Present options in the kitchen, then follow up without a spreadsheet.

Most unsold estimates aren't lost to a competitor. They're lost to silence: the customer said "let me think about it," nobody called back, and three weeks later someone else was in the attic. TradesWork treats the proposal and the follow-up as one workflow. The tech builds priced options on site, the customer signs or gets a link, and anything that doesn't close lands on a board that texts the customer on day 2, 7 and 21 until they answer, buy or say no.

Building the options

On the phone, the tech picks a layout: Single option, Good / Best or Good / Better / Best. In Spanish the tiers read Bueno / Mejor / Superior. Each option is its own priced estimate, so a three-option proposal on job 4127 shows up as estimates 4127-1, 4127-2 and 4127-3, grouped together. Names are free text up to 60 characters, which matters for shops that sell "Repair", "Replace" and "Replace + air cleaner" rather than metals.

Options fill from two places:

• Price book kits. A kit can carry good, better and best versions, so one tap loads the right parts and labor for each tier.
• Proposal templates. Built in the office, cached on the phone. When a tech uses one, it's priced from the published price book at that moment. Items you've since removed from the book are dropped, and expired rebate programs are left off, so an old template can't quote last year's price.

Upsell rules sit on top: "when a tech adds X, suggest Y and Z." You can configure up to eight suggestions per item; the phone shows the top four so the screen doesn't turn into a catalog.

app.tradeswork.app · Price book with services, prices and margins

What goes on each option

An option is more than a total. Each one can carry:

Rebates never touch the invoice total because the customer usually claims them from the utility or manufacturer, not from you. Showing "after rebate" without changing what you bill keeps the paperwork straight.

Proofs do the selling that a tech's word can't. A photo of a cracked heat exchanger next to the option that replaces it is more convincing than any script. Add-ons cover the extras customers like to choose themselves, such as an extended warranty or a surge protector. Whatever they tick becomes an invoice line when the option is sold.

Member prices on site

For members, the phone shows Member price · you save $X beside the regular price. The saving comes from the best active plan's repair discount, applied to service lines only. On the invoice, a member discount line is added automatically. Extended warranties, membership dues and finance charges are never discounted.

One gap to know: the customer's One Link shows the options without member pricing. If a member is deciding later from the text, tell them the discount applies on the invoice.

Monthly payment figures

Big-ticket options read differently as a monthly number. TradesWork can show "or $X/mo" under each option, but only after an owner turns financing on (it's off by default) and adds at least one plan. Each plan has a term of 1 to 240 months, an APR (capped at 40%), a promo type and an optional dealer fee and disclosure.

These are worked examples, not offers. The "as low as" figure is the lowest monthly payment among your active plans marked to show on options. The dealer fee is visible to the office and techs only; customers never see it. Every customer-facing figure carries a footnote that monthly payments are estimates and financing is subject to the lender's credit approval.

ServiceTitan, by contrast, sells integrated financing with partner lenders, and its annual report says it earns referral fees from those partners.¹ If instant in-app approvals are central to how you sell replacements, that's a real difference today.

Getting the signature

There are three ways an option becomes sold, and they're recorded differently:

1. On the tech's phone. The customer taps "Choose this option", then "Approve and sign" and draws a signature under a line saying they approve the work for the total. It works with no signal; the sale queues and syncs later.
2. From the One Link. The customer types their full name and ticks "I approve this work for $X. Typing my name counts as my signature." The audit trail records the customer as the one who approved.
3. In the office. Staff use "Mark sold" with an "Approved by" name, for approvals by phone or email.

Then the work is placed. "Do the work now" puts the sold lines on this job's invoice. "Schedule it for later" creates a new unscheduled job at the same address. The office can switch between the two until the work is paid for. A sold replacement option creates an install job with days (default one), crew (default two), materials, a permit tracker, equipment records ready to fill in and office tasks.

The follow-up board

If the customer doesn't decide on the spot, the tech sends the options in one text: your company name, a greeting, and a link to review and approve. It goes once per proposal and waits out quiet hours.

From there the proposal is a card on the board.

app.tradeswork.app · Sales follow-up pipeline board

1. 1

   Presented

   A new proposal lands here. Manual opportunities and equipment findings from the field start in New.

2. 2

   Follow-up

   The first automatic text moves the card here. Cards show age, days in stage, the next call or text task, and when the customer last opened the link.

3. 3

   Won

   Selling any option moves the card to Won and dismisses the other options.

4. 4

   Lost

   If every option is dismissed, the card moves to Lost and the board asks why: price, financing, a competitor, repaired instead, no longer needed, never responded or other.

Each card shows the value range from the lowest to the highest option and "Viewed 3h ago" style notes from the customer's link. Views are counted once per 30 minutes and staff previews don't count, so a busy card means the customer, not your CSR. Filters cover owner (me or unassigned), business unit, minimum value and minimum age. Won and lost cards from the last 30 days stay visible.

Automatic texts, and what stops them

Follow-up is on by default with three texts:

Texts go out at 10 am by default (you can pick 7 am to 8 pm), weekends roll to Monday, and quiet hours of 9 pm to 8 am always apply. You can rewrite them as one to six steps, each 1 to 120 days out and up to 320 characters.

The sequence stops when any of these happens:

• The customer replies. A "call them back" task due today is created too.
• The customer texts STOP. No task, no more texts.
• The proposal is decided. Approved, every option dismissed, or marked won or lost.
• The office steps in. The card is paused, or follow-up texts are turned off in Settings.

Old estimates don't get surprise texts when you first turn this on: a proposal older than the sequence is skipped.

ServiceTitan positions unsold-estimate audiences inside Marketing Pro, one of its Pro products,² and lists Mobile Estimates outside its Starter tier.³ In TradesWork, phone estimates come with Pro and the board comes with them.

Setting it up in a week

1. Price book first. Options are only as good as the prices behind them. Publish the items your techs quote most.
2. Three templates. Start with your most common replacement, your most common repair-or-replace decision, and one add-on bundle. Flag a recommended option in each.
3. Rebates with end dates. Enter current utility and manufacturer programs so they drop off on their own.
4. Read the default texts aloud. Change the wording to sound like your office, keep the link, and decide whether Saturday texts suit your customers.
5. Assign card owners. A card nobody owns is a card nobody calls. Use the "me" filter in the morning huddle.
6. Financing last, if at all. Only add plans once you've agreed terms with a lender yourself, and make sure the office knows it handles every application.

Where this isn't the right fit

If you need deposits collected at signing, proposals that expire on a date, or manager approval before a tech discounts a line, TradesWork doesn't do those today. Techs can edit a line price, and the app only warns them with a reset button. Shops whose sales process depends on instant lender decisions in the living room should wait for a connected lender or keep their current financing portal alongside. And if your techs mostly quote one fixed-price fix, the board still helps, but good/better/best layouts won't change much.