- What is snow plowing software?
- Snow plowing software helps contractors manage customers, seasonal contracts, snow routes, service records and billing. PlowPilot brings those tasks together in a tablet-friendly workspace for independent snow removal businesses.
- Does PlowPilot include snow plow routing software?
- Yes. Plan contract-backed route lists, order and optimize stops, invite drivers and open navigation. Drivers see the routes assigned to them by their business. Route suggestions do not replace your judgment about road conditions or safe operation.
- Can I keep my customers for next season?
- Yes. Keep the customer profile and create a new contract with the next season’s dates, pricing and terms.
- How do service-completion emails work?
- Choose whether to notify the customer when service is complete. Emails use your business branding. A photo link is included only when you choose to share the job’s current photos at completion.
- What if cars or another obstacle prevent service?
- Choose Unable to service, enter the required reason and optionally take or upload photos. Return later this trip moves the stop to the end of the current run; a return time is not guaranteed. Skip for this trip leaves it unserviced for that trip only, without changing future route masters. Save only, or choose to email an eligible customer using your editable business-branded unable-to-service template. The email includes your reason and links only to the photos you explicitly share; no shared photos means no photo links. Email permission, sending limits and provider availability apply.
- Can I document and print an unsuccessful visit?
- Yes. Attempted visits retain their own reason, trip choice, photos, visit and server-received times, fresh device GPS when available, and automatic nearby U.S. NOAA / National Weather Service observations after sync. Missing GPS or weather is clearly labeled. Open the attempted visit in its history to print a separate attempted-service record that says no service was completed, not a completed-service proof packet. It remains even if you later complete the stop. Device GPS records the device’s reported position; it is not independently verified or certified legal proof of attendance.
- How are my customers’ payments handled?
- Collect payment from your snow customers your usual way and record it in PlowPilot, then choose to email a receipt. PlowPilot does not process your customers’ card payments.
- What is Stripe used for?
- Only for your PlowPilot subscription. Stripe bills your business for using PlowPilot. It is not connected to payments from your snow customers, which you still collect outside PlowPilot and record here.
- How does the free trial work?
- Your 14-day trial starts when you finish setting up your business. No credit card is needed and nothing is charged when it ends. To continue working after the trial, you must choose a paid subscription; the trial never converts automatically. Without a subscription, work features pause and records remain readable and exportable for at least 90 days with no automatic purge. Trial accounts have usage allowances for email, aerial images, weather lookups and uploads. Subscribing early charges immediately in secure Stripe checkout.
- How does cancellation work?
- Cancel renewal anytime in Settings. You keep access through the month you already paid for, then billing stops. Records are not deleted and there is no cancellation fee.
- How do driver logins work?
- Invite a driver by email. After verifying their email they see only the company routes and stops assigned to them, with no billing or settings. Access is scoped to your business and you can revoke it anytime.
- What happens in Storm Mode if signal drops?
- Load your work online first and keep the app open. Visit updates queue offline and sync later. Unable-to-service drafts can retain the reason, trip choice and selected photos; photo uploads, email and automatic weather lookups wait for a connection. Sign-in and payments require a connection, and full offline app reload is not supported.
- How does the customer portal work?
- You email each customer a business-branded invitation. They create their own login with a verified email (passwords are never emailed). They then see contracts, invoices, recorded receipt history, shared photo links and can send service requests to your Customer Requests section. Unaccepted invitations expire after 90 days; accepted access continues until you revoke it or change the recipient.
- What GPS and weather details are recorded automatically?
- Each new completion requests fresh GPS from the device and records coordinates, reported accuracy, capture time, completion time and server-received time. After syncing, PlowPilot retrieves NOAA / National Weather Service observations from a nearby reporting station: conditions, temperature and wind where reported, plus station, distance, observation time and retrieval time. Drivers no longer need to type weather conditions. GPS requires location permission; missing GPS or weather is clearly labeled without blocking completion.
- Where can I view or print proof of service?
- Open the customer’s Service History to review completed visits and their GPS, timestamps and automatic weather. Choose Open printable proof to generate a service-proof packet for a customer and date range, including crew, performed services and attached photos. Print the packet or save it as a PDF using your browser’s print options.
- Is GPS or weather verified on proof packets?
- Weather comes from independent NOAA / National Weather Service observations, not driver-entered conditions. We use the nearest qualifying reporting station within 50 miles (80 km) and observations from the two hours before completion. Coverage is U.S.-only. Station weather is not a measurement at the property, device GPS is not independently verified, and the packet does not certify that work occurred. Measurements the station does not report are not shown as zero; older manual weather notes remain marked unverified.
- What happens to GPS and weather if a stop is completed offline?
- The completion queue retains the device GPS reading, its capture time and the original completion timestamp. Once synced, automatic weather is looked up for that completion time rather than the reconnect time. Weather lookup is limited to the provider’s recent seven-day observation window and may be unavailable. This does not provide live crew tracking or guarantee offline sign-in or app startup.
- What counts as income in reports?
- Recorded payments actually received during your chosen date range—not unpaid invoices. Sales tax collected is reported separately, and reports can be printed.
- Can I export to QuickBooks or FreshBooks?
- Yes. Included in your PlowPilot subscription, download QuickBooks Online or FreshBooks CSV bank-import files from Reporting → Income. Choose a date range and payment method, and download a separate payment and sales-tax breakdown. These are recorded receipts, not actual bank statements or automatic synchronization. Imports do not create invoices, mark them paid or automatically allocate sales tax. Review existing bank-feed transactions to avoid duplicates. FreshBooks requires a plan with Bank Reconciliation; QuickBooks Desktop/IIF is not supported.
