Scattered customer information
Customer details sit in inboxes, phones, sticky notes, and three different spreadsheets. Nobody has the full picture in one place.
Built in BC · Working with service businesses across Canada
A custom CRM built around how your business actually works.
Plainwork Studio builds custom CRMs and customer portals for service businesses across Canada, from our home base in the Fraser Valley. One-time build, you own the code and the data, no monthly per-user fees.
Your data is hosted in Canada.
(778) 957-4711Call, text, or WhatsApp
Job tracker12 open
JOB-1042Site visit · Burnaby
In progressJOB-1041Quote · Northshore
SentJOB-1040Invoice · Acme Ltd
PaidInternal tool
Tue, May 123 booked
9:00Sarah K.
10:30,
1:00M. Tran
3:30J. Patel
Booking
SK
Sarah K.
Catering · Lead
sarah@…
604 555…
Follow up Tue
CRM
Revenue18%
$48.2k
Dashboard
Form sent
Auto-reply
Added to CRM
Workflow
Sound familiar?
Customer work gets messy when it lives in ten places.
Most service businesses run on inboxes, spreadsheets, and memory. That works for a while. Then a lead goes unanswered, a quote gets lost in a reply chain, and the owner realizes nobody can see the whole picture.
Leads that never hear back
Someone fills out your form on Tuesday. By Friday, nobody remembers whose turn it was to reply.
No pipeline view
You can't answer a simple question: how many open quotes are out there right now, and how much are they worth?
Quotes buried in email threads
Every quote lives in a reply chain. Finding out whether the customer ever approved it means scrolling.
The spreadsheet is the system
One shared sheet runs the business. It breaks every other week, and only one person really understands it.
Customers keep calling for updates
'Any news on my repair?' calls pile up because there is no shared place to check job status.
Admin eats the week
Hours disappear into copy-paste, follow-up emails, and status updates that a system should send on its own.
The software bill grows every hire
Per-user pricing means adding one part-time employee raises your costs, whether they use the tool or not.
What we can build
CRMs we can build
Example concepts, not completed client work. Each one links to a page where we cover that kind of build in more depth.
Appliance repair CRM
Booking, dispatch, job tickets with model and serial fields, and automatic 'your technician is on the way' texts.
Learn moreGarage door company CRM
Install and repair quotes, scheduled site visits, photos on every job, and follow-ups that don't rely on memory.
Learn moreRepair shop intake CRM
Intake forms, job tickets, technician notes, quote approvals, and automatic status updates for customers.
Learn morePrint shop CRM
Quote requests, proof approvals, a job status board, and easy reorders for repeat customers.
Learn moreContractor job tracking CRM
Track a job from first call to final invoice, with site visits scheduled and photos attached to every stage.
Learn moreCRM with a customer portal
Customers submit requests, upload photos, approve quotes, and check status through a private link.
Learn moreStart small
You don't need a big software project.
The most useful CRMs we scope usually start as one small thing. Fix the most painful part first, then add to it once it's earning its keep.
One pipeline
A single view of every lead and quote, from first contact through to won or lost.
One customer portal
A private link where a customer can check job status, upload photos, or approve a quote.
One automation
A new lead gets an instant reply and lands in the pipeline, so nothing sits unanswered overnight.
One dashboard
A clean view of this week's jobs, bookings, or leads, without stitching spreadsheets together by hand.
Own vs rent
Why not just use Jobber, Housecall Pro, or HubSpot?
Field service platforms and off-the-shelf CRMs work for some businesses, and some teams get real value from them. For a small service operation, they usually mean renting features you'll never use on a per-user bill that grows every quarter. A custom CRM flips that math.
Off-the-shelf platform
Rented
- Monthly per-user fees, forever. The bill grows every time you hire.
- Features you don't use, configured around someone else's process.
- Your workflow bends to fit the tool.
- Your data lives on a vendor's platform, often outside Canada.
Plainwork
Owned
- Built once around your real process. Then it's yours.
- Only the features you actually use, nothing more.
- The tool fits your workflow, not the other way around.
- You own the code and the database, and your data stays in Canada.
How we work
From messy workflow to working CRM.
- 1
Discovery
We map how work moves through your business today: where leads come from, how quotes go out, and where things get dropped.
- 2
Plan
We sketch the screens, pipeline stages, user roles, and the data your first version needs. You see the plan before we build anything.
- 3
Build
We build with a fast, modern development workflow, with human review and testing at every step.
- 4
Review
You run the CRM with real customer data. We adjust the fields, wording, and workflow until it fits.
- 5
Launch and improve
We launch, show your team how to use it, and keep improving the system based on how you actually work in it.
About
A practical CRM studio, not a big agency.
Plainwork Studio is a custom CRM development studio for service businesses, based in the Fraser Valley. We work directly with the owner or operator. No account managers, no months-long discovery phase. Most builds are fully remote, and we work with owners across Canada. We build the kind of systems we run in our own businesses: intake forms that feed a pipeline, and status updates customers actually read. The goal on every project is the same. Give your team a tool that's clearly better than what they're using today, and ship it fast enough that you notice the difference.
FAQ
Common questions
Who owns the CRM when it's done?
You do. The code, the database, and the data are yours. There are no per-user licenses.
How long does a first version take?
A small first version usually takes a few weeks. We give you a real timeline after one scoping call.
What if we already use spreadsheets or Jobber?
We move your data over. Cleaning up a messy spreadsheet is a normal part of the build, not a surprise on the invoice.
Where is our data stored?
On Canadian hosting, built with PIPEDA in mind. You control who has access.
Tell us what you want to fix.
One short call. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and tell you honestly whether you need a one-week fix, a small first CRM, or a bigger project worth planning properly.
(778) 957-4711Call, text, or WhatsApp