Your first afternoon in ServCTRL
From a fresh account to a real quoted job. The same five steps as the checklist on your dashboard, with the why behind each one.
Updated July 2026 · 7 min read
When you sign up, your dashboard shows a five-step checklist: add a client, build an estimate, win a job, schedule a trip, connect payments. This guide walks those same five steps with a little more detail, so your first real job runs through ServCTRL the same afternoon you create the account.
One thing to do before any of that: open Settings → Pricing and look at your price book. ServCTRL seeded it with starter prices for your trade. They're honest national placeholders, not suggestions — go down the list and make each number yours. It takes ten minutes, and everything you quote from then on comes from that list.
Step 1 — Add your first client
Open People and add a customer: a name, a phone or email, and the address where the work happens. That's enough. There's no separate CRM to configure, and you don't have to decide whether someone is a "lead" or a "client" — a person with no job yet shows up as a lead, and the moment they book work they become a client on their own.
If you're coming from another tool or a spreadsheet, you can import your whole customer list as a CSV instead of retyping it. And if you'd rather not bulk-import on day one, don't: adding customers as they call works fine, and the list builds itself.
Step 2 — Build an estimate
Open Estimates, hit New, and pick your client. Then build the bid from three kinds of lines: pull a task from your price book (the drawer searches as you type), add Standard Labor at one of your hourly rates, or write a one-off custom line. The math happens as you go.
Two options worth knowing about on your first bid. You can set a deposit — a percent or a flat amount — and it becomes part of what the customer agrees to. And if the job has a real decision in it (repair it or replace it?), flip on options and quote it two or three ways; the customer picks a tier when they accept. Skip both on a simple service call.
When it's ready, send it by email or copy the link and text it yourself. The customer opens a clean page on their phone, reads the bid, types their name to sign, and can tell you which times work for them.
Your prices, seeded
Every line you pull from the price book carries the price you set in Settings → Pricing. If a number looks wrong on the bid, fix it in the book, and it's right on every truck from then on.
Step 3 — Win the job
You'll see the estimate's status change the moment the customer accepts. From there, one click converts the accepted estimate into a job. The job page is home base from now on: the signed scope, the schedule, the invoices, and the notes all live on it.
What the customer signed is what you'll bill. If the work grows once you're on site — it usually does — you'll add a change order rather than quietly expanding the work, and the customer signs that too. Nothing gets renegotiated by memory.
Step 4 — Schedule the trip
On the job's Dispatch tab, give the trip a time and someone to run it. ServCTRL checks the calendar as you pick: it tells you whether that tech or crew is free, tight, or already booked, so the double-booking gets caught while it's still cheap to fix. Then hit Schedule & notify and the customer gets a confirmation with an arrival window.
Working alone right now? Assign yourself and move on. When you add people later, Settings → Team is where they live. A tech with a login gets the field app: their day's stops on their phone, one-tap status updates, photos, and collecting payment at the door (there's a short guide you can text your techs). A subcontractor doesn't even need a login — send them a work-order link that shows the address and scope, and captures the customer's sign-off.
Step 5 — Connect payments, bill it, get paid
Settings → Payments walks you through connecting Stripe. It's the hosted "connect your bank" flow and takes about five minutes; you don't paste API keys. Card and ACH payments from your customers settle to your own Stripe account, not ours.
When the work's done, bill the job from its Invoices tab. The invoice starts from the signed estimate plus any approved change orders, so there's nothing to add up. Text the customer the pay link before the truck leaves the driveway, or record a check or cash on the spot. The payment posts against the job, and the job reads as paid.
That's the whole loop. From here it's repetition: the call comes in, you quote it from your book, the customer signs, the truck rolls, the invoice goes out, the money lands.
When your bookkeeper asks
The Accounting page exports every invoice and payment for any date range as a CSV that opens clean in Excel or QuickBooks. Hand that over at month-end and you're done.
Stuck? Email us.
There's no phone tree and no chatbot. If something's confusing, in your way, or missing, email [email protected] and a real person who knows the product answers. During beta, what you report genuinely shapes what gets built next.
Key takeaways
- Before anything else, spend ten minutes in Settings → Pricing making the seeded starter prices yours.
- The five dashboard checklist steps are the whole setup: client → estimate → job → trip → payments.
- The estimate your customer signs from their phone becomes the job, the schedule, and the invoice. You enter the work once.
- Connect Stripe early — it's five minutes, and it's the difference between "invoice sent" and "money in the bank before the truck leaves."
- Support is a real person at [email protected], and beta feedback genuinely shapes the product. Use that.
Questions, answered.
How long does setup actually take?
An afternoon is honest. Ten minutes on prices, five on Stripe, and the rest is just running your first real job through: add the customer, send the bid, schedule it, bill it.
Do I have to import all my customers first?
No. Import a CSV if you have one handy, or add customers as they call. Both work; the list builds either way.
Can I try it without connecting Stripe?
Yes. Everything except online card and ACH payment works without it — you can quote, schedule, invoice, and record cash or check payments. Connect Stripe when you're ready to send pay links.
What does it cost while I'm getting started?
Nothing. The beta is free with no credit card and no contract, and founding shops lock in a lifetime discount. After beta it's a flat $99/month for the whole shop.