. A technician might be twenty minutes away or forty-five, depending on where the current job is, what parts they have on the van, and what skill the next job needs. Without live GPS and job status, the dispatcher is guessing.
We build dispatch systems around real operational data. The board shows each technician's current location, active job status, and estimated completion time. New jobs are matched by skill, availability, and proximity -- not just the next open slot on a calendar.
Customer communication runs automatically. When a technician marks a job complete and sets off for the next, the customer receives an alert with the plumber's name, photo, and ETA. The office doesn't need to call.
What we build
Job booking and intake
Phone and online bookings captured in one system with no duplicate entry. Job type and priority set at intake -- routine, urgent, or emergency. Customer address and history pulled automatically when the address is recognised. Available slot selection based on real technician availability, not a generic calendar. New customer records created on first booking with contact details, address, and property notes. Booking confirmation sent by SMS and email automatically on confirmation.
Dispatch board
Visual board showing each technician's live GPS location, current job status, and estimated time to completion. Skill set and certification displayed per technician so emergency jobs are matched to the right person. Drag-and-drop job assignment from the unallocated queue. Emergency job insertion without breaking the existing schedule -- affected technicians notified automatically. Travel time estimation between the current job site and the next. End-of-day job count and hours worked per technician for operational review.
Mobile app for plumbers
Daily job list with full job details, site address, access notes, and customer history on mobile. GPS stamp on arrival and departure recorded automatically -- no manual time entry. Job notes with structured fields for fault description, work done, and parts used. Photo capture attached directly to the job record. Task checklist for jobs with multiple work items. Job completion recorded in the app updates the dispatch board in real time. Offline mode syncs data when connectivity returns.
Customer communication
Booking confirmation by SMS and email on job creation. Day-before reminder sent automatically for scheduled visits. Technician on-the-way alert triggered when the plumber departs the previous job -- includes name, photo, and GPS-based ETA. Post-visit summary with job notes and any recommendations for follow-up work. Follow-up prompt for jobs with outstanding issues or parts on order. All customer messages logged against the job record for reference.
Job history per property
Every visit recorded against the property address -- not just the customer account. Fault description, work completed, parts fitted, and photos stored per visit. Any plumber attending a return visit can view the full site history before arrival. Outstanding issues and follow-up recommendations visible on the property record. Historical job data searchable by address, postcode, customer name, or job type. Property notes for access codes, preferred contact, or known site conditions.
Invoicing
Job completion triggers invoice generation automatically from the work record. Labour and parts pricing applied from pre-loaded rate cards -- no manual calculation. On-site payment collection by card or digital wallet through the mobile app. Invoice delivery by email with online payment link for customers not paying on site. Integration to Xero or QuickBooks for automatic accounting reconciliation. Outstanding invoice report for jobs completed but not yet paid.
Frequently asked questions
Jobber and ServiceM8 handle core scheduling and invoicing well for most plumbing businesses. Custom software makes sense when your dispatch logic -- skill matching, zone routing, emergency prioritisation -- is specific enough that you're working around the platform constantly. It also makes sense when you want a customer-facing experience under your own brand, or when you're building a dispatch platform to white-label or sell to other trade contractors. If a well-configured off-the-shelf tool would solve the problem at a fraction of the cost, we'll say so during discovery. Custom is the right answer less often than people think.
The board shows a real-time view of every technician -- their GPS location, the job they're currently on, the job's start time and estimated completion, and their remaining jobs for the day. When a new booking comes in, the system calculates which technician can reach the site fastest with the right skill set. The dispatcher can accept the suggestion or override it with a drag-and-drop assignment. Emergency jobs are flagged at the top of the unallocated queue and can be inserted into a technician's schedule with one action -- the technician is notified instantly and the affected subsequent customer receives an updated ETA.
Yes. Emergency handling is a core design requirement for plumbing dispatch, not an afterthought. Emergency jobs enter a separate priority queue on the board. The system identifies the nearest available technician with the right skill, and the dispatcher can assign and notify in one action. The technician's remaining scheduled jobs are automatically pushed forward and affected customers receive updated ETAs. If no technician can cover without breaking a committed appointment, the board flags it for the dispatcher to resolve. The logic is configurable -- you set the priority rules for your business.
A focused scheduling and dispatch platform with a technician mobile app and customer notification system typically takes 12-14 weeks from project start to production deployment. That includes discovery and scoping, design, development, integration to your accounting system, testing with your team, and deployment. The timeline assumes the project scope is agreed before development starts and that integrations are to standard APIs. Complex integrations or multi-location businesses with unusual dispatch logic may add time. We agree the full scope and cost before development begins -- no surprises mid-project.
