RouteTrak Setup Guide

Follow this guide to connect RouteTrak to your GHL account, configure your team, and plan your first AI-optimised route. The full setup takes about 15 minutes.

Overview

RouteTrak is a GHL-native route optimisation app. It connects directly to your GHL calendar and CRM, pulls today's appointments, uses AI to find the most efficient driving order, and dispatches routes to your field techs via SMS — all without leaving GHL.

Here's what happens from install to dispatch:

1

Connect to GHL

Authorise RouteTrak to access your GHL appointments and contacts via OAuth.

2

Configure your team

Add your field techs, create service types, and set up truck capacity.

3

Load today's appointments

RouteTrak pulls appointments from your GHL calendar for the selected date.

4

AI optimises the route

Jobs are scored by urgency and time windows, then ordered for minimum drive time.

5

Dispatch via SMS

Each tech receives an SMS with their stop list, ETAs, and a Google Maps link.

Requirements

Before you begin, make sure you have the following:

RequirementDetails
GHL accountAgency or sub-account with admin access. RouteTrak needs permission to read contacts, calendar, and users.
Google Maps API keyEnable the Maps JavaScript API, Geocoding API, and Places API. Free tier covers most small teams.
OpenAI API keyGPT-4o-mini is used for route scoring. A standard API account is sufficient — costs are very low (fractions of a cent per optimisation).
Twilio accountRequired for SMS dispatch. You need an Account SID, Auth Token, and a Twilio phone number with SMS enabled.
GHL contacts with addressesContacts need a street address for geocoding. Use the built-in Address Fixer to clean up missing addresses.

Step 1 — Connect to GHL

RouteTrak connects to GHL using the official OAuth 2.0 flow. Your GHL password is never shared with RouteTrak.

1

Go to routetrak.com

Click the green "Connect to GHL" button on the homepage.

2

Log into GHL

You'll be taken to the GHL login page. Log in with your GHL credentials if prompted.

3

Choose your location

Select the GHL sub-account (location) you want to connect RouteTrak to. If you have multiple locations, you can connect each one separately.

4

Approve permissions

RouteTrak will request access to: Contacts (read), Calendar (read), Users (read), and Conversations / SMS (write). Click Allow.

5

You're connected

You'll be redirected to the RouteTrak dashboard. Your GHL location name will appear in the bottom-left corner of the sidebar.

The GHL access token is automatically refreshed in the background. You only need to reconnect if you revoke RouteTrak's access from your GHL account settings.

Step 2 — API keys

RouteTrak uses three external APIs. Your keys are added by your RouteTrak administrator in the Vercel environment variables — end users don't need to set these up.

Google Maps API key

  1. Go to console.cloud.google.com
  2. Create a new project or select an existing one
  3. Go to APIs & Services → Library
  4. Enable: Maps JavaScript API, Geocoding API, Places API
  5. Go to APIs & Services → Credentials → Create Credentials → API Key
  6. Restrict the key to your RouteTrak domain for security
  7. Add the key to Vercel as GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY

OpenAI API key

  1. Go to platform.openai.com/api-keys
  2. Click Create new secret key
  3. Add the key to Vercel as OPENAI_API_KEY

Twilio credentials

  1. Go to console.twilio.com
  2. From the dashboard, copy your Account SID and Auth Token
  3. Get or buy a Twilio phone number with SMS capability
  4. Add to Vercel: TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID, TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN, TWILIO_FROM_NUMBER (in E.164 format, e.g. +14155551234)
Never share API keys in chat, email, or GitHub. Add them directly into Vercel's Environment Variables dashboard.

Step 3 — Set up your team

In the RouteTrak dashboard, click the Teams icon in the left sidebar. You'll see three columns: Service Types, Teams, and Trucks.

Adding a truck / tech

  1. Click + Add Truck in the Trucks column
  2. Enter the truck or tech name (e.g. "Truck 1" or "Mike's Van")
  3. Set the maximum stops per day — this caps how many jobs get assigned to this truck
  4. Optionally add a home depot address — this is used as the starting point for route optimisation
  5. Assign the truck to a team (optional — trucks can be unassigned)
  6. Click Add truck
Trucks map to GHL users. Set the Assign to Tech field to the GHL user ID of the tech who drives this truck — this links check-ins to the right GHL user and sends SMS to the right phone number.

Step 4 — Service types and teams

Service types let you separate different kinds of jobs — for example HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical. Teams are groups of trucks within a service type.

Creating a service type

  1. In the Teams view, click + Add in the Service Types column
  2. Enter a name (e.g. "HVAC")
  3. Pick a colour — this colour is used on the map to distinguish routes by service type
  4. Set the default job duration in minutes — used for ETA calculations
  5. Click Add service type

Creating a team

  1. Click + Add Team in the Teams column
  2. Enter a team name (e.g. "North HVAC" or "Residential Plumbing")
  3. Select the service type this team belongs to
  4. Click Add team

Step 5 — Plan your first route

Click Plan Routes (the map icon) in the sidebar to open the route planner.

1

Select a date

Choose the date you want to plan routes for. Today is selected by default.

2

Choose a calendar

Select which GHL calendar to pull appointments from. If you have multiple calendars, you can select one or load all.

3

Set your depot address

Enter the address your techs start from each morning (your office, warehouse, or yard). This is used as the route's starting point.

4

Select techs (or trucks)

Check the techs to include in today's route. If you've set up trucks, use the service type and team filters instead.

5

Click "Load Appointments"

RouteTrak fetches today's appointments from GHL. They appear in the stop list on the left and as pins on the map.

6

Click "Optimise with AI"

The AI scores each stop by urgency and time window, then calculates the most efficient route order. This takes 5-15 seconds depending on the number of stops.

7

Review the routes

Each tech gets a route card showing their stops in order with ETAs. The map shows all routes colour-coded by tech. Click a pin to see stop details.

Contacts without addresses are excluded from optimisation and shown with a ⚠ī¸ warning. Use the Address Fixer tool to geocode and save missing addresses back to GHL.

Step 6 — SMS dispatch

Once routes are optimised, dispatch them to your techs in one click.

Dispatch all routes at once

Click the "Dispatch All" button at the top of the results panel. Each tech receives an SMS with:

Dispatch a single tech's route

On each tech's route card, click the 📱 SMS button to send only that tech's route.

The tech must have a phone number set in their GHL user profile for SMS dispatch to work. Techs without phone numbers show a đŸ“ĩ disabled button.

SMS message format

The message your techs receive looks like this:

Hi Mike! Here are your stops for Mon 6 Jan:

1. John Smith — 9:00 AM (123 Main St)
2. Sarah Jones — 10:15 AM (456 Oak Ave)
3. Bob Wilson — 11:45 AM (789 Pine Rd)

Open your full route: https://maps.google.com/...

Step 7 — Check-in and check-out

The Check-In view (clipboard icon in sidebar) lets dispatchers log when a tech arrives at and leaves a job. Each check-in and check-out writes a timestamped note to that contact's timeline in GHL automatically.

Logging a check-in

  1. Click Check-In in the sidebar
  2. Select the tech from the dropdown
  3. Select the contact / job from the list
  4. Add any arrival notes (optional)
  5. Click Check In

Logging a check-out

  1. Find the active check-in in the Live Dispatch view
  2. Click Check Out
  3. Select the job status: Completed, Incomplete, Rescheduled, or No Answer
  4. Add any completion notes (optional)
  5. Click Check Out

The duration on-site is automatically calculated and recorded to the GHL contact timeline.

Step 8 — Analytics

The Analytics view (bar chart icon) shows your team's performance over time. Available metrics include:

Contact Map

The Contact Map (pin icon) plots all your GHL contacts on an interactive map. Filter by tag or postcode to visualise where your customer base is concentrated. Useful for territory planning and identifying clusters of jobs.

Prospect Finder

The Prospect Finder (search icon) lets you search for businesses near any address using Google Places. Results show business name, address, and rating. Click Add to GHL to create a new contact in your GHL CRM directly from the map.

Address Fixer

The Address Fixer (wrench icon under Contacts) scans your GHL contacts for incomplete addresses — missing postcodes, cities, or ungeocoded locations. It geocodes each address using Google Maps and writes the corrected postcode and city back to the contact in GHL. Run this before optimising routes to maximise the number of geocodeable stops.

Troubleshooting

No appointments loading

Addresses not geocoding

SMS not sending

Route optimisation is slow

GHL connection lost

Still stuck?

Email us at support@routetrak.com or visit the support centre. We respond within 24 hours on business days.