How to set up your home or field service business on Opraly (step-by-step)

If you run a trade that goes to the customer — pest control, cleaning, plumbing, electrical, pressure washing, HVAC — your calendar lives in three places at once: the phone, a paper pad, and your head. Getting your business live on Opraly turns all three into one schedule that your crews, your office and your customers all see. Work through this checklist in order and you can be taking online jobs and dispatching a pro the same afternoon.

Before you start: what to have ready

You will move faster if you gather a few things first:

• Your business name, logo and brand colors for the booking page.
• A list of the services you offer and roughly how long each takes on site.
• The service area you cover — the towns, postcodes or radius you will drive to.
• Your crew or van roster — who runs which jobs.
• A bank/payout account if you plan to take deposits or charge on completion.

None of this has to be perfect on day one. You can refine every part later from settings.

Step 1: Open your account and pick the right edition

Head to Start free and create your Opraly account. When you pick your vertical, choose Home & field services — this turns on the field-specific tools (dispatch to the customer’s address, service areas, and recurring service plans) instead of the in-store appointment layout.

Most field businesses run from a single location — your depot, yard or office. If you operate from more than one base, add each as its own location so jobs, crews and reports stay separate while sharing one login.

Step 2: Build your services

In Opraly, the things customers book are your services. For a field business that means the work you do on site:

• Standard jobs — a standard pest treatment, an end-of-tenancy clean, a callout, a fuse-board replacement.
• Inspections and quotes — a free survey or a paid diagnostic visit.
• Add-ons — an extra room, a second-storey surcharge, materials.

Give each one a name, a duration (so the schedule knows how long to block on a van’s day), a price where relevant, and a short description. This is also where you flag which jobs need a deposit — more on that in Step 6.

Step 3: Add your crews, vans and roles

Field work is really about who is free and where they are. Add each crew member or van as a resource, then assign roles & permissions:

• Technicians see their own day, the jobs assigned to them, and the route.
• Dispatchers work the board — assigning jobs, balancing routes and handling reschedules.
• Managers see reporting & analytics and change settings.

Roles keep the right tools in front of the right people — a technician does not need your sales reports, and the office should not be editing payout details by accident.

Step 4: Draw your service areas

This is the step that makes field dispatch work. Set the service area each location covers — by postcode, town, or a radius around your base. When a customer books, Opraly checks their address against your area:

• In-area jobs land straight on the schedule.
• Out-of-area requests are politely refused before they ever clog your day, so you are not driving 40 minutes for a 20-minute job.

Get this right and your routes tighten themselves — every job that books is one you actually want to drive to.

Step 5: Turn on online booking and dispatch

Switch on online booking and Opraly generates your branded booking page — your name, logo and colors. A customer picks the service, enters their address, and chooses a time window. Because Opraly knows the job duration and the area, it only offers slots a crew can actually make.

Turn on dispatch so each booked job is assigned to a crew or van and shows on the board with its address and route. Enable on-my-way alerts and reminders with 2-way messaging, so the customer gets a heads-up before you arrive and can reply to adjust access details or reschedule — instead of missing the door.

Step 6: Connect payments, deposits and no-show protection

Connect your payout account, then decide how money moves. Opraly lets you choose the capture timing per service:

For most callouts, card-on-file with a no-show fee is enough — nothing is charged unless the customer is a no-show or cancels late after you have routed a van. Set a fair cancellation window so customers who give notice are never charged.

Step 7: Set up recurring plans (optional but powerful)

If any of your work repeats — quarterly pest control, monthly cleans, seasonal HVAC servicing — set up a recurring service plan now. Opraly will generate each due visit automatically and keep the customer on the schedule without anyone re-booking. We cover this in depth in recurring service plans: the steady-revenue engine for field businesses.

Step 8: Do a test run, then go live

Before you announce it, book a test job through your own branded page with a real address and walk it end to end: the area check, the confirmation, the on-my-way alert, the dispatch board, and closing payment. Check the job shows on the right van’s day and the messages read the way you want.

When it looks right, share your booking-page link everywhere customers find you — your website, Google profile, van livery and email footer. That is it: you are live.

What to do next

Setup is the start, not the finish. Once jobs are flowing, your next job is keeping the schedule full and turning one-off callouts into repeat customers. Read how to grow your home or field service business on Opraly, and see the full picture on the home & field services page.

Ready to set yours up? Start free and have online booking and dispatch running today.