What actually drives repeat business (before the list)

Five things matter more than the rest of the feature list:

1. Customer records that hold history, not just contact details: past jobs, appliances or systems serviced, certificate expiry dates, notes from the engineer.
2. Automatic service reminders that fire without a human remembering to check a spreadsheet, ideally timed to when the customer’s cover or certificate is actually due.
3. Job scheduling that the whole team can see, so a repeat customer does not get double-booked or forgotten.
4. Quote and invoice chasing that follows up automatically and stops the moment the customer responds or pays.
5. Accounting integration, so the admin load of winning repeat work does not fall on whoever does the books.

Price matters too, but only after those five hold up. A cheap tool that does not chase anyone is not actually cheap.

Commusoft

Commusoft is one of the longest-established job management platforms built specifically for UK gas, heating, plumbing and electrical trades, and it is often the first name that comes up when tradespeople search for CRM and service-reminder software. It covers the full job lifecycle: quoting, scheduling, invoicing, a customer portal, and CRM records that track equipment and service history against each address, which is genuinely useful for businesses that manage ongoing maintenance contracts (landlords, letting agents, commercial clients on service agreements).

Commusoft’s positioning has historically leaned toward mid-size and larger field service teams, multi-engineer businesses with dispatch and van-tracking needs rather than sole traders. That depth is a real strength for businesses that have outgrown a simple diary, but it comes with more commitment: Commusoft’s core plans run on a 12-month contract that renews annually, with supplementary monthly rolling licenses available for temporary or seasonal staff and daily licenses for subcontractors layered on top, not a substitute for the annual commitment on the core plan. Commusoft does not publish flat self-serve pricing, so most businesses will get a number after a demo, and because no tier structure is public, whether automated service reminders are included at every plan level should be confirmed on that call rather than assumed.

If your business already runs several engineers and wants a heavyweight platform with deep service-history tracking, Commusoft deserves a place on the shortlist. Tradespeople specifically looking for something lighter to set up, with straightforward per-user pricing and no sales call required to see the numbers, tend to look at alternatives, which is where Checker fits in below.

Checker

Checker (checker.app) is an all-in-one job management and compliance-certificate platform built for UK gas, electrical, plumbing and heating engineers. It was founded by Dan Sedgwick, a former gas engineer who has been building trade software since 2012, and the platform now supports close to 19,600 users and has generated 6.88 million gas reports to date, which is a meaningful base of working engineers relying on it day to day.

Where Checker earns its place on this list is repeat business specifically. Its “Growth Engine” automations are built around the exact problem this article opened with: work that quietly falls through the cracks after the invoice is paid.

• Annual Service Reminder: fires automatically at the 11-month mark after a job, so the customer’s next service effectively books itself before the previous one has even fully lapsed.
• Quote Chaser: follows up on quotes that have gone quiet, without an engineer needing to remember to call.
• Invoice Chaser: fires once payment terms lapse and stops the moment the customer pays, so nobody is chasing a bill that has already been settled.
• Appointment Reminders: reduces missed and forgotten appointments on both sides.

All of these messages go out branded with the business’s own email address and logo rather than looking like generic software notifications, and customer replies land in the normal inbox while also being archived in a “Checker outbox” for a full record. Setup is handled through two tabs in my.checker.app: a Templates tab for wording and a Set Reminder Period tab for timing, which keeps the automation editable without needing a developer.

Beyond the retention features, Checker covers the compliance side that gas and heating engineers specifically need: digital certificate generation including CP12 and landlord gas safety records, with the statutory 28-day rule for gas built into the workflow, plus job listing and scheduling, CRM, business analytics, and two-way accounting sync with Xero, QuickBooks and Sage.

Pricing is per sub-user with strong master-user control over what each team member can see and do, and there is no lock-in contract: it runs month to month. Three tiers are available: Lite at £10.99 a month plus VAT, Pro at £19.99, and Pro Plus at £25.99. That structure makes it straightforward for a sole trader to start on Lite and move up as the team grows, without renegotiating a contract.

For a business whose main pain point is genuinely “customers do not come back automatically, we have to remember to ask”, Checker’s reminder automation is built directly around that problem rather than bolted on as an extra.

Tradify

Tradify is trade job management software used widely across the UK, Australia and New Zealand, covering quoting, job scheduling, timesheets, invoicing and a mobile app aimed at solo traders and small teams. Its scheduling and quoting workflow is generally well regarded for being quick to learn, which matters for busy trades who do not want a long onboarding process.

On the CRM and repeat-business side, Tradify holds customer and job history and has a named reminder feature called Service Reminders, which schedules automatic reminder emails to customers roughly two weeks before their service is due. It’s gated to the top Plus tier at £44 a user a month, not included on the cheaper Lite (£34) or Pro (£37) plans. Tradify tends to suit smaller trade businesses that want an easy-to-use all-rounder rather than a business built primarily around compliance certificates, which is more Checker and Commusoft territory for gas engineers specifically.

Powered Now

Powered Now is a UK-built (Somerset-based) job management app aimed squarely at sole traders and small trade teams, covering quotes, invoices, job scheduling and certificates, with an emphasis on working offline on site and syncing later, which matters for engineers working in signal-poor plant rooms and basements.

It holds customer records and job history, and automatic reminders are a real, confirmed feature: Powered Now’s support documentation details automated renewal reminders for CP12 landlord gas safety records, gas breakdown/service records and CP2, generally available from the Professional plan upward, while the top Premium tier separately markets automated invoice and quote chasing. Pricing runs £28 (Business), £32 (Professional) and £40 (Premium) a user a month, ex VAT, with two months free on annual billing. Powered Now is worth a look for UK sole traders who want a straightforward, GDPR-conscious tool without a large team-management layer.

ServiceM8

ServiceM8 is an Australian-founded field service management app with a strong iOS-first mobile experience and a job-card workflow (badges that move a job through stages like quote, scheduled, in progress, invoiced) that many UK trades have adopted for its simplicity and its Xero integration. It handles scheduling, dispatch, and invoicing well for businesses that want a clean, visual job board.

Its CRM depth is not simply basic, though it isn’t bundled standard either: ServiceM8 retains full job and client history, and offers a free Automation add-on for booking reminders plus a separate paid Recurring Jobs + Reminders add-on for 3, 6 and 12-month post-job service-due follow-ups, so the retention automation sits behind add-ons rather than being included or absent outright. UK pricing runs from Free (30 jobs a month, one user) through Starter at £25, Growing at £59 and Premium at £119, up to Premium Plus at £269 a month, ex VAT, with unlimited users on paid plans and no contracts. ServiceM8 suits trades whose priority is a fast, visual job pipeline, with retention automation available if you add it, more than a business built around a bundled repeat-business engine.

Joblogic

Joblogic is a UK field service management platform that leans toward larger operations: facilities management contractors, HVAC and gas businesses running multiple engineers, and organisations with heavier compliance and reporting needs. It covers scheduling, job management, engineer tracking, invoicing and compliance documentation.

As with Commusoft, Joblogic’s feature depth tends to come with a setup and pricing structure aimed at teams rather than sole traders: Standard pricing is £45 a user a month billed annually, with Premium and Enterprise quote-only. Its Standard tier lists a “Recurring Jobs” feature, which is job-scheduling recurrence rather than a confirmed customer-facing service-due reminder in the way Checker’s or Tradify’s reminder features work, so don’t assume it matches purpose-built retention automation without checking directly. Joblogic is a reasonable shortlist entry for larger multi-engineer businesses that need heavyweight scheduling and reporting rather than a lightweight retention tool.

Comparison table

Tool	CRM / customer records	Automatic service reminders	Job scheduling	Quote & invoice chasing	Accounting integrations
Commusoft	Strong, service-history focused	Yes (positioned for maintenance contracts)	Yes, team dispatch	Not confirmed	Not confirmed
Checker	Yes, CRM with job and certificate history	Yes: fires at the 11-month mark, fully branded	Yes: job list and scheduling	Yes: Quote Chaser and Invoice Chaser, stops on payment	Xero, QuickBooks, Sage (two-way sync)
Tradify	Yes	Yes: “Service Reminders”, Plus tier only (£44/mo)	Yes	Not confirmed by name (bulk invoicing on Plus tier)	Xero, QuickBooks Online (two-way); Sage (one-way to Sage)
Powered Now	Yes	Yes: automated renewal reminders (CP12 etc.), Professional plan+	Yes	Yes: automated invoice/quote chasing (Premium tier)	Xero (two-way, confirmed); QuickBooks/Sage not confirmed
ServiceM8	Full job/client history	Via add-ons (free Automation + paid Recurring Jobs + Reminders), not bundled standard	Yes, visual job board	Not confirmed by name	Xero (native, confirmed)
Joblogic	Strong, compliance-focused	Not confirmed as a customer-facing reminder (Standard tier’s “Recurring Jobs” is scheduling, not confirmed as reminders)	Yes, multi-engineer dispatch	Not confirmed by name	Sage, Xero, QuickBooks + more (native; Xero sync only partly two-way)

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