How to Run Jobs from First Call to Final Invoice in ZartonAI

Why a single job record matters

For electricians, plumbers, HVAC companies, auto body shops and general contractors, the job is the thing everything else hangs off: the estimate, the crew, the schedule, the materials, the photos and the invoice.

In ZartonAI a job is one record with a number. The customer and their contact details, the site, the scope, the dates, the crew, the visits, the files and the stage history are all on it, and the rest of the platform — estimates, invoices, inventory and your daily briefing — points back to it.

How to manage jobs in ZartonAI, step by step

1. Create the job for the right customer. Start a new job with a short, plain title such as “Replace water heater” or “200A panel upgrade”. Pick the customer first: if they are already in your customer list, choose them so their history stays in one place; if they are new, enter their name, email and phone. A customer with the same email is reused rather than duplicated. Choose the type of work (installation, repair, maintenance, inspection, service call, remodel, new construction, emergency or other), a priority from low to urgent, and how they found you, such as website, referral or repeat customer. Every job gets its own number, like JOB-12, so the whole team can refer to it the same way.
2. Add the job site and access notes. Attach one of the customer’s existing sites, or add a new address. Use the access notes for what a crew needs at the curb: the gate code, where to park, the dog in the yard.
3. Write the scope, value and dates. Describe the work in the scope so the office and the crew read the same thing. Add the estimated value and the planned start and end dates. If the customer gave you a purchase order number, enter it; for permitted work you can also keep the permit number, the inspection date and the warranty end date on the job, so they are not lost in a paper folder.
4. Move the job through its stages. Each job sits in one stage: lead, bidding, won, scheduled, in progress, on hold, done, invoiced or lost. Move it forward as things happen — bidding when you send the estimate, won when it is accepted, scheduled when it has dates, and so on. The job keeps its stage history, and you can list jobs by stage to see at a glance what is waiting for a price, what starts next week and what is finished but not yet billed. Changing a stage needs the Jobs “manage” permission, so you decide who on the team can do it.
5. Say what skills the work needs, then pick the crew. List the skills and certifications the job calls for — for example “gas fitting” or a current electrical license. ZartonAI then checks each team member against that list, counts a certificate only if it is still valid through the end of the job, and looks at whether they are actually free across the job’s dates: on the rota, not away, and not crewing another job at the same time. The best fits are shown first. Add the people you want to the crew and name a job lead.
6. Book the site visit or planning call. Schedule a walkthrough, inspection or meeting for the job. A visit uses the job site’s address, and you choose the date, time, length and which crew members are going. If you want the customer there, add them to the invite list; with Google Calendar connected, invites go out from your calendar, and a meeting can include a Google Meet link.
7. Plan the work and keep the photos on the job. Break bigger jobs into milestones and tasks, such as “rough-in”, “inspection” and “trim-out”, so progress is visible in the job’s work plan. Files and photos are kept on the job by stage — before, during, after, or document — and you can send the customer a link to upload their own photos from their phone, without an account. Whatever they send lands in the job’s files.
8. Close it out and bill it. When the work is finished, move the job to done, then to invoiced once you have billed it. Everything stays on the job, so it is easy to find later — even by description, like “the water heater on Elm Street”.

What each job stage means

Tips and common mistakes

Do it with Claude

ZartonAI works with Claude through the Zarton connector, so an owner or office manager can run jobs in plain language from a phone or laptop. Claude looks up the job and your team before changing anything, and tells you if a name does not match anyone. Booking a visit and asking a customer for photos reach other people, so they only work when “Allow actions” is switched on for the connection. Try requests like:

“Make a job for Dana Price: replace the 50-gallon water heater at 18 Elm Street, repair, high priority, she found us through a referral.”

“JOB-14 needs gas fitting. Who has the skills and is free those days?”

“Book a site visit for JOB-14 on Tuesday at 9:30 with Marco, and invite the customer.”

“Move the Elm Street job to on hold — we’re waiting on the inspection — and add a milestone for the final inspection.”

“What’s happening today? Who’s on which job, and is anything overdue?”

See what else Claude can do on our Works with Claude page.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• How to Capture, Rate and Answer Website Leads in ZartonAI — where many jobs begin.
• How to Create and Send Estimates in ZartonAI — the step between “lead” and “won”.