PestBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

What the Tech Sees on a Commercial Pest Control Stop

From the office, a commercial account is a client, a set of addresses, a plan and a statement. From the tech's side it is simpler and more urgent: where am I going, how do I get in, what do I check, and what do I need to write down before I leave. The tech app is where all of that comes together on a phone in the truck.

The Stop on the Route

Putting commercial stops on the schedule was covered in Fitting Commercial Pest Control Stops Into a Residential Route. Once the route is set on the dispatch board, the tech sees the same order on their phone.

The tech app runs in the browser on iPhone and Android and can be installed to the home screen. There is no app store download. Techs sign in with your company login and their own personal PIN, so every visit, photo and record belongs to the right person.

Before Pulling In

Each stop on the list is a card. For a commercial stop, the card shows:

• The address, with a navigation button that opens directions.
• Access notes, like “Rear door by grease bin, lockbox code in notes, before 6am only.”
• Service notes, like “Check under fryer line and floor drain by dish. 4 exterior rodent stations.”
• Past notes from earlier visits, so the tech can see what was found last month.

Reading last month's notes in the parking lot is the single best habit a commercial tech can have. If last month said “activity at station 3, gap under back door reported,” the tech knows exactly where to look first.

Start, Skip or Complete

Three buttons run the stop:

• Start tells the office the tech is on site. The on-the-way and arrived texts go out automatically to the contacts who chose them, so the manager knows the tech is there.
• Skip is for when the stop cannot be done. The tech notes why: “Lockbox empty,” “Manager asked to come back tomorrow,” “Building closed for holiday.” The office sees the reason.
• Complete finishes the stop and saves everything with it.

The location stays due on the Waiting List after a skip, so it does not quietly fall off the schedule.

Recording What Was Applied

At completion, the tech records what was applied. If the stop uses a product mix, like your commercial interior mix, the app uses the mix and its rates per gallon to work out what was applied. The tech confirms the amounts and areas.

That turns into the application record kept with the job: the date and times, the products with active ingredients and EPA reg. no. if entered, the amounts, the area and site treated, the target pest, the equipment, the tech's name and license number, the weather and the re-entry interval. The tech does not fill out a paper ticket.

At the start of the day, the same mixes help the tech work out what to load in the truck for all of the day's stops.

Photos and Notes

Commercial stops are where photos matter most. The tech takes before-and-after photos from the app during the stop: conditions found, entry points, devices, work done. They stay with the job.

Then the notes. A good commercial note says what was serviced, what was found, and what was reported to whom. “Serviced kitchen, dish, dry storage, exterior. Light activity under dish machine. Back door sweep still missing, told kitchen manager.” That note is what the next tech reads next month, and what the office shows the manager if they ask. More on photo habits in Before-and-After Photos as Proof of Service on Commercial Pest Control Accounts.

After Complete

When the tech taps Complete, the office sees the stop done with its photos, notes and record. What happens to the bill depends on the account:

• A single location billed per visit gets an invoice, and a card on file can be charged right then.
• A multi-location account on Monthly billing has the visit added to its monthly statement.

Post-treatment instruction emails can go to the contact automatically. The tech moves to the next card. The tech's GPS shows on the office map, so the office can tell the next manager how close the tech is.

If a completed stop somehow ends up without a record, the “need a chemical record” button on the schedule shows it, so the office can catch it the same day. To see how the tech's side fits with the rest of running commercial accounts, visit the PestBossPro commercial pest control software page.