Field Notes

Written from the truck, not the treadmill desk.

How to run and grow a trade: dispatch, quoting, getting paid, hiring, and the rules that keep changing. HVAC, plumbing, electrical — where something is specific to one trade we say so, and where it is not, it is not. Most of it has nothing to do with our software. Every entry opens with the short answer, and only claims what can actually be pointed at.

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One useful post when it's written — dispatch, quoting, getting paid, and straight talk on AI in the trades. Nothing else, no selling your address, and you leave with one click.

AI and the trades

Guide · 2026-07-23

Field-service software, scored honestly (including ours)

ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, Workiz and JobCard scored on offline resilience, data ownership, AI posture, pricing clarity and switching cost — with our own product marked by the same ruler and our weak points named.

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Building JobCard

Guide · 2026-07-23

What "your data is yours" means in practice

Every vendor says your data is yours. Here are the three questions that separate the ones who mean it from the ones who say it — and what a good answer actually sounds like.

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Field craft

Guide · 2026-07-24

What actually keeps working when the signal drops

Offline sync is genuinely hard, and small companies are rightly doubted when they claim it. Here is the architectural choice that makes it tractable, the parts that still need signal, and how to test the claim yourself in a minute.

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This week in HVAC

Weekly read · 2026-07-24

This week in HVAC — refrigerant rules, response time, and the AI question (W30)

The first Field Notes Watch: what the A2L refrigerant transition means for your installs, why response time keeps beating craft on emergency calls, and where AI actually helps a small shop.

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Next in the queue, shaped with our design partners: triaging when every call is urgent, and maintenance agreements that smooth the seasons. Build them with us.