Field service CRM setup checklist for trade businesses
What to decide and enter before your office runs on a CRM, scheduling and dispatch tool.
Most trade businesses that move to a field service CRM do it while still answering phones and running crews. The setup work gets squeezed into evenings, and the result is a system that holds some customers, some jobs and a calendar nobody trusts. This checklist covers what to decide and enter, in order, so the CRM matches how your office actually books, schedules and dispatches work. It applies whether you run HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing or another trade.
1. Decide what the system is the record for
Before importing anything, write down which questions the CRM must answer without anyone opening a spreadsheet or a phone.
- Who is this customer, where is the property, and what have we done there before?
- What jobs are booked today and this week, and who is assigned to each?
- Which estimates are open, and when was each customer last contacted?
- Which jobs are finished but not invoiced, and which invoices are unpaid?
If a question will still be answered somewhere else, note where. Two places for the same fact is where double-booking and missed follow-ups start.
2. Clean the customer list before import
- Export customers from your current tool, accounting software or phone contacts into one sheet.
- Merge duplicates. The same customer often appears under a spouse's name, a business name and a phone number.
- Separate the customer (who pays) from the service address (where you work). Landlords, property managers and builders often have many addresses.
- Mark customers who asked not to be contacted, so follow-ups never go to them.
- Keep only fields you will maintain. A field nobody updates becomes wrong within months.
3. Define job types and durations
Scheduling only works if the system knows how long work takes.
- List your common job types, for example diagnostic visit, repair, maintenance, install, estimate appointment and warranty callback.
- Give each a default duration based on your own recent jobs, not an ideal day. Pull a few weeks of real start and finish times if you have them.
- Note which job types need a specific skill, license or vehicle.
- Decide which job types need a deposit, a signed estimate or a permit before they can be booked.
4. Set scheduling rules
- Arrival windows you offer customers, for example two-hour or half-day windows.
- Drive-time buffers between jobs, and which areas each crew covers.
- How many emergency or same-day slots to hold open each day, and when they are released.
- Working hours, on-call rotation and how after-hours calls are handled.
- Who is allowed to move a booked job, and whether the customer must be told every time.
5. Set up dispatch
- Add every technician and crew with their skills, service areas and normal hours.
- Decide what the technician sees on a job: address, access notes, equipment history, photos, the scope and the customer's preferred contact method.
- Agree on job statuses and use the same words everywhere, for example booked, confirmed, en route, on site, complete, needs return visit and invoiced.
- Decide who dispatches when the office is closed.
6. Write your standard messages
Most repeat communication can be written once and reused.
- Booking confirmation with the date, arrival window and what to prepare.
- Day-before reminder with a way to reschedule.
- On-the-way notice.
- Estimate follow-up at set intervals, with a clear stop after the customer says no.
- Thank-you and review request after the job is closed.
Keep each message short and factual. If your software prepares messages automatically, decide who approves them before they reach a customer. In Monaxion, staff approve every customer-facing message.
7. Connect the money side
- Decide whether quotes and invoices are created in the CRM, in accounting software, or both, and which one is the record.
- Map your price book or common line items, if you use one.
- Set when an invoice is sent: at job completion, at a milestone, or on a schedule for maintenance plans.
8. Run both systems for a short overlap
- Pick a start date and enter all new calls in the CRM from that date.
- Enter the next two to four weeks of already-booked work so the schedule is complete.
- Keep the old calendar read-only during the overlap, so nobody books in two places.
- At the end of each day of the overlap, check that every job worked today has a status and a note.
9. Train by role, not by feature
- Office staff: taking a call, creating a customer, booking, rescheduling and sending standard messages.
- Dispatch: assigning, reassigning and handling the day's changes.
- Technicians: seeing the day's jobs, updating status, adding notes and photos.
- Owner or manager: open estimates, unbilled jobs and the weekly report.
10. Review after 30 days
- Are default job durations close to real durations? Adjust them.
- Which fields are always empty? Remove them or make them required.
- Which follow-ups were sent late or never? Find the step that broke.
- Is anyone still keeping a side list? Ask why, and fix the gap that caused it.
Where Monaxion fits
Monaxion is software for trade businesses that covers the lead inbox, scheduling, dispatch, quotes, invoices, follow-ups and review requests, and works with tools you already use. The checklist above is the same whether you choose Monaxion or another tool. If you want to see how your setup decisions would look in Monaxion, book a demo and bring your job types and current schedule.
Published 2026-10-31 · General guidance only; follow the codes, labels and rules that apply where you work.
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