Everything UK trade business owners ask about managing jobs online
Straight answers to the real questions plumbers, electricians, gas engineers, and drainage companies ask before choosing software. Useful whether you use OptiTech or not.
The questions trade owners actually search for
Field service management software handles the end-to-end operation of a trades business: customers book online, the system assigns the right worker, collects deposits, tracks job progress, and syncs completed invoices to Xero. OptiTech Automation is built specifically for UK trades — plumbers, electricians, gas engineers, drainage companies, and HVAC specialists.
OptiTech Automation starts at £599 per month for the Standard plan, which covers up to 10 workers and 250 bookings per month. The Growth plan (25 workers, 1,500 bookings/mo) is £1,749 per month. A one-time Onboarding Investment applies — waived in full for the first 20 founding businesses.
Yes. OptiTech Automation works for sole traders — you are the worker. Customers book through your booking page, pay a deposit upfront, and the job appears in your schedule. You manage it from your phone. You do not need employees for the platform to be useful.
OptiTech is built for UK trades and designed around UK compliance, Xero UK, and GDPR from the start. Jobber originated for North American companies and was adapted for UK use. OptiTech also includes Keith — automatic worker dispatch logic — which Jobber does not have natively. Both take deposits online.
Yes. The OptiTech worker app caches the day's schedule and customer details on the phone before the worker leaves. If signal drops on site, the schedule stays visible and status updates queue locally. They sync the moment connection is restored. It is a Progressive Web App — installable on iOS and Android.
OptiTech integrates with Stripe. When a customer books, they pay a deposit through a secure Stripe checkout on your booking page. The deposit is held and released when the job is completed. No card reader required. Customers receive a payment confirmation and job reference automatically.
OptiTech Automation connects to your own Xero account via a Custom Connection. Every completed job automatically creates a draft invoice in your Xero with the customer contact, line items, and UK VAT applied correctly. You review and send from Xero. The connection takes five minutes to set up.
Keith — OptiTech's dispatch engine — assigns the right worker to each booking based on location, availability, and skill. When a booking is confirmed, Keith identifies the best-fit worker and sends them a job notification. Owners can override at any time. This replaces the morning WhatsApp group rota.
Yes. Each OptiTech account includes a customer-facing booking page. A customer visits the page, picks a time slot, describes the job, and pays a deposit through Stripe. The booking appears in the owner dashboard immediately. No phone call, no back-and-forth, no missed enquiry.
Yes — this is one of the core problems OptiTech Automation solves. WhatsApp groups create chaos: missed messages, no audit trail, no deposit collection, no automatic dispatch. OptiTech replaces the group with a structured dashboard. Workers see their jobs. Owners see all jobs. Everything is logged.
OptiTech Automation's Standard plan covers up to 10 workers. The Growth plan handles up to 25. Both include fair automatic dispatch (Keith), worker-level job tracking, payout governance, and an owner dashboard. The Growth plan adds the command-centre dashboard and 1,500 bookings per month.
The technical setup takes one session — typically 30 to 60 minutes for the owner. Cristian (the founder) reviews every new account personally and confirms the configuration is right for your trade and area before switching you live. The 14-day free trial lets you run real jobs through it before committing.
Yes. OptiTech Automation stores all data on EU-region servers (Supabase PostgreSQL), operates under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is ICO registered (C1963975). Your customer data belongs to your business — you can export it in full at any time, including on the day you cancel.
Checkatrade is a lead marketplace — you pay for visibility and they keep the customer relationship. If you leave, you start from zero. OptiTech is a platform where your customers, bookings, and data are entirely yours. You build a direct relationship with every customer you serve, and you keep it.
Yes. OptiTech Automation is built for UK field trades including gas engineers, plumbers, domestic and commercial electricians, EV charger installers, heat pump installers, HVAC engineers, drainage companies, and solar PV installers. Each trade type has its own configuration options, compliance fields, and customer-facing booking language.
The problem that costs your trade money every week
Plumbers lose jobs when customers cannot book outside business hours.
Your booking page takes enquiries and deposits 24/7 — no answerphone, no missed job.
Gas engineers spend mornings scheduling calls they should be paid to make.
Keith assigns the right engineer automatically. The morning rota is handled before you wake up.
Electricians chase payment for weeks after completing jobs.
Deposits collected at booking. Balance captured at job completion. Nothing to chase.
Survey-to-install businesses need two-phase bookings most software cannot handle.
OptiTech supports multi-phase jobs — separate deposit for survey, separate for install.
Drainage companies miss reactive jobs because dispatch runs through a single WhatsApp group.
Keith cascades automatically — if the first engineer is unavailable, the next gets the job.
MCS and OZEV compliance records are scattered across spreadsheets and email.
Compliance fields are built into every job. Every engineer's certification is tracked in one place.
How OptiTech compares to the alternatives
An honest comparison. Verify competitor details on their own websites — software changes and we will not claim more than we can confirm.
| Feature | OptiTech | Jobber | ServiceTitan | Checkatrade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for UK compliance from the start | ✓ | – | – | ✓ |
| Online booking + Stripe deposit collection | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Automatic worker dispatch (Keith) | ✓ | – | ✓ | – |
| Xero UK integration (native) | ✓ | ✓ | – | – |
| Your customers belong to your business | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| UK data sovereignty (EU-region servers) | ✓ | – | – | – |
| Worker app works offline | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Direct access to the person who built it | ✓ | – | – | – |
Table reflects our understanding at the time of writing — verify current competitor features directly.
Book a 20-minute call. No pitch. Just answers.
You get the person who built OptiTech. Ask anything — even whether it is the wrong fit for your business. A straight answer either way is more useful than a wasted trial.