Pool routes, chemicals and repairs, billed from the deck

The weekly pool route

A pool route is the same pools on the same day every week, for most of the year where you work and all of it in some places. Set each pool as a repeating job — weekly, or every two weeks for the customer who just wants a check-in — and the next 12 visits land on the schedule, each as its own job. Monday is Monday's pools, in a time slot, without retyping a thing.

On route days, Workeey puts the day's stops in the best order so you're not crossing the same intersection three times; on a long day it orders the first 11 stops and keeps the rest in your scheduled order. One tap opens the drive to the next pool, using the address on the customer's file. When a storm wrecks a Tuesday, slide those jobs to Wednesday and the route moves with them.

• Each pool as a weekly or biweekly repeating job
• The day's stops put in the best order
• One tap to drive to the next pool
• Storm day? Slide the route

Chemicals as line items

Chemicals are where pool money quietly disappears. A weekly service price usually covers the basics, and the rest — the extra shock after a party, a bag of stabilizer, algaecide, phosphate remover, salt for the generator — should be billed. Put each one on the invoice as its own line, with the amount and your price, so the customer sees exactly what went into their water.

Keep readings and what you added in the customer's notes if you want a running memory of each pool: this one always runs low on stabilizer, that one turns green two weeks after a heat wave. A note is a note, not a chemical log for a health inspector; if a commercial pool needs official records, keep them where those rules say. What the notes give you is the context to bill fairly and catch a problem early.

• Each chemical on its own invoice line
• Extra shock and algaecide billed, not swallowed
• Readings and history in the customer's notes
• Not a regulated chemical log

Openings, closings and the seasons

In colder places, pool service has two big days a year per customer. The opening — cover off, cleaned and folded, equipment hooked back up, the green swamp brought back to blue — and the closing, with the water lowered, the lines blown out and the cover on. Each is a one-off job priced well above a weekly visit, and the busy weeks arrive all at once. Put them on the schedule early, in the slots you have, and you'll see the crunch coming.

In warmer places it runs the other way: the route goes all year, and the seasonal work is the summer rush and the green-to-clean jobs after a neglected winter. Either way, a quick estimate from your own rates prices the opening or the cleanup, and the free plan covers 23 quick estimates a month.

• Openings and closings as one-off jobs
• The busy weeks visible on the schedule early
• Green-to-clean jobs quoted from your rates
• 23 quick estimates a month, free

Repairs the route turns up

The route is where repairs come from: a pump that hums but won't prime, a cracked filter manifold, a heater throwing an error code, a leak at the multiport valve. Take a photo of it on the visit, write what you saw, and build the repair quote from your own rates — labor, the part, your markup — before you leave the backyard. Send it as a quote PDF from your phone; the customer says yes to you directly.

When the repair's done, one tap turns the estimate into the invoice, with the part, the labor, the tax and the photos carried over. Keeping the repair invoice separate from the weekly service keeps the customer's regular bill predictable and the big one clear.

• Photos of the broken equipment on the job
• Repair quotes with parts at your markup
• A quote PDF before you leave
• Estimate to invoice in one tap

Weekly service, billed your way

Some pool techs invoice after each visit; many bill monthly. For monthly, start a blank invoice at the end of the month, list each visit's date, then the chemicals as their own lines. Workeey doesn't charge cards on file or send invoices on a schedule; you send each one when it's ready, by email from the app, with a pay link. Connect your own Stripe and the customer pays by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or US bank; a small processing fee applies to online payments.

Paid through the link, the invoice marks itself paid and the receipt emails itself. For the customer who's three weeks late every month, switch on reminder texts for that invoice and Workeey texts the pay link on a schedule until it's paid. Texts need a saved account; 10 a month are free. Customers who still mail checks? Connect your bank, and a payment that matches an invoice marks it paid.

Pool service software for one tech

Workeey is built for one person running a pool route, not a company with techs in five trucks. There are no technician accounts, no GPS tracking and no customer portal. The assistant saves the typing between pools: tell it the Navarros are going every other week from next month, or ask it to start a repair quote for a pump motor, and it prepares the change for you to check and apply.

It runs in any phone's browser, iPhone included, and as an Android app. The free plan has no card and no end date. Pro at $5 a month adds Google Calendar sync, QuickBooks sync and 30 reminder texts; Premium at $19 removes the cap on texts. Mowing some of the same yards? See lawn care software, or every trade on the trades page.

• One tech, no technician accounts
• An assistant that prepares changes for you
• Runs in any phone's browser and on Android
• Free plan, or Pro at $5 a month

More for pool pros: pages and free templates

• Free invoice template — every field a trade invoice needs
• Free estimate template — copy it, price it, send it
• Free receipt template — a paid-in-full receipt to copy
• Work order template — the job written down before you bill it
• Late payment reminder templates — texts, emails and a letter to copy and send
• All free templates and tools