The plows go back in the yard. The mowers get winterized. The pool covers go on. Your phone goes quiet, your crew goes on EI or on to winter work, and for four, five, sometimes seven months a year your business is closed.
Your software bill, on most platforms, is not.
Most field service software gives a seasonal business two bad choices: keep paying the full plan for months you do not work, or cancel, and hope your clients, routes and history are still there when you come back. We built a third one.
The short version
Put your crewduo account on a seasonal hold for the off-season and pay $15 a month instead of your plan. Your data, logins and client portal stay. Your clients can still pay what they owe. Your plan comes back on the day you pick.
A lawn company on the Crew plan saves $420 a year. A snow company on Fleet saves $1,218.
What a seasonal hold is
A seasonal hold parks your business for the off-season at one flat monthly fee. You start it yourself in Plan & subscription, choose the day your plan comes back (up to 12 months ahead), and that is it. No phone call, no retention script, no "let us see what we can do".
What stays on
- Every client, property, quote, job, invoice, contract, form and photo, exactly as you left them
- Every login: your team can still sign in on the web or the phone and look things up
- Your client portal and online payments, so clients can still pay the invoices they owe you
- Your business phone numbers, if you choose to keep them, for $5 a month each
What switches off
- Creating or changing anything - the account is view only
- Anything that runs on its own or costs money to run: the AI receptionist, texting, reminders, follow-ups, online booking, review requests and integrations
- Recurring contracts do not generate visits while you are away
When the date you picked arrives, your plan comes back by itself, and we email you a week before so it is never a surprise. Back early because spring came early? End the hold with one click.
The numbers: a full year on each plan
Here is what a year of crewduo costs three ways, in Canadian dollars. The monthly + hold column is what you pay when you are on a monthly plan during your season and on hold for the rest.
A lawn care or pool company: 7 months on, 5 months off
| Plan | Monthly, all year | Yearly billing | Monthly + hold | You save vs. monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Van ($39/mo) | $468 | $372 | $348 | $120 (26%) |
| Crew ($99/mo) | $1,188 | $948 | $768 | $420 (35%) |
| Fleet ($189/mo) | $2,268 | $1,812 | $1,398 | $870 (38%) |
A snow removal company: 5 months on, 7 months off
| Plan | Monthly, all year | Yearly billing | Monthly + hold | You save vs. monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Van ($39/mo) | $468 | $372 | $300 | $168 (36%) |
| Crew ($99/mo) | $1,188 | $948 | $600 | $588 (49%) |
| Fleet ($189/mo) | $2,268 | $1,812 | $1,050 | $1,218 (54%) |
On Crew, a snow contractor pays almost half of what a full year on the monthly plan costs. On Fleet, the saving is worth more than six months of the plan.
"But yearly billing is already 20% off"
It is, and if you work most of the year it is the better deal. A yearly plan already covers your off-season, which is why the hold is only for monthly plans.
But look at the tables again: for a seasonal business, monthly + hold beats yearly billing on every plan, and the shorter your season, the bigger the gap. A lawn company on Crew pays $180 less than yearly; a snow company on Fleet pays $762 less.
The rule of thumb: if you work 9 months a year or fewer on Crew or Fleet, or 7 months or fewer on Van, monthly billing with a seasonal hold costs you less than paying for the year up front. And you are not handing over a year's money in one go in the slowest month of your cash flow.
Example: a two-truck snow company
Take a snow contractor with two plow trucks and a sidewalk crew. They run the Crew plan with a business Line ($19) and Receptionist Lite ($99), so storm-night calls get answered while every operator is out pushing. That is $217 a month.
Without a hold, twelve months at $217 comes to $2,604 a year.
With a hold, they work November to March on the full setup, then go on hold in April and keep their phone number so the number on their trucks, lawn signs and Google listing still belongs to them:
- 5 months on the full setup: 5 × $217 = $1,085
- 7 months on hold, number kept: 7 × ($15 + $5) = $140
- Total: $1,225 a year
They keep $1,379 in the business. That is a new set of plow cutting edges, a pallet of salt, or a good chunk of a pre-season ad budget.
Why not just cancel?
Cancelling looks like it saves the last $15, but it costs far more than that:
- You start from zero. Clients, properties, site maps, hazard notes, routes, price lists and contract history are all gone once the retention period after cancelling runs out.
- Your records disappear when you need them most. A slip-and-fall claim from February does not wait for November. On hold, the service log with the time and photos of every push is still one search away.
- You lose your number. Released phone numbers go back to the carrier. Keeping yours on hold costs $5 a month.
- Clients cannot pay you. Outstanding invoices from the end of the season still need collecting. On hold, the client portal keeps taking payments.
- The spring rush gets harder. Rebuilding an account in the busiest two weeks of your year is the last thing you want to be doing.
How to put your business on hold
- Finish the season: send the last invoices and close out open jobs.
- Open Plan & subscription in crewduo and choose Seasonal hold.
- Pick the day your plan comes back, up to 12 months ahead.
- Choose whether to keep your phone numbers ($5 a month each).
- Confirm. Nothing changes until the month you already paid for ends, and the first $15 is charged then, so you never pay twice for the same days.
A week before your date we send a reminder. If you need to move the date, or come back early, it is the same screen.
Who it is for
- Snow removal contractors whose summer is quiet - see crewduo for snow removal
- Lawn care and landscaping companies that close for the winter - see crewduo for lawn care
- Pool and spa services that close pools in the fall - see crewduo for pool service
- Irrigation, holiday lighting and any trade with a busy season and a long quiet one
- HVAC shops that only do seasonal work - most HVAC runs both seasons, but if you close for the winter, it works for you too (crewduo for HVAC)
If you run lawns in summer and snow in winter, you do not need a hold at all: stay on your plan and run both seasons from one account.
Quick answers
Can I put a yearly plan on hold? No. A yearly plan has already paid for your off-season. The hold is for monthly paid plans.
What does it cost in US dollars? On crewduo.com the hold is US$11 a month and a kept number US$4 a month.
How long can a hold last? Up to 12 months at a time. You choose the end date when you start it, and can change it later.
Can my team still use the app? Yes, to read. Everyone can sign in and look up a client, a property or a job's history. Nothing can be created or changed until the plan comes back.
Do my clients notice? Only that you are closed for the season. Their portal still works and they can still pay. Online booking is off, so nobody books a spring cleanup for January by mistake.
Is the hold fee refundable? No, but you only pay it for the months you are actually on hold - end it early and the plan simply comes back.
Ready for the quiet season? See the full details on our pricing page, or book a walkthrough and we will show you how the hold works on your own account.
