For plumbing businesses
Quote the water heater in the driveway. Get paid before the truck pulls out.
Service calls, flat-rate repairs, after-hours emergencies, repipes that need a deposit and memberships that renew every year. Fee-Lion puts the estimate, the clock, the parts receipts and the Pay button in one place, so the paperwork is done when the job is.
Explore the live demo See the client portal
No signup, no password: walk around Copperline Plumbing’s workspace. Or start your free trial.
Sound familiar?
The paperwork side of the job.
- A 2 a.m. burst-pipe call gets billed at the day rate because nobody wrote down when the truck rolled.
- The homeowner says yes to the repipe at the kitchen table, then goes quiet when the deposit comes up.
- Fittings, PRVs and the 50-gallon tank from the supply house live on receipts in the door pocket and never make it onto the invoice.
- Permit fees and a re-inspection quietly eat the margin on what should have been a clean water heater swap.
- The tech is handed a check, and it rides on the dash for a week before anyone records it.
- Membership renewals get billed by hand in January, and the ones nobody chases just lapse.
A real example
What an estimate looks like.
Line by line, the way you’d actually quote it: quantity times rate, tax worked out for you.
- Your client opens one link and approves it.
- Approved estimates turn into invoices in one click.
- Your logo, your terms, and your line items saved for next time.
Prepared for Dana Whitfield — 14 Alder Ct.
| Item | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50-gal atmospheric gas water heater, 6-year tank warranty 1 ea × $1,385.00 | 1 ea | $1,385.00 | $1,385.00 |
| Install labor: drain, disconnect, set and connect new tank 4 hr × $145.00 | 4 hr | $145.00 | $580.00 |
| Thermal expansion tank, 2 gal, installed 1 ea × $165.00 | 1 ea | $165.00 | $165.00 |
| Gas flex connector, shutoff valve and sediment trap 1 ea × $95.00 | 1 ea | $95.00 | $95.00 |
| Draft hood and vent connector, re-pitched to code 1 ea × $85.00 | 1 ea | $85.00 | $85.00 |
| City plumbing permit and inspection 1 ea × $125.00 | 1 ea | $125.00 | $125.00 |
| Haul-away and disposal of old tank 1 ea × $75.00 | 1 ea | $75.00 | $75.00 |
We pull the permit and meet the inspector. One-year labor warranty on our work; the 6-year tank warranty is the manufacturer's. Price good for 30 days.
Sent with Fee-Lion · example document, fictional client
How Fee-Lion fits
The parts that do the heavy lifting.
Estimates from the driveway
Tank, expansion tank, gas connector, permit, haul-away: itemized on your phone and sent before you walk back in. You see when they open it, and they approve from the link.
More on estimates & proposalsJob Clock with an after-hours tile
Set tiles like Diagnosis at $145/hr, Leak detection, Travel and After-hours at $225/hr. Tap to start, tap the next to switch, and the night call bills at the night rate without anyone doing math.
More on time trackingDeposits on the big jobs
Repipes, sewer line replacements and slab leak reroutes go out with a deposit percentage. Approval and the deposit happen in the same visit to the link, and the deposit credits itself on the final invoice.
More on online paymentsPaid before you leave
Convert the estimate to an invoice, send it, and the customer taps Pay on their phone. A check or cash goes on the invoice as a payment right away, not at the end of the week.
More on invoicingParts and permits on the job
Snap the supply-house receipt and the permit fee onto the job as expenses, tied to the supplier. The job report shows what the water heater swap actually made.
More on expense tracking & bookkeepingMemberships that renew themselves
A yearly or monthly maintenance plan is a recurring invoice. Customers who save a card are charged on schedule; you get a draft to look over first.
More on invoicingProperty managers in one place
Each management company keeps its buildings, contacts, open invoices and balance on one record, and the aging report shows who is past 30 days.
More on companies & contactsRequests from your website
A Request service form with service choices, an urgency question and a photo upload. Every submission lands in a Requests inbox, and can draft the estimate from your price book.
More on request formsStatements for property managers
Send each management company one statement with every unit's invoices, payments and credits, a running balance and aging.
More on credit notes & statementsA day with Fee-Lion
How it actually plays out.
- 7:40 a.m., no hot water at the Whitfields. Tap Travel on the Job Clock leaving the shop and Diagnosis at the door. The tank is weeping at the bottom seam.
- Build EST-1042 on your phone in the driveway: tank, expansion tank, gas connector, vent, permit, haul-away. Send it while Dana is still on the porch.
- "Opened 8:12, approved 8:15" lands in the feed before you are back at the truck. Head to the supply house and snap the receipt onto the job as an expense.
- Install, leak check, light the pilot, schedule the inspection. Convert the estimate to an invoice and send it; Dana pays by card from the link before you load the dolly.
- 9:10 p.m., the on-call phone rings: water coming through a ceiling. Tap After-hours and the clock runs at the night rate until you tap off.
- Next morning, select last night's entries and bill them onto the invoice in one move. No notebook, no guessing at what time you got there.
- Friday, the aging report shows two property-management invoices at 30 days. The reminders already went out; you only call the one that hasn't opened its email.
Live demo
Click around Copperline Plumbing.
A residential and light-commercial plumbing shop with water heater swaps, sewer camera inspections, after-hours calls, a repipe on deposit and yearly memberships.
A real Fee-Lion workspace set up as Copperline Plumbing, with sample clients, jobs, estimates and invoices. No signup, no password. Changes are switched off, so click anything.
Questions
What people ask before they switch.
How do I invoice a customer on site as a plumber?
Finish the job, turn the approved estimate (or a fresh invoice) into the final bill, and send it before you leave. In Fee-Lion the customer opens the link on their phone and pays by card; if they hand you a check or cash, record it on the invoice as a payment so the balance is right that day. Either way they get a receipt and you are not chasing it next week.
Should plumbers charge flat rate or by the hour?
Most residential shops quote common repairs at a flat rate (a water heater swap, a PRV, a toilet rebuild) because homeowners want a number before work starts, and bill hourly for open-ended work like leak detection, drain jobs that keep going, or commercial service. Many do both on the same ticket. Fee-Lion lets one estimate or invoice mix flat-rate items with hourly lines.
How much do plumbers charge for after-hours calls?
It varies a lot by market, but after-hours, weekend and holiday work is commonly billed at time-and-a-half to double the normal rate, or with a separate emergency dispatch fee on top. Whatever you charge, put it in writing on the estimate or your terms so the customer is not surprised. A separate After-hours tile on the Job Clock keeps those hours at the right rate automatically.
Do I need a permit to replace a water heater?
In most US jurisdictions, yes: replacing a gas or electric water heater usually requires a plumbing permit (and sometimes a gas or mechanical permit) plus an inspection for venting, the T&P discharge line and seismic strapping where required. Check with your local building department. Listing the permit as its own line on the estimate shows the customer where the money goes.
How do I take a deposit on a repipe?
State the deposit on the estimate and collect it when the customer says yes, before you order the pipe. In Fee-Lion you set a deposit percentage on the estimate; the customer approves and pays it by card from the same link, and it credits automatically when the estimate becomes the final invoice. Check your state's home-improvement rules, since some cap residential deposits.
How should I bill a plumbing maintenance membership?
Charge a yearly fee (or a monthly one) that covers an annual inspection and member perks like priority scheduling or a repair discount. In Fee-Lion each membership is a recurring invoice with auto-pay for customers who save a card, so renewals do not depend on someone remembering in January.
Your next estimate could go out tonight.
Start a 14-day free trial, no card needed, or look around Copperline Plumbing first.