A Job Card Template: What a Booked Job Should Show When It Reaches Your Phone

When you're alone on the tools, every missing detail costs you a phone call. You're on a ladder and need the door code. You arrive and the customer says the leak is in a different bathroom. You can't find the number because it was scribbled on the back of an envelope.

A job card fixes most of this. It is one screen or one sheet that shows everything you need once a job is booked. This article covers what to put on it, how to lay it out, and how to keep it usable with dirty hands.

Start with the enquiry, then build the job card

A job card is the next step after the first call or message, so the information should flow from one to the other. If you already have a routine for what to capture on a phone quote request, the core of your job card is already written: name and number, job type, address or postcode, timing, and best time to call back. The job card adds the details that only matter once someone has said yes.

The fields that earn their place

Keep the card short. Every field should answer a question you would otherwise have to ask again.

Who

• Customer name
• Best phone number (read it back when you take it)
• Email, if you send confirmations there
• Who approves the work, if that isn't the person you spoke to, such as a landlord or managing agent

Where

• Full address and postcode
• Access notes: parking, stairs, loft hatch, shared driveway, pets, key safe or who will be in
• Anything on arrival worth knowing, such as which room or which unit

What

• The problem in one line, written in plain words: "replace existing basin tap, kitchen" rather than "tap job"
• Repair, replacement or new installation
• Photos received, and where they are saved
• Materials or parts to bring or order

When

• Agreed day and arrival window
• Any hard deadline, such as a tenant moving in
• How long you expect it to take
• Urgent: yes or no

Afterwards

• Quote or price agreed, as written
• Notes for invoicing
• Done / invoiced / paid tick boxes

Layout matters more than design

You will read this card in a van, on a doorstep or in poor light, so keep the order the same every time. Put the items you need first, the address and phone number, at the top. Put the history and notes lower down.

A few habits help:

• One job, one card. Don't stack several jobs for the same customer on a single note.
• Use the same field names every time. If you switch between "Address" and "Location", you will start to miss things.
• Write the problem as the customer described it, then add your own note. It helps if their description and what you find differ.
• Put the date and time the enquiry came in at the bottom. It shows how long someone waited for an answer.

Paper, notes app or job software

The best format is the one you will fill in every time.

A notes app works well if you copy a blank template for each job. Paper suits you if you're often away from signal, but photograph it so you have a copy. A simple spreadsheet row gives you a searchable record, though it can be awkward on a small screen. Whatever you use, make sure the phone number is tappable and the address opens in maps. That saves more fumbling than any extra field.

Test the card before you rely on it

Take your last few jobs and try filling in the card from memory. Wherever you can't, you have found a gap in how you take bookings, not just a gap in the template. Then ask yourself which calls or texts you made after booking and why. Each one points to a field you should add.

Equally, remove anything you never read. A card with twelve fields you ignore trains you to ignore all of them.

Keep a blank copy ready

Save a blank version where you can find it in seconds, such as a pinned note or a template file on your phone. If you can open it, fill in the top four fields and move on, you will use it. If it takes a minute to set up, you will fall back on scraps of paper, and the chasing will start again.