Built by a contractor. For contractors.

Your customers should never feel like strangers.

Answer every call, 24/7, with an AI agent that welcomes new customers and recognizes returning ones.

  • Recognized. A returning customer is known by number — name, service addresses, and history are in the conversation.
  • Handled in the system. Bookings and changes — a reschedule, a gate code, an instruction — are made directly in the job, not taken as a message.
  • No double entry. Your office re-enters nothing. The job on the board is already the job.

One system. One schedule. No double entry.

The demonstration

Watch one call get handled — recognized, moved, and updated.

One ordinary request. A returning customer calls about a visit already on the board, asks for a new time, and asks that the technician call her wife when he is on the way. The agent checks qualified availability, makes the change in the same system your team uses, and the job updates. No message to re-enter. Demonstration with sample data — Mrs. Johnson is a sample customer, on the real board, cleaned.

The call

1

Incoming · +1 (239) 555-0148The number matches a customer record. “Good morning, Mrs. Johnson — calling about Friday’s tune-up?”

2

Mrs. Johnson“Friday morning won’t work. Can we move it to the afternoon? And have the technician call my wife when he’s on his way.”

3

The agent checksThe job needs two hours and a qualified technician. Friday afternoon, Peter S. — qualified for the job — is open 1:00–3:00 PM.

4

Confirmed on the call“You’re moved to Friday, 1:00–3:00 PM, with Peter. He’ll call your wife when he’s on his way. I’ve texted the new time.”

5

Done — no office stepThe appointment, the time, and the instruction are on the job. Nobody in the office re-typed anything.

The job — as the call changes it

CustomerLinda Johnson — returning
JobMaintenance tune-up
WindowFri · 9:00–11:00 AMFri · 1:00–3:00 PM
TechnicianPeter S. — qualified for the job
InstructionCall her wife when on the way
Booked — Fri 9:00–11:00 AM Updated on the call — confirmation text sent

Reschedule a visit. Add a gate code. Leave instructions to call a spouse. The agent makes those changes directly in the system and keeps the scheduled job updated.

The familiarity of a seasoned receptionist. The coordination of a dispatcher. Working around the clock.

A missed call is not a delayed customer.

It is a customer already talking to your competitor. That is the whole reason the phone has to be answered when it rings.

85%

Miss the call, lose the customer.

Read the quote & reference

“Up to 85% of customers whose call goes unanswered never call back — they call the next company instead.”

CallRail 2025 benchmark, 1.1 million leads
100×

Thirty minutes late is a hundred times too late.

Read the quote & reference

“Calling back at 30 minutes instead of 5 makes you about 100 times less likely to reach that customer at all.”

MIT Lead Response Management study
14%

One in seven calls is never answered at all.

Read the figure & reference

CallRail’s 2025 report announcement, covering 1.1 million leads, puts the share of calls that are never answered at 14%.

CallRail 2025, report announcement covering 1.1 million leads

Is calling a customer back good enough? Read the answer →

The workflow

From the first call to the final payment — eight steps, one system.

This is the line every job travels — from the first ring to the renewed plan. Every step is written out where it happens, and its number lights up when the light reaches it. That glow is your cue to read.

1

No matter how they reach you, it’s covered

Calls, online booking, online chat — ProTradeAgent has every door covered. A customer can call your business, book on your website or landing page, or start a chat, and explain what they need through whichever channel they prefer.

What this means for your company: No matter which door a customer picks, it opens into the same system — and becomes a service opportunity.

2

Answered, screened & recognized

The agent answers and screens every contact. New customers are welcomed and set up; returning customers are recognized by their number — name, service addresses, and history already in the conversation. Spam is blocked after the first call, and your office can take a screened call from the board — or leave it with the agent.

What this means for your company: New customers feel welcomed, returning customers feel known — and spam stops costing you time and minutes.

3

FIG 0.3 — STEP 03 · BOOKED

Booked

Build the booking around the job. The request is matched against your scheduling configuration — the time the work requires, qualified technicians, working hours, service coverage, and available service times.

What this means for your company: Bookings that account for the people and the time needed to perform the work.

Matched on your settings — duration · qualifications · working hours · coverage · availability

4

Dispatched

Carry the customer’s instructions into the field. The reason for the visit rides with the job — a gate code, access instructions, a specific concern, or a request to call a spouse when the technician is on the way.

What this means for your company: Less information lost between the conversation, the office, and the technician.

5

Techs in the field

Keep the office and the field connected. The technician works from the job — the notes, the checklist, the work documented as it happens — and the office follows the job’s progress.

What this means for your company: A clearer handoff at each stage, and less dependence on scattered messages.

6

Showcase: Good | Better | Best

Let the product help tell the story. Showcase presents products and service options — good, better, best — through clear visuals and explanations the customer can compare.

What this means for your company: Better-informed customers, more confident presentations, and a consistent way to explain what you offer.

7

Create estimates, invoice, get paid

Finish the job, including the business side. The work and the selected items become an invoice that shows the customer what was provided and what they owe. Payment is collected, and the job is closed.

What this means for your company: A connected path from the service visit to the money — the job is not re-typed into a separate system.

8

Keep customers serviced

The review is asked. The plan is renewed. And the job’s history stays on the customer’s record, ready for the next conversation.

What this means for your company: When that customer calls again, your company starts from what it already knows.

The real product

The board your office runs on. The job your technician opens.

Not illustrations of software — the command center itself, recreated with sample names and a sample number, and the visit as the technician carries it.

The command center. The call in progress, the Accepting calls switch lit, and the day’s bookings on the technicians’ rows. Anyone switched on can take a screened call — first to accept gets it. See the full board →
A technician at a customer's home, phone in hand
The job, in the field. The reason for the visit and the customer’s instructions — gate code, who to call on the way — ride with the job the technician opens. The office follows the same job, not a second thread.

Not an empty program

It arrives with the trade written down — and it learns from your calls.

It comes with a curated HVAC knowledge library — over 100 of the trade’s everyday questions, researched and written down — and a way of learning that never stops: every question the agent can’t answer comes to you through Ask the Boss™, you answer it once, and it’s in the agent from then on.

There is an initial onboarding, and most companies are up and running within 48 hours of it. And onboarding isn’t the end of the support — questions during working hours get fast answers, and a question asked after hours gets a response within 12 hours.

And when a caller asks something it doesn’t know yet, it doesn’t guess. Every question lands in Ask the Boss™ — ProTradeAgent’s proprietary answer system — with the call it came from and what the agent said. You grade it: use this answer, edit the wording, or reject it and give the correction. Your verdict is what it says next time. One question never stumps it twice.

See Ask the Boss →

The real Ask the Boss screen, cleaned — the caller’s number is a sample. The question, what the agent said, and the three verdicts are the screen as the boss sees it.

Published prices

The price is published before anyone asks you to book.

These are the current account prices — the same figures wherever the product is described, so a contractor can compare a quotation without a sales call first. It is not priced per technician. It does not include inventory.

Run your numbers sits here, beside the prices, because the calculator applies your own call volume to these figures.

Complete account

The agent included, with 500 minutes. No setup fee.

$449/mo
Scheduling, without the agent

The board, estimates, and invoices. Your staff answer the phone.

$349/mo
Additional minutes

$49 for 100 minutes, that month. Beyond the allowance, $0.79 each. Unused minutes do not carry forward.

$49/100
Website only

$399 to build, then $49 a month. No office login, no agent — the website may be kept on its own.

$49/mo
What is one booked job worth to you?

The complete system is all in — 500 minutes a month included, no setup fee — for less than $20 a day. ($449 a month works out to about $15 a day.)

If one booked job is worth more than that, the first job of the month covers the system. Every job after it is work the phone used to lose.

Under $20/day

Questions contractors ask

Asked straight. Answered straight — before you book.

Can the AI reschedule an existing appointment?

Yes. A returning customer can call and move a visit. The agent finds the scheduled job, checks the configured job duration, qualified technicians, working hours, and availability, offers a suitable new time, and updates the appointment in the same system — as in the demonstration above. The office does not re-enter the change.

Does ProTradeAgent recognize returning customers?

Yes. ProTradeAgent uses the incoming phone number to look for an existing customer record. When a matching record is available, customer details, service addresses, and history provide context for the conversation. Some details may still need confirmation — particularly when numbers are shared, information has changed, or a customer has more than one property.

Does it check qualified technician availability?

Yes. Technician qualifications are part of the scheduling workflow. ProTradeAgent uses the skills and eligibility configured for your team, with the job’s configured duration, working hours, and coverage, when finding suitable appointment options.

Will my office need to reenter the booking?

No. The agent works inside the same system your office and technicians use. A booking, a reschedule, a gate code, or an instruction given on the call is written to the job itself. There is no message for the office to copy over, and no second entry.

Do customer instructions appear on the technician’s job?

Yes. Customer instructions recorded with the job are available to support the service visit. These may include gate codes, access details, the reason for the call, and requests about whom to contact when the technician is on the way.

Is this a separate answering service, or the scheduling system itself?

It is the scheduling system itself. Answering is the front door of the same platform that holds the customer record, the schedule, the job, the invoice, and the payment. An answering service takes a message for someone else to book later; ProTradeAgent’s agent books and updates the job directly, and the workflow continues through the visit, presenting options, invoicing, and payment collection.

What happens when the agent doesn’t know an answer?

It doesn’t guess. The question lands in Ask the Boss™ — ProTradeAgent’s proprietary answer system — with the call it came from and what the agent said. You grade it: use this answer, edit the wording, or reject it and give the correction. Your verdict is what it says next time. One question never stumps it twice.

How does ProTradeAgent go beyond answering the phone?

ProTradeAgent connects the conversation to the work that follows. It can use existing customer information, check scheduling data, help book a suitable service time, and carry customer instructions into the job. The workflow continues through the visit, presenting options, invoicing, and payment collection.

Can a job move through to invoicing and payment?

Yes. The workflow includes creating an invoice from the work performed, collecting payment, and closing the job. The job history remains available to support future customer service.

Every question contractors ask — the full Answers page →

Book a live demo

Book a live demo — pick your time now.

Thirty minutes, on a live board, with your questions — not a slide tour. Pick a time below, in this session, and lock it in with one call.

Pick a day

Pick a time (Eastern)

What happens next

  • Pick a time now — in this page, in this session. No form sent into a queue, no “we’ll be in touch” email chain.
  • Lock it in with one call to (888) 522-2241, and save the calendar hold the form builds for you.
  • Thirty minutes, live — your questions, on the real board: a call answered, a customer recognized, a job booked and updated.

Our promise: every demo request is confirmed within one business hour.

Not ready to talk yet? The demonstration above is the same workflow, start to finish.

Sample landing page — shown full-screen, the way a customer sees it.

Ad pages

The page should be what they clicked.

Pick the ad. Then look at the general website versus the page ProTrade builds for that offer. From the right page they can call, text, or book — and the office already knows they landed.

yourcompany.com — home
The general website

Ad promised: Whole-home duct cleaning

Everything we do, all on one page

AC repair · AC install · Heating · Plumbing · Water heaters · Drain cleaning · Electrical · Indoor air quality · Maintenance plans · Duct cleaning · Emergency service · Free estimates

They expected one thing. They got a catalog — and most of them leave.

yourcompany.com/duct-cleaning
This page matches the ad

Whole-home duct cleaning

  • What’s included on a standard home
  • How long the visit takes
  • Book, call, or text from this page
Call

Command center — someone just landed

Visitor is on the duct cleaning page.

Agent: I can help with that. Want me to book it, or would you rather text the office?

Price, what’s included, and a way to book — not a catalog of every trade you offer. That match is why landing pages live inside ProTrade, next to the agent, the board, and the booking — not as a separate website project.

Samples

What one looks like, full size.

This is a sample, shown with a sample company. Every landing page we build is custom-designed for your company — your name, your colors, your offers, your reviews. Scroll inside it; the booking and the chat work.

Sample: AC maintenance — Penguin Air (sample company)

Other pages shops run: duct cleaning · service calls · no-cool emergency · new system estimates — one page per offer, each matched to its ad.

One is included. The rest are yours to keep.

Every website package includes your first landing page — the offer you advertise most.

Additional pages are $129 each, built custom for the offer — duct cleaning, service calls, whatever you run ads for.

Activate them when you like. Maintenance is seasonal — turn that page on for the season, and off when it ends. Once a page is built, it is yours to keep: there is no extra charge for owning it or switching it on.

We charge only when you ask us to build a new page, or to edit one you already have.

Website only

You came for a website. That is how you meet the rest.

Most shops are not looking for office software. They want a site, and a page that matches the ad. Start there. You do not get a ProTrade login, and you are not asked to buy one. When the calls and the jobs outgrow the page, the office is already here. The website is the introduction. The rest is an add-on, only if you want it.

$49 a month, after $399 to build

What the website includes

  • You choose one of the sample websites. We build that one.
  • Hosting is in the $49. It is not a second bill.
  • Your domain is pointed here. A new domain is about $20 a year.
  • Your Google Business Profile is updated: the site, the hours, and the booking button on Google Maps.
  • Your real Google rating and a link to the reviews. Not a made-up fifth star.
  • One landing page is included. Each extra landing page is $129 once — the page is yours to keep.

Your landing pages

Your first landing page is included — custom-built for the offer you advertise most, and matched to its ad, so the page is what the customer clicked. See a sample, and why the match matters.

Additional pages are $129 each — duct cleaning, service calls, no-cool, whatever you run ads for.

Activate them when you like. Maintenance is seasonal: turn that page on for the season, and off when it ends. A page you bought is yours to keep. There is no charge for owning it, or for switching it on. We charge only to build a new page, or to edit one you already have.

What the money is for

A contractor should know what he is buying before he buys it. The price is on this page. There is no call required to hear it, and no discount that disappears tonight. Staying with the website is a complete decision.

$399 builds the sample you picked.
$399
$49 a month keeps it up, hosting included.
$49/mo
Your Google Business Profile shows the site, the hours, and one booking button.
Included
Your real reviews are linked. The rating on the site is the rating you have.
Included
One landing page is included. Another is $129, and the page is yours.
$129

The workflow is a separate investment

$349 a month is about $12 a day. What that buys is a booking that is a customer and a job, a form that names what is due on the visit, and Showcase so the technician can put the choice in front of the customer. One booked job covers that month. It is not a per-technician bill, and it is not required to keep the website.

The full account

With the agent, $449 a month — about $15 a day. Either one is covered by a single job at the calculator’s starting ticket of $450. The website does not require it.

Run the calculator →

What you start with

  • A contractor website, not a catalog of every trade you offer.
  • A landing page for each offer. A duct-cleaning ad opens a duct-cleaning page.
  • A way to call, text, or book from that page.
  • One booking button: if you already take appointments in another app, the button opens that.

How a page gets made

  • You pick a look and answer a few plain questions.
  • You pay. Nothing is built before that.
  • The site is built for you. You do not assemble it yourself.
  • A landing page is a request: the layout, the headline, the offer, and the date it should end. It is built, then you approve it or ask for a change.

Questions

Can I buy a contractor website without ProTrade?

Yes. Most shops start because they want a site, not office software. The website and the landing pages are sold on their own. You do not get a login, a dispatch board, or the agent. ProTrade is what you are introduced to after the site is up, and only if you want it.

How much is the website?

You pick one sample site. Setup is $399. Then $49 a month, and hosting is included in that. One landing page is included. Each extra landing page is $129 once, and the page is yours to keep. The domain is pointed at the site. A new domain is about $20 a year, not a second monthly bill.

Where does the booking button go?

One button. If you already take appointments in another app, it opens that, and you can stay with the website. If you want the next step, scheduling and the workflow is $349 a month, about $12 a day. One booked job covers that month. You are not required to take it.

Will the site say I am a five-star company?

It shows the rating Google already gives you, and a link to those reviews. If the rating is 4.7, the site says 4.7. It does not invent a fifth star.

Pricing

Website. Then the office. Then the agent.

Each card adds to the one on its left. The website stands on its own. Office adds the board, the money, and Showcase. Complete adds the agent. The price is for the company, not per technician.

Website

$399 to build, then $49 a month

Hosting is included. About $2 a day after the build. A site and the pages. No office login.

  • One sample site, built for you
  • Hosting in the monthly price
  • Your domain pointed here. A new domain is about $20 a year
  • Google Business Profile updated: the site, the hours, and one booking button
  • Your real Google reviews linked. The rating shown is the rating you have
  • Call, text, or book from the page
  • The booking button opens the appointment app you already use
  • One landing page included
  • Each additional landing page is $129 once, and it is yours

Call us · (888) 522-2241

The office

Office

$349 a month

About $12 a day. The website is included. Your people still answer the phone.

  • Everything in Website
  • Scheduling and the dispatch board
  • Command center: who is late, who has not arrived, who has not collected
  • The same view on the desk and on the phone
  • Estimates, invoices, and who is holding payment
  • Maintenance agreements and the technician form
  • Showcase: one, two, or three options, pictures or a video
  • Manufacturer price sheet, with a multiplier for each kind of job
  • A part order becomes a purchase order, with an optional text to the customer
  • On-call schedule, including a rotation set once
  • Your services and prices, set up at onboarding
  • A demonstration and onboarding

Call us · (888) 522-2241

Minutes, on Complete only

500 minutes are included. At a full call that is 100 calls at five minutes, 83 at six, and 71 at seven. Each extra 100 minutes is $49 for that month. Add them for the season and remove them the next month. Unused minutes do not carry forward. Minutes past what you bought are $0.79 each. Office does not use this meter. The calculator applies your own call length.

No setup fee on the office account. Month to month. Voice is male or female. Other companies often won’t publish a price. If you have a quote, type it into the calculator and compare. Ours is the number on the card.

Value calculator

What the quoted price leaves out.

Same plan price is not the question. Five hundred minutes is a number of calls. Spam takes a slice of those minutes, which raises what a real call costs. Blocking it after the first time is why that slice stays small. Move the sliders — the month below is yours.

500 minutes, in calls

100 calls
at 5 min a call, inside the 500 — plus 20 calls in the next 100 minutes
83 calls
at 6 min a call, inside the 500 — plus 16 calls in the next 100 minutes
71 calls
at 7 min a call, inside the 500 — plus 14 calls in the next 100 minutes

Real customers on a normal weekday

Saturday and Sunday

Robocalls, solicitors, wrong numbers

They do not take weekends off

Start to finish on a typical call. A month is about 21.7 weekdays and 8.7 weekend days.

Share of spam from numbers already permanently blocked — they cost zero minutes

Used only for the value of a call that would otherwise go unanswered

364
calls a month
2,184
raw minutes, if every call ran full length
618
ProTrade minutes actually used
1,566
minutes not billed
$2.75
a real customer call, with the block
$3.24
the same call if spam were billed every time

The month, on your quote vs. ProTradeAgent

A minute plan bills calls at full length, then takes a message. Repeat spam callers are blocked after the first call, so repeat spam never reaches the bill. The quote starts at ProTrade’s own numbers — the same $449 plan price, 500 minutes included, extra minutes at $0.79 each as used — and ProTrade buys extra minutes ahead in $49 blocks of 100. Got a quote from someone else? Type it in below: their plan price, their included minutes, their extra-minute rate. And if their plan does not bill identified spam, set the spam switch to No — their column is then figured on your customer minutes only.

Your quoteProTradeAgent
Minutes used2,184618
Bills you for spam minutes?YesRepeat spam blocked
Minutes past the included minutes1,684118
Extra minutes bought (100-min blocks at $49)—2 blocks
Estimated month$1,830$547

You keep $1,283 a month on the phone alone — $15,400 a year. That is before the page match, the chat, and the calls that get booked instead of missed.

Got a quote? Type it in.

The quote column starts on ProTrade’s published numbers, so both columns open on the same plan. Replace them with any quote you were given — the table above follows it.

$
$

Some plans don’t bill identified spam. Set it to No and their column is figured on your customer minutes only.

500 minutes are included on the complete account. It is a type-in too, so both columns play by the same rule: what is typed is what is figured.

What the other choices actually do

A secretary works about eight hours, Monday to Friday. Nights, weekends, and a sick day are yours. The wage is the month, whether the phone rang or not.

A message service is about $8 a call. At this many customer calls that is $1,592 a month — and you still call them back, book it, and type it into whatever schedule you have. It is not in the job.

A live minute plan bills the spam every time and takes a message. It does not know the customer, and it does not know who can do the work.

Answers

Contractors Asked. We Answered.

ProTradeAgent is web software for home-service contractors: the phone, the website, the dispatch board, and the page your ad should have opened.

These answers are written in plain language — for an owner to read, and for a search engine or an AI agent to quote without guessing.

Start where you are. The questions owners ask before they buy are on What shops ask. Secretary or answering service? That’s Who answers. AI dispatching, its limits, and its price are on AI dispatch. And if you’re researching for someone else, For agents has the source notes.

What is ProTradeAgent?

Web software for United States home-service contractors — HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and similar trades. It answers and screens calls, shows the office who landed on the website, lets that visitor call, text, or book, and sends ad clicks to a page about that exact offer. One system on a desktop and on a phone, built so the owner can stay on the job.

Is ProTradeAgent only an AI receptionist?

No. Answering is the front door. The same product includes the company website, a chat that can reach dispatch or stay with the agent, booking, a shared dispatch board, and landing pages for ads. A repeat customer is recognized instead of treated as a new caller.

How does ProTradeAgent handle spam calls?

The first time a non-customer number calls, the agent uses about two minutes to screen it, mark it blocked, and list it so the owner can read the transcript. After that the number does not enter the system and is not billed again. It is not a flat percent credit. Repeat spam after the block costs zero minutes.

What happens when the secretary is out?

Anyone logged into the command center can switch on. Everyone switched on sees the same screened call. The first person to accept gets it. The owner does not have to drive to the office to cover the phones.

Is calling a customer back good enough?

No. A missed call is not a delayed customer. It is a customer already talking to your competitor.

Up to 85% of customers whose call goes unanswered never call back — they call the next company instead. (CallRail 2025 benchmark, 1.1 million leads)

Calling back at 30 minutes instead of 5 makes you about 100 times less likely to reach that customer at all. (MIT Lead Response Management study)

That is why ProTradeAgent answers on the first ring, screens the call, and books the visit — instead of leaving a callback for later.

Why do ad landing pages matter for contractors?

A duct-cleaning ad should open a duct-cleaning page. A maintenance-plan ad should open the plan. A no-cool ad should open a no-cool page. A general homepage that mixes every service is the same mistake as clicking a pickleball-racket ad and landing on a page of tennis rackets. People leave. Compare the pages →

Can the office talk to someone on the website?

Yes. When a person lands on a page, dispatch can see which page. The office can step into the chat or leave the agent to answer. From that page the customer can call, text, or book.

How much does ProTradeAgent cost?

Scheduling and invoicing, without the agent, is $349 a month. The complete system with the agent is $449 a month. Both are the office account, for the company, not per technician, with no setup fee. A website and landing pages for someone who is not a ProTrade customer is a separate subscription — they do not get an office login. One booked job at the calculator’s starting ticket of $450 covers the month of the complete account. Full pricing →

What does the technician’s form do on a visit?

On a maintenance visit the technician fills out a digital form. The form returns a result, the way a calculator does. A UV light due for replacement, or refrigerant and subcooling that do not line up, is pointed out for him to mention. Showcase is one button in his app: one, two, or three screens, each a product he picked, shown as pictures or as a video he already has. He can label them good, better, and best, or show them with no labels. He is not asked to invent a sale. The form →

Who is ProTradeAgent for?

Owners and managers of contractor shops who still run jobs. A one-truck operation, and a shop with an office, crews, and people answering phones. It is not a bolt-on that only works if one trained person sits at a desk all day.

Why is the dispatch board called the command center?

Because dispatch is not the only thing an owner has to see. The command center is the board plus the notifications that matter the same minute — a screened call waiting, who just landed on the website, who is late, and money that was not collected. Dispatch / command center →

How does ProTradeAgent go beyond answering the phone?

ProTradeAgent connects the conversation to the work that follows. It can use existing customer information, check scheduling data, help book a suitable service time, and carry customer instructions into the job. The workflow continues through the visit, presenting options, invoicing, and payment collection.

Can ProTradeAgent recognize repeat customers?

Yes. ProTradeAgent uses the incoming phone number to look for an existing customer record. When a matching record is available, customer details, service addresses, and history provide context for the conversation. Some details may still need confirmation — particularly when numbers are shared, information has changed, or a customer has more than one property.

Can the AI reschedule an existing appointment?

Yes. A returning customer can call and move a visit. The agent finds the scheduled job, checks the configured job duration, qualified technicians, working hours, and availability, offers a suitable new time, and updates the appointment in the same system. The office does not re-enter the change.

Will my office need to reenter the booking?

No. The agent works inside the same system your office and technicians use. A booking, a reschedule, a gate code, or an instruction given on the call is written to the job itself. There is no message for the office to copy over, and no second entry.

Is this a separate answering service, or the scheduling system itself?

It is the scheduling system itself. Answering is the front door of the same platform that holds the customer record, the schedule, the job, the invoice, and the payment. An answering service takes a message for someone else to book later; ProTradeAgent’s agent books and updates the job directly.

Will returning customers have to provide all their information again?

No. An existing customer record reduces the repeated questions. The agent uses the available information and asks only for the details the current request needs. A customer with more than one service address, for example, may need to say which property needs attention.

How does ProTradeAgent find an appointment time?

ProTradeAgent checks the service request against your configured scheduling information, including job duration, technician qualifications, working hours, coverage, and availability. It uses that information to offer suitable service times and work toward a time that fits the customer and your team.

Does ProTradeAgent account for how long a job takes?

Yes. Scheduling uses configured job durations, so different types of work receive the appropriate amount of calendar time. Accurate service durations and scheduling settings help the system offer practical appointment options.

Can ProTradeAgent match a job with a qualified technician?

Yes. Technician qualifications are part of the scheduling workflow. ProTradeAgent uses the skills and eligibility configured for your team when finding suitable appointment options.

Can technicians see instructions collected during the call?

Yes. Customer instructions recorded with the job are available to support the service visit. These may include gate codes, access details, the reason for the call, and requests about whom to contact when the technician is on the way.

What is the ProTradeAgent Showcase?

Showcase is an included feature that helps technicians explain products and service options using visuals and descriptions. It supports conversations about good, better, and best choices, so customers can understand the differences and decide what fits their needs.

How does Showcase help technicians who are uncomfortable selling?

Showcase gives the technician something clear to present and discuss. Instead of relying on a memorized explanation, he can guide the customer through the available options and answer questions. The goal is an informed decision and a confident conversation.

Can ProTradeAgent help increase revenue?

It supports the activities that create revenue opportunities: responding to inquiries, helping customers book service, and making options easier to understand. Results depend on inquiry volume, service quality, pricing, company configuration, and how the team uses the platform.

Can a job move through to invoicing and payment?

Yes. The workflow includes creating an invoice from the work performed, collecting payment, and closing the job. The job history remains available to support future customer service.

What does my company need to configure?

Accurate operating information: the services you perform, your service coverage, job durations, technician qualifications, working hours, and availability. Customer records, company knowledge, and useful product information also help the platform support your team. The quality of that information matters to the quality of the workflow.

Does ProTradeAgent replace my scheduling and field-service software?

For the front office and the schedule — for most shops, yes. ProTradeAgent is one system, not an answering layer bolted onto somebody else’s calendar. Its AI agent works directly inside the same system that holds your customers and your schedule: it recognizes customers who already have a record with you — matched by the number they call from — and works from their history, checks the job’s duration and which technicians are qualified for it, books or reschedules routine visits, and writes the caller’s instructions onto the job itself. Your office never re-enters a change the agent already made, and there is no second booking calendar to keep in sync — availability lives in ProTradeAgent, and ProTradeAgent is the calendar. What it does not claim: it does not replace every function of every product on the market. It is not your accounting books, not a payroll system, and not a full parts-inventory or fleet-tracking system. If your company runs on a large field-service platform today, the honest question is which of its functions you actually use — the ones your office touches every day are the ones this system covers.

What does getting set up involve?

An initial onboarding, built from your answers: your services and prices, your hours, your service area, and your technicians — including who is qualified for what. Most companies are up and running within 48 hours of that onboarding. After that, anything the agent doesn’t know comes to you through Ask the Boss™ — you answer once, and it knows from then on.

What shops ask

The questions, and where this meets them.

Contractors are not shopping for a feature list. They are asking whether the office can run it, whether the truck can show a price, and whether the bill grows every time they hire. On ProTradeAgent it all runs on one path: the call is booked to a technician who can do the work, the board shows who is late and who did not collect, the form returns a result, Showcase puts it in front of the customer, and the invoice is the same job. That is the day — not five logins.

Will the office actually be able to use it?

That is the question that ends most software. A new hire spends a week in training and still calls the owner a month later. ProTrade comes with a curated knowledge library, the desk and the phone are the same screen, and Showcase is one button with no manual. Why the last system was hard to teach →

What happens when the person who answers the phone is out?

The owner should not drive in. Anyone logged into the command center switches on, sees the screened call, and the first to accept takes it. When the secretary is out →

Can the technician present a price without acting like a salesman?

He fills out the form. The result names the finding — a UV light, a charge that does not line up. Showcase lines up one, two, or three screens, with pictures or a video he already has, labeled or not. The form and Showcase →

Do I have to sell more just to pay for the software?

No. The complete system is $449 a month for the company. One booked job at a $450 ticket covers it. The loss is the call you already miss, not a cut of the jobs you won. The price, in the open →

Does the price go up every time I hire a technician?

No. It is not per technician. Scheduling and invoicing is $349. The complete account, with the agent, is $449. No setup fee. A website and landing pages for someone who is not a ProTrade customer is a different subscription — they do not get this login.

Can I start without staring at an empty screen?

It comes with a curated HVAC knowledge library — over 100 of the trade’s everyday questions, researched and written down. Your services and prices are set up from your answers in onboarding, and you edit them from there. How onboarding works →

I only want a website. Or the office, but I’ll answer the phone.

Those are separate purchases. The agent is not required. What you can buy →

A repeat customer should not be treated as new.

The call verifies the account, including which property. A gate code or a neighbor’s number goes on the notes for the technician. They can cancel or move the time. How the call goes →

The public calculator is for the phone bill. The price is for the company. Put your own ticket in — do not take a borrowed percentage. Run the calculator →

Ask the Boss

It starts with the trade written down. The boss teaches the rest.

It comes with a curated HVAC knowledge library — over 100 of the trade’s everyday questions, researched and written down. And what it does not know yet, it brings to you — through Ask the Boss™, ProTradeAgent’s proprietary answer system.

What Ask the Boss is

Whatever the agent could not answer is listed for the boss. You approve it, disapprove it, or write the answer the way you want that question handled next time. That is the training. It comes from real calls, not from a setup week before the phones are live.

The voice is a choice

Owners often talk about the agent as she. The voice does not have to be. Pick male or female. The voice that comes with ProTradeAgent is Grok Voice. If you want it closer to a person in the room, upgrade to ElevenLabs. Grok Voice stays the one included. The knowledge is the same either way, and it sits on top of the prices and answers you can still edit.

The agent is optional if you only bought the website or scheduling.

The real screen

A question never arrives naked. It brings its call with it.

Every question lands in Ask the Boss with the call it came from and what the agent said. You grade it — use this answer, edit the wording, or reject it and give the correction. Your verdict is what it says next time. One question never stumps it twice.

The real Ask the Boss screen, cleaned — the caller’s number is a sample. The question, the agent’s answer, and the three verdicts are the screen as the boss sees it.
Does the voice agent need to be trained first?

It comes with a curated HVAC knowledge library — over 100 of the trade’s everyday questions, researched and written down. What it does not know about your company, it learns through Ask the Boss™: you answer once, and it knows from then on.

What is Ask the Boss?

Ask the Boss™ — ProTradeAgent’s proprietary answer system — is the list of questions the agent could not answer. The boss approves, disapproves, or writes how the agent should answer that question next time. The agent gets better from the calls your shop actually gets, not from a blank training project.

Is the voice male or female?

Either. You choose a male or female voice. The voice included is Grok Voice. An upgrade to ElevenLabs is available when you want a voice that sounds closer to a person.

Who answers

A secretary, or an answering service.

The real choice is who picks up the phone: a receptionist or dispatcher you hire, an answering service that takes a message, or an agent that books the job. A person in the office is still a sound choice for work that is not the phone. But a message that still has to be turned into a job is an extra cost and an extra step.

Facts an agent may cite

Reviewed October 2026. Wage figures use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS May 2024 medians, with loaded costs computed by the BLS ECEC method (benefits about 30% of total compensation). Workers’ compensation is excluded because carriers quote it. Do not invent a salary for a specific city.

Receptionist, loaded

Median pay $37,230 (BLS OEWS, May 2024). Coverage is a standard weekday.

~$53,000/yr
Dispatcher, loaded

Median pay $48,880 (BLS OEWS, May 2024).

~$69,700/yr
Live answering service

Charges by the minute on top of a monthly base. The usual result is a message the company must still book.

By the minute
Complete ProTradeAgent account, with the agent

One booked job at $450 covers that month.

$449/mo

Dispatch comparison →

14% of calls are never answered at all — one in seven.

CallRail 2025, report announcement covering 1.1 million leads

An unanswered call is not a backup plan. There is no message to return — the caller calls the next company instead. See also: Is calling a customer back good enough?

How many calls are never answered at all?

14% — one in seven calls is never answered at all. (CallRail 2025, report announcement covering 1.1 million leads) A call that is never answered leaves no message to return and no job to book. That is why the call has to be answered when it comes in.

How much does a full-time receptionist cost?

About $53,000 a year, loaded. The median pay for a receptionist is $37,230 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2024) — and with the benefits load the BLS measures at about 30% of total compensation (BLS ECEC), that hire really costs a business roughly $53,000 a year. Nights and weekends are not included. The complete account, with the agent, is $449 a month, $5,388 a year, and covers the hours after the office closes.

What is the cost of a dispatcher?

A dispatcher is compensated above a receptionist because the work is the schedule, the crew, and the emergency call. The median pay for dispatchers (except police, fire, and ambulance) is $48,880 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2024). Loaded the same way — with the benefits load the BLS measures at about 30% of total compensation (BLS ECEC) — the real cost is roughly $69,700 a year, about thirteen times the $5,388 annual cost of the complete account with the agent. Illness and unplanned absence are not covered by the wage.

How does an AI receptionist compare with hiring a person?

The complete account is $449 a month, $5,388 a year. A full-time receptionist costs roughly $53,000 a year loaded (BLS OEWS May 2024 median $37,230, loaded by the BLS ECEC method), for about eight hours, Monday to Friday. A dispatcher costs roughly $69,700 a year loaded on the same basis (BLS OEWS May 2024 median $48,880). A live answering service charges by the minute on top of a monthly base — and the result is a message you still have to book. The agent covers nights and weekends, and the call is already a job on the board.

What does a dispatcher really cost a year?

A receptionist’s median pay is $37,230 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2024) — and with the benefits load the BLS measures at about 30% of total compensation, that hire really costs a business roughly $53,000 a year. A dispatcher’s median pay is $48,880 (BLS OEWS, May 2024); loaded the same way, the real cost is roughly $69,700 a year.

What does it cost just to hire one?

Hiring is not free: SHRM’s benchmarking puts the average cost-per-hire for a nonexecutive role at $5,475 (SHRM Benchmarking Report: Recruiting) — before training, which runs about 13.7 formal hours per employee (ATD, 2025 State of the Industry), and before the weeks a new hire spends learning your customers, your prices, and your techs.

What happens when she quits?

When a trained office hire quits, replacing them costs one-half to two times that employee’s annual salary (Gallup). Phone roles churn fast: average call-center agent attrition runs about 38% a year (SQM Group, 2025). And the replacement starts from zero — your regulars, your prices, and your techs’ quirks walk out with the person who left.

How often is the phone desk empty?

Absence is a when, not an if: in an average week, 4.3% of workers take leave for their own illness (BLS American Time Use Survey, 2024–25) — roughly four to five lost workdays per worker a year. In a one-person front office, that absence is the whole phone desk, uncovered. That is before vacations, lunch, and the coffee break the phones always seem to pick.

What happens when nobody answers?

In CallRail’s 2025 survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, 82% said they would call a competitor if a business didn’t answer — and 21% said they would immediately call another business (CallRail, 2025). Across more than 70 million calls Invoca analyzed, only 52% of home-services calls ever reached a person (Invoca Lead Conversion Benchmarks, 2026).

How much does a fast callback matter?

The odds of contacting a lead fall about 100× when the first call back comes at 30 minutes instead of 5 (Oldroyd Lead Response Management Study — 15,000+ leads, roughly 100,000 call attempts). The study measured sales leads; the direction is the one every contractor already knows from the field: late is the same as never.

What does a paid lead actually cost?

An air-conditioning lead from search ads cost $127.74 on average in LocaliQ’s 2025 home-services benchmarks — every paid lead that rings out is that money, gone. Home-improvement advertisers paid an average of $8.33 per click across 13,474 campaigns (WordStream by LocaliQ, 2026), and those clicks turned into leads only about 8% of the time — about one in twelve.

Sources

  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2024
  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), December 2025
  • SHRM — Benchmarking Report: Recruiting (2025)
  • ATD — State of the Industry (2025)
  • Gallup — employee replacement-cost research
  • SQM Group — call-center attrition benchmarking (2025)
  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — American Time Use Survey, Leave module (2024–25); Current Population Survey absence data (2023)
  • CallRail — Consumer Survey (2025; 1,000 U.S. consumers)
  • Invoca — Lead Conversion Benchmarks Report (2026; 70M+ calls analyzed)
  • Oldroyd / InsideSales — Lead Response Management Study (2007; 15,000+ web leads)
  • WordStream by LocaliQ — Search Advertising Benchmarks (2026; 13,474 campaigns)
  • LocaliQ — Home Services Advertising Benchmarks (2025)
  • Angi — HVAC cost data (2026)

The call

They called to get it booked, not to talk to an AI.

This was built by contractors, for contractors. The customer has an urgent problem. They want to be recognized, get an answer, book, and get back to their life. A ten-minute conversation talks them out of the visit and bills the shop for minutes nobody needed.

Step 1

Why they called

Confirm the reason. Acknowledge it. Answer the question — why the thermostat is blank — and then say let’s get a technician out to resolve it. The answer is not the end of the call. The visit is.

Step 2

Verify, don’t re-interview

A returning customer is not a new customer. The agent does not take the whole file again. It verifies you are on the same page. If they have more than one property, it confirms which one.

Step 3

Book the right technician

Not every technician is qualified for every job. The agent knows who is. If the customer says they want Mike, or anyone but Mike, the book follows that. The customer gets what they asked for.

They can call back and add it

“The gate code is 7474.” “I won’t be home. Call my neighbor.” The agent writes that on the customer notes for the technician. They can cancel. They can change the time. Same call, same customer, no second intake.

Short on purpose: a screened call stays near two minutes, which is the number in the calculator. What the agent still cannot answer goes to Ask the Boss. After hours, the book goes to whoever is already on call.

How does a ProTradeAgent call go?

Three steps. First the agent confirms why they called, answers the question, and moves to getting a technician out. Second it verifies the customer already on file, including which property if they have more than one. Third it books a technician qualified for that work, including a request for a named technician — or a request to send anyone but that person.

Can a caller add a gate code or a neighbor’s number after they booked?

Yes. They can call back and add it. The agent writes it on the customer notes for the technician. They can also cancel or change the schedule on that call.

Why is the call kept short?

The customer is not calling to talk to an AI. They want to be recognized, get the question answered, book, and get on with their day. A long call talks people out of the visit and bills the shop for minutes that did not need to happen.

The business day

The form gives the answer. The technician says it.

The headache is the missed call, the office that cannot find the job, and the technician who was never hired to sell. $449 a month is the booking, the workflow, and the form on the truck. You do not need a bigger month to carry it.

Fill out the form → The result names it → Showcase: 1, 2, or 3

The day without it

The phone rings while he is on a maintenance. The job goes to the next company. The office rebuilds the call from a voicemail and a paper slip. The technician fills out a form nobody reads, or skips it. The UV light is dead. The charge does not match the subcooling. He was not trained to bring it up, so he does not. You paid for the visit and left the sale in the attic.

The same day on the form

He is dispatched. He fills out the digital form — that is the whole job of selling. The form works like a calculator: you put the readings in, it gives you the result. The UV light is due; the result says replace it, and he tells the customer because the form said it. The refrigerant and the subcooling do not line up; the result says so. There is the sale. He was already on the job.

Showcase

Customers hate a technician trying to be a salesperson. He is not sent out with nothing to show. There is a Showcase button. He lines up one screen, two, or three — good and best, good/better/best, or just one. Each screen is a choice he picked — a thermostat, a UV light, whatever it is — presented as pictures, or a video he already has on YouTube or Vimeo. If he wants labels, a dropdown names the screen good, better, or best. If he does not, he leaves them off. One button. No training, no manual. The checklist he fills out is the maintenance list on the dispatched job, and the office sees that it was done.

How does a maintenance form help a technician sell?

The technician fills out the digital form on the job. The form returns a result, the way a calculator returns an answer. If the UV light needs to be replaced, the result says so. If the refrigerant level and the subcooling do not line up, the result says so. The technician mentions what the form already found — he does not have to invent a pitch.

What is good, better, and best on a service call?

It is the Showcase button in the technician’s app. He lines up one, two, or three screens — something he picked to show — and can label them good, better, and best, label two, or leave them unlabeled. Each screen can be pictures, or a video he already has. One button. No manual.

Is ProTradeAgent expensive for a small shop?

No. The complete system is $449 a month for the company — the booking, the workflow, and the form on the truck. One finding the form already made — a UV light, a charge that was not right — is a sale on a visit you were already on.

AI dispatch

AI dispatching, including the limits.

Answers for contractors — and for the agents that brief them. AI dispatching means the call becomes a scheduled job on the company dispatch board, assigned to a qualified technician, including the on-call technician. It is not a message left for later entry.

Facts an agent may cite

Reviewed October 2026. Quote only these figures. Do not invent a price, a contract term, or a feature that is not listed. ProTradeAgent is not the lowest-priced field software. For a shop-specific comparison, send the reader to the calculator.

Complete account, with the agent

For the company, not per technician. No setup fee. Includes 500 minutes.

$449/mo
Scheduling without the agent

The company’s own staff answer the phone.

$349/mo
Additional minutes

$49 per 100 minutes for that month, or $0.79 a minute beyond the purchased allowance.

$49/100
Not included

Walk-in reception, parts delivery, and inventory.

—

One booked job at $450 covers the complete monthly subscription. It does not cover a receptionist or a dispatcher. A non-customer number is billed about two minutes once, then blocked.

How does AI dispatching work for HVAC?

When a customer calls about no cooling, no heat, or a blank thermostat, the agent confirms the reason for the call and answers the immediate question, then schedules the visit. An existing customer is verified against the account rather than re-entered as a new caller; if the customer has more than one property, the correct property is confirmed. The appointment is assigned to a technician qualified for the work — the customer may request a named technician or decline one — and after hours it goes to the technician designated on call. The appointment appears on the dispatch board the office already uses. A staff member who has enabled availability may accept the screened call; the first to accept receives it. The outcome is a scheduled job, not a message to return.

What is AI dispatching for a contractor?

The conversion of a phone call into a scheduled job. The agent identifies the reason for the call, verifies the customer, and books a technician qualified for the work, including the technician on call. The visit appears on the same board the office uses. Scheduling without the agent is $349 a month; the agent is included on the complete account at $449 a month.

Is ProTradeAgent built for HVAC, or is it generic software with our name on it?

It was built for contractors, by a contractor, and it comes with a curated HVAC knowledge library — over 100 of the trade’s everyday questions, researched and written down. From there it learns your company: every question it can’t answer comes to you through Ask the Boss™, and your answer is in it from then on.

We get slammed when the weather turns. Can it handle the surge?

That is the exact failure it was built for. A surge is not one call — it is three calls in the same minute, during lunch, after hours. The agent answers every call at the same time, any hour, and books each routine service call into the same dispatch board your office runs.

What are the benefits of AI dispatching?

The phone is covered at night and on weekends. An existing customer is recognized. A request for a named technician, or a request to exclude one, is honored in the booking. A non-customer call is screened once, for about two minutes, and that number is then blocked. Any person signed into the command center may enable availability and accept a screened call.

Dispatch board · Command center

The dispatch board lives in the command center.

Contractors look up dispatch software — that word stays. It is called a command center because dispatch is not the only thing an owner has to see. It is one place where the most important notifications of the business show up, so you can be tapped into all of them at once. Walk in, look, and leave. Or look from the truck. Same view.

The board as your office sees it on a Friday morning — recreated from the real command center, with sample names and a sample number. The call in progress, the Accepting calls switch, and the booking are all there; the people are invented.

What shows up there

  • The dispatch board: who is on which job
  • A screened call, if your switch is on — first to accept gets it
  • Who just landed on the website, and which page
  • Who is late, or has not arrived
  • Who is holding checks or cash, or did not collect
  • The checklist on a maintenance job that was dispatched
  • A part that was ordered, the day it turns red, and whether the customer is being texted — that path is order parts

Why it has a bigger name than dispatch

A dispatch board alone tells you where the trucks went. It does not tell you the secretary is out and a real customer is on the line, or that a tech left with the payment. Those notifications are why the place has a bigger name than dispatch.

What is a command center in contractor software?

The one place the important notifications of the business show up, so the owner can be tapped into all of them without hunting through separate screens. The dispatch board is part of it.

Is the command center the same as a dispatch board?

The dispatch board is the board: who is going where. The command center is that board plus the notifications that matter the same minute — a screened call waiting to be accepted, a person who just landed on the website, a technician who is late or has not arrived, and money that was not collected or is still being held.

Why not just call it dispatch?

Because contractors search for dispatch, and the work of sending a technician is on that board. Calling the whole place “dispatch” hides the rest. The name command center is for the owner who walks in for ten minutes and needs every important tap in one view, on the desk or on the phone.

The day

The problems that pull you back to the office.

These are not feature lists. They are the days contractors describe when the software, the phones, or the office person failed them. Read the one that is yours.

The office is empty — the secretary is out

When the secretary is out, you should not have to drive in. It starts as one day. She is sick. Then it is a week, or she does not come back. The owner leaves the job, sits in the office, and answers the phone. The crews wait. That is the expensive part, and it is not on the software quote. On ProTrade, anyone switched on in the command center sees the screened call — first to accept gets it.

The software fight — hard to teach

If she still calls you a month later, the software failed. You do it once. You think you have it. A week later you cannot remember how you got there, so you stop. A new office person lives in that feeling every day — then she calls you, because calling you is faster than hunting. ProTrade comes with a curated knowledge library, with the same screen on the desk and the phone, and no manual.

While you are on the job — the missed call

The call you cannot take is a job you do not get. You are under a house or on a roof. The phone rings. You cannot take it. They call the next company. By the time you listen to the voicemail, the job is gone — and you still paid for the afternoon you were already working. How a call is booked in three steps →

Ten minutes at the desk

Walk in, see the day, and leave. You come in to finish a heat load or look at the day. You do not have ten minutes to remember which menu the board is under. You need to see who is late, who has not arrived, and who is still holding the money. Then you grab the phone and go. That view is the command center.

They have been here before — a repeat customer

A repeat customer is not a new customer. They gave you the address last summer. They are on a maintenance agreement. They call because the system is down, and the person or the software on the phone asks for their name as if you have never met. They feel it. You lose the minute, and sometimes the job. The call verifies the account, including which property.

The money is still out — uncollected

See who did not collect before you ask. The job is marked done. The money is not in. You find out at the end of the week, or when the customer calls angry, or when you happen to open that one ticket. By then the tech is on the next call and the cash is in a cup holder. The command center shows who is holding checks or cash, or did not collect.

Maintenance agreements

The agreement should say what the visit actually is.

Contractors get asked this every spring. Homeowners want to know what they are paying for. The office wants the visits on the board before the season starts, not when the first hot day hits.

What belongs in the agreement

  • How many visits, and which season each one is for
  • Which equipment is covered: make, location, and type
  • The checklist the technician will complete — attach it; do not write “system check”
  • What is not included: parts, refrigerant, duct repairs, and anything found that is a repair
  • Priority scheduling for agreement customers, and any repair discount, stated as a number
  • How it renews, how either side cancels, and that a visit already done is not refunded

What the office actually struggles with

The agreement is sold, then it lives in a folder. Six weeks before the season, nobody has a clean list of who is due, grouped so the technician is not crossing town for prepaid work. A new office person cannot find who has a plan. The customer calls and gets treated like a new lead.

On ProTradeAgent the agreement stays on the customer. A returning member is recognized. The visits owed are visible, and the maintenance checklist rides on the job the technician was dispatched — not a paper left in the truck.

What should an HVAC maintenance agreement include?

The number of visits, the equipment covered, the checklist the technician will run, and a clear list of what is not included. Two visits a year is the usual residential plan: one before cooling season, one before heating season.

What is usually not covered?

Parts, refrigerant, duct repairs, and failures found during the visit, unless the agreement says otherwise. Say that in writing. A tune-up is not a promise the system will not break later.

Why do customers keep a maintenance agreement?

Priority when the board is full, a stated discount on repairs, and no surprise about what the visit includes. A vague “system check” is what people argue about later.

Technician checklist

The checklist goes out with the dispatched job.

Homeowners search “what should the technician check.” Shops search for a list they can hand a new tech. The list only helps if it is on the job, and the office can see it was done.

Cooling visit

  • Filter size and condition
  • Thermostat reading against the room
  • Condenser and evaporator coils
  • Condensate drain and pan
  • Capacitor, contactor, and electrical connections
  • Blower and outdoor fan
  • Refrigerant pressures, superheat or subcooling
  • Supply and return temperature split

Heating visit

  • Heat exchanger looked at for cracks, holes, or rust
  • Burners and flame
  • Flame sensor and ignition
  • Gas pressure, when the furnace uses gas
  • Venting and draft
  • Safety controls cycled
  • Carbon monoxide reading
  • Filter and blower

A heat pump visit uses both. Test the changeover from cool to heat, auxiliary heat, and defrost. The shop’s own list can be tighter than this.

Why it sits on the dispatched job

A PDF in the truck does not tell the office the drain was cleared or the carbon monoxide reading. In ProTradeAgent the checklist is part of the job on the dispatch board in the command center. The same customer record holds the maintenance agreement, so the tech knows this is visit one of two, not a stranger’s first call. Filling it out is not paperwork for the office only — the form returns a result, and a UV light that is due, or refrigerant and subcooling that do not line up, is there for him to mention. That is how the form sells.

What should a technician check on an AC maintenance visit?

Filter, thermostat, both coils, condensate drain, electrical connections, capacitor and contactor, blower, refrigerant pressures with superheat or subcooling, and the temperature split. Low refrigerant means a leak — it is not something the system uses up.

What is different on a furnace visit?

Heat exchanger, burners, flame sensor, ignition, gas pressure where it applies, venting, safety controls, and a carbon monoxide reading. Those are heating checks — not the same list as a cooling visit.

Where should the checklist live?

On the job the technician was dispatched, in the same system as the dispatch board. The office should see that the list was completed without calling the tech or hunting a photo in a text thread.

On call

Set once, rotated, and known by the agent.

The schedule already says who is on call. You do not keep a second list in a group text. The technician marked on call on the schedule is the one. When he logs into the app, he is told he is on call that night. The live agent knows the same name.

Marked on the schedule → Told when he logs in → The agent books him → Weekend rotation repeats

Set the rotation once

Mike should not be the only one every weekend. Put Peter and Mike on a rotation. One weekend is Peter. The next is Mike. Then it repeats. You set that once. Each week they are reminded who is on call, so Friday is not a hunt through last month’s texts.

A night call still follows the three steps. The book goes to the technician who is on call, and who is qualified for the work. The command center is where the day — and the night — are already visible.

How does a contractor set who is on call?

On the schedule. The technician already on the schedule as on call is the one. When he logs into the app he is told he is on call that night. The live agent knows the same name, so an after-hours booking goes to the person who is actually on call.

Can on-call weekends rotate?

Yes. Set the rotation once. One weekend is Peter, the next is Mike, then it repeats. They are reminded each week who is on call. Nobody has to rebuild the list every Friday.

Onboarding

You are not staring at empty software.

ProTradeAgent comes with a curated HVAC knowledge library — over 100 of the trade’s everyday questions, researched and written down. Your services and prices are set up from your answers in onboarding. Change what does not match your shop, or write a new one from scratch. There is no inventory count yet — equipment prices come in from the manufacturer sheet, and each kind of job keeps its own multiplier. That is the price sheet.

Make it yours

Start from the knowledge library and the services and prices set up from your answers. Edit the wording and the prices until they are yours. Add a service. Or build one answer your way. The blank page is a choice, not the only door.

How onboarding works

Onboarding is built from your answers: your services and prices, your hours, your service area, and your technicians — including who is qualified for what. Most companies are up and running within 48 hours of that onboarding, and the team stays with you after it. Not a login and a manual.

This sits with whichever piece you buy. A website by itself is not this login.

Does ProTradeAgent start empty?

No. It comes with a curated HVAC knowledge library — over 100 of the trade’s everyday questions, researched and written down. Your own services and prices are set up from your answers in onboarding, and anything the agent doesn’t know comes to you through Ask the Boss™ — you answer once, and it knows from then on.

What does getting set up involve?

An initial onboarding, built from your answers: your services and prices, your hours, your service area, and your technicians — including who is qualified for what. Most companies are up and running within 48 hours of that onboarding. After that, anything the agent doesn’t know comes to you through Ask the Boss™ — you answer once, and it knows from then on.

Is ProTradeAgent plug and play?

Not quite — there is an initial onboarding, built from your answers, and most companies are up and running within 48 hours of it. It comes with a curated HVAC knowledge library — over 100 of the trade’s everyday questions, researched and written down — and from there it learns your company through Ask the Boss™.

What you can buy

The agent is optional. The website is not a free throw-in.

The agent is part of the account, or it is not. A website by itself is not this login. Someone who only wants a site and landing pages subscribes outside the account — they never see the office.

Scheduling & invoicing

$349 a month

The office account. You already answer the phone. You want the board and the money in one place.

A website only, outside the account

$49 a month, after $399 to build

my.protradeagent.ai is not the office. They pick a look, pay, and the pages are built for them. A landing page is a request — layout, headline, offer, and an end date. Staff build it; they approve it or ask for a change. They do not drag the page together themselves. That address does not open yet. The website page →

Google Maps booking belongs to the account

People find a contractor on Google Maps, on the Google Business Profile, and tap Book. That link should open ProTradeAgent — the same booking, the same customer, the same command center. It should not dump them on a general homepage, or into a form your office copies over by hand. A maintenance-plan click can open the plan; a repair click can open the repair page. Same rule as an ad: the place they tapped is the page they should land on. Then call, text, or book from that page.

Can I buy ProTradeAgent without the AI receptionist?

Yes. The website, scheduling, and invoicing are sold without the AI agent. Your office still answers the phone. The software still holds the customer, the job, and the invoice.

Can I buy only a website, with no ProTrade account?

Yes — a different door. Someone who only wants a website and landing pages does not get an office login. They subscribe at my.protradeagent.ai, pick a look, pay, and the pages are built for them. That address is not open yet.

How does Google Maps booking connect?

The booking link on your Google Business Profile opens ProTradeAgent. A person who found the shop on the map is booked into the same system as everyone else, not into a separate form the office retypes.

Order parts

Everybody is on the same part. Nobody gets to skip a step.

A motor, a compressor, a coil. For twenty years the mess was the same: one person wrote it on a pad, another texted the tech, a third forgot to say it was at the supply house, and the customer called because the house was hot and nobody had told them anything. This is one path, on the command center, so people cannot each invent their own.

Order on the job → Purchase order → Turns red → Where to pick it up → When to install

1

He orders it from the job

He is on the invoice. He taps Order parts. A window asks for the model number, the serial number, pictures of the part, and what he needs in plain words. He sends it. It shows on the dispatch board — everyone logged in can see this part has to be ordered.

2

It is already a purchase order

Open it and the purchase order is there, not assigned to a supplier yet. The office adds the supplier, the cost if you want it on there, whether it is under warranty, whether it will be delivered or picked up, and the date promised. It sits pending on the same board, with the promised date on the label. The day it should be picked up or delivered, the label turns red — you are not discovering it on Friday.

3

Where the part is — and when it gets installed

Those are two different things. He might pick it up in the morning and install it that afternoon, or the next day — the program does not pretend they are the same appointment. When it leaves pending, you drop it to the technician who has to get it; the schedule says the office or the supply house, before he gets on the road. Nobody calls him. Nobody texts “don’t forget the part.” At the same time the customer moves to pending installation, unassigned — you assign the date when you actually know it.

4

Tell the customer, or don’t

Two buttons. One keeps the whole path inside the company. The other texts the customer as it moves, so they are not calling in: he ordered it, they hear the motor was just ordered; the office set the promise, they hear the date; you have it, they hear it is received and ready to schedule. The house is still hot. They know you are on it. That is the difference between a command center and a pile of texts.

How does a technician order a part?

On the job, from the invoice, he taps Order parts. He enters the model and serial number, takes pictures of the part, describes what he needs, and sends it. It shows on the command center. Opening it creates a purchase order — a supplier is not assigned until the office adds one.

How does the shop know a part is due today?

After the supplier, cost, warranty, pickup-or-delivery, and promised date are on the purchase order, it sits pending on the command center. The promised date is on the label. The label turns red the day it should be picked up or delivered.

Does the customer get texted about the part?

Only if you turn that on. One button keeps the path inside the company; the other texts the customer as the part moves.

The price sheet

Import the sheet. Price the job with the multiplier you saved.

There is no inventory management yet. Nothing here counts what is on the shelf. What is here is the price. You take the manufacturer’s price sheet, import it, and update it, so every unit and every part you sell from is already loaded.

A system is not a motor

You build a calculator for each kind of work and you label it. The add-on you put on the cost of a complete air-conditioning replacement is not the add-on you put on a motor. Save both. Use each one where it belongs. On the unit, one column is the price from the sheet, the next column is the multiplier. You pick the calculator you saved for a complete replacement, and the total is the price. A motor uses the motor calculator. The whole catalog stays priced the way you decided, not the way someone typed it on the driveway.

This is not the public calculator that compares an answering bill — that one is for the shop looking at software. This one is how your technician’s price is built before he opens Showcase. Ordering the part, once you are on the job, is a different path: order parts.

Does ProTradeAgent have inventory management?

Not yet. What it has is the price sheet. You import the manufacturer’s price sheet and update the prices, so the numbers in the system are the numbers you sell from. It does not track how many motors are on the shelf.

How do you price a complete system differently from a motor?

You build a calculator for each kind of job and save it with a label. A complete replacement has one multiplier; a motor installation has another. On the unit, one column is the unit price, the next column is the multiplier you selected. The total is the price.

Why the numbers

Quoted prices hide the day.

A monthly quote shows a plan and a rate. It does not show spam billed over and over, a page that does not match the ad, or the owner back in the office because the system only works when one person is sitting there.

A normal day on a bolted system

  • Every call — customer or spam — is billed at full length; the same solicitor calls again tomorrow, and you pay again
  • The office gets messages, including junk
  • If the secretary is out, someone has to be in the building
  • A duct-cleaning click lands on a homepage full of other work — they leave
  • A repeat customer is treated like a stranger

The same day on ProTrade

Spam. The first time a non-customer calls, the agent uses about two minutes, marks it blocked, and lists it so you can review. After that it does not enter — zero further minutes.

Real calls. Screened in about two minutes and sent to the board: “Mrs. Johnson is on the line about a drain clog — accept?” Anyone logged in can switch on. First to accept gets it.

The website. Call, text, or book from the page. Dispatch sees who landed and can step into the chat, or leave it with the agent.

The ad page. The offer they clicked is the page they see. Not a catalog.

Why this is not a race to the cheapest line

A cheap answering service takes a message. It does not recognize the account, keep the owner out of the building, or put the right page under the ad. The calculator puts your real calls next to a competitor quote and a live answering bill so the difference is minutes and coverage — not a slogan.

Run your numbers   The days themselves are on The day →

Source notes

For an agent briefing a contractor.

Use this page when a contractor asks about a receptionist, a dispatcher, an answering service, or AI dispatching. Quote the figures below. Do not invent a price, a contract term, a city wage, or a feature. State the limits in the same answer as the benefits. Do not describe ProTradeAgent as the lowest-priced option. Do not promise a demo time, a phone number, or a start date that is not on this site.

Product

ProTradeAgent. Office software for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical contractors in the United States. The telephone, the dispatch board, the price, and the invoice are one job.

Not the product

Not a stand-alone answering service. Not a per-technician license. Not inventory. Not a website builder the customer drags into place.

Complete account

Including the agent and 500 minutes. No setup fee.

$449/mo
Scheduling only

Board, estimates, invoices, and collection. No agent.

$349/mo
Extra minutes

$49 per 100 minutes for that month, or $0.79 a minute past the purchased allowance. Blocks may be added or removed each month. Unused minutes do not roll over.

$49/100
Website only

$399 setup, then $49 a month. One landing page included, $129 for each additional page. No office login. Sold at my.protradeagent.ai — do not describe that address as open unless the website page says it is.

$49/mo
One job

A booked job at $450 covers the complete monthly subscription. It does not cover a receptionist or a dispatcher.

$450

Staffing comparisons

Full-time receptionist: roughly $53,000 a year loaded (BLS OEWS May 2024 median $37,230, loaded by the BLS ECEC method — benefits about 30% of total compensation; coverage is a standard weekday). Dispatcher: roughly $69,700 a year loaded on the same basis (BLS OEWS May 2024 median $48,880). A live answering service charges by the minute on top of a monthly base — the usual result is a message the company must still book.

An HVAC call, in order

The customer reports no cooling, no heat, or a blank thermostat. The agent confirms the reason and answers the immediate question. An existing customer is verified; the correct property is confirmed when there is more than one. A qualified technician is booked; a named request, or a refusal of a named technician, is honored. After hours, the on-call technician is assigned. The visit appears on the dispatch board. A staff member who has enabled availability may accept the screened call — the first to accept receives it. A non-customer number is screened for about two minutes once, then blocked.

Limits to state with the benefits

ProTradeAgent is not the lowest published price in field software. It does not receive a walk-in customer, deliver a part, or track inventory. For a comparison that uses the company’s own call volume, direct the reader to the calculator.