Guides for small trades shops
22 plain guides for a 3 to 10 person shop: running the schedule, the emails your customers get, getting paid, connecting your own tools, and what the big field service products charge. Written by the CalSpark team. Where we state a fact about another company, we link its own page and date it.
Run the day
Scheduling and customer records for the person who dispatches.
A dispatcher daily checklist for a small shop
A practical daily and weekly schedule checklist for the person dispatching 5 to 10 technicians, from the evening before to the end of the day.
Updated October 6, 2026
How to import customers from a spreadsheet
Clean a customer spreadsheet, map columns, catch duplicates and test with ten rows before you load the rest into your field service software.
Updated October 6, 2026
Subscribe to Your Job Calendar in Google, Apple or Outlook
Create a CalSpark calendar link, add it to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook, and learn what shows up, how often it refreshes and how to revoke it.
Updated October 6, 2026
How to Add a Service Request Form to Your Business Website
Turn on the CalSpark request form in Company, Features, then set up the hosted page, the embed snippet, what a submission creates, the instant reply, and what the form cannot do.
Updated October 6, 2026
Customer messages, reviews and getting paid
The emails a customer sees, and what to do when an invoice goes unpaid.
Appointment Reminder Emails Customers Actually Read
What to put in an appointment reminder email for a trade business: subject lines, the first line, example wording, 24 hour and 2 hour timing, and how to check the log.
Updated October 6, 2026
How to Get More Google Reviews for a Trades Business
How a contractor can ask for Google reviews: find your review link, what to send and when, how CalSpark automates the request, and the Google rules on incentives and gating.
Updated October 6, 2026
How to get contractor invoices paid faster
Invoice the same day, record deposits and partial payments, offer card payment and chase late invoices without souring the customer.
Updated October 6, 2026
Overdue Invoice Follow-Up Schedule for Contractors
A day-by-day overdue invoice follow up schedule for contractors, with email wording for each step, a call script, and what CalSpark automates and what stays manual.
Updated October 6, 2026
Connect CalSpark to your own tools
For the owner who can paste a script, or the nephew who can write one. Pairs with the developer docs.
Verify a CalSpark Webhook Signature in Node and Python
Reference for the CalSpark-Signature header: the signed string, 300 second tolerance, Node and Python code, secret rotation, retries, dedupe and disabling.
Updated October 6, 2026
Send Completed Jobs to a Google Sheet With a Webhook
Turn CalSpark job.completed webhooks into Google Sheet rows with a small Node function, a no-code catch URL, or Apps Script, and see why the last is a poor fit.
Updated October 6, 2026
Choose and price field service software
Published prices, read from the vendors' own pages and dated.
Per-user vs flat pricing in field service software
How per-user, tiered and flat pricing behave as a trades shop hires, with a cost table for 2 to 10 users and the arithmetic shown.
Updated October 6, 2026
Jobber Pricing Explained: Core, Connect, Grow, Plus
A plan-by-plan look at Jobber pricing as of October 6, 2026: team-size tiers, billing options, what each plan includes, the trial and card fees.
Updated October 6, 2026
Housecall Pro Pricing: Basic, Essentials and MAX Caps
Housecall Pro pricing as of October 6, 2026: Basic, Essentials and MAX, the user caps, the cost of each jump with a 4, 5, 6 and 9 user example, and questions to ask.
Updated October 6, 2026
ServiceTitan Pricing: What to Know Before You Request It
ServiceTitan publishes no prices. See what its page shows as of October 6, 2026, what to prepare for the demo call and the questions to get answered in writing.
Updated October 6, 2026
What a small trades shop needs from field service software
The short list of features a 3 to 10 person shop uses every week, what it can skip, and how to test a tool with your own jobs.
Updated October 6, 2026
Field Service Software: One Van vs Ten Technicians
What a one-van owner and a ten-technician shop each need from field service software, with real per-user price arithmetic and where CalSpark stops fitting.
Updated October 6, 2026
More guides
How to Write an Estimate Customers Approve the Same Day
What to put on a contractor estimate so customers approve it from their phone: clear line items, notes, terms, an expiry date, when to send and how to follow up.
Updated October 6, 2026
Maintenance Visit Schedules for HVAC and Plumbing Shops
Set up tune-ups, flushes and backflow tests as recurring jobs: pick cadences, handle skipped visits and technician changes, add reminders and bill each visit.
Updated October 6, 2026
Build Your First Custom Automation: Three Recipes
How the CalSpark custom automation builder works, a step-by-step build, and three recipes: a check-in email, a big-invoice alert and a completed-job webhook.
Updated October 6, 2026
Export Your Data as CSV: What Each Column Means
How an admin exports customers, jobs and invoices as CSV from Settings, Data, with every column explained, the limits, and spreadsheet checks before you rely on the file.
Updated October 6, 2026
Slack Notifications for New Leads and Paid Invoices
Connect a Slack incoming webhook in Settings, Integrations and post new leads, completed jobs and paid invoices to a channel. No Slack app needed.
Updated October 6, 2026
Free tools
Run in your browser. No login, nothing sent anywhere.
Field service software cost calculator
Enter your team size and compare a flat $49 a month with per-user pricing from public price lists. Runs in your browser, no login.
Job pricing and markup calculator for contractors
Enter labour, materials, overhead and the margin you want. Get a price, the markup and the profit. Runs in your browser, no login.
Looking for a product comparison instead? See CalSpark vs Jobber, vs Housecall Pro and vs ServiceTitan. Missing a guide you need? Tell us.
Try it with your own jobs
14-day free trial. No card. $49 a month flat for up to 10 users after that.