how it works
five minutes to set up. here's each of them.
Three kinds of people use WorkTool.
You run a business. Get listed where customers search. Get estimate requests from people near you, free. Keep every job, customer and document in one place. Build a review record you earned.
You work for one – or for yourself. Show what you can do, get found by the businesses that need your trade, and keep your hours on the record.
You’re hiring someone. Search real local businesses by trade, read reviews from real customers, message or call them – or send one estimate request and let up to 10 local businesses come to you.
1. Get the app
Search “The Worktool” in the App Store or on Google Play, or open app.theworktool.com in a browser. Everything works in both places.
2. Pick your account type
Tap Sign Up and choose Individual or Business.
Individual gets you a professional profile, the feed, messaging, the directory and the Toolbox. Right if you work for someone else, or you’re just looking to hire somebody.
Business adds Projects (your CRM and documents), a directory listing, free estimate requests, reviews on your profile, customer Connections and the Timesheet for your crew. You can add a business to an individual account later – nothing is locked in.
3. Set up your profile
Ready to get started? Setting up takes a couple of minutes.
- Add a photo, your location and what you do
- If you’re a business, add your industry and category – that’s what puts you in the directory and what makes you eligible for estimate requests
- Pull in your phone contacts if you want them in Projects
- Turn on notifications so estimate requests, messages and connection invites actually reach you
Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to use everything WorkTool has.
4. Find who you need in the Directory
24 industries – construction and the trades, home services, automotive, landscaping, cleaning, IT and web, creative, professional services, and more, with hundreds of categories under them. Construction sits at the top because it’s who we built this for first.
Browse by category, switch between list and map, and open a profile to call, email, message or get directions – and to read the reviews before you do.
Or send one estimate request instead of calling around. Tap Get Estimate, pick the category, enter the ZIP where the work is, describe the job. WorkTool sends it to the 10 closest businesses in that category within 100 miles – email, WorkTool message and push – and whoever wants the job gets back to you in Messages.
Know what you’re sending. Your first and last name, the email on your account, your project ZIP, the category and your notes go to every one of those businesses, and any of them can reply. It’s free for you and free for them: no per-lead fee, nothing sold, nobody paying to be first. And WorkTool doesn’t vet or verify any of them, so do your own homework before you hire.
5. Use the feed
Individuals, businesses and crews all show up here. Post photos and video of the work you just finished, follow the people you deal with, comment, save posts, message anyone from their profile. Share any post out to your other channels with a tap.
What else you get
6. Get the work – free. Every business and freelancer gets a public profile and a directory listing, so customers browse, see your work and reach you directly. And when someone near you asks for an estimate in your category, that request comes to you at no charge. Each one goes to the 10 nearest businesses within 100 miles of the job. No per-lead fee, no bidding, no way to buy position. It isn’t exclusive – the other nine get the same request and the customer picks. And it isn’t curated: WorkTool matches by category and distance and passes it straight on. Read it and judge it yourself.
7. Build a review record. Customers rate businesses one to five stars on their directory profile. A review only counts if the customer had a verified engagement with the business – they accepted its connection request, or they filed a document it sent them. Real accounts, no anonymity, no self-reviews, one public reply for the business, and no deleting the ones you don’t like.
8. Run your jobs in Projects – included. Every customer and job through six stages, notes and files attached, and estimates, invoices, work orders and supply orders as PDFs you can send. Import contacts from your phone or your whole book from JobNimbus, AccuLynx, Jobber or Joist. Export customers and invoices to QuickBooks. Premium Projects adds reusable templates and a saved line-item library.
9. Keep the crew straight with the Timesheet. Log shifts and hours in the free Crew Timesheet, see what each 1099 worker is owed for the week, and record what you’ve paid. Workers set up their own payout account with Stripe, so their bank details never pass through you.
10. Add tools as you need them. The Toolbox is a la carte – add a tool, use a tool. Crew Timesheet is live and free. New tools land there priced individually, so you’re never paying for a feature you don’t open.
What we’re building next. Two things, in this order. Get paid on your invoices: you can already build an invoice in WorkTool and send it; we’re building the other half, where your customer opens it and pays it. Pay your crew out of what you took in: the money that comes in is the money that goes out to your subs and your 1099 crew, from the same app, without moving it between four services first. Money in and money out for one business, in one place. That’s where WorkTool is going. Neither half is finished, so you won’t find a countdown on this page – when they ship, they’ll show up in the app.
Why bother switching. Most local businesses carry a CRM, an invoicing tool, a lead service and a payroll service – four bills that don’t talk to each other. WorkTool is built to cut what you spend on business software, and the lead service is the one we don’t charge for at all.