Industries / Plumbing
A burst pipe jumps the queue. A dripping faucet does not.
Works today
Take the emergency call, quote flat rate, route the van, get paid on site.
Apex sorts a burst pipe from a slow drain at intake, schedules standard calls in tidy windows, and remembers every water heater in the neighborhood by age.
Who it is for: Residential and light commercial plumbers running service calls, drain work, water heaters and repipes.
What generic schedulers get wrong for plumbing
Emergencies need the fastest qualified tech
A burst pipe or sewer backup goes to whoever is nearest and certified, not to the next free slot on a list.
Price is by task
A flat rate per task, with an after-hours multiplier and a camera or jetting add-on, is how plumbers quote. Hourly line items misprice it.
The shutoff question comes first
Knowing where the main shutoff is, and whether water is still running, changes the response before a tech leaves.
Water heaters age on a schedule
A heater at year eleven is a sale waiting to happen. Generic tools do not keep install dates and warranty terms per site.
Permits and backflow tests recur
A repipe or heater changeout needs a permit, and commercial backflow tests come back every year with a certified tester.
Drawn in code for plumbing
A day in a plumbing business
- Burst or backup
- Standard repair
- Water heater
- Drain
- Backflow test
Amber dot on the Thursday heater: waiting on a permit.
Critical, on callemergency
10:00 to 12:00permit
1:00 to 3:00
The emergency, a lift job and a drain on one side of town.
Age-based outreach is in build.
A plumbing day: a burst pipe, a two-tech heater job waiting on a permit and a drain camera call. Illustration of planned screens: entries are examples, not customer data, and not every screen shown is built yet.
How plumbing runs in Apex: the key settings
Starter settings for this trade. You change any of them. Nothing here is a promise about your numbers.
How jobs get booked
Emergency tiers (burst or sewer backup, no hot water, slow drain) plus standard windows: 8-10, 10-12, 12-2, 2-4, Monday to Saturday.
Stops in a day
Around 6 calls a day per plumber; two-tech lifts take a pair for the day.
Routing
Dynamic cluster for standard calls; emergencies bypass density.
Who says yes
Dispatcher confirms emergencies. Standard calls need owner confirmation.
How you price
Flat rate per task, a diagnostic fee credited to the repair, after-hours multiplier, and good-better-best for heaters.
Repeat customers
Annual water heater flush plan and commercial backflow tests each year.
Follow-up calls
Same-day callback after an emergency, day-3 check, day-30 warranty check.
Review requests
Review request a day after a paid job, held back on an open issue.
What we ask the customer
- Problem and which fixture
- Is water running? Do you know the main shutoff?
- Sewage involved?
- Property: owner, tenant or landlord
- Water heater age and fuel
- Access, pets and parking
Photos and papers to collect
- Photo of the leak or fixture
- Water heater data plate
- Photo of the shutoff valve
Rules to watch
- Plumbing license on every quote
- Permit for water heater and repipe
- Backflow tester certificate and annual test record
- Expansion tank and seismic strap check
What you get as a plumbing business
7 of 17 work today. The other 10 are coming soon.
Standard windows for non-emergency calls
Two-hour windows, never exact times.
Missed-call text-back
A flooding call that rings out gets a text asking for a photo and the address.
On-my-way text and 24-hour reminders
Opt-out handling and quiet hours enforced.
Route density on standard calls
Calls are offered near an existing job.
Follow-up call tasks
Day-1 and day-30 tasks with a script and outcomes.
Photo chaser for a leak
A task when no photo arrives for a quote.
Starting pack for plumbing
Emergency windows and dispatcher approval as owner-confirmed defaults.
Emergency tiers with on-call rotation
Burst or sewer first, no hot water second, then standard.
Shutoff and active-leak triage
The answers set the tier before dispatch.
Flat-rate price book per task
Task-based prices with an after-hours multiplier and camera or jetting add-ons.
Diagnostic fee credited to the repair
Collected at booking, applied to the job if approved.
Water heater age outreach
Install date and warranty term per site, with a call when it turns eleven.
Truck stock of fittings and heaters
Warns when a one-visit job needs a part not on the truck.
Permit tracking for heaters and repipes
Applied, approved and inspected as dated steps on the job.
Backflow test reminders
An annual test with tester certificate and report, filed per site.
Two-tech lift jobs
A heater replacement reserves a second tech for the lift.
Camera and jetter skills
Matches a drain call to a tech with the equipment.
The tools in plumbing, and where we can honestly do better
Tools our research found in use for plumbing: ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, FieldEdge, Fergus, ServiceM8, Tradify. Listing a tool is not a claim about it.
ServiceTitan
Capterra reviewers say support escalation can take long, with cases left open or closed unresolved.
Review-site summary: Capterra, ServiceTitan reviewsWhat Apex does about it: We will publish a support response target on the status page. Today support is a small team, so we promise a target, not a headcount.
Housecall Pro
G2's review summary lists inventory limits, glitches, customization limits, slow photo uploads and weak offline mobile functionality among user complaints.
Review-site summary: G2, Housecall ProWhat Apex does about it: The crew app is in build, with offline use and photo upload as acceptance tests. We have not shipped it yet.
FieldEdge
Capterra reviewers mention bugs, mobile support fees and confusing payment-fee expectations. Our research did not count how often.
Review-site summary: Capterra, FieldEdgeWhat Apex does about it: Fees are public and processing is passed through at the processor's rate, with no markup.
When another tool may be the better choice: ServiceTitan and FieldEdge are established for plumbing and run emergency dispatch at scale. Fergus, Tradify and ServiceM8 are popular with small plumbers outside the United States. Apex is newer, and several plumbing items are in build.
What it costs for plumbing
Apex lists three public plans, priced by users: Solo $59 per month for 1 user, Crew $99 for 2 to 5 users, Business $129 for 6 users plus $10 for each extra user. No plan includes any texts, AI phone minutes or AI usage. For this trade we would start you on Business. A plumbing shop with several vans and a dispatcher usually passes five users, which fits Business; a smaller shop fits Crew.
Housecall Pro lists Basic at $59, Essentials at $149 and Max at $299 per month billed annually, or $79, $189 and $329 billed monthly. Workiz does not publish plan prices, so we show none. These are public figures as read on 2026-10-06, verify before buying. Seat counts and included features differ between vendors, and we have not verified every one, so compare your own crew size on the pricing page before you decide. Texts and AI run on your own provider account or a prepaid wallet, and card processing is at the processor's own rate.