---
title: What Handyman Booking OS does
description: "What handyman business software for one small home-repair business does: booking, estimates, your workers, invoices, your website and the app."
url: "https://osdots.com/docs/handyman-booking-os-overview/"
updated: "2026-11-03"
category: Product Documentation / Handyman Booking OS by OsDot™
---

# What Handyman Booking OS does

Handyman Booking OS by OsDot™ is handyman business software for one small home-repair business that sends its own workers to customers' homes. You install it on your own hosting: one installation serves one business, never a marketplace of outside providers.

Every job belongs to one worker. A worker can't be booked twice for the same time — travel time between jobs included — whether the job comes from your website, the app or your own desk: the database itself refuses an overlap.

![The website of the sample business Mendwell Home Repairs in the Coral theme.](https://osdots.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/handyman-booking-os-docs-web-home-coral-light-1440.png)

## Who works with it

| Who | Where | What they do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Owner** | the administration area (`/admin`) | Sets up the business, the website and the payment and message providers; takes jobs at the desk; prices estimates; invoices and records payments; decides what each role may do. The owner can use every page. |
| **Workers** | the app | See their own jobs, confirm each one with **Seen** (or tell you they can't do it), open directions, mark arrival, start and completion, send proof photos, record a payment taken at the door and see their pay records. The administration area is not theirs. |
| **Customers** | your website and the app | Book jobs, request estimates and approve them, see and change their bookings, pay, buy in your shop, review a completed job and download or delete their data. |

Workers join by invitation and are linked to their worker record under **People → Workers' sign-in** (see [The owner's day-to-day work](https://osdots.com/docs/handyman-booking-os-owner-workflows/)).

## Good to know

- **E-mail comes first.** Until outgoing e-mail is set up under **System → E-mail (SMTP)**, nothing is e-mailed — no confirmations, reminders, sign-in codes or estimates (see [Integrations](https://osdots.com/docs/handyman-booking-os-integrations/)).
- **Online booking is yours to switch.** **Work → Online booking** says whether the site takes bookings online; booked jobs, their manage links and **My bookings** keep working either way.
- **Most jobs happen at the customer's address.** **Business → Jobs at the customer's address** holds the areas you serve, the travel fee and the travel time; a job at an address keeps its worker's travel time free in the calendar.
- **No taxes are preset.** Each service or product names its tax class, and a class without rates charges no tax until you add your own rates under **Money → Taxes**.
- **Your customers' contact details stay private.** Customers never see your workers' personal contact details; workers see a customer's phone and address only for their own jobs, around the visit.
- **Version 1 shows dates, times and amounts in US English format, with the 12-hour clock.**

## What this version contains

- **A browser installer** that checks the server, creates the database tables and the owner account, then locks itself (see [First set-up](https://osdots.com/docs/handyman-booking-os-first-admin-and-configuration/)).
- **An administration area** in eleven groups — *Overview*, *Work*, *Money*, *People*, *Business*, *Website*, *Appearance*, *Shop*, *Reviews*, *Media* and *System* — that works at phone width.
- **Online booking on your website**, fitted to your hours and each worker's own hours, with travel time between jobs; your service area is checked before anyone books. Customers reschedule or cancel a booking themselves, inside your deadline, and guests find their booking with its reference and their phone number.
- **Estimates:** customers request one with photos and preferred times; you send versioned estimates, customers approve a specific version online, and added work needs their approval before it is done.
- **Jobs for your workers:** each assignment by e-mail and in the app; workers close a job with photos, notes and the customer's completion code — the proof you ask for — and open directions in their phone's own map app; simple worker pay records (per-job amounts and paid or unpaid — not payroll).
- **Invoices** with your business's name, numbering and tax lines; deposits and partial payments with the balance due; payments recorded by hand, or by your worker at the door.
- **Messages and reminders:** reminders before each job by e-mail, with your own timing and quiet hours; the **Messages** page shows each message's sending status.
- **Verified reviews:** only customers with a completed job or a delivered or collected shop order can review; you reply, and hide one only for a listed reason.
- **Your own shop** for spare parts and refurbished items, with condition labels, your warranty or returns note, delivery or collection.
- **Your own website** in three themes — **Anchor**, **Sunrise** and **Coral** — each in Light and Dark (see [Appearance](https://osdots.com/docs/handyman-booking-os-appearance/)).
- **Reports** that use one definition per figure and match your payments ledger to the cent; **CSV import** of customers and services and **CSV export** of customers, services, jobs, invoices and payments.
- **One app for your customers and your workers**, from the Flutter source for Android and iOS that comes with every edition; you (or your developer) build and publish it under your own developer accounts.
- **In this edition, a software license** activated with the key from your purchase (see [Software license](https://osdots.com/docs/handyman-booking-os-software-license/)).

## Not included

Route planning; GPS or live tracking; crews or fleets; multi-location or franchises; van stock or parts tracked on jobs; calendar or accounting-software sync; payroll; offline mode; WhatsApp.

## Words used in this documentation

| Word | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Job** | One booking: a time, its services, one worker and, for a job at an address, the customer's address. Some pages of the administration call it a *visit* or an *appointment*. |
| **Reference** | The eight-character code of a job (for example `YY7S92QF`); customers quote it, and **Find a job** finds it. |
| **Customer** | The person a job is for. Some pages of the administration say *client*. |
| **Worker** | A person who does the jobs, with their own working hours. A worker signs in to the app once their account is linked to their worker record. |
| **Area** | A postcode or town you serve for jobs at the customer's address. |