What the crew does
Written overnight.
Approved by your office.
Each night the crew reads your calls, estimates and invoices and writes the office work that's due. In the morning, someone in your office approves what goes out.
The morning queue
Here's what's waiting when the office opens.
A short stack, with the items that need a real look on top. Each one says why it's due and where the facts came from.
Your office approves it, fixes it, or marks it "already won," "we called back" or "paid." The crew won't ask about that job again.
TONIGHT'S WORK · 5 ITEMS
READY 7:10 AM · ABOUT 4 MINUTES TO REVIEW
$21,444 re-roof, quiet 19 days. Day-30 note drafted.Why now: last step of 3 / 10 / 30 · day-10 note went Aug 17 · Jobber, as of this morning
Missed call at 7:40 PM, voicemail about a leak over the garage.Reply ready from the shop's number · no callback logged
Customer said yes to the $18,450 replacement and asked for Thursday.Follow-ups on that estimate stopped · answer drafted
No reminder on invoice 1182.QuickBooks shows it paid Tuesday
Tuesday's field notes are missing the ridge length.Proposal waits until someone adds it
An example, not a real shop. Nothing goes to a customer until someone approves it.
The work
What the crew drafts, and what it needs from you.
Set up for your shop: your timing, your sign-off, and the words you'd never use. The assessment tells us which ones to start with.
Estimate follow-up
You give itNothing new. It reads the open estimates in Jobber, or the quotes export.
You get backA day 3, day 10 and day 30 note for each open estimate, with why it's due and what was already sent. It stands down when the job is marked won or lost, or when the office snoozes it.
Missed-call text-backs
You give itYour phone system (Quo, CallRail or RingCentral).
You get backA text back for each missed call, with what the caller said on the voicemail beside it, or a plain note that they didn't leave one.
Replies
You give itNothing. Customer replies come back to the shop's own address.
You get backA draft answer to each reply. When a customer says yes, the follow-ups on that estimate stop, so nobody chases a job that's already won.
Collections
You give itQuickBooks Online, or the A/R aging export.
You get backA polite letter at 30 days, a firmer one at 60, and a call script at 90. It holds any invoice the books show paid, or that the office said to leave alone.
Review requests
You give itNothing. It watches for a won job or a paid invoice.
You get backA short ask for a Google review once the job is done, by text or email. Nobody gets asked twice in ninety days.
Proposals from field notes
You give itA text or voice memo from the truck, the photos, and the measurements.
You get backA proposal draft in your format and from your price book. If something's missing, it holds the note and tells you what to add.
Monday numbers
You give itNothing. It reads the same sources.
You get backCalls answered, missed calls texted back, open estimates, what's past due and what came back, on your phone Monday morning. Every figure says where it came from and what date it's good through.
The guardrails
You set the rules. Nothing goes out without a person.
A person approves every send
Every message to a customer waits until someone in your office approves it. Always.
No send-to-everyone
Each message is its own decision. A bad draft is one card, not two hundred inboxes.
Late means expired, not sent
A draft that sits too long expires. It never goes out late with old facts.
Stale data drafts nothing
If Jobber or QuickBooks hasn't updated in time, the crew stops and tells you.
It sounds like your shop
It writes the way you write and never uses the words you'd never say.
The judgment stays yours
Pricing, upset customers, the job you'd rather call about. Your office decides.
How trust is earned
A person first. More rope only when it's earned.
Every kind of message starts with someone in your office approving each one. We move a lane forward only when the numbers say it's ready and you agree, and we'd rather move too slowly than too fast.
| Step | Who decides | When a lane gets here | Today |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Approve each message | A person reads and approves every draft before it goes | Where every lane starts | every customer message |
| 2. Approve a batch | A person reviews a day's drafts at once and pulls any that look wrong | After a month or more of clean drafts with very few edits, and only if you say so | not built yet |
| 3. Review the exceptions | Routine items go out; a person sees anything unusual | Only for work that never reaches a customer | your Monday numbers |
Drafts are ready within minutes, but a message waits for a person. After hours, that means whoever's on call or the morning shift. We won't promise an instant reply your shop can't back up.
What it connects to
It works from what you already run.
No new system to learn. The crew reads only what we connect together.
| Source | What the crew uses it for | How |
|---|---|---|
| Phone · Quo, CallRail, RingCentral | Missed calls, voicemails, what callers asked for | live |
| Jobber | Open estimates, won and lost jobs | live or weekly export |
| QuickBooks Online | Open invoices, what's past due, what's paid | live or weekly export |
| Google Business Profile | Reviews, for the Monday numbers and review requests | live |
| Your email | Sending approved drafts from the shop's own address, and catching replies | live |
| Texts and memos from the truck | Field notes and photos for proposals | text or email |
| Housecall Pro | Estimates and jobs. Built, not yet proven on a live account. | first shop |
Before you ask
Five things this is not.
- NOIt doesn't answer your phone. When a call gets missed, it drafts the text back for someone to approve.
- NOIt doesn't replace Jobber, Housecall Pro or QuickBooks. It reads what they hold and works alongside them.
- NOIt isn't a chatbot on your website talking to homeowners.
- NONothing reaches a customer until one of your people approves it. Ever.
- NOIt won't turn you into a computer guy. Someone in your office reads a short queue in the morning, and that's the job.
Safety questions
Before anything gets connected.
Can it send something to a customer without me seeing it first?
No. Every message to a customer waits until someone in your office approves it. There's no send-to-everyone button, and a draft that sits too long expires instead of going out late. The only thing that can go out on its own is your Monday numbers, and that goes to you.
Will the crew ever send on its own?
Only if it earns it, and only if you say so. Every kind of message starts with a person approving each one. If a kind of message runs clean for a while (a month or more, with very few edits), the next step would be a person approving a day's drafts as a batch instead of one at a time. Exceptions-only review is kept for work that never reaches a customer, like your Monday numbers. Today every customer message is approved one at a time; batch approval isn't built yet. We'd rather move slowly than send something you'd never have sent.
How fast does a text-back go out?
The draft is ready within minutes. It goes out when someone approves it. During business hours that can be quick; after hours it waits for whoever is on call, or for the morning. I won't promise a five-minute reply unless someone in your shop is watching the queue.
What does it connect to?
Your phone system (Quo, CallRail or RingCentral), Jobber, QuickBooks Online, your Google Business Profile, and the shop's email for sending. Where a live connection isn't set up, it reads the weekly export instead: the Jobber quotes report and the QuickBooks A/R aging. It only reads the sources we connect together. Housecall Pro is built but not yet proven on a live account, so a Housecall Pro shop would be the first.
What happens when a source goes stale?
The crew stops drafting from it and tells you. If Jobber hasn't synced when it should have, you'll see a note saying so, and nothing gets drafted from old numbers.
Is my customer data safe?
The logins you connect are stored encrypted and used only to read what the crew needs. Customer details go only to the services that draft and send the work, never to a list or a third party for anything else, and you can ask me for an export or a deletion at any time. The privacy page has the details.
Start with where you leak.
The crew is one fix among several. The scorecard shows where to look first, and the assessment measures it in your own numbers. When you want it measured on your own numbers, book the assessment.
Take the 3-minute scorecardbill@lateshift.work · Austin, Texas · Usually replies same day