Features

Everything you need. Nothing you don't.

Backbone gives a small contracting business one mobile-first tool that runs the whole job — from the first estimate to the final paid invoice and the profit number at the end. No add-ons. No upsells. No back office required.

Estimates

Estimates & price book

Draft a clean, signable estimate in under two minutes. The price book is yours — material, labor, and margin built in. AI drafts from a photo, voice note, or rough notes.

Photo-to-estimate (AI) — draft a quote from a job-site photo
Voice notes auto-transcribed into estimate line items
Customizable price book with bundled jobs and modifiers
Signature capture + deposit collection in one step
Reusable templates per trade (HVAC tune-up, panel upgrade, etc.)

Scheduling

Jobs & scheduling

Day, week, and map views built for a phone. Drag a job onto a tech, send the customer an arrival window, and watch real status — OMW, on-site, finished — instead of guessing.

Drag-and-drop dispatch from your phone or web
Automated customer arrival texts with live ETA
GPS check-in / check-out tracks time on-site
Recurring service plans (PMs, maintenance routes)
Day, week, and map views — same data, three lenses

Money

Invoicing & payments

Tap to invoice. Tap to charge. Card, ACH, and Apple Pay supported via Stripe under the hood. Per-transaction pricing — no monthly payment-processing fee.

Card + ACH + Apple Pay accepted on iPhone and Android
Auto-generated invoices that match the work performed
Deposits, progress billing, and milestone invoicing
Customer payment links via SMS or email
Next-business-day payouts to your bank

Costing

Job costing & margin

Projected vs. actual on every job. Receipts you photograph become material costs. Clock-in time becomes labor cost. The number you wanted is right next to the number you got.

Per-job profit & loss with material and labor breakdowns
Receipt OCR — photograph it, costs land in the right job
Labor cost from real clock-in / clock-out time
Customer lifetime value and repeat-job tracking
Crew profitability reports

CRM

Customer CRM & channels

Every text, call, estimate, invoice, photo, and signed document lives on the customer record. No more searching three apps to find what you said two months ago.

Unified inbox: SMS + email per customer thread
Photo and document library per job and per customer
Two-way SMS with A2P-compliant consent management
Equipment history (model numbers, serials, install dates)
Customer portal for invoice + estimate access

Trips

Trips & GPS

See where the truck is. Track time on-site automatically. Calculate fuel and travel cost into job profitability without anyone filling out a timesheet.

Background GPS with clock-in / clock-out detection
Live truck location on the dispatch map
Fuel cost estimation from trip distance
Mileage logs for tax season
Privacy-respectful — off-hours tracking is off

AI that does the paperwork

The same AI tools the big platforms charge $79/month extra for — included. Photo-to-estimate, voice-to-notes, invoice descriptions, customer follow-up drafts. Quietly competent, never in the way.

Photo-to-estimate from a job-site image
Voice-to-notes (job updates, call summaries)
Auto-drafted invoice descriptions from work performed
Suggested customer follow-up messages
Available in every plan (yes, even Starter)

Comparison

Backbone vs. the old way

We respect legacy field-service software for what it does. We just don't think it should cost three times as much and require a desktop.

Capability	Backbone	Legacy field-service software
Built for phones first	Always	Web-first, mobile-second
AI estimating	Included	$79+/mo add-on
GPS + clock-in	Included	Often a separate product
PaymentsPer transaction, not per month	Stripe-powered, instant payout	Per-transaction + monthly fee
Setup time	An afternoon	30–90 day implementation
Starting price	$39 / mo	$79–$189 / mo
Contracts	Month-to-month	Annual common

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