Blue Collar Trade Manager gives plumbers a flat-rate price book, one-tap estimate-to-invoice conversion, and a click-to-pay link so a customer can pay before you've packed up the van. It works the same for a same-day clogged-drain call and a multi-day repipe billed in stages, with assigned-worker calendars and job time available alongside the billing.
Create an estimate for the job from scratch or pull line items straight from your plumbing price book, then send it for approval by text or email.
The customer reviews and approves the estimate online or by replying to a text — no printing, no in-person signature required.
Turn the approved estimate into an invoice in one step, so line items, pricing, and job details carry over without retyping anything.
The invoice goes out with a public click-to-pay link so the customer can pay by card or ACH from their phone, without creating an account.
If the invoice sits unpaid, automated payment reminders go out on a schedule you set, instead of you having to remember to chase it.
Paid, unpaid, and overdue invoices roll up into reports so you can see outstanding balances across every customer at a glance.
Plumbers who quote flat-rate rather than hourly need every task — a water heater swap, a main line clear, a fixture install — priced the same way regardless of who's holding the estimate. The price book stores those flat-rate items once, so a new hire quotes the same job at the same price as your most experienced tech.
A burst pipe at 11 p.m. doesn't leave time for a formal write-up, but you still need a record of what was done and what's owed. Mobile invoicing lets you build the invoice from your phone right at the job and send it immediately, even if you're drafting it offline in a basement with no signal via the offline PWA.
A whole-house repipe or bathroom remodel often gets billed in stages — deposit, rough-in, final. Splitting a job into a deposit invoice followed by milestone invoices means you're not carrying the full cost of materials and labor until the final walkthrough.
A vague line item like "plumbing repair — $450" invites questions later. Itemized price book entries on the invoice — parts, labor, and any trip fee broken out separately — give the customer (and you, if a dispute comes up) a clear record of exactly what was billed.
Most flat-rate plumbers build a price book of common tasks — drain clears, water heater installs, fixture swaps — priced to cover labor, materials, and margin, then quote straight from that list on every job.
Flat-rate pricing only works if it's consistent, so the price gets set once per task type and reused. BCTM's price book stores those flat-rate items so you (or anyone on your crew) can build an accurate estimate in the customer's kitchen instead of guessing at a number on the spot.
Build the invoice on your phone at the job site — add an after-hours or emergency-call line item from your price book, then send it with a click-to-pay link so the customer can pay immediately.
After-hours work is when getting paid fast matters most, since you're not likely to see that customer again soon. A public payment link lets them pay by card or ACH right from the text or email you send, without you needing to bring a card reader.
Many plumbers ask for a deposit before ordering materials on larger jobs, then bill remaining stages as work progresses — BCTM supports this with deposit and milestone invoices, but the amount you ask for is a business decision.
Repiping and remodel work often involves buying materials up front, so a deposit protects your cash flow on that spend. Beyond that, how much to ask for is your call to make based on job size and your relationship with the customer — BCTM doesn't set a specific percentage for you.
Stripe's standard card rate is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction; ACH is 0.8% capped at $5, which is usually cheaper on invoices above roughly $625.
On a $150 drain-clear invoice, the card fee is about $4.65 — on a $2,000 water heater and repipe job, ACH's $5 cap saves real money versus the card percentage (Stripe Pricing).
Deadlines vary enormously by state — anywhere from about 60 days to a full year after work is completed — so this needs to be checked against your specific state's statute.
Mechanics lien deadlines range from 60 days in Ohio to 12 months in Louisiana, and the trigger date (last day of work vs. project completion vs. a recorded notice) also varies by state (Subcontractor Audit; Levelset). BCTM doesn't file liens, but your invoice and payment history export as documentation you can hand to an attorney. This is general information, not legal or tax advice — check with a licensed attorney or CPA in your state before relying on it.
Yes — every invoice can be sent by SMS with a public click-to-pay link, as long as the customer has given consent to be texted.
BCTM captures SMS consent at customer intake, then lets you send invoices, estimates, and payment reminders by text. The customer taps the link and pays by card or ACH without creating an account.
No — payments run through Stripe Connect, which handles merchant processing for you as part of the platform.
You connect your bank account through Stripe Connect's onboarding flow inside BCTM, and card and ACH payments route through that connection. There's no separate merchant account application to fill out.
$0/mo — no subscription and no per-user seats. Card payments: 3.9% + $0.30 (1% BCTM platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe). ACH bank payments: 1.8% (1% BCTM platform fee + 0.8% Stripe, Stripe portion capped at $5.00). Cash and check: no fees. Full fee breakdown.
No subscription. You pay a per-transaction fee only when a customer pays you.
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