Before the vans go out

The first twenty minutes decide how the rest of a trades firm's day goes. If a booking was never confirmed, an engineer turns up to a locked door. If a part did not arrive, a job card sits half-done while the customer wonders why nobody rang. This tour follows the owner of a sample three-person plumbing and heating firm at half past seven, coffee in hand, before the vans pull away. Everything he needs is on one page: Home.

What is on the service firm's Home page?

Home is built around three questions: what is happening today, what is still open, and what customers are saying. It answers them in four parts.

There are also shortcuts to All bookings and the Job board, so the page works as a starting point rather than a dead end.

Step by step

1. Open Home. It is the first item in the side menu and the page you land on after signing in. Do this before the morning briefing, not after, so the briefing is based on what the system says rather than what people remember.

2. Read the top line. In the sample, the firm has done 31 bookings this month for £6,240 of takings, has 1 booking waiting to confirm, and holds a 4.8 average from 52 reviews. It also shows how many bookings are on today and how many jobs are being worked on or ready to collect. You do not need to open a report to know whether the month is on track.

3. Go down today's bookings in time order. The sample day starts with a radiator valve at 08:30, a kitchen tap replacement at 10:00, a boiler service at 13:30 and a shower pump check at 15:30. Each line shows the customer, the job and a status. Three say Confirmed.

4. Deal with anything still waiting to confirm. The 15:30 shower pump check says Waiting to confirm. That means the customer asked for the slot but nobody has said yes. Ring them before the engineer plans his afternoon around it. A booking that is never confirmed is the most common cause of a wasted trip.

5. Look at the open job cards. The middle column, In the workshop, lists job cards that are still open, with where each one is up to. In the sample, a water heater is Waiting for parts, a bathroom leak is Diagnosing, and an outside tap is Ready to collect. These are yesterday's loose ends.

6. Turn each open job into an action. Waiting for parts means someone rings the merchant. Diagnosing means an engineer needs to go back or report in. Ready to collect means the customer should be told today. Open the job card from here to see the notes and history before you call.

7. Check what customers have been saying. The right-hand column shows the newest reviews with a short quote and the stars. "On time, tidy, and fixed first go" is marked Replied. "Good work. A bit later than booked." is marked Not replied. The second one is worth answering today, while the job is fresh.

8. Hand out the day. With the bookings confirmed and the open jobs sorted, the briefing is short: who goes where, which parts to pick up, which customer to ring.

Why does the morning check matter so much in a trades business?

Because a service firm sells time, and time cannot be put back on the shelf. A shop that sells nothing at 10:00 can still sell the same tin at 11:00. A plumber who drives to an unconfirmed booking loses the hour for good, plus the fuel. The Home page is designed to catch the three things that waste hours most often: unconfirmed bookings, stalled jobs and unhappy customers who were never answered.

There is a cash side too. Takings this month, shown next to bookings done, tells you whether the average job is holding up. If the bookings count rises but takings stay flat, jobs are getting smaller, or quotes are being priced too low. The pricing guide covers how to set an hourly rate that pays for travel and admin, not only time on site.

Tips for a better start to the day

• Make Home the briefing screen. Put it on a tablet in the yard or the office. Everyone sees the same list, so nobody works from an old text message.
• Clear Waiting to confirm before 08:00. Customers are easier to reach early, before they leave for work.
• Give every open job card a next step. A job that has said Diagnosing for three days needs a decision: go back, order the part, or tell the customer it needs a quote.
• Answer the mixed reviews first. A five-star review can wait until evening. A "good, but late" review is the one future customers read most closely.
• Watch the review average over months, not days. One poor week moves the average less than you fear, but a steady slide is a signal.

Common mistakes

• Trusting memory over the list. An engineer who "knows" his day often misses the booking added after he went home.
• Leaving Ready to collect jobs sitting. The work is done, and every day it waits is a day before the customer pays and recommends you.
• Confirming a booking without checking the job card. If the same customer has an open job waiting for parts, ring once and cover both.
• Using the takings figure as profit. Takings are money in. Parts, fuel and wages still come out of it. The cash flow guide explains the difference.

What to do next

The next tour in the firm's day shows a quote request arriving and being answered within minutes. After that, follow a job card on site, the quotes board in the afternoon, and replying to reviews at the end of the day. For getting paid once the work is done, read how to get invoices paid faster.

The firm, customers and figures in this tour are a sample business.