Hiring a technician is hard. Keeping one productive in the first month is harder. Most small service businesses put a new tech in a truck with a few days of shadowing and a phone number to call, and then wonder why the first month's tickets are smaller, the truck is a mess and three customers called about prices nobody quoted.
As of October 2026, the businesses that onboard well are not the ones with an HR department. They are the ones with a written checklist that every new hire goes through in the same order. This guide is that checklist for a field service business with one to fifteen technicians: what to set up before day one, what to cover in the first week, and how to hand over a full day without losing control of pricing, stock or payments. It applies to plumbers, electricians, HVAC techs, locksmiths, garage door installers and similar trades.
Before day one
Most onboarding problems are set-up problems. Do these before the new tech arrives.
Paperwork and pay
Employment paperwork, tax forms and any licensing checks your trade and state require, done with your accountant or payroll provider. Decide and write down how the tech is paid: hourly, commission, hourly plus commission or salary, and what counts as work time. The time clock and timesheets guide covers punch rules and drive time, and the commission tracking guide covers commission plans. Pay that is written down on day one is pay nobody argues about on payday.
A login with the right role
Create the tech's account and give it only what the job needs. A new tech typically needs to ring up sales, send payment links, use the time clock and see their own truck's stock. They do not need to issue refunds, void sales, change prices or adjust inventory counts in their first weeks.
In IntelliDrive OS that is done with role permissions: there are 32 of them, plus custom roles, and staff see only their own shop's sales. Voids, refunds and stock changes can require a second sign-in check when two-factor sign-in is on. The security feature page describes the controls, and the roles and permissions guide covers how to set them for each job.
The truck
Assign the truck, then count its stock with the new tech present, ideally on their first morning. That count is their baseline: anything missing later belongs to their tenure, not the previous driver's. Record the count, and keep a short list of what the truck should always carry.
The price list
Print or share the services they will sell, with standard prices and the add-ons they are expected to offer. Pair it with a written discount rule: how much they may take off on their own and when they must call a manager. The discount controls guide covers how to set that limit.
The checklist at a glance
| When | Item | Who owns it | Done when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before day one | Paperwork, pay plan in writing | Owner and payroll provider | Signed and filed |
| Before day one | Software login with a limited role | Owner or office manager | Tech can sign in on their phone |
| Day one | Truck stock count with the tech present | Office manager | Count recorded |
| Day one | Price list and discount rule | Owner | Tech can explain the rule back |
| Day one | Time clock routine | Office manager | First punch recorded correctly |
| Days 1-5 | Ride-along with an experienced tech | Lead tech | Tech has run several jobs with help |
| Days 1-5 | Taking payment and sending links | Lead tech | Tech has sent a link on a real job |
| Days 6-10 | Solo jobs with daily review | Owner or lead tech | Review shows no recurring errors |
| End of week two | First timesheet approved, stock recounted | Office manager | Week locked, count reconciled |
| End of month one | Review of tickets, callbacks, margin | Owner | Conversation held, goals set |
Week one: ride along
The first week is about your way of doing things, not the trade. An experienced plumber still needs to learn your prices, your customers, your paperwork and your systems.
Days one and two: watch. The new tech rides with a lead tech and watches the whole job, including the parts most people skip: how the job is quoted, how the sale is rung up and how payment is collected. Each evening, ten minutes on what they saw.
Days three to five: do, with help. The new tech runs the job while the lead watches. They quote from the price list, ring up the sale, send the payment link and record any parts used from the truck. The lead steps in only when something would go wrong in front of the customer.
Payment is a skill, not an afterthought
New techs often treat payment as the awkward part at the end. Teach it as part of finishing the job. The customer gets a payment link by text, sees the itemized summary, signs, and pays from their phone through your own Square, Stripe or QuickBooks Payments account. The tech confirms payment before leaving. The payment links guide covers the routine.
Language
If your crew or your customers include Spanish speakers, make sure the new tech can work in the language they are most comfortable with. IntelliDrive OS runs in English and Spanish, and the bilingual crews guide covers how mixed-language teams set it up.
Week two: solo with daily review
In week two, the tech runs jobs alone. Review every day, briefly:
- Tickets. Were the right services and add-ons sold at the right prices? Any discounts, and were they within the rule?
- Payments. Was every job paid or properly placed on account? Any links still open?
- Stock. Do the parts rung up match what left the truck?
- Time. Are punches clean, and do they match the jobs?
The review is coaching, not policing. Most problems in week two are habits that are easy to fix now and expensive later: a tech who forgets to add the trip fee, rings up "labor" instead of the named service or leaves a payment link unsent.
At the end of week two, approve the first timesheet, lock the week, and recount the truck. If the count is off, find out why while the tech still remembers the jobs. The workforce tools cover the weekly approval and lock.
Month one: a real conversation
At the end of the first month, sit down for half an hour. Look at the tech's average ticket, callback rate, discount use and truck shrinkage compared with your experienced techs. Not to judge, but to set two or three specific goals for month two. The field service reports guide covers which numbers to watch, and the callback and rework guide explains why callbacks deserve attention early.
This is also the time to widen the tech's permissions if they have earned it, such as approving their own small discounts. Widen access on purpose, not by default.
Common onboarding mistakes
- Giving every new hire the owner's login. It is fast on day one and a problem forever after, because nothing shows who did what.
- Skipping the truck count. Without a baseline, every missing part is an argument.
- No written discount rule. New techs either never discount and lose jobs, or discount everything and lose margin.
- Treating an experienced hire as trained. Skill in the trade is not knowledge of your business.
- No review in week two. Habits formed alone in the first solo week tend to stick.
When you are hiring your first tech
If this is your first hire, onboarding is also when you discover which parts of the business only ever lived in your head. Writing the checklist forces you to put the price list, the discount rule and the payment routine on paper. The hiring your first technician guide covers the decision itself and how to tell when the numbers support a hire.
Write it down once, so the next hire is easier
The first time you onboard a technician with a checklist, it feels like a lot of work. The second time, most of it already exists. Keep a short onboarding folder that grows with each hire:
- The checklist itself, updated after each hire with anything that was missing.
- The price list and discount rule, current, with the date it was last changed.
- The truck stock list, what each truck should carry and where it lives.
- The pay plan, with examples of how hourly, commission and overtime are calculated.
- The payment routine, step by step, including what to do when a customer cannot pay on the spot.
- The ten questions every new tech asks, with answers. Where to park, who to call after hours, how to handle a customer who wants a cash discount, what to do when a part is not on the truck.
That last list is the most valuable. Every new hire asks the same questions in the first week, and every experienced tech answers them slightly differently. Writing the answers down once makes onboarding consistent and frees your lead tech from repeating the same explanations.
Review the folder twice a year. Prices change, rules change and the truck stock list drifts. An onboarding folder that is out of date teaches new hires the wrong thing with confidence.
The bottom line
A new technician becomes productive faster when onboarding follows the same written checklist every time: pay in writing, a login with a limited role, a counted truck, a clear price list and discount rule, a week of ride-along, a week of solo jobs with daily review and a real conversation at the end of the month. None of it takes long. All of it is cheaper than a first month of guessed prices and a truck nobody can account for. Current plan details are on the pricing page.
Related reading: How owners track technicians in the field, Multi-truck inventory scaling, and Opening a second location. For a complete machine-readable feature and pricing reference, see our LLM reference page.