How to choose Service Dispatch Software for Compressor, Forklift, and other companies that handle complex equipment:
First, you need to decide your company’s specific needs. Every company is a different. Avoid buying a product the doesn’t meet your needs, even if everyone else is raving about it.
You will need to research:
- How it ties to your financial software.
- Service Management.
- Mobile Field Service.
- Interfacing with your Financial Software:
It is important that the software is designed to interface with your financial software. Some software was designed to work with its own Accounting. Then when QuickBooks became popular they rushed to put an interface together, using importing and exporting. You can tell because they have their own Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. This can cause serious problems, especially when The Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable in QuickBooks gets out of sync with the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable in the service produce. This can cause huge accounting bill when your accountant tries to fix the problem.
Billing needs to flow seamlessly from the initial call, to the final invoice in QuickBooks. Would you rather create your customer invoices in QuickBooks or be forced to import or sync invoices which are created in a 3rd party service software program? Fireline allows you to create your customer invoices in QuickBooks. Everything ties directly to your QuickBooks information, including taxes, items, and customer pricing. This makes the integration simple and seamless with QuickBooks. No need to manage two separate billing programs.
One of the good things about QuickBooks, is that it can tailored to your needs. Because it can be set-up and used in so many ways, many service software products cannot interface with QuickBooks the way you are using it. Jobs are a good example. They can be setup as service locations, projects, or a mixture of both. Fireline Software lets you work with all these methods without changing the way you have been using QuickBooks.
- Service Management:
When it really gets busy, calls need to be handled quickly and efficiently. You should have an electronic calendar to record all calls. Nothing generates double entry like entering the call on a spreadsheet, than onto a Google calendar, adding the equipment and the latest history for this job site. Most likely, technician will write the same information on a service ticket. When that ticket hits the office the person responsible for billing enters it again into QuickBooks. What a bottleneck, it is no surprise that things get messed up with a system like that.
Entering the same information over and over again is a way of life in some companies. With the Equipment Pack Software your customer information is entered only one time and it flows through the entire process saving time and money, eliminate duplication and errors. If you take a call for an existing customer, all you need to enter is the problem and the schedule date. Address information, equipment, and history are sent to the technician’s mobile device automatically.
Everyone in the office and in the field need customer information as quickly as possible. It is important to track the history at the site where the work was done. They have to have the service history and warranty status of the equipment at the site, not the billing location. Sometimes we need to bill another customer, like a contractor, or a property manager. Fireline Software keeps a complete history of the work that was done at the service location, as well as the billing account. We also keep an history of the work-orders, and the equipment that was worked on, model, serial number, installation and warranty information, along with custom user-defined information.
- Mobile Field Service:
Mobile Field Service products can improve cash flow, eliminate duplicate entry, and provide a paperless environment. Equipment Packs Mobile solution allows your technician enter work performed, recommendations and notes in the field. The customer reviews the work and sign that it was done correctly. The Technician can email or print a receipt, and send the work back to the office by simply pushing a button. In the office, the work can be reviewed, corrected, and sent to QuickBooks in a simple easy step. Equipment Pack will create an invoice or sales receipt. The customer can also receive an emailed copy of the invoice through QuickBooks. The only thing that really changes is the drudgery of entering the same thing over and over again.
Here are some other things to consider when choosing Mobile Field Service Software:
How about the security of your customer list and financial data? These days, it seems like everyone is getting hacked, including the Government and the Military. If they can’t protect their data with the billions of dollars they spend, you can be pretty sure your data is out there for the hacker. You can do a better job protecting your own computer in your office without sending your valuable business data to a big corporate cloud-based computer.
Face it, your technicians are thinking about starting their own business. Why make it easy for them to take your customers. It took you years to build the business. Avoid Mobile Field Service Software that lays all your information out there on the cloud for anyone to see.
What about mobile connectivity? Do your technicians always have cell coverage or is it spotty coverage. You need to be sure that the mobile software you are considering can work without live cell coverage. If your technician is trying to run a job on his mobile device and is constantly dropping the cell signal you have a big problem. With Fireline Mobile software your technician can work the entire job including capturing the customers signature without cell coverage.
If you are considering new HVAC or Plumbing Service Software, please give us a call at 800 890-8614 to review your specific software needs and schedule a personal software demonstration.
