Straight answers.

An afternoon, and most of that is waiting for your techs to text back. Sign up, upload your logo, invite techs by text, run one real job. There's no import project, no “implementation call.”

If they can take a photo and talk, they can use it. The whole thing is four steps, and the app tells them what's next. It's built so a tech sends their first report on their first job.

No. Dataplate works on its own. Add jobs by hand or import a CSV of customers. If you do use one of those, keep using it for scheduling and invoicing and use Dataplate for the report. Syncs are on the roadmap.

Yes. Water heaters, boilers, and pumps have nameplates too. The age flag and recommendation work the same way.

The AI drafts it from the photos and whatever the tech says. The tech reads it, changes what's wrong, and sends it. Nothing goes to a customer unread.

Then the tech fixes it, the same way they'd fix a typo. The draft is editable line by line, and the tech's version is the only version the customer ever sees.

It'll tell you it's not sure rather than guess. The tech can type the fields or retake the photo. If it can't decode the age, the age stays off the customer's report — we'd rather say nothing than say the wrong year.

No. It suggests a replacement line only when the unit is past your shop's age threshold (default 12 years — you set it). The tech can delete it in one tap. The AI never promises a customer something the tech didn't sign off on.

Yes. Photos and notes save on the phone and sync when there's signal. Mechanical rooms and basements are the reason it works this way.

iPhone and Android, in the browser — nothing to install from an app store, nothing for IT to approve. Add it to the home screen and it behaves like an app.

Yes. Anyone you add as an office user can see every job, report, and approval from a laptop. Office users are free.

Keep CompanyCam if your techs like it — it's a good photo app. Dataplate isn't organized around photos; it's organized around the unit. CompanyCam can't tell you the condenser is 12 years old, doesn't build a service history per piece of equipment, and doesn't put an Approve button under a recommendation. Plenty of shops will run both. If you run only one and you're HVAC or plumbing, we think it should be this one.

XOi is built for large commercial mechanical contractors — enterprise pricing, a sales process, an onboarding project, and it assumes you're running ServiceTitan or an ERP underneath. If you're a 40-truck commercial shop, look at XOi. If you're a 7-truck shop that's tired of writing up jobs at night, XOi was never going to return your call. That's who we built for.

No. Those schedule, dispatch, and invoice. Dataplate doesn't and won't. Run it alongside them.

You can. That's what most shops do, and it's why the photos are on three different techs' phones, nobody remembers what unit is at the address, and the customer's “you never told me” is your word against theirs. Dataplate is the version of that where the photos are on the job, the unit's history is at the address, and the customer has the report in writing.

You do. If you leave, you take everything with you — photos, reports, equipment records. Ask and we'll export it.

No. We don't sell it, share it, or use it to market to your customers. Your customers see your brand on the report, and a one-line “Documented with Dataplate” in the footer — that's the extent of it.

Each shop's data is walled off from every other shop's at the database level. Report links are long and unguessable — only the person you sent it to has it. Photos are stored privately and served only through that link.

$39 per tech per month, free for one tech up to 10 jobs, 14-day trial with no card. Founding shops: $29 locked.

Settings → Billing → Cancel. Two clicks. Nobody calls.