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Every plumbing and electrical shop leaks money the same quiet way: a $400 hammer drill walks off a job, a pipe threader gets “borrowed” and never comes back, and nobody notices until the next job needs it and it’s gone. Tool tracking software fixes the boring, expensive problem of not knowing who has what and where it is. This guide covers the tools that actually do that job for a small-to-midsize trade crew — and, honestly, most of them aren’t the field-service platforms you already read about on this site.
One thing to get straight up front: “tool tracking” and “inventory management” are not the same thing. Tool tracking follows individual, reusable assets — drills, threaders, meters, ladders — as they move between techs, trucks, and job sites. Parts inventory (fittings, wire, breakers) is a different workflow that lives inside your field-service or accounting software. We’ll cover where those overlap at the end, but if your real pain is “who has the SDS-Max,” you want a dedicated tool-tracking app.
Free download: the Tool & Equipment Inventory Template — a four-tab workbook (Excel + Google Sheets) with a full inventory, check-out log, service log, and auto-updating summary. Enter your email at checkout and it’s yours. No card required.
The two ways tool tracking actually works
- App-and-catalog (assignment) tracking — you build a catalog of your tools and check them in and out to employees, trucks, or job sites, usually with a barcode or QR scan. It tells you who is responsible for a tool right now. This is what most small plumbing and electrical crews actually need, and it works on tools of any brand.
- Bluetooth/tag “last-seen” tracking — a chip in the tool, or a stick-on tag, reports the last time and place it was near a phone running the app. It tells you roughly where a tool was last seen. Great for high-theft job sites and for finding a specific tool in a full truck; useless for chain-of-custody unless you pair it with assignment tracking.
The best setup for a lot of shops is a combination: assignment tracking for accountability, plus tags on your most expensive or most-stolen items.
Best for most plumbing & electrical crews: ShareMyToolbox
ShareMyToolbox is a purpose-built, small-contractor-friendly tool-tracking app, and it’s the one we’d point a typical 3-20 person plumbing or electrical shop at first. It is not an affiliate partner of ours — we earn nothing if you choose it. It’s just the right shape for this job.
You build a central tool catalog, then assign tools to field employees, crews, or job sites with a barcode or QR scan. Techs use a phone app (iOS and Android) to see what they’re holding and to accept or transfer tools to each other in the field.
There are three plans, and the free one is real:
- Starter — free. Mobile apps only (no web portal), a 100-tool database, 3 employee connections, and 10 virtual assignments. Barcode and QR scanning, unlimited notes and attachments, and borrow/loan actions are included. For a two-truck shop that just wants tools to stop disappearing, this is a genuine starting point, not a demo.
- Business — $80 per month, which includes the admin user, plus $10 per employee, sold in blocks of five. This is the real product: web portal plus mobile, unlimited tools, up to 100 employee connections, unlimited virtual and location assignments, GPS scan tracking, audits and audit history, kits, consumables, rental items and rates, custom fields, costing history, and import/export. There’s a 14-day free trial.
- Enterprise — contact for pricing. For 100+ users and unlimited tool tracking.
The block-of-five detail matters when you budget: if you need six employee connections, you buy two blocks of five and pay for ten. A six-person crew on Business is therefore $80 + $100 = $180 per month, not $140.
Skip it if: you’re a one-person shop who already knows where every tool is — you don’t need to pay for this yet, and the free Starter tier will cover you if you want a catalog anyway. Business earns its keep once tools regularly move between multiple people or trucks.
Best free option for Milwaukee shops: ONE-KEY
If you’re already buying Milwaukee cordless, Milwaukee ONE-KEY is a free inventory and tool-tracking app, available on the web and as an iOS, iPadOS, and Android app. You register tools by scanning for them, then log receipts, set service reminders, assign tools to employees, and pull reports and audits.
The location piece works through Bluetooth: Milwaukee’s own documentation says the “Find Item” feature pinpoints a tool’s location within 100 feet, using the ONE-KEY network of phones running the app. Tools that aren’t ONE-KEY-enabled — including other brands — can be tracked by attaching a Milwaukee TICK tracker (model 48-21-2000, also sold in 4-, 10-, and 50-packs), which reports last-seen date, time, and location when it comes within about 100 feet of any phone running the app.
Honest read: ONE-KEY is excellent value and genuinely useful, but it’s strongest inside the Milwaukee ecosystem. If your kit is a mix of DeWalt, Milwaukee, Klein, RIDGID and hand tools, a brand-agnostic assignment app like ShareMyToolbox will give you cleaner accountability across everything. Also note that “last seen within 100 feet” is not live GPS — it’s a breadcrumb, not a tracker.
Best tag option for mixed fleets: DeWalt Tool Connect
DeWalt Tool Connect earns its place here for one reason: the Tool Connect Tag (model DCE041) attaches to any jobsite asset regardless of brand, make, or model, using glue, a screw, or a zip-tie. Pallets, material, job boxes, heavy equipment, another manufacturer’s pipe threader — it doesn’t care. The tag is IP68-rated, carries a 3-year warranty, and connects up to 100 feet from a Tool Connect-enabled device. The “Last Seen” feature reports the street address where the asset was last in range.
On cost, be precise: the Tool Connect / DeWalt Site Manager mobile app is a free download, but DeWalt’s own Tool Connect page notes that an additional subscription charge may apply for Tool Connect software — that footnote is attached to the web-based management side, and DeWalt publishes a Tool Connect vs. Tool Connect+ feature comparison. Tags are sold separately (currently a single and a 25-pack). DeWalt does not publish a price for the DCE041 on its own product page, so we’re not quoting one; check current retail pricing yourself.
Honest read: the brand-agnostic tags make this a reasonable theft-deterrent layer on top of assignment tracking, whatever brand your tools are. Just budget for the tags and confirm what the subscription covers before you commit — “the app is free” is true and incomplete.
Best for larger fleets across job sites: Hilti ON!Track
Once you’re managing hundreds of tools and consumables across several crews and sites, the free apps start to strain. Hilti ON!Track is a manufacturer-independent asset-management system built for that scale — it tracks tools, equipment, and consumables from any brand across job sites, and Hilti publishes tiered bundles (Ready, Lite, Pro, Enterprise).
Hilti does not publish a price for any of them. Every path leads to booking a “productivity analysis” with a consultant, who then develops a proposal. Hilti also doesn’t publish a seat count per tier — its subscription portal documentation describes software licenses in terms of a seat quantity you can raise or lower, so assume seat-based licensing and get the number in writing during the quote. Treat ON!Track as an enterprise step-up, not a first purchase for a small shop.
What about the software you already run?
If you’re on a full field-service platform, you may wonder whether you need a separate app at all. Usually yes — with one nuance. Platforms like ServiceTitan include an inventory module that manages parts and materials — truck and warehouse stock, min/max replenishment, purchase orders, transfers, and counts. That’s valuable, but it’s built for consumables (fittings, wire, breakers), not for tracking who’s got the $600 press tool. If your pain is running out of ¾” copper on a Friday, that’s an inventory-module job. If your pain is tools walking off, you still want a dedicated tool-tracking app from the list above. ServiceTitan doesn’t publish pricing and is aimed at larger operations; no small shop should buy it just for inventory.
At a glance
Prices are each vendor’s own published rates, verified August 16, 2026. Where a vendor publishes no price, we say so rather than estimating. Monthly billing shown; verify before you buy — plans change.
| Tool | Type | Entry price | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShareMyToolbox — Starter | App + catalog (assignment) | Free (100 tools, 3 employee connections, mobile only) | Very small shops testing the habit |
| ShareMyToolbox — Business | App + catalog (assignment) | $80/mo incl. admin user, + $10/employee in blocks of 5 | Most small-to-midsize plumbing & electrical crews |
| Milwaukee ONE-KEY | Bluetooth + inventory app | Free (TICK trackers sold separately) | Milwaukee-heavy shops |
| DeWalt Tool Connect | Tag “last-seen” + app | Mobile app free; subscription may apply for software; tags sold separately, no price published on dewalt.com | Mixed-brand fleets; theft deterrence |
| Hilti ON!Track | Enterprise asset management | No published price — quote after productivity analysis | Large multi-crew fleets across sites |
| ServiceTitan (inventory module) | Parts/materials inventory | No published price — quote only | Larger shops already on ServiceTitan — parts, not tools |
How to actually roll this out so it sticks
- Catalog your expensive stuff first. Don’t try to tag every screwdriver on day one. Start with tools over roughly $150 and anything that has ever gone missing.
- Assign accountability, not just location. The point isn’t surveillance — it’s that every tool has a name attached to it. Techs treat gear differently when it’s checked out to them.
- Pick one system and make check-out a habit. A perfect app nobody uses beats nothing by zero. Tie it to an existing routine — morning truck load-out or end-of-day.
- Count your seats before you price it. Connection-based pricing sold in blocks means your real monthly cost rounds up. Do that math before the trial ends.
- Layer tags only where they pay off. Bluetooth tags on your five most-stolen items, not on the whole van.
FAQ
What’s the best tool tracking software for a small electrical or plumbing shop? For most crews under about 20 people, a dedicated assignment-tracking app like ShareMyToolbox covers accountability across any brand of tool — $80/month including the admin user, plus $10 per employee sold in blocks of five, with a free Starter tier for very small shops. If your kit is mostly one brand, Milwaukee ONE-KEY or DeWalt Tool Connect are free starting points.
Is there a free tool tracking app? Yes, three of them. ShareMyToolbox has a free Starter plan (100 tools, 3 employee connections, mobile only). Milwaukee ONE-KEY is a free inventory and tool-tracking app. DeWalt’s Tool Connect mobile app is a free download, though DeWalt notes an additional subscription charge may apply for its Tool Connect software.
Does my field-service software already track tools? Platforms like ServiceTitan track parts and materials inventory, not individual reusable tools. For “who has the drill,” you still want a dedicated tool-tracking app.
App tracking vs. Bluetooth tags — which do I need? App and catalog tracking tells you who’s responsible for a tool; Bluetooth tags tell you roughly where it was last seen, typically within about 100 feet of a phone running the app. Small shops usually start with assignment tracking and add tags on their most expensive or most-stolen items.
How much does tool tracking software cost? Genuinely free at the low end — ShareMyToolbox Starter and Milwaukee ONE-KEY both cost nothing. A real multi-user system starts around $80 per month plus per-employee connections. Enterprise asset management from Hilti is quote-only with no published pricing.
Sources
- ShareMyToolbox pricing — sharemytoolbox.com/pricing/ (verified August 16, 2026)
- Milwaukee ONE-KEY — onekey.milwaukeetool.com and /tool-tracking
- Milwaukee TICK tracker — milwaukeetool.com — 48-21-2000
- DeWalt Tool Connect Tag DCE041 — dewalt.com/en-us/product/dce041
- DeWalt Tool Connect overview — dewalt.com — Tool Connect
- Hilti ON!Track — hilti.com — ON!Track
Pricing and features change without notice. Verify current terms on the vendor’s own site before you buy.
New to putting software behind your shop? Start with our best tools for plumbers and best tools for electricians guides, or run the free Tool Finder to match your trade and team size to the right categories. You can also check our verified contractor software pricing page.
Augmented Trades participates in affiliate programs and may earn a commission from qualifying links above, at no additional cost to you. This does not influence our recommendations — for this topic, nearly every tool we recommend is one we earn nothing from. Full affiliate disclosure.
Michael is the founder of Augmented Trades, an independent site that compares AI and software tools for trade contractors on published pricing, contracts, and real feature limits. Tools are recommended on fit for your shop — affiliate partnerships never decide coverage.