Three hundred blowouts, one frost warning.
Every system you service needs a start-up in spring and a blowout in fall, and they all need it in the same few weeks. Redline books each customer's visits a year ahead, groups them by town and lets you pull the whole late list forward when the forecast drops below freezing.
Setting up a season that books itself
Two series per system, not one
Book the start-up with a 12-month repeat and the blowout with its own 12-month repeat. A single 6-month series pins the blowout to exactly six months after the start-up. Two yearly series let you set each season's date on its own.
Save them as presets
"Spring start-up, 45 min" and "Fall blowout, 30 min". Presets keep the visit length and kind, so adding a new customer to both seasons is two taps. Up to 20 presets.
Build route days by town
Put Littleton on Tuesdays and Acton on Wednesdays as you book. When you ask for a time, Redline favors days you're already working in that town. Optimize can propose moves for the next 7 days that tighten it further.
Note who doesn't need to be home
Where the backflow and the controller are, the gate code, "blow out from the front spigot". A lot of start-ups and blowouts happen with nobody home, so the notes do the talking.
Pull the season forward when it turns
Ask the chat for the forecast, then move the visits that land after the freeze. Each visit in a series moves on its own, so the rest of the customer's years stay put.
A freeze is coming, mid-October
The forecast I found for Acton shows lows in the mid 20s Thursday and Friday night.
You have 14 blowouts booked after Thursday, Oct 15: 6 in Acton, 5 in Littleton, 3 in Boxborough.
Moved: Acton to Monday, Oct 12 and Tuesday, Oct 13, 3 a day from 8:00. Littleton and Boxborough, 8 stops, to Wednesday, Oct 14 from 8:00. Their 2027 blowouts are unchanged.
Monday you also have the Pruitt repair in Littleton at 11:00. Keep it?
Forecast lookups are web searches, which use AI credits. Scheduling and repeating visits work on every plan.
An irrigation year on the calendar
| Visit | How to book it |
|---|---|
| Spring start-up | A 12-month series from this year's date, preset "Spring start-up" |
| Fall blowout | A separate 12-month series, preset "Fall blowout" |
| Annual backflow test | Its own 12-month series where your water authority requires one |
| Mid-season repair | A single visit, booked by chat |
| New install | Visits on the install job, plus both series once it's running |
A series holds up to 52 visits, so one yearly series covers decades. If a date lands on a weekend or a holiday some year, move that one visit.
The rush is a sorting problem
Blowout season isn't hard because the work is hard. A blowout is quick once the compressor's hooked up. It's hard because a few hundred customers all need it inside a few weeks, the weather decides how many weeks, and every day you spend crossing town between systems is a day of stops you don't get to.
Redline's part is keeping that list sorted. Every customer with a series is already on the calendar, in a town-by-town order you set last year. When the forecast turns, you move the late visits up, and the customers who called for the first time this fall get slotted next to the stops you already have in their town.
It groups by the town in each address, not by map or drive time, and suggested times assume weekdays from 8 to 5. If you run blowouts on Saturdays in October, book those times by saying them.
Straight answers on sprinkler scheduling
Redline does
- Book each system's start-up and blowout as yearly series
- Save season presets with the visit length built in
- Look up a forecast when you ask
- Move a batch of visits in one message
- Keep gate codes and valve box locations on the customer
Redline doesn't
- Watch the weather and reschedule on its own
- Remind customers about their start-up or blowout
- Let customers pick their own blowout slot online
- Order stops on a map or by drive time
- File backflow test reports with the water authority
Questions contractors ask
How do I get last year's customers into a series?
Add each customer's next visit in the calendar with the repeat set, or tap your preset. Chat books one visit at a time, so the series is set up in Add event. Once it's done, every year after is already booked.
Will customers know when we're coming?
Only if you tell them. Redline doesn't send reminders on its own. Plenty of sprinkler customers don't need to be home, but for the ones who do, call or have Redline draft an email from your Gmail.
Can my techs each run their own route?
On Team ($129 a month, 3 seats) and up, each tech gets the app with their day's stops, the job notes and one-tap call. Assign stops by chat or drag them on the board. Status is tapped, there's no GPS.
What if a customer cancels service?
Delete the remaining visits in their series. Their history stays on their file, so if they come back next spring you know what the system has.
More for sprinkler contractors
- Irrigation softwareThe whole sprinkler workflow in Redline
- Irrigation invoice templateFree, with start-up, blowout and repair lines
- Recurring jobs and repeat presetsCustom repeats in detail
- Scheduling and calendarSuggested times and Optimize
- Hourly rate calculatorPrice a blowout that covers the compressor
Keep reading
- Irrigation softwareKeep start-ups and blowouts coming around and bill the repairs found on the visit.
- Recurring jobs and repeat presetsBook a whole season of visits in one save, and reuse the cadence as a preset.
- Lawn care scheduling softwareA season of weekly mows in one save, rain days pushed by message.
- Septic pumping scheduling softwareEach tank on its own multi-year interval, inspections before closing, the spring list after the thaw.
Run your business by chat.
Redline is free to start. Tell it about the job and it handles the quote, the schedule, the invoice and the follow-up.