The CRM for Tradespeople That Keeps Every Job on Track

Why tradespeople need a CRM

A CRM for tradespeople replaces the scattered notes, missed callbacks, and spreadsheet chaos with a single system that tracks every lead, every quote, and every job. In the trades, business runs on personal relationships, referrals, and repeat clients, but as your workload grows, keeping everything in your head or on scraps of paper stops working.

Without a tradesperson CRM, common problems pile up fast:

• Inquiries vanish: A homeowner calls while you are on a roof. You scribble a number, but it disappears into a pocket or truck console.
• Quotes go cold: You send an estimate on Monday, get busy all week, and a competitor who followed up on Wednesday wins the job.
• Client data lives everywhere: Contacts in your phone, job notes in emails, invoices in a folder: nobody else on your team can find anything.
• Repeat business slips away: A customer you did great work for last year needs you again, but you have no system to stay in touch.
• Nobody knows who is on which job: Who visited the client, which site is next, and what was agreed lives in text messages.
• No visibility into your pipeline: You do not know how many quotes are pending or what your pipeline is worth.

A CRM for trade businesses brings structure to the business side of your work so you can focus on the trade itself. Customermates gives you pipeline management, contact tracking, and task management, without enterprise complexity or cost. It is not field service software: it does not schedule or dispatch crews, and it does not produce quotes or invoices. Run it next to your invoicing tool.

How Customermates works as a trades CRM

Customermates is built for trade businesses of every size, from a sole trader to a growing crew with office staff. Here is how it supports every stage of a job.

Job pipeline from inquiry to completion

Track every opportunity from first call through site visit, quote, acceptance, and job completion. The Kanban pipeline view lets you drag jobs between stages so you always see where every job stands. Each stage can carry a probability, so you see weighted values for your open quotes. Whether you are a plumber, electrician, or HVAC technician, the stages adapt to your workflow.

Quote tracking and follow-up

Sending quotes is only half the battle; winning the work requires timely follow-up. You write the quote in your usual tool, then record its value on the job and move it to Quote sent. A saved view of jobs in that stage, sorted by last update, shows at a glance which estimates need chasing and how much revenue is pending. On Customermates Cloud, a routine can check that view for you: every Monday, the Mate assistant lists quotes that have not moved for a week and drafts a follow-up for each one for you to review.

Customer records with full history

Every client gets a complete profile: contact details, property address, past jobs, notes, and custom data, plus linked email and WhatsApp conversations on Pro. When a repeat customer calls, you know exactly what you did last time, when you did it, and what it was worth. Build lasting relationships with proper records instead of relying on memory. Manage all of this from contact management.

Task assignment for the crew

Assign tasks to team members with notes, linked to the job and the customer: who is visiting the client tomorrow, what materials need ordering, which inspection is coming up. Add a custom date field for the planned day and a saved view sorted by it. Customermates does not book appointments or check availability; keep your calendar or scheduling tool for that.

Invoicing handoff

Customermates does not create quotes or invoices. It tracks jobs through to completion and hands off to your invoicing tool: when a job moves to "Completed", a webhook can tell a separately operated n8n workflow or your own integration to create the invoice or request a review in the tool that does that job.

Repeat business tracking

Your most profitable work comes from returning clients and their referrals. Add a single-select field for recurring services (boiler servicing, electrical inspections, or annual gutter cleaning) and a custom date field for the next service. A saved view sorted by that date shows who is due. On Customermates Cloud, a routine can list those clients every month and draft the reminder message for you to send.

Automation with n8n

Connect your separately operated n8n instance through the Customermates community node, the API, and webhooks for workflows you own. n8n is not included in Customermates:

• Send a follow-up email from your own mail account 3 days after a job moves to "Quote sent"
• Trigger a satisfaction survey when a job is marked complete
• Send annual service messages to past clients
• Notify your team when a job moves to "Accepted"
• Request referrals and reviews from happy customers
• Create a task when a repeat client's maintenance window opens

AI agents that operate your CRM

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or another AI client through the MCP server (50 tools) and let it do the data entry. Agents draft professional follow-up emails, summarize long client email threads, log job notes, and move jobs between stages. You choose and pay for the AI client. On Customermates Cloud, the Mate assistant does the same inside the app and asks for confirmation before it sends a message or deletes anything.

Key features of a CRM for tradespeople

Pipeline management with Kanban view

Visualize your entire business on a drag-and-drop Kanban board: New Inquiry, Site Visit Booked, Quote Sent, Follow-Up Needed, Accepted, In Progress, Completed. Filter by job type, value, or date. See your whole pipeline at a glance and know exactly what needs attention today.

Custom fields for trade-specific data

Track everything relevant to your trade: job type, property address, access instructions, estimated value, materials needed, permit status, and projected timeline. Custom fields sit directly on job and contact records, so you need no separate spreadsheets or systems. Photos and documents stay in your file storage; store the link in a link field.

Mobile-friendly for the field

Access your CRM from the job site on any phone or tablet browser. Add notes after a site visit, update job stages, and check client details without installing an app. There is no native iOS or Android app.

Open source and self-hostable

Customermates is open source. Inspect the code, contribute, or self-host the core on your own server (with the Starter feature set) for complete control over where data lives. Records can be exported one record type at a time as Excel workbooks (XLSX) or read through the REST API.

Data protection and data location

Client addresses, property details, and financial data deserve proper protection. In the managed cloud, the application database runs in the AWS Frankfurt region; hosting and other subprocessors, including US providers, are listed on the subprocessors page, and a DPA is available. If you need full control over where data lives, self-host the open-source core.

Pricing that works for trade businesses

Trade businesses do not need a CRM that costs hundreds per month. Customermates keeps it simple, billed monthly per user, no per-job fees:

• Starter (€12 per user per month): job pipeline, custom fields, dashboards, REST API, webhooks, MCP, and the Mate assistant with monthly AI credits
• Pro (€29 per user per month): adds the unified inbox, with customer email and WhatsApp linked to your customers
• No hidden costs: no surcharges for contacts, webhooks, or API access
• Self-hostable: run the open-source core on your own infrastructure with no licence cost; the inbox and Mate are cloud-only

For a sole trader, that is €12 per month on Starter. For a team of 4 with an office coordinator, it is €48 per month. Field service platforms such as ServiceTitan or Jobber also include scheduling, dispatch, and invoicing, which Customermates does not; if you need those every day, such a platform is the better choice.

See the full breakdown on our pricing page.

Getting started in minutes

Setting up Customermates for your trade business is fast:

1. Create an account: free, no credit card required. The first 7 days are on us.
2. Import your customers: upload an Excel workbook (XLSX) for contacts, organizations, or jobs, one record type at a time, or use the REST API or an AI client over MCP.
3. Set up your pipeline: create stages that match your workflow: Inquiry, Site Visit, Quote Sent, Follow-Up, Accepted, In Progress, Completed.
4. Add custom fields: define fields for job type, property address, quote amount, materials, and crew assignment.
5. Set up follow-ups: create saved views for open quotes and upcoming services, and on Customermates Cloud a routine that checks them for you.

No IT team needed, no weeks of setup. Customermates is open source, and records can be exported one record type at a time as Excel workbooks (XLSX).

Frequently asked questions