The Field Manual
Run the back office
like a dispatch board.
Every guide in this manual is one file from a Your Deputy trade pack, opened up. The packs hold the working templates; these pages hold the reasoning — what each document is for, the order it runs in, and the mistakes it exists to prevent. Read them free. Steal the structure. If you want the templates built for your trade, that is what the pack is.
Start here
Three kinds of paper run a service business.
Most shops run on memory and text messages. The ones that scale run on three documents — and the first guide settles which is which, because using the wrong one is why crews stop reading them.
File 00 — SOP, checklist, or playbook: which document does the job need? →
The pipeline is a promise
CRM pipeline stages, intake fields, and severity triage for home services — the six stages a job actually moves through, the fields that earn their place on an intake form, and why an arrival window is a target you disclose, never a guarantee you print.
No firm price before diagnosis
Quoting rules, quote follow-up, and the invoice-reminder ladder — why phone quotes are ranges with caveats, why the signed estimate is the only price, and the day 0 / 3 / 7 / 14 sequence that gets a closed job paid.
Evidence first, invoice second
QA checklists and photo evidence — the five artifacts every job files before it may close, the three gates (before, during, closeout), and why a callback is a quality metric, not an embarrassment.
Ask once, at the right hour
The review and referral system — one request, 24–48 hours after a paid job, wording you can copy, a same-day route for unhappy replies, and the referral ask that rides the 30-day maintenance follow-up. Never an incentive. Ever.
Load real data, then walk it
Migration and the acceptance walk — the order to move a customer list and price book out of Jobber, Housecall Pro, or spreadsheets, and the eight-check test you run before the first real customer touches your new system.
How the manual connects
The guides explain the system. What's included itemises the pack that ships it, file by file. How it works walks the install. And every one of the 46 trade pages shows the same files scoped to one trade's work — phases, evidence, and boundaries included.
End of shift
Your competitors are one missed call away from your customer.
Stop renting a back office. Tour your trade's template pack — the whole system, bought once and delivered as files you keep.
Illustrative sample report — what your end-of-day looks like with your trade pack on the job.