For Canadian plumbing and HVAC shops
Managed IT Services for Plumbing and HVAC Companies in British Columbia
If your shop still runs on a personal Gmail and paper job tickets, we set you up on a real business email and one field-service app so nothing gets lost between the call and the invoice. We are an IT company in Burnaby, and we do the setup for you.
- 81+ Google reviews
- ~15-minute response time
- No contracts, month to month
- Microsoft Partner
What this usually looks like
A lot of small shops grew up running on yourname@gmail.com. It works until a key person leaves or a phone gets lost, and the customer history and email walk out the door with them.
Job tickets get written on paper in the truck. Some never get invoiced. Some get billed weeks late, so cash that you already earned sits there unpaid.
Scheduling lives in one person's head or on a shared paper calendar. That is how appointments get double-booked or missed, and the crew has no board to look at.
Quotes get typed up at night at the kitchen table. By the time they go out, a faster competitor already has the job. Same story with invoices and getting paid at the door.
The whole business (customer list, photos, job notes) often sits on one phone or one laptop with no backup. A lost phone or ransomware can wipe it.
Worth knowing before you change anything
A few things owners ask us about a lot. This is general info to help you decide, not a ruling on your specific situation.
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Myth: Canadian customer data has to stay on Canadian servers
There is no federal law requiring customer data to stay in Canada. PIPEDA lets you process data in the US or elsewhere as long as you stay accountable and the vendor offers comparable protection, which the major platforms do by contract. So US-hosted Microsoft 365, Jobber, and Housecall Pro are lawful to use. The bigger real risk is the opposite: one phone or laptop with no backup.
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The CRA wants 6 years of records, and digital counts
You have to keep books, records, and supporting documents (invoices, receipts, GST/HST records) for six years from the end of the tax year they relate to. Electronic records are accepted under Information Circular IC05-1 as long as they are readable, accessible, and backed up. A shoebox of receipts is harder to defend than clean records in QuickBooks Online or your field-service app.
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Marketing texts and emails need consent (CASL)
Sending a customer a quote they asked for is fine. Mass marketing texts or emails without consent are not. Under CASL, commercial messages need consent, sender ID, and a working unsubscribe link. Penalties can run up to $10M for an organization. If you start review-request or follow-up campaigns, set them up to be CASL-compliant from day one.
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Your provincial trade license is about the work, not the data
Red Seal certification, gas-fitter tickets, and municipal permits govern who can do the work and how it gets inspected. They do not tell you how to store customer data. Do not let licensing worry talk you out of moving to better tools. They are separate questions.
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Data residency in Canada is still available if you want it
You do not need Canadian servers, but you can have them. Microsoft runs Canadian datacentres in Toronto and Quebec City, so Microsoft 365 can hold your data in Canada if that matters to you or a customer. It is a choice, not a legal requirement for a private plumbing or HVAC shop.
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The cloud is usually safer than the single device
About 24% of Canadian organizations reported a ransomware attack in the prior year, and roughly 74% of those who were hit paid [[verify]]. Backed-up, access-controlled tools recover from a lost phone or an attack. One unsynced laptop does not. Moving off paper and one device lowers your risk.
Umbrella IT is an IT company, not a law, accounting, or compliance firm. This is general information, not legal, tax, or professional advice. Check your own situation with the right professional.
Sources
- OPC - PIPEDA requirements in brief
- OPC - Processing personal data across borders (data residency / accountability)
- CRA / Canada.ca - Where to keep records and for how long (six-year rule)
- CRA / Canada.ca - Electronic Record Keeping (IC05-1)
- CRTC - Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation FAQ
- CIRA - 2025 Cybersecurity Survey
- Jobber (Edmonton-based field-service platform)
What makes us different
We do the setup, not a sales pitch
We move you onto Microsoft 365 for email and files, and one field-service app (Jobber, Housecall Pro, or ServiceTitan, whichever fits your size). You keep working while we do it.
Month-to-month, no onboarding fee
No long contract to sign and no setup fee to start. You can leave any month. Most clients stay because the work holds up.
11-minute average response time
When something breaks, you reach a real tech fast. Average response across our clients is about 11 minutes. No junior techs sitting on your account.
A no-downtime migration
If you are moving off Gmail or an old system, we run a white-glove migration with a no-downtime guarantee. Your email keeps working through the switch.
Backup that actually exists
Your customer list, photos, and job notes get backed up and synced, not stranded on one device. If a phone goes in a ditch, the data is still there.
We have done this a while
Umbrella has run in Burnaby for 14 years with about 95% client retention [[verify]]. We are not figuring out small-business IT on your dime.
What we set up for a plumbing or HVAC shop
We get your shop onto two things that do most of the work: a real business email on Microsoft 365, and one field-service app for scheduling, dispatch, quoting, and invoicing. Then we make sure it is backed up and that the crew can actually use it from the truck. You tell us your size and how you work now, and we handle the move.
- Microsoft 365 business email, calendar, and file storage (OneDrive/SharePoint), set up under your own domain
- One field-service app picked to fit your shop: Jobber, Housecall Pro, or ServiceTitan
- Scheduling and a dispatch board the whole crew can see, instead of one paper calendar
- On-site quoting and invoicing, with card and Interac e-Transfer at the door
- Backup and sync so customer data is not stuck on a single phone or laptop
- Connecting your books (QuickBooks Online, Xero, or Sage) so income and GST/HST records stay clean
- Quarterly reviews so the setup keeps up as you add staff and trucks
Results you can measure
Getting a Plumbing or HVAC Shop Off Gmail and Paper
Start with a short call
Tell us how the shop runs now: how you quote, how you invoice, where the customer list lives. We will tell you straight what is worth changing and what to leave alone. No long contract, no onboarding fee. If it is not a fit, we will say so. Reach Jake at techtips@umbrellaitservices.ca or 778-949-4050 [[verify]].