The Last Time Search: a service job notes template that keeps your best tech's fixes

This is the guide behind the video: the job note template that makes a closed job searchable, how the search and the approval work, and how to start from the notes you already have.

The search in two steps

1. Search the closed jobs. An agent searches your closed job notes for the same symptom, like the same furnace lockout on the same model.
2. Show the fix, then approve it. It shows the new tech the fix and the job it came from, and a senior tech approves the answer before it is saved for next time.

You do not need to write a manual. It already exists, scattered across years of job notes nobody can search.

Why this matters now

You will keep training new people. A McKinsey report from April 2024, as reported by Facilities Dive, found that hiring in critical skilled trades such as HVAC, electrical and plumbing could run about 20 times higher than annual net new jobs from 2022 to 2032, roughly 584,200 hires a year against 26,600 new jobs. For HVAC alone, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 40,600 openings a year, mostly to replace workers who move to other jobs or retire. Every retirement takes a head full of "last time we saw this" with it.

Who this is for

Service companies with at least a few years of closed jobs in their field service software, a senior tech or two who answer the same questions every week, and new techs who call them from the driveway. It works for HVAC, plumbing, electrical and appliance repair alike.

What your software already keeps

The raw material is usually there. ServiceTitan Mobile's equipment history shows a record of every completed service job for an equipment item, so a tech can review past work before returning to a location. Jobber lets you add notes and attachments to clients, requests, quotes, jobs, visits and invoices, including before and after photos, and links new notes to later work by default.

What is missing is a way to ask across all customers at once: "Who else had this model with this fault, and what fixed it?" History is stored per customer or per piece of equipment. The fix your best tech found at another house three years ago is invisible from this one.

The job note template

Notes only become searchable when they carry the same few fields. Ask techs to close every repair job with these, by voice or text:

Field	What to write	Example (demo, not repair advice)
Symptom	What the customer or the unit reported, in plain words	No heat, furnace starts then shuts off
Make and model	From the data plate	Demo Brand GX-80
Fault or error code	Exactly as shown	Code 3, flashing
What you checked	In order	Filter, flame sensor, pressure switch hose
Cause	What was actually wrong	Cracked pressure switch hose
Fix	What you did	Replaced hose, tested three cycles
Parts	Part numbers and quantities	Hose PS-12 x1
Time on the problem	Roughly	40 minutes
Photos	Before and after	Two photos attached

The example row is invented demo data to show the format. It is not a diagnosis.

Symptom, model and code are the three fields the search matches on. Cause and fix are what the new tech needs. The rest helps the senior tech judge whether the old fix applies.

How the search works

1. The new tech asks in plain words from the job: "GX-80, code 3, starts then shuts off."
2. The agent searches closed jobs across all customers for the same model and code, then the same symptom, and ranks the matches.
3. It shows the top answer with its source: the job number, the date, the tech who did it, the cause and the fix, with a link to open the original job.
4. A senior tech approves it before it is saved as a confirmed answer, or marks it "doesn't apply" with a one-line reason.
5. Approved answers rank first the next time anyone asks.

The agent never tells a tech what to do on its own authority. It points to what your shop did before, and a person who knows the work signs off. That is the same approval-first rule Cortex uses everywhere, described on our human-in-the-loop page.

Starting from the notes you already have

You do not have to rewrite old notes.

1. Export or connect closed jobs from the last two to three years.
2. Let the agent pull the fields out of free-text notes where it can (model, code, symptom), and mark what it could not find.
3. Have a senior tech review the top 50 repeat problems first, the ones new techs call about most.
4. Start the template on new jobs the same week, so every closed job from now on is searchable.
5. Review weekly for a month, then monthly.

What to watch out for

• Safety calls. Anything involving gas, refrigerant handling or electrical hazards follows your shop's procedures and the manufacturer's instructions, not a past note.
• Notes without models. A fix without a make and model is a story, not an answer.
• Unapproved answers. Never let an unreviewed match look like a confirmed fix. Show the source and the approval status every time.
• Turning it into blame. The point is the fix, not who took too long.

How to tell it worked

New techs search before they call, the top repeat problems have approved answers, every answer shows the job it came from, and your senior techs spend their calls on new problems instead of old ones. Our AI for HVAC dispatch guide covers the office side of the same idea, and setting this up on your own job history is part of the free AI Operations Audit.