Every tank on its own clock.
A family of five with a garbage disposal fills a 1,000 gallon tank faster than a retired couple with 1,500. Redline books each household's next pump-outs on the interval you choose for that tank, years ahead, and tells you who's coming due so you can call before they back up.
Putting a pump-out route on the calendar
Pick the interval at the tank
You just saw the sludge and scum layers. Book the next visit, then set a custom repeat in months: every 24 for the heavy users, 36 for most, 48 for the light ones. Custom repeats go up to every 52 months.
End the series where it makes sense
After a number of visits or on a date. Five pump-outs every 36 months is fifteen years of that house on your calendar from one save. Each visit can still be moved or deleted on its own.
Keep the tank on the customer
Tank size, lid location, how deep, how much hose it takes. It's on the contact, so the driver in three years doesn't start by probing the yard.
Book inspections against the closing
A real estate inspection is a single visit with a hard date behind it. Put the closing date in the note and a reminder for the day the report has to be out.
Call ahead of the visit
Ask what's coming due in the next month and Redline lists it by town. Redline doesn't contact customers, so the confirming call or email is yours.
After a pump-out in Hudson
Booked Tuesday, Oct 10, 2028 at 9:00 for Grace Okafor. Chat books one visit, so open it and set the repeat to every 24 months to keep them coming.
Logged on her file: 1,000 gal tank, lid under the deck stairs, 18 in down, heavy sludge.
11 pump-outs through Nov 26: 4 in Hudson, 3 in Stow, 4 in Bolton. Plus the Marsh real estate inspection Friday, Oct 9, with the closing on Oct 30.
Scheduling and repeating visits work on every plan. Invoicing from the truck is on Solo and up.
Septic work and how it goes on the calendar
| Work | How to book it |
|---|---|
| Routine pump-out | A series every 24, 36 or 48 months, set per house |
| Pump-out for a home sale | A single visit, closing date in the notes |
| Real estate inspection | A single visit with a reminder for the report deadline |
| Effluent filter cleaning | Its own series if you sell it on a shorter cycle than the pump-out |
| Riser install or baffle repair | Visits on the repair job, quoted first |
| Backup or alarm call | A single visit, booked by chat the same day |
A series holds up to 52 visits. On a multi-year interval that's longer than anyone owns a pump truck.
The interval changes, and that's fine
Pump-out intervals aren't a law. You lengthen one when a tank comes up light after three years, and shorten one when a family adds two kids and a basement apartment. In Redline that's a change to that customer's series: delete the visits left in it and set a new repeat from the next one. The history stays on their file.
Winter is the other thing the calendar has to absorb. When the ground is frozen and the lids are under snow, pump-outs that came due slide to spring, and spring turns into a backlog. Moving a visit only moves that one, so the customer's next one in three years stays where it was. Ask for the April list by town and start working through it when the ground thaws.
The calendar is the record of who's due. It isn't a reminder that goes to the homeowner, and it doesn't file anything with the county or the board of health. Those stay your calls to make.
Straight answers on septic scheduling
Redline does
- Book each tank on its own interval in months
- Hold years of pump-outs in one series
- List what's coming due, by town, when you ask
- Keep tank size and lid location on the customer
- Book inspections with the closing date noted
Redline doesn't
- Remind homeowners that they're due
- Work out an interval from tank size and household
- File pump-out records with the county or health department
- Change a series' interval by chat (you change it on the calendar)
- Plan the truck's route on a map
Questions contractors ask
Can I get a reminder a few weeks before a pump-out?
Date reminders go up to a year out, so for a visit years away, the visit itself is the marker. Once a month, ask the chat what's coming due in the next 30 days and call down the list. Reminders land in the morning push on the iPhone app.
What about customers who call on their own?
Book them like any visit. If they're already in a series, move the next visit up to today's date instead of adding a new one, so you don't end up booked twice.
Can two drivers share the calendar?
On Team ($129 a month, 3 seats) and up, each driver gets the app with their day's stops and the tank notes. Assign by chat or drag jobs on the board. Drivers never see prices.
Is scheduling free?
Yes. The calendar, repeating visits and notes are on Free. Solo at $29 a month adds invoices and card pay links. See pricing.
More for septic companies
Keep reading
- Septic softwareTank notes that outlast your memory, next pump-outs booked ahead, invoices from the truck.
- Recurring jobs and repeat presetsBook a whole season of visits in one save, and reuse the cadence as a preset.
- Sprinkler scheduling softwareStart-ups and blowouts booked a year ahead and pulled forward when a freeze is coming.
- Chimney sweep scheduling softwareSpread the fall rush into summer and fit repairs around dry days before burn season.
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.